Peace Was the Way

QUESTION: One of the craziest things I’ve ever done was go to the rock concert at Woodstock back in the summer of 1969. I’ll never forget that experience. Unlike many of the people that just showed up, I actually bought a three-day ticket. Back then, I really didn’t think about keeping anything from the event, but as as I got older, I looked back with fond memories and wish I had. That said, I’d like to collect some memorabilia from Woodstock but have no idea where to start or what to look for. Can you help me?

ANSWER: Younger people don’t often think far enough ahead to consider the future. And the majority of folks who attended that wild event at the dairy farm in upstate New York certainly didn’t. Before I discuss how to begin a Woodstock collection, it’s important to take a look at how it all started. After all, it’s been 49 years since it took place.

This rock concert began as an idea hatched late one night in an apartment in New York City in 1963. Artie Cornfield, then 24, president of Capital Records, sat around his apartment with his wife and their friend Michael Lang, a rock band manager and concert promoter, talking about how much fun it would be to have a big party where they could hear all their favorite bands. Later, after pairing with two backers, they decided to raise funds for a recording studio in Woodstock, New York, by holding a concert. And thus, Woodstock was born.



The promoters had a difficult time convincing the locals and the town denied permission for the concert. Dairy farmer Max Yasgur offered his 600-acre farm even though it was 12 miles from Woodstock. Up against a wall and determined to go forward, the promoters jumped at it.

As one of the most acclaimed events of the turbulent 1960s, Woodstock became a symbol of an era, and today represents more than just an event where the biggest rock bands came together to perform over three days for half a million people. In fact, it represented the first time that a generation came together to show that when a large group of people do get together, they can do so peacefully.

What started out to be a concert for 50,000 turned into a festival bombarded by half a million people in August 1969, and what happened there during the three-day weekend became legendary. For the baby boomer generation it represents their youth.


One person who attended the concert was smart enough to put away at huge batch of unused tickets in a safe sold them through an ad in Rolling Stone Magazine in 1992. Those tickets were not used because once the fence came down and the numbers of concert-goers overwhelmed the gates, tickets were no longer heeded. The couple that purchased them, Terry and Michael McBride, literally started the ball rolling on Woodstock memorabilia. They created a Web site in 1995 from which they began to sell memorabilia from the event, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The items from the concert have lasted and people like the McBride’s, who both attended it, have preserved its memory for hundreds of collectors. As baby boomers grew older and had more disposable income, they became the establishment of their generation.

As expected those unused tickets are the most common item for sale. The advanced sale three-day tickets are rare. These tickets, in mint condition, sell for $175 unframed by Maness. On-site three-day tickets sold at the gate now go for $125 unframed. Fewer of these tickets were printed, according to Maness. than the single-day tickets, which sell for $25. Maness and her husband had these tickets authenticated prior to their purchase by the Woodstock ticket manager for the Globe Ticket Company, who printed those tickets in 1969.



However, there are some pieces of ephemera that are more valuable because of their rarity. A brochure for the concert came with an order form for the tickets. Today these brochures sell for up to $200 at online auctions.

Magazines and newspaper articles from 1969 are also a hot item for collectors. Life magazine put out a Special Edition in September 1969. A copy of this magazine on the Woodstock festival, which contains the immediate history of the event less than a month after its occurrence. It also contains the best collection of color photographs of any book chronicling Woodstock.

Today more copies of this item have surfaced as people clean out their attics and closets. Online auction sites have copies in fair condition for around $50.

Another popular item among collectors is the actual program from the concert. Some folks took them home by the box load, and now they sell for $500 to $600, depending on their condition. Reprints have been made of this program with an insert indicating that it’s a reprint. It’s easy to tear out the "reprint" advisory so determining authenticity becomes nearly impossible since they’re printed on the exact same type of paper as the original.

Posters are also popular as well as costly. Original posters in mint condition go for $1.200, who offers a word of warning. There are a lot of knock-offs. Collectors need a high profile magnifier to tell the difference.

As with any collectibles, especially from such a momentous event, memorabilia can pop up just about anywhere—at garage and yard sales, flea markets, swap meets, even in antique stores. Though there are a lot of pieces appearing now that people who may have attended it are getting older and downsizing, an awful lot just got tossed in the mounds of trash left at the end of that weekend.

Collectors believe the value of items from the Woodstock concert will only increase over time. It allowed a generation to speak out and show the establishment back then that they could have a good time without violence. It gave hope to a lot of people.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about Colonial America in the Spring 2018 Edition, "Early Americana," online now.

Whatever Happened to Elsie the Cow?

QUESTION: When I was a kid, I remember seeing Elsie the Cow all over the place. She appeared on all Borden dairy products, billboards, and magazine ads. I even had some Elsie toys. Whatever happened to Elsie the Cow?

ANSWER: Elsie the Cow was the hottest advertising personality in the country in the 1940s and 1950s. Borden Company produced thousands of items bearing her likeness to promote its products.

In 1852, Gail Borden, Jr. received a patent for his condensed milk process, and in 1857 he founded the Gail Borden Jr. and Company. He reorganized his company in 1858 as the New York Condensed Milk Company, which ultimately became the Borden Co.

During the early 1860s, Borden sold his condensed, sugar sweetened milk from push carts on the streets of New York. His product was always pure and safe, and in 1864 when Louis Pasteur showed the world a real live germ, Gail Borden finally learned exactly why his heat process was so successful. The demand for Borden’s condensed milk grew during the Civil War and his business boomed. Though Borden died in 1874 at the age of 72, he lives on as the "father of the modern dairy industry."
   
During the 1920s and 1930s the commercial dairy business was growing. Borden's bought hundreds of area dairies, out marketing, underselling, and forcing them to sell their milk direct to the large processors at smaller profits. The public sided with the struggling farmers.

In 1936, Borden's, to create a more wholesome public image, placed a new kind of advertising in some medical journals to attract the attention of pediatricians. These ads featured several cartoon cows, one of which was named Elsie. The ads promoted Borden's high standards of quality.

In 1938 a radio copywriter intrigued by the magazine ads wrote a sample Elsie commercial and gave it to a network news commentator whose show Borden  sponsored. He read it over the air and his listeners loved it. Fan mail began arriving addressed to Elsie the Borden Cow.

Borden prepared national magazine ads and local dairies put Elsie's picture on their bottle caps.

Borden reacted quickly by choosing the most attractive of the 150 cows---a Jersey from Massachusetts whose name the company changed from You'll Do Lobelia to Elsie.

The public's response to Elsie was unprecedented. A survey done in the late 1940s showed that Elsie was a more known and recognized figure than the president of the United States.

After being a featured attraction at the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and 1940, and starring in a movie. Elsie became a highly recognizable personality. Borden began to show her wearing the popular ruffled shoulder apron and in 1941 she stood up and became an American housewife.
       
All through the 1940s Elsie collectible advertising items and toys were hot. At one point, Borden's had over 100 licensed vendors producing everything from puzzles and games to handkerchiefs and lamps. Everyone loved Elsie.

The 1950s also brought the creation of the "Good Food Line" train which featured Elsie’s entire family, her husband, Elmer, and her two children, Beulah and Baby Beauregard, promoting Borden’s milk, ice cream, and cheese. In 1958 Borden's commissioned Ringling Brothers to build a parade model of the famous train. It had a special car for the live Elsie to ride on and was used in thousands of parades until the early 1990s. After that, Elsie had faded into history. She spent her last days on a farm in Texas.