A pack rat’s paradise

Annual All-American Collectors Show, the largest of its kind in the state, has something for everyone.The Civic Auditorium became the place for all things collectible over the weekend as thousands flocked to the largest antique toy and advertising show in the state, held twice a year right here in Glendale.

The All-American Collectors Show featured about 200 dealers hawking antique toys, teddy bears, dolls and toy soldiers, model trains, political Americana, vintage movie posters, promotional beer mirrors, slot machines and countless other items. The event, held Saturday and Sunday, drew several thousand people, organizer Jeff Dukow said.

“We have mostly antique toys, antique advertisements, antique dolls,” said Dukow, a Los Angeles resident who has been putting on the show since 1971 and whose own collectible passion is old movie posters.

“You just kind of fall into these things,” said Dukow, who acquired his first movie poster in the late 1960s and who now has thousands in his collection. “One thing leads to the next, you buy one then you want others, you start getting into different genres. It doesn’t end.”

Dukow’s display area had some amazing specimens, including brightly drawn 6-foot linen posters of the Depression-era films “Custer’s Last Stand” and “Fighting Pilot,” as well as more standard-sized displays advertising Disney’s original “Cinderella” and the 1965 Elvis Presley adventure spoof “Harum Scarum.” Prices for the posters ranged from $25 to $1,000.

“The cost depends not so much on the size but the title,” Dukow said, showing off his collection of lobby cards, small, roughly 8-by-10-inch illustrations of films that were distributed to theaters in sets of eight and displayed in lobbies, a primitive form of movie preview.

“They had different scenes from the movie, and they kind of teased the movie,” he said, standing next to a set of lobby cards for the Hitchcock classic “Dial M for Murder.”

Perusing a set of old die-cast metal miniature cars and figurines was Frank Smith of the San Fernando Valley.

“I collect whatever the mood strikes me,” said Smith. “Older tin-type toys, wind-ups, a lot of the stuff I recall from when I was a kid.”

Smith became interested in antique toys when, on his 25th wedding anniversary, he decided to purchase a model train similar to the ones he played with as a youth.

“I went to Classic Hobbies in Northridge and picked one out myself,” he said. “While I was there I saw some little dime-store soldiers like some I used to have. I asked how much they were and they said $6 apiece. I came back the next day and bought two, and then I got four more and never stopped.”

While he regrets having purchased some items that in retrospect weren’t worth the trouble, Smith said he at least had fun doing it.

Scott Teuscher, who had on display a broad array of die-cast metal, pressed steel and vintage plastic toys, has been coming to Glendale from Salt Lake City for the show every year for about 15 years.

“We try to bring a wide selection, something for everyone, but being collectors more than dealers, we also come to California to see the new merchandise, to see what is popular,” Teuscher said. “We generally spend more than we make.”

One of the most interesting items in Teuscher’s collection was a toy train made from 1930s coffee cans.

“The company, Tastee Food. Co. of Texas, would package items in their coffee cans to turn them into trains so the kids would talk mom into buying them,” he said. “They were packaged in different colored cans, so you wouldn’t have a whole train of the same color.”