So here we have clue two to this week`s theme, and that showed the fab four, John, Paul, George and Ringo, otherwise known as "The Beatles".
It may seem odd that a pop group was called after an insect, and I am not sure I believe the story that it came from Marlon Brando`s dialogue in "The Wild Ones" where he referred to his gang, and their leather motorcycle clothing, as "young beetles'". For one thing the group were not really rough in their appearance, or attire, and though it is often said that they were trying to be subversive by inserting references to drugs within their songs, I do not ever think of them as being rebels. Or dressed in leather.
Now this is quite a sought after set, and by music fans too, for it is taken from stills from their 1968 animated film "Yellow Submarine".
Actually there are two other sets that I know of which feature this film.
The vintage one was a set of 66 cards, issued by Anglo Confectionery, in the same year, 1968, but the cards are larger and on a greyer thicker board.
The more modern one was a set of 72 cards produced by Duocards in 1999. .
Primrose Confectionery Ltd were based at Farnham Road in Slough. They started after the Second World War, once rationing allowed, and it seems that they kept going until the 1980s. A lot of their sets have added interest because they feature film and television characters, including Amos Burke, Dad`s Army, Laurel and Hardy, Laramie, Popeye, Star Trek, Superman, and Z-Cars.
It seems like they first issued cards in 1960, and three sets are recorded as being that year. The standard sets are "Andy Pandy" and the first of four series of "Popeye", from the children`s television programmes of the same name. Then there was a very unusual set of 22 pictures on the Canadian Mounties which was a package issue, and had to be cut out by the collector. However I have not been able to find any new issues reports on these in our magazine. I did find something intriguing though, and that was in Cartophily Britannica, Bill Wareham`s magazine, where he states that the second series of Popeye was issued in about November 1960.
Their cards were mostly issued with sweet cigarettes, or, in later years, candy sticks, and the boxes that they came in are now even more collectable, because when the original consumers ate the sweets they threw the packets away.
This set is listed in our original British Trade Index part two, (RB.27). The header says that Primrose cards were issued between 1958 and 1968, because this book was published in 1969. It also tells us that special albums were issued, and that some of the cards, but not ours, were inscribed "F.B.S.1" but did not have the firm`s name. There was also mention of an anonymous set listed as ZB9-11, but that does not seem to exist. As far as the description of this set, it is only "YELLOW SUBMARINE. Sm. 64 x 33. Nd. (50)"
Our updated British Trade Index has the same description.
I may be able to track down the original new issues report by Saturday though.