The Stars of Hanna-Barbera, Coming to a Fair Near You!

Have you ever seen a Hanna-Barbera cartoon and wondered what it'd be like to meet Fred Flintstone or Top Cat? If so, my first thought is that you need to be outside more. My second thought is that, back in the early sixties, you could've done that and more! Screen Gems, the company that initially distributed Hanna-Barbera's cartoons, came up with the idea of personal appearances. Locations ranging from parks to fairs could make arrangements for characters like Yogi Bear and Wally Gator to meet and entertain guests. 

Take a look at this ad from 1963, showing off a couple of the characters that were available for appearances. Considering how early this was in the company's life, these may have been the first costumes done for the characters. They'd be remade over and over in the following decades, but these early costumes are a little..uncanny, let's say. It's also interesting to see Top Cat sporting his model sheet design, rather than the actual outfit he had in the show, as was commonplace in merchandise of the time.

You may be wondering who the man next to Fred is. No, it's not Alan Reed, despite him being named in the caption above the photo. It's actually Ed Alberian, who entertained everyone from children to President Harry Truman. His relationship with Hanna-Barbera didn't end here, either, as he would appear in The Banana Splits years later. Below is another ad showing off both these costumes and Alberian, this time from 1960. This time, the ad focuses on a show based around Huckleberry Hound, which promises to entertain "all ages, adults as well as children."

Both ads urge readers to "call Ed Justin," and you're probably wondering who that is as well. Justin was the man at Screen Gems who handled the licensing of all the Hanna-Barbera characters. All those Pebbles dolls that flew off store shelves when the character was first introduced? You can partly thank him for pulling that off. If you'd like to know more about him and the early years of Hanna-Barbera licensing, read this post from Yowp's blog. Not only does it detail his role at Screen Gems, but it also highlights a lot of early Hanna-Barbera merchandise, some you might've seen before, and others that may be brand new!