Cool Picture Of The Week - "Bugs Bunny Meets The Super-Heroes" live show window card from 1977

This week's Cool Picture Of The Week is something I've had in what seems like forever. A 22 x 14 inch card stock, store window ad for the "Bugs Bunny Meets The Super-Heroes" live kiddie stage show.

This event was performed on October 4 - 7, 1977 in my home town when I was slightly more than 7 1/2 years old, 31 years ago this weekend.

My memories of this show are vague but I do remember several things distinctly. This children's stage show had a lot of Warner Brothers cartoon characters on stage singing and dancing with Wonder Woman and the Caped Crusaders joining in.

All of the dialog and songs were prerecorded and played through on-stage amps, meaning none of the actors on stage were actually speaking. They mimed to the audio as they moved around the stage, as I recall.

I used to work for the Civic Center as a temp a few times and know the venue's old fold-away stage risers were also used twice earlier that year by Elvis Presley (April 25th and May 3rd) and the next year by Bruce Springsteen (September 3rd).

Another memory is of my parents asking a local store if my brother and I could have the poster that was in their window and also the parking ticket the City of Saginaw gave use for not using the parking meters.

Back in the late 1970s Saginaw, MI was in decline, especially downtown. Still is. The city government came up with an idea to put parking meters along every curb in the business district to capture funds from the shoppers.

I used to be active in city gov. a while back and a lot of the old timers told me that this was one of the big nails in the Downtown casket. The parking meters simply drove people away slowly to the newer shopping mall seven minutes away, the Fashion Square Mall.

We parked in an area near the Civic Center, the place this show was at, where some signs said something like meters would be enforced except for special events. Well, this was special event wasn't it? Not in the city's eyes. We came out of the arena to find a pricey parking ticket on our car and on some others.

Boy was my dad furious and that was the last time we ever attended an event in Downtown Saginaw.

I was a souvenir type back then, keeping everything of special interest, and it is a miracle that this has survived the hands of this seven year old boy and his brother one year his junior.

Over the years it had been taped to the wall, kept under beds and thrown in closets. The card stock ad has seen every extreme of temperature and argument but still is in remarkably good shape despite of it all.

No matter where I lived and moved to I've always kept an interest in its storage, survival and had an eye on its welfare. Now I've got a Batboat and finally made the connection earlier this week between it and the poster so couple of days ago I quickly spotted and retrieved it from my parents' basement where it's been since the early 1990s.

It was where I put it several years ago, carefully placed on a shelf.

Its in my home now awaiting proper framing with archival materials from Michael's hobby store and display, out of direct and indirect sunlight naturally.

I'll wager that very few of these throw-away signs exist, especially with the Saginaw event imprint.

The poster has 1977 copyrights for the WB cartoon characters and DC Comic's Wonder Woman, Batman and Robin.

Tickets were $5.50 and $4.50 available at the Civic Center and Circus World toy stores at Hampton and Fashion Square Malls. $1.00 off for kids 12 and under on most performances.

The promoter was Rodger Hess who may have become the same, five time Tony award nominated Broadway producer who is listed at the Internet Broadway Database http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=23693, nominated for revivals such as "Macbeth", "1776", "Annie", "Jelly's Last Jam", and "Leader of the Pack."

Click on the pictures for larger versions.

The worse of the several minor stains.

This window card was stored for years face up at the bottom of plywood shelving. A pattern of the acidic wood grain transferred to the reverse side. This will be carefully framed with acid free backing to help slow the acidic process.