No I didn`t forget this one, Bazooka Bubble Gum was part of my childhood too. However it is much older than me, being introduced in 1947. And it was made by Topps, or one of their divisions anyway, which came in handy when these cards were issued, for they already owned the trademark. Sadly Topps do not own it any more though, it is now part of Apax Partners. And before that, it was bought by Fanatics, Inc.
The bubble gum was in a red white and blue wax pack intended to resemble the colour of the Stars and Stripes flag. It started out costing just a penny. At first it was just a simple wax, but in the mid 1950s these were changed and small, funny, comic strips appeared on them, featuring a small boy called Bazooka Joe.
He was small, and had the curiousness of wearing an eyepatch like a pirate. I liked that, but probably didn`t need to tell you that, you knew already. There never was an explanation of why, or how, or whether the eye was completely missing, or just romantically skewed, and that made it all the more exciting.
He roamed the streets with his gang of friends, including his brother, Pesty, who is mentioned on our card. His name was actually Orville, but like some kid brothers can be, his nickname was coined because he was a bit of a pest. Maybe he was annoying to the girl on our card as well, her name was Jane, and she was not really Bazooka Joe`s girlfriend, or, if she was, he always seemed more interested in having fun with his gang than with her. He was just a kid though, this may have changed later.
Now these are not the comic strip wax papers, these are proper cards, and they were also issued by A. & B.C. Gum, who had an arrangement to release Topps cards into the UK. They were, however, the same cartoons that had appeared on the wax packs, or sixty of them anyway, because there was over a thousand different of those. Every wax pack, and card, also had a fortune, which would have appealed to Jane more than to Joe, and in the spare space there was an offer. All manner of wonderful things were in here, from pens to pearl necklaces, and the idea was that you collected the required amount of cartoons, added some money, and sent them off in exchange for your gift. I am not sure if this was still valid on the card version or not, but there was an address - however this was the same address as had been on the UK version of the wax packs. Maybe someone can enlighten us - or even better reminisce about an item they got in that way.
Now I am working back through the index, adding in all the bits I forgot, or did not have time to do, I can see that I got the title a bit wrong of this set, for I called them "Bazooka Joe Cards" but our original British Trade Index part III lists them as :
BAZOOKA JOE AND HIS GANG. 89 x 63. Nd. (60). Issued 1973. ... ABF-42
However in our updated British Trade Index it appears with an earlier date, as :
BAZOOKA JOE AND HIS GANG. 1968. 89 x 63. Nd. (60) ... AAB-070