Warner’s Toys Live On

* “That’s All, Folks!” [Feb. 2] says the Warner Bros. Studio stores are now closed.

My attachment to Warner Bros. merchandise goes back to 1952, when I was visiting a Firestone Tire & Rubber store in Philadelphia to have a flat fixed on my bike, and I came home the proud owner of a rubber Porky Pig squeak doll that had been sitting on the top shelf behind the cash register. The back of his neck said: “Porky Pig Copyright Warner Bros. Cartoons Inc., Mfg. Sun Rubber Co., Barberton, Ohio.”

Go ahead, laugh! I still have that rubber Porky Pig squeak doll. It was the best 98-cent investment I ever made.

Over the years, I’ve picked up numerous Warner (and Disney) friends at all kinds of stores, but the Warner Bros. Studio Store was nirvana: a 1940s Roadster with porcelain Porky and Petunia dolls inside, a Tweety desk penholder, Bugs Bunny socks, a Daffy Duck key chain and newer versions of Porky, without the squeaker. For the squeaker, there are Tweety dog toys from Sav-On Drugs. I even have a Porky Pig watch and an old-fashioned wind-up desk clock with Bugs, Porky, Tweety, Sylvester and Daffy on it.

The stores may be closed, but this won’t be a final “That’s All, Folks” for those lovable characters.

RICK ROFMAN

Van Nuys