What G memorabilia do you have?

[johniwan]

We need to kick up the activity on this forum so how about posting some pictures and descriptions of any memorabilia you have. Time to look through those dresser drawers and in the attic. Do you have any post cards or a trinket bought from the Mon Ami shop? A menu, silverware, bath towels (we know nobody stole those!), soap or even something you made in the childrens day camp. What ever you have will bring back memories for everyone so let's get started.

I have quite a few things that I've collected over the years and I'll try to post one item every Sunday night. I've also been collecting images of items that sold on eBay but I didn't win the auction. So here's my first item.

This is a lighter that I just bought and it shows the Grossinger logo with the airplane on the front and the indoor pool on the back. I'm guessing this was from the late fifties, early sixties because the aircraft was added after the airport opened.

Front

Back

If you have something and you want to post it but don't know how, just send Joe or I a PM and we'll be happy to help you through it.

- John

[johniwan]

This week I have an interesting souvenir item for you.

I got these off eBay and even though the seller said he had a few more squirreled away, I only bought the pair. This is a key blank with the G logo on it that you could have had cut to fit your vehicles ignition. As you can see by the envelope, this was Style D and fit Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Edsel and Continental 1952 on. I'm betting that you could have purchased other styles to fit most popular vehicles of the time. The quality on these are far superior to what you would get as a souvenir item today. They have some weight and you can tell good old American craftsmanship went in to making these. I'll bet you got some real attention from the girls when you whipped out your G key and casually laid it on the table or bar!

I don't know how many stores were in the G so I can't say who sold it or how much it would have sold for in the day but I'd appreciate it if any one knew more about ANY of the items I post about. If you have any information that you would like to add, please feel free to chime in!

[Joe]

Wow! Those are pretty cool, man! I have a few things, but I have to take some pics first!

[johniwan]

This week I thought i'd post some pics of the G's silverware and table items.

These first few items I own.

Here's a standard knife. the black mark on the bottom of the handle turned out to be paint and was easily removed when I cleaned it.

...and a closeup of the G logo on the handle

Next up is a teaspoon

and again the logo on the handle

the back of a fork has the manufactures name (Oneida Ltd) and the Grossinger stamp identifying it as made for the G. It's of a different pattern than the knife and fork but I don't have any way to date these. Do any of you remember using these in the dining room during your stay? If so, what year(s)?

All these pieces have a nice worn appearance to them. Just holding one of these can take you back to the glory days of the G when it was THE place to visit. I read that during the later years of operation the silverware was just regularly replaced as opposed to re-koshering them. So I'm guessing these are from the 30's/40's and have been in a lot of mouths, some famous, some not. If only they could tell us which famous persons used them!

Some of the things I didn't win (this stuff gets pretty pricey) but really wanted. There are still people out there willing to plunk down 100's of dollars for G trinkets on eBay but unfortunately I'm on a budget.

This is a 1ox silver creamer that most likely would only have been on the table during the breakfast or lunch dairy meals. Dinner being typically the meat course would not have allowed milk or cream on the table.

This would have been it's big brother. It was listed as a tea pot but I'm guessing it may have been for water. Made by the grand Silver Co and part of their Wear Brite line.

Front

Looking inside from the open top

Bottom with Grossinger's stamped into it.

p111545.jpg (42.28 KiB) Viewed 163 times

So maybe we can help Joe find his camera and share a few pics of his personal G stash. I'll bet he has a few nice things we'd all be interested in seeing. We'd also like to see anything any of you might have, once again please feel free to comment or better yet contribute to this thread. - John