Featured Vintage Snickers box w/ Halloween (?) mask anyone know "Bongo" the gorilla

Discussion in 'Ephemera and Photographs' started by Lucille.b, Jul 16, 2019.

  1. Lucille.b

    Lucille.b Well-Known Member

    After Pearls linked that old Jello box selling for $200, figured I better grab this for a few bucks at an estate sale. It was filled with sewing supplies and was being sold for the sewing items.

    Not thinking any great value as the lid of the box is in poor shape, but the bottom of the box is excellent. Wondered who "Bongo" was. Also age of packaging, do you think 1950's? Finally, would this have been some kind of Halloween promo? Thanks!

    asnick5.jpg asnick6.jpg
     
  2. cxgirl

    cxgirl Well-Known Member

    Lucille.b likes this.
  3. Lucille.b

    Lucille.b Well-Known Member

    Bakersgma likes this.
  4. cxgirl

    cxgirl Well-Known Member

  5. Debora

    Debora Well-Known Member

    We sure about that dating? Doesn't look 1950s to me. (Though, unlikely as it seems, I could be wrong.)

    Debora
     
    Lucille.b likes this.
  6. Debora

    Debora Well-Known Member

  7. Debora

    Debora Well-Known Member

    Lucille.b likes this.
  8. Lucille.b

    Lucille.b Well-Known Member

    Thanks CX, one with an actual price -- I'd be pleased with a fraction of that.

    Thanks, too Debora! I suppose could be 60s? Mine has no zip code, similar to above Illinois is abbreviated ILL rather than IL. No copyright date on mine.

    Something about how the way the "SNICKERS" was written on the side just looked a bit 50s (earlier?) to me, but that gorilla promo seemed later. Also the one in CX's last link looked 60s/70s but that was a different box, however did have the Bongo.

    Amazing you found a museum AND a Bongo song! Good research.

    (...Away from the computer for a few hours, will check back.)

    Thanks, all! :)

    asnick4.jpg asnick33.jpg
     
    pearlsnblume, antidiem and cxgirl like this.
  9. cxgirl

    cxgirl Well-Known Member

    Lucille the ingredients listed on your box doesn't include Lecithin, the box from 1958 does, I think this would date your box earlier than 1958
     
  10. Debora

    Debora Well-Known Member

    Yes, I would think your box dates to when hit song was popular. 1947. (Five different recordings hit the charts that year.) The logo had changed by the e/o 1950s.

    Debora
     
    pearlsnblume and Lucille.b like this.
  11. BaseballGames

    BaseballGames Well-Known Member

    cxgirl, good eye on the ingredients list. Our first impression (as usual, that's all it is, an impression, no factual evidence involved) upon seeing the box was that it was from way earlier than the '50s. We could be way wrong on that, but over the years we've developed a bit of an eye for dating packaging going solely by the graphic design...

    We'd also opine that "Bongo" has diddly to do with the song, or any song, or anything at all really -- just a random name assigned to the mask by the Mars promotions department. If the mask had been a clown, it might've been "Bobo" or "Hoohoo," if it were a scary monster face it might've been "Mongo" or "Gorko" or "Mordo," &c' -- make up your own.
     
    pearlsnblume, Lucille.b and cxgirl like this.
  12. cxgirl

    cxgirl Well-Known Member

    from looking around I believe you are right this is before the 50s:) I'm of the same opinion that the mask/box has nothing to do with the song.
     
  13. Fid

    Fid Well-Known Member

    there was an Italian film with Adriano Celentano called Bingo Bongo, where he plays an ape. but that's later, 1982.
     
  14. SBSVC

    SBSVC Well-Known Member

    Then there's this guy:

    Museum of Man - M'bongo the Gorilla
    M'bongo is featured at the San Diego Museum of Man, and currently is part of the primates section of our new permanent exhibition, "Footsteps Through Time: Four Million Years of Human Evolution." M'bongo, a rare and endangered Mountain gorilla, lived from 1939 until his death in 1942 at the San Diego Zoo, where he is memorialized with a bronze bust. His taxidermied body has been a featured exhibit at the Museum of Man for many years and currently serves, along with his skeleton, to educate visitors about non-human primates.

    https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/3433
     
  15. Lucille.b

    Lucille.b Well-Known Member

    Awesome detective work regarding the ingredient Lecithin, cxgirl!

    Also great Bongo sightings, everyone! :)

    Bottom line, we'll see if someone is tempted when I list on Ebay. Hoping to tap into the vintage Halloween craze. Not exactly what folks are typically looking for, but you never know! I'm sure no one else will have a "Bongo" mask.
     
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2019
  16. pearlsnblume

    pearlsnblume Well-Known Member

    Good luck Lucille, I hope you do very well with it.
     
    cxgirl and Lucille.b like this.
  17. Lucille.b

    Lucille.b Well-Known Member

    Thanks, Pearls. :)

    Kind of a funny story. At the estate sale this Snickers box was priced with several packages of vintage sewing bric a brac inside. They had priced the sewing stuff as a lot, the box irrelevant. Probably how the former owner had it stored all these years. But I was buying it only for the box of course.

    At check out was helping the professional estate runner add up the total by going through my pile and listing things with their prices. "Earrings $2, vase $4", that kind of thing. So I absently read off, "Snickers box.." and the cashier stops what she is doing and says, "Snickers box? ....Snickers box?" and I quickly say, "I mean, er... sewing items".

    Not everyone knows that older packaging can sometimes be worth $, but lol!
     
Draft saved Draft deleted
Similar Threads: Vintage Snickers
Forum Title Date
Ephemera and Photographs Raoul Dufy Braun & Cie vintage print Jan 29, 2024
Ephemera and Photographs Antique/Vintage Photo Album,With Brass or Bronze faster With M. Sch.J.F.K. Jan 12, 2024
Ephemera and Photographs Vintage Mountain picture Nov 29, 2023
Ephemera and Photographs Trading Stamps, barely vintage Aug 29, 2023
Ephemera and Photographs I need to take some pictures of some vintage black and white 8 x 10 photos Jun 30, 2023

Share This Page