Tin Sign Info

Batman (originally referred to as the Bat-Man and still referred to at times as the Batman) is a fictional character, a comic book superhero co-created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger (although only Kane receives official credit), appearing in publications by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. Batman’s secret identity is Bruce Wayne, a wealthy industrialist, playboy, and philanthropist. Witnessing the murder of his parents as a child, Wayne trains himself both physically and intellectually and dons a bat-themed costume in order to fight crime.[1] Batman operates in the fictional American Gotham City, assisted by various supporting characters including his sidekick Robin and his butler Alfred Pennyworth, and fights an assortment of villains influenced by the characters’ roots in film and pulp magazines. Unlike most superheroes, he does not possess any superpowers; he makes use of intellect, detective skills, science and technology, wealth, physical prowess, and intimidation in his war on crime.

Batman became a popular character soon after his introduction, and gained his own comic book title, Batman, in 1940. As the decades wore on, differing takes on the character emerged. The late 1960s Batman television series utilized a camp aesthetic associated with the character for years after the show ended. Various creators worked to return the character to his dark roots, culminating in the 1986 miniseries Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, by writer-artist Frank Miller. The successes of director Tim Burton’s 1989 film Batman and Christopher Nolan’s 2005 reboot Batman Begins also helped to reignite popular interest in the character.[2] A cultural icon, Batman has been licensed and adapted into a variety of media, from radio to television and film, and appears on a variety of merchandise sold all over the world. You can still find many of Batman unqiue tin signs still today.

Don Knotts
AKA Jesse Donald KnottsBorn: 21-Jul-1924
Birthplace: Morgantown, WV
Died: 24-Feb-2006
Location of death: Beverly Hills, CA
Cause of death: Cancer - Lung
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show. Is still remember for his great character. Can be found in tin signs of past characters.

Military service: US Army (21-Jun-1943 to 6-Jan-1946, technician)

Born to a pair of farmers, Don Knotts was raised “dirt poor” in West Virginia during the Great Depression. During his childhood, Knotts’ father became a paranoid schizophrenic and alcoholic, and Knotts has sometimes joked that he drove his father crazy. Beginning in high school, he performed as a ventriloquist, with modest success.

At 19, he joined the Army, where his duties consisted primarily of entertaining the troops in traveling GI variety shows called “Stars and Gripes”. Upon being discharged, he tried breaking into show business as a ventriloquist and stand-up comedian, but found that his thick Southern accent made his act almost unintelligible beyond the South. To overcome the accent, he went to college, majoring in education but with a strong minor in speech. After graduation, his first break came when 25-year-old Knotts was hired to play the decrepit old “Windy Wales” in a revival of the popular radio western Bobby Benson.

Knotts first met Andy Griffith when he auditioned for Griffith’s hit play, No Time for Sergeants. The two Southern boys soon bonded by wordlessly whittling sticks, and worked together for almost two years on Broadway. They eventually reprised their roles in a well-received film adaptation of No Time for Sergeants, which was Knotts’ first movie. Early in his TV career, Knotts played it relatively straight on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow in the mid-1950s. He also played a fidgety chap in recurring bits on the late-1950s Steve Allen Show.

When Knotts heard that a sitcom was in development with Griffith as a small-town sheriff, he phoned his friend and pointed out that every sheriff needs a good deputy, but a deputy who is not so good might be funnier. Knotts envisioned Deputy Fife as a bumbling but proud character, clearly not cut out for work as a lawman. His manic performance made the laid-back Griffith seem wiser, and the sheriff’s respect for Fife signaled to audiences that the deputy was more than merely a buffoon. “I was supposed to be the funny one on the show,” Griffith said in a 2002 interview. “But halfway through the second episode, I realized Don should be the funny one and I should play straight man to him. And that’s the best thing we ever did. That’s what made the show.” Playing Fife, Knotts won Emmys for Best Supporting Actor in 1961, ‘62, ‘63, ‘66, and ‘67.

After leaving Mayberry, Knotts had his own comedy hour, The Don Knotts Show on NBC in 1970, featuring skits with future Radar Gary Burghoff. He also had success as a film star. His first top billing was for The Incredible Mr. Limpet, where Knotts envied the lives of his tropical fish, and after only a few minutes on screen, he fell off a pier at Coney Island and became a fish who fought Nazis.

Knott’s films, including The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, The Reluctant Astronaut, and How to Frame a Figg, were ostensibly “family” movies, and kids loved them. His oeuvre, however, should not be dismissed as merely “kid stuff”. Knotts’ faults and foibles, albeit exaggerated, were universal, and given a feature-length showcase, he could unravel his anxiety, embarrassments, hopes and impossible dreams, heartache, and worries. By the end of a Knotts film, his character’s shortcomings were usually overcome when some crisis revealed this everyman’s inner nobility and courage. Audiences came to sincerely like Knotts, whether he was Barney Fife, Mr Furley, or a fish. With his nervous tics, his shaky insecurity hidden under a mask of overconfidence, and a sexual tension so often present (even when Knotts was alone), his best performances spoke to the insecurities of the nuclear age and the sexual revolution.

Beginning in the 1970s, Knotts made several comedies with Tim Conway, including The Apple Dumpling Gang, Gus, and The Prize Fighter. Conway & Knotts played worms in an early 2000s series of animated Hermie & Friends videos. Late in life, Knotts and Griffith were reunited on Matlock, where Knotts had a recurring role as a jittery neighbor.

In 2004, his home town celebrated Knotts’ 80th birthday with a parade, and a Don Knotts Film Festival was held the next summer. He was also honored with the first star in West Virginia’s Walk of Fame, in front of the Metropolitan Theater in downtown Morgantown. Knotts suffered from hypochondria and degenerative eye disease, but was otherwise in good health until his death. In his last years, he performed mostly in dinner theater and regional stage productions, and said he enjoyed watching reruns of Seinfeld.

Famously known as ‘Elvis’ and sometimes referred to as ‘The King of Rock n Roll’ or ‘The King’, he is an international cultural icon.

He had a versatile voice and had unusually wide success encompassing other genres, including gospel, blues, ballads and pop. To date, he has been inducted into four music halls of fame.

Born on January 8, 1935, at Tupelo, Mississippi, the United States, to Vernon Elvis Presley, a truck driver and mother Gladys Love Smith, a sewing machinist, he was influenced by gospel music. His favourite singer was legendary Southern Gospel singer Jake Hess.

Presley began his career as one of the first performers of rockabilly and recorded his first song “My Happiness” with “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin”, on July 18, 1953.

“All Shook Up”, “(Let me Be Your) Teddy Bear” and “Too Much” were his hits in 1950s and his record sales grew quickly during that period. In 1956, Presley launched his career as a film actor.

He was married in 1967 to Priscilla Presley and their only child, Lisa Marie, was born on February 1, 1968. Health problems, drug dependency and other factors led to his death at age 42 on August 16, 1977.

Elvis set records for television ratings, concert attendance, and recordings sales throughout his career. Even long after his death, he is still one of the most recognized face on the earth. People still hunt for Elvis Presely tin signs and other Elvis memorable.

Back in the 1950s, my grandfather worked and later owned a gas station, and over the years he acquired all sorts of paraphernalia from the era.  Grandpa had tin signs featuring Uncle Sam, The New York Yankees, and Coca-Cola.  He also had an extensive collection of children’s toys and games from the 1950s that I always loved to play with when I visited him.  When grandpa passed, I was only about 8 years old, and it wasn’t until I was older that my mom told me he had left me all the items he had in the gas station. 

I took all of grandpa’s favorite possessions from the gas station, and set them up in my dining room.  I’m not sure why I chose the dining room, other than dinner was often the reason I visited grandpa’s house.  But since I incorporated all of grandpa’s stuff, I’ve received a lot of compliments from friends and even family members.  My grandma told me it reminded her of grandpa.

Even 30 years after his untimely passing, when the name Elvis pops up we see a young, raw, tough-looking guy who changed the world, shaking his hips on stage and driving the girls wild! Forget about the fact that Grammy award winning and Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee Elvis Costello deserves recognition and respect. Elvis is still one of hottest stars and people still want his tin signs or other Elvis memorable.

Ask, “Hey how about some Elvis songs?” at a party then follow it with the surname “Costello” while you’re requesting Elvis, and the vast majority will say “What?  Costello, who’s that?  Hey someone wants to hear Elvis songs!” The party goers erupt in cheers as the DJ quickly cues up a bunch of Elvis records. 

Then there’s poor Puerto Rican Latin meringue singing sensation Elvis Crespo. You’d think even Hispanics like me who love his music would think of this multi-Grammy award winner when the name “Elvis” appears, but talk to any Hispanic, including my mother who doesn’t speak English, and they’ll tell you he’s been taking a backseat to the original Elvis since he was born; you see, his parents named him after Elvis Presley.   The talent must be in the name.  Both Costello and Crespo are regarded as heavy-hitting, big-time recording artists in the music business but their first names are weightless!

Elvis Presley still owns his own name and no one can take that away from him. Not in this generation or, for that matter, for many generations to come!  I know one Elvis in my circle of friends and people make fun of his name all the time.  He plays it off by curling his upper lip and doing his best Elvis Presley imitation.  It’s no coincidence that he always “gets the girl” while everyone watches him leave the club in a cloud of smoke.

Andyamuel Griffith (born June 1, 1926) is an American actor, producer, writer, director and southern gospel singer.[1] He gained prominence in the starring role of Elia Kazan’s epic film A Face in the Crowd before he was better known for his television roles, playing the title characters in the 1960s sitcom, The Andy Griffith Show, for CBS and in the 1980s and 1990s legal drama, Matlock, on NBC and later ABC. Griffith was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush on November 9, 2005. We all still can go back to the days gone by looking at some of the best selection of tin signs of Andy Griffith anywhere, bring back childhood memories.

It’s no exaggeration to say that no other actor in Hollywood has so many fans after having produced so little work as James Dean. He made three major films (plus four uncredited appearances) in two years (two of which gained him Best Actor nominations), then died in an automobile accident on September 30, 1955. He would have been 77 years old on February 8, 2008 if he’d lived, and there’s no way to really tell how much we might have lost in the way of great performances. People still can have a peice of James Dean in the reproduction tin signs that are out there.

The studios have reported that more people wrote to James Dean after he died than wrote to any living star at the time. He has more fans and more pages on the Web than almost every other classic star, and more than many current actors and actresses. He got his wish, as he once said, to live on after he died. But it is certainly fascinating to speculate about which of his contemporaries Jimmy would most resemble if he had lived. Marlon Brando, with whom he is often compared? (One hopes Jimmy would have kept himself in better condition, at least.) Dennis Hopper, who appeared in two films with him and continues to be the rebel as he approaches the age of 65? Or Paul Newman, who is also into racing, and who aged gracefully and gained respect as his career progressed? I would have to speculate that writing and directing would certainly have been part of his legacy.

BOOP: A TIMELESS CLASSIC

In the years since Betty’s film debut, the cartoon queen has represented different things to different audiences. In a feature film produced during the 1970s by putting a new soundtrack on colorized and re-edited Fleischer cartoons, liberationist Betty decides to show her father “that a woman can do anything that a man can do.” A 1984 song by the heavy metal group Van Halen refers to Betty as a ****** ideal, while Betty’s image appears in a montage of desirable feminine icons in the Rolling Stones’ Voodoo Lounge tour. In the feature film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” Bob Hoskins reassures Betty that she’s “still got it.”

Betty Boop was one of a handful of legendary glamorous female stars saluted in a line of clothing by designer Bob Mackie. Betty’s presence is felt in major entertainment complexes such as the MGM Grand Hotel, Casino and Theme Park in Las Vegas and at Universal Studios in Orlando and Hollywood. Any Betty Boop fan will love any of her tin signs that are still around.

BETTY’S ON THE AIR AGAIN

Betty Boop cartoons were among the first theatrical shorts to be repackaged for television syndication during the early 1960s. And, on August 8, 1996, American Movie Classics, which recently brought Betty Boop back to the small screen on Saturday mornings, aired a prime-time, star-studded tribute to the cartoon queen. AMC’s “65th Anniversary Salute to Boop” included a marathon presentation of original 1930s cartoons hosted by noted Hollywood director Richard Fleischer, son of Max Fleischer, who was responsible for bringing Betty Boop and co-stars Koko and Bimbo out of the inkwell in the early 1930s.

Arts & Entertainment aired a “Biography” of Betty Boop in 1996, marking the first time a cartoon star had been profiled for the cable network’s acclaimed series.

“The Romance of Betty Boop” and “Betty Boop’s Hollywood Mystery,” two full-color animated specials, were originally produced in the 1980s for network television.

Betty had a cameo role in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” (1988). The film blended animated, ink-and-paint cartoon characters and flesh-and-blood live actors. Which Made Betty Boop Tin Signs even more popular again.

Betty Boop’s name and image continue to turn up on popular television shows, including “Murphy Brown,” “Beverly Hills 90210, ” “Melrose Place” and the British cult import “Absolutely Fabulous.”

Tin signs came into widespread use in the 1920’s, as a cheaper alternative to porcelain signs, used to advertise everything from gasoline to soda pop. Tin proved a good material to paint or to use with color lithography, and could also be stamped to achieve some texture.