Who remembers these? I have no idea why this popped into my head, but a couple of weeks ago I got to wondering why I never came across any of the old school book covers, with their advertisements for local businesses and the awful-tasting glue on the back. I looked all over the internet, and couldn’t find a single reference to them, not even on eBay, and one can usually find anything there. I’ve seen websites dedicated to just about every bizarre obsession imaginable: how is it that no one has done a website about vintage school book covers? (it won’t be me… I’m full-up on websites) Well, yesterday I was doing my customer-service thing at the Montgomery Street Antique Mall, going up and down the aisles with a tremendous collection of display-case keys. (looking, and sounding, a bit like the ghost of Jacob Marley, I might add) Suddenly I saw it. There before me was a vintage, unused school book cover, in remarkably good condition! I instantly saw that it was of local origin, as it advertised Leonard’s Department Store, a Fort Worth based business. It was going to be mine, at any cost. But then I saw that it had no price tag or label of any sort. Undeterred, I flipped through the Rolodex and got the dealer’s phone number, only to get their “machine”. It was then that Jim, one of the mall’s employees, assured me that the dealer came in daily, and that he’d get a price for me. Last night I heard back: for $3.00 it would be mine. But wait, it gets better… the dealer had a 50%-off sale, on everything! So, I have in my possession the first of what may, or may not, turn into a spectacular collection of school book covers.
As you can see, it doesn’t take much to get me fired up, but one should consider the significance of those covers. Not only did they help avert wear on school property, but they also fueled local businesses and probably spawned countless careers in the visual arts. C’mon, you know what I’m talking about. I clearly remember doodling on this exact style of cover, filling in the stars (sometimes solid, and other times with stripes), making some of the stars appear to be “shooting stars”, and drawing beards on all representations of the human form. I also vaguely recall having favorite styles of cover, their ads being particularly conducive to being “customized”, but that’s where the memory ends. If I find more of these gems, I’m sure I’ll discover my old favorites.
As for this particular cover, it is one that I know I put on many a textbook. The image above can be clicked to view a ridiculously large version, where you can see cool details like the instructions on how to correctly cover a book. I wish I could date it in some reliable way, but my guess is somewhere in the 1968-’70 range. I do know that the Leonard’s stores were purchased in 1974 by Dillard’s, and that year marked the last use of the Leonard’s name. The other advertiser on the cover, Meadow Gold Dairy, is harder to figure out, as their website doesn’t address when the name was used in the area. (I could be way off base, but I don’t believe products have been sold in Fort Worth with the Meadow Gold name for years) Hmm… I wonder if anyone at the Walraven Book Cover Co. could date it? As it turns out, they’re still in business (then in Richardson, TX, and now apparently in Dallas), and their website says they’ve been making them for over eighty years. Good for them, I hope they can hang in there for eighty more.
