Then & now: Cracker Jack and its signature sailor mascot have
evolved over the years.

One of the oldest American forms of junk food, the Cracker Jack was invented
and trademarked in 1896 when the brothers who formed F.W. Rueckheim &
Bro., mixed molasses-flavored, caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts together.

Fredrich William Rueckheim

   
Louis Rueckheim
           

Today,January 19, celebrates all of the different ways the corn-based treat      
popcorn can be enjoyed savory or sweet, caramelized, buttered or plain.

The Popcorn Board, a non-profit started in 1998, says Americans consume
13 billion quarts of popcorn a year, more than any other country in the
world.

July 1960

Hit Parader was first published in 1942 during World War II out of Derby, Connecticut and became one of the longest-running U.S. music magazines.

The publication pre-dated the music charts by a few years.  Initially the
magazine would provide the lyrics to the popular songs of the day, a practice
which came to an end in the ’70’s.

The magazine came into the spirit of pop and rock with the arrival of first,
The Beach Boys and then especially with the explosion on the scene by
The Beatles.  At that point in time it took on a whole new look and feel,
often mimicked by many other ‘teen’ magazines which began to ‘pop’ up.

Hit Parader migrated through the various genre’s during the 1970’s – moving
on to hard rock, metal and the like up into the mid 1980’s.  The magazine
went through some troubled times in the 1990’s shutting down for a time
and finally called it quits after putting out it’s final issue in December of
2008.

December, 1943

March, 1958

January, 1959

December, 1969

Guy Lombardo’s Final New Year’s Eve. Appearance – 1976-1977.

(Fox News) – An extremely rare U.S. currency note from the late 19th century
is expected to sell for up to $3 million when it is auctioned next year.

The 1891 $1,000 Silver Certificate is the only bill of its kind believed to exist
in private hands, according to auction house Stack’s Bowers Galleries. Known
as the Marcy note, the bill features the portrait of former New York Governor
William L. Marcy, who served as a senator and as secretary of war under
President James Knox Polk.    

Stack’s Bowers Galleries notes that the Marcy note is sometimes considered
the “unicorn” of U.S. money thanks to its unique design. The bill, which has
an estimated pre-sale value of $2 million to $3 million, is being offered at
auction for the first time.

The note will be auctioned at the Whitman Spring Expo, which takes place in Baltimore between Feb. 28 and March 3.

(Fox News) – A rare piece of American history is up for sale, just in time for Christmas.

An original letter written and signed by President Abraham Lincoln in the
middle of the Civil War was recently discovered among a collection of family heirlooms belonging to the direct descendants of Mary Todd Lincoln.

Written four days before Christmas in 1863, it requests that Mrs. Lincoln’s
first cousin and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Craig, be allowed to safely return
to their cotton plantation in Arkansas, which was by then in Union territory.

“[I]t is my wish,” Lincoln writes “that they be permitted to do so, and that the
United States military forces in that vicinity will not molest them or allow them
to be molested, when within their power to prevent, as long as the said Mr. and
Mrs. Craig shall demean themselves as peaceful and loyal citizens to the United States.”

The letter was handed down from generation to generation, until it ultimately
ended up in the care of a descendant now living in the Midwest.     

It was recently acquired directly from that descendant by the Raab Collection,
and is now for sale for $60,000.

“Finding something from Abraham Lincoln that is still in the hands of the family
of the recipient is increasingly rare,” says Nathan Raab, the vice president of the Raab Collection. “Something of this importance and connection to Lincoln’s
family is very uncommon.”

And he would certainly know. The Raab collection has worked on the sale and preservation of many important historical documents, and with the families of
their authors, including Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant and Ronald
Reagan among others.