PLAYBOOK FAIRY TALE FIGURES

Last updated 1/25/07

Several years ago Laurie and I were at a toy show when we came up to a table run by Tom and Beth Rash. Laurie spotted some loose fairy tale figures, which I bought for her. Beth explained that they were part of a series of fairy tales. Since that time we had not seen the figures again until last year when one of our contacts turned up a set of the figures in a complete box. This set has given us a better idea about this little known series.

The fairy tale series is called Play Book. The idea is you would get a book with a set of figures and accessories. The box we got had the Cinderella figures. The set contains five pieces: Cinderella, Prince, Fairy Godmother, coach and three mice in a harness all in plastic. The figures are about 1 7/8” tall. The playbook contains the story of Cinderella which on the back of the box states it had been by a licensed teacher with a M.A. in Early Childhood Education from Teachers College Columbia University.  The Playbook was created and designed by Marcel Jovine. The back of the box also notes Marcel Jovine is an outstanding children’s artist and he sculpted the figures. The playbook is copyrighted 1958. 

The Playbook had six different stories. I have listed below:

Vol.1 The Three Little Pigs

Vol. 2 Little Red Riding Hood

Vol. 3 Jack and the Beanstalk

Vol. 4 Hansel and Gretel

Vol. 5 The Three Bears

Vol. 6 Cinderella

The series of which we have is not the earliest version of these figures. I had received an email from Kent Sprecher stating that the fairy tales figures were done in the early 50’s by Emenee. The Emenee Toy Company was known for their toy musical instruments and they also did other toys including board games. Checking Ebay these last few months I was able to come up with an earlier example of this version.  This set was done in 1951 by Emenee and is called Once Upon A Time. The example we found is of Goldilocks and the three bears.

This set is much larger than the Playbook. The set contains about 15 pieces while the Playbook has only 5 pieces. The next difference is the Once Upon a Time has a back ground in the box for children to enact their stories. The Playbook has its story set up in pages, while the Once Upon a Time has the story on the back of the box. The last major difference is the Goldilocks figure is in a rubber vinyl painted, while the figures in the Play box are plastic.

Both boxes listed the sculpture as Marcel Jovine.  According to the blurb on the back of the Playbook box Marcel was a children’s artist and a sculptor. I have done a check on Marcel Jovine on the internet as an illustrator of children’s books and have found nothing at this time. In regards to his career as a sculptor Marcel was well known in the toy industry and numismatic fields and I was able to find a number of references for him.

Marcel was born in Naples, Italy in 1921. He studied art in Italy and was a soldier in the Italian army during World War II. He was sent to North Africa where he was captured and sent to the United States to a prisoner of war camp in western Pennsylvania. Marcel was sent back to Italy after the war, but returned to the United States in 1946.  In the United States, Marcel built a career designing various dolls including the Blessed Events dolls. Another toy Marcel designed was the Renwal Visible Man and Visible Woman model kits. Marcel moved to designing various coins and medals including the Lake Placid Olympic medals and a $5.00 gold piece marking the bicentennial of the Constitution in 1987. Marcel died on January 20, 2003 at the age of 81.

This information brings up a question. Was the Playbook done in 1951 and released again in 1958? We will not know until either a set or other documentation shows up. If and when this evidence does show up it may answer the question of whether Playbook was part of Emenee or not.

Kent Sprecher mentioned in an email to me that there were two later versions of the fairy tale figure sets. Rick Koch told him that in 1963 Transogram did a series called Story Time Erasable Coloring Set. Even later a Hong Kong Toy company did the fairy tale figures. No information is available at this time. Kent did not verify if these later sets used all of six series.

This article gives us a little more information on this series. I will be on the lookout for more information on this series.

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