Neat Stuff

Oh I am Jim one feller I'm out walking the freedom trail here in Boston Massachusetts. You follow the red line it leads you to all the great historic stuff here in Boston like for example there's Paul Revere statue back there. His house is just a couple blocks away. But the reason I came to New England wasn't to find historic stuff. I'm really here to find some Yankee neat stuff. First the cradle of the revolution is the perfect place for Neil's American dream museum [speaker change] Yeah! The grand slam homer! [Jim Leinfelder] Then, what do you do with thousands of cartoon collectible toys? Play with them, of course! Finally, meet a man who definitely has all his marbles and then some see half a million marbles in Boston plus a whole lot more. C'mon! I don't know what you do for a living now but I'll bet when you were a kid you had big dreams of a being, I don't know maybe a

professional ball player, maybe a cowboy or who knows maybe even president of the United States. Well I'm in West Hartford Connecticut to see Neil's American Dream Museum and it's chock full of just the kind of things that fueled those childhood dreams. Come on let's meet Neil. [Take me out to the ballgame door bell rings] Yeah, that's a good sign! Jim Leinfelder, Neat Stuff. [Neil] Famous Neil. Neil's American Dream Museum, glad to meet you Jim, come on in. Neil Sakow's New England home is his museum. Filled with the stuff American Dreams Are Made Of. He has memorabilia from American politics [Neil] this is the official John F. Kennedy trick or treat pumpkin to keep all your candy that's the envy that comes in handy. [Jim] Collectibles commemorating America's TV cowboys. And dime store merchandise hailing an American sports hero. [Neil] This is the American Dream Museum. Everything here is real as a matter of fact.

They call me Unreal Neal Appeal with all the Zeal and that's my spiel. [Neil] A sizeable section of Neil's American Dream Museum is dedicated to New York Yankee star Mickey Mantle. [Neil] Mickey Mantle with the greatest celebrity baseball player of all time. [Jim] The Mick's celebrity status made him the fifties equivalent of 90s indorsement Meister Michael Jordan. His face was everywhere on everything. Hey kids check it out. Mickey Mantle Western style jeans and they're Sanforized! Sanforized! [Neil] How's this, I have the glove box that the Mickey Mantle gloves came in. [Neil] Wow. [Neil] The box is worth far more than the gloves. So Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris radio [Jim] This hot collectible is now worth a cool eight grand. [Neil] And look how it's got the diamond for the on and off switch. And The baseball bat and ball for the to change your station. [Jim] Cool I l like... [Neil] but we're going to stay on this station!

I'm going to stay on Neat Stuff, we're not going to switch our dial. Mickey Mantle was on so many toys and games and such fun things because he was so great that I'm happy to be able to preserve this for the future. In this museum number seven lives and plays center field every day. [Neil pretending to be a ballpark announcer] [Jim] When Neil was a kid his dad owned the neighborhood five and dime. [Neil ballpark announcing] [Jim] So a good chunk of Neil's collection was in his father's store some forty years ago [Neil] That was a grand slam homer! [Jim] That explains how Neil corral the cast of cowboy collectibles such as this Hopalong Cassidy linoleum floor. What kid wouldn't have dreamt of stepping out of bed on to this every morning. Or spending a rainy Saturday afternoon with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans America's favorite cowboy couple. [Neil] Roy had a good ten go on in this picture. They all wisely wore the sunscreen. [Jim] Finally there's John F. Kennedy an American who fulfilled his dream of becoming president

of the United States. [Neil] This is a ticket to the inauguration. [Kennedy] I, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, do solemnly swear [Neil] And on the back of it it has your seat number. [Jim] Neil's Kennedy collection includes a campaign button featuring the face of the future Jackie O. But it turns out the button was made in vain. [Neil] This is a button. That was actually withdrawn from the campaign because Jacqueline Kennedy did not like the bouffant hairdo. [Jim] And if Jackie didn't like it [snaps]. [Neil] It's out of here! My collection is so outrageous it's become contagious. [Jim] OK, so I had to spend an afternoon fielding one liners. But I also got to dream about what it would be like to be a great American hero. All at the one and only Neil's American Dream Museum. [Neil] And it's got the pizzaz with the razzimitazz [Jim] This just in. Some neat nostalgic news from Neat Stuff's Neat News File

[Newscaster] Cape Cod hippies conduct a paint-in at the famous Provincetown colony where all a body has to do is stand around and automatically he's in the show. Notice the chain reaction enthusiasm. The psychedelic murals dress up anybody's epidermis. But there are certain technical problems encountered when the artist is confronted by a ticklish situation. This one is certainly the cat's whiskers but I've seen the one I want. Just wrap it up, she'll look lovely in the den. [Jim] Next on Neat Stuff: visit a real toon town. [Debbie Crim] Hi! We're the Crims from Peabody Massachusetts and we have so much neat stuff that we had to

add on to our home! There's this room. [Marty Crim] Coming into the dining room here we have some you neat old Mickey Mouse stuff. [Debbie] And then is this room. [Marty] Jim, over here we have some great plastic windup stuff [Jim] Marty, Debbie and Stephanie Crim live in a world of animated bliss [Stephanie] It scares me sometimes [Jim] With this all star cast of cartoon classics, wind ups and action figures is taking over the entire house. [Marty] OK Jim we're coming up to you edition now we built it about five years ago because we were buying so much great stuff and we had no room for it in the house. [Jim] Wow. [Marty] Well we have so much because we're in the auction business for toys and character collectibles and being collectors ourselves we love the stuff. [Jim & Debbie Singing] Felix the cat the wonderful, wonderful cat. You laugh so hard your sides will ache, your heart go pitter pat watching Felix, the wonderful cat [Jim] All right [Debbie] not bad [Jim] If only I can remember algebra. [Clip from Felix Cartoon]

[Debbie] Because Felix was so popular in the US, throughout Europe, really almost all over the world. They did a lot of different things and a lot of things had different images. Now this is definitely Felix-like; it wasn't authorized Felix, but it's got that Felix look so... we consider it Felix. [Jim] Right, like Felix, but like four double espressos- his heart's going pitter pat. [Jim] Now one thing looking at these old Mickey's I realize that, like a lot of stars you know, after he started getting successful, he had a little work done. In his quest for stardom Mickey not only got a nose job, he nicked and tucked a few digits along the way going from five fingers to four. But he probably had to give up the piano. Of course he had the turn of the ukulele. This is a gremlin

Before he goes to college and this is a gremlin after his freshman year Stephanie, you have an impressive array of plastic wind up toys here. How long have you been collecting them? [Stephanie] I don't really know. [Jim] Well you're what, you're six now so for at least six years. [Stephanie] Yeah [Jim] Do you get any wind up toys like when you go to fast food restaurants and places like that are you looking? [Stephanie] Sometimes, we got the Ariel one [Jim] Did you get that at Mac and Donalds? MacDonalds? [Stephanie] I forget where we got it but I know that we got it at a restaurant some place [Jim] So much of that marketing idea. After an hour just Stephanie politely asked if we could wind things down a bit. Are you having all the fun you can stand is that what you're telling me? [Stephanie] No. My legs are getting tired! [Jim] Your legs are getting tired, you're six! Talk to me in 33 years. One of the bedrooms houses the Crim family's cartoon game collection. And the

two story edition stores an armada of popular action figures the cartoon collectibles of the future. And I think this guy was doing steroids because look at this back acne. It's really bad. Yeah. He's on the 'roids. How do people react, you know when you them over for dinner or something they're coming over to your house for the first time and they're walking around and you know from room to room everywhere they go they see all these wonderful items that probably cause them to go under like nostalgic fits. [Marty] The kids are all, they just don't even want to eat. And the adults, they they either think that we're crazy, or they really enjoy it. [Jim] I bet they think initially you're crazy. And by the time the evening's starting to wind down they're all fixated on the stuff. [Marty] I wish that was true, Jim. Some people just think we're crazy. [Jim] Bring out your neat stuff! Bring out your neat stuff! If it's scarce, loud

and distasteful we want to see it! [music] Ok, we're on the back of the truck but we're actually in Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Tim Forsberg is a collector of Pee Wee paraphernalia. [Tim] There's the king of cartoons who always announced [Jim] The King of cartoon. [Tim] And then this here is [Jim] Conky, Conky the robot [Tim] Oh hey! You know [Jim] He's having a tough time here he's kind of unstable. [Tim] Terry, Terry the Pterodactyl. [Jim] Miss Yvonne. [Tim] She has big hair. [Jim] Yeah. Miss Yvonne spoke to some of the earlier stirrings in the adolescents who were watching the show I think. [Tim] He's Ricardo He was also one of the more active cross-cultural characters he really, he incorporated a lot of things on the show, he would he would have Ricardo come in and Ricardo go to would say, "Buenos Dias, Pee Wee" and he would go, [Gibberish], Ricardo! the window would often announce who was coming in, so "look who's coming in the door!"

And so actually we're having Mr. Window [Jim] There he is, the man himself probably fresh from a matinee, you know. Now, what's this a Pee Wee Fun Pack. [Tim] You did get things like the Pee Wee tattoos. [Jim] Oh great! [Tim] In fact we have a couple if you like to try one. [Jim] Sure why not. So I get a feeling mine is going to look like a bruise. And there it is a contusion! Cowboy Curtis and Miss Yvonne and Laurence Fishburne another one who's gone on to great fame, he was Cowboy Curtis. [Tim] Cowboy Curtis one of the great sorrows I have about collecting Pee Wee characters. [Jim] So you lack a Cowboy Curtis. [Tim] I am Curtis-less so if there's anyone who happens to have an extra couple of Curtis now I could trade you have an extra king of cartoons. [Jim] Get out your cat eyes and aggies, marbles are next. Think you've lost your marbles? Well this man probably has them

Any idea how many marbles you've got? [Burt] Well, when I'm asked a question I tell the people please do a favor stay for a week can count them. [Jim]Burt Cohen has more marbles than any other kid in his neighborhood. He collects them, talks about them. [Burt] If you go to Europe looking for marbles you will not find them because 99 percent of them were shipped to United States. [Jim] And he knuckles down with the best of them. [Burt] People collect anything and why not collect marbles, they don't take up too much room. [Jim] But where does one put nearly half a million marbles? That's how many marbles Burt guesses he has jammed into yards, mounted on the mantle and piled on top of a pool table inside his Boston townhouse. Burt has old marbles [Burt] Marbles like this were put in King Tut's tomb that when he died four thousand years ago he could still play marbles. [Jim] things get a little dull in the afterlife. Fun marbles. Tell me whose face that is. [Jim] Oh Teddy

Roosevelt [Burt] That's correct. [Jim] Bully, bully. And pockets full of mesmerizing marbles. OK this looks like a milking marble. Nothing special. Yeah actually it's made of a fiber optic telephone cable. Look at that that effect. It sees right through it. [Jim] That's wild. I love that. I've never seen anything like it. Burt began amassing this multitude of marbles some 35 years ago Cat's Eye. Onion skin. Peppermint. Swirled. Lutz. Sulfide. Mica. China. and Clambroth. Anything that's round is a marble. if it's flat, it's a paperweight. This one-of-a-kind marble, believed to be the world's largest, is a rollie-pollie seventeen pounder. I'll let you have fun holding it because we have more to see downstairs. [Jim] More

marbles? [Burt] More downstairs [Jim] I gotta see this. [Burt] OK. [Jim] Oh my gosh! Burt, where does this end? [Burt] Well it ends in this room. I have. 80 different producers of art glass marbles. Here's a very unique marble. This was made in 1991 and has part of the Berlin Wall in there. [Jim] There's just no end to what you can do with a marble. And, it's a cliché, but it's eye catching Hey Burt, look at this. Check it out. I'm a cartoon character. OK so I can only be serious about marbles for so long. But it's this type of marble that draws a crowd whenever Burt unrolls his collection for the public. [Burt] Everyone loves marbles. [Jim] You know, Burt. I've got to confess something to you. I've never actually played marbles.

[Burt] You haven't? Jim, this game is played with thirteen marbles. I'm going to take a marble and shoot. If my marble stays in and one goes out, then I continue. If not, then it's your turn. [Jim] All right, knuckles down! [Burt] What I like about playing marbles, you mix with your friends, you get along with them. And the best thing is, if you're lucky and you win, you take home a bag of marbles. Good. It's out! Yes. [Jim] I suppose if you're going to collect nearly half a million of something. Better marbles than let's say bowling balls. And in the marble collecting game, Burt Cohen is playing for keeps. OK kids, time to check your trivia knowledge. Ringer, last

clams, Newark killer, bun hole and Holy Bang are all? A: Lead characters in Quentin Tarantino's next movie. B: The names of Frank Sinatra's roadies. C: Rejected names for a new Subway sandwiches. or D: Games you play with marbles. The answer is D! Advertising icons are popular collectibles but their origins can be downright confounding. Some advertising icons look so simple you're tempted to say, "A kid could of come up with that." In the case of the Planter's peanuts company's Mr. Peanut, you'd be right. Mr. Peanut is one of the most collected advertising icons because of all the premiums Planter's has offered over the years for a few empty wrappers and a handful of change. In 1916, the company offered a prize for the best trademark character idea. The winning drawing was submitted by a 14 year old boy. When we return, head West with the king of the wild frontier. Then, go nuts!

And now it's time for My Neat Stuff. Which is not actually my neat stuff, it's your new

stuff, but who's keeping track? Hi, I'm Paul DeVito and this is My Neat Stuff - Davey Crockett memorabilia. When I was a kid he just, he just hit me right and he just stuck with me. My friends think I'm crazy. This is my Davy Crockett bike that I got for my birthday. My forty-seventh birthday. Now, this is the Davy Crockett diaper bag. This is the official Davy Crocket tool kit. Davy Crockett pipes. And, of course, the Davy Crockett coon skin cap. I don't really like the dolls at all, but you gotta have them. Sometimes I'll just come up here by myself and look around; check out all my items, make sure everything is still on the walls and just relax and enjoy.

Davy Crockett woodburning set. Davy Crockett purse. Pencil box. Moccasin kit. Liquor bottle. Indian headdress set. Sunglasses. Blocks. I didn't have too many things of Davy Crocket when I was a kid, but I do now. Hey, if you see it in your rear view mirror, you've gone too far. Slow down for the roadside attraction. Hi I'm in old Lyme Connecticut and I'm here to tour America's only nut museum. To get in, you've got to bring a nut. To be on the safe side, I brought two pounds of filberts. Hi. Jim Leinfelder. Neat stuff. [Elizabeth] I'm Elizabeth Tashjian. Welcome to the museum. [Jim] Sounds kinda nutty. A museum devoted exclusively to the advancement of acorns the furtherance of Filberts. [Elizabeth, singing] There is a museum that's devoted to nuts but through music art and sport. Elizabeth Tashjian is sharing her enormous knowledge of not us. Hazelnuts are the nuts that grow

wild on bushes. And the word "filbert" is supposed to be a corruption of the word "full beard", because the husk looks like a beard. I did not know that. Well, you're learning something at the nut museum. That's why I'm here. The cornerstone of her nut collection is this curvaceous Cocoa de mare. It's when I start thinking of anatomy. Weighing in at a fleshy 35 pounds. It's not only the largest but the naughtiest nut on the planet. Put a pair of pants in this and it would look like the Norge refrigerator repairman. Oh my yes. Elizabeth's gathered a store of nut knickknacks - what are these, little for these little nut pins? And nut crackers. Or you could use it as a puppet. I'm always thinking. Back in 1981 I had a raid of squirrels. They got a little busy and wisked off some 50 of the exhibits. Oh no. But yes, and you know

they're cute on the outside but they can be rascals. Now Elizabeth, what's what's the deal with these masks? In a nutshell. Elizabeth makes these to help visitors identify nature's mixed bag of nuts. What nut has a pricky burr? I forgot Oh come on your listening attentively in the other room. Chestnut? That's right. Yeah, OK. Sweet chestnut. OK. It pricked my memory. Elizabeth is going to show me how to play rolling eye coconuts right? That's it - go! Only at the nut museum can one find culture AND athletic competition. She's got the lighter coconut. But in the end I was the one who cracked. Elizabeth won, but what do you want? I mean, she's the Abner Doubleday of rolling eye coconuts. Hey, neat places, this Boston in New England, huh?. It's full of neat stuff like this famous TV bar here. You know I think I'm going to go downstairs and see if everybody knows my name. Until next time. Cheers.

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