| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
1962 “Adventures of Captain Chapel” (F71)
Mister Softee, Inc., Runnemede, New Jersey
Series Title: “Adventures of Captain Chapel”
American Card Catalog Number: F71
Issued by: Mister Softee, Inc., Runnemede, New Jersey
Issued with: Mister Softee Soft Ice Cream products
Country: USA
Number of Cards: 10
Card Numbering: 1 to 10
Type of Card: Ice Cream insert card
Card Dimensions: 86.57 × 63.75 mm
Circa: 1962
Checklist: Checklist
A Little History About Mister Softee [2]
Mister Softee is a United States-based ice cream truck franchiser popular in the Northeast. It was founded by William and James Conway (October 30, 1927 - May 28, 2006) in 1956 in Philadelphia, PA. It is one of the largest franchisers of soft ice cream in the United States. It has about 350 franchisee’s operating 600 trucks in 15 states. The company is headquartered in Runnemede, New Jersey. It is at this location that Mister Softee
transforms plain trucks into Americas’ most recognizable mobile ice cream vendor. Mister Softee is still run by the Conway family; John Conway, Jr. is now President.
The instrumental jingle you just heard on the startup of this page, is played by Mister Softee trucks. It is based on “The Whistler and His Dog” from 1960 by Les Waas. It is written in E-flat major with 6/8 time. However, many of the trucks play a version that sounds almost as if it is transposed up a half step, in E major, though still with the 6/8 time. In New York City, the trucks can only play the jingle while moving, to reduce noise.
In 2007 Mister Softee established its first ice cream truck and ice cream shop in Mainland China located in Suzhou, Jiangsu. Mister Softee China is operated by Alex Conway, grandson of James Conway, and Turner Sparks. In 2008 Mister Softee China plans to begin expanding its core business and franchising throughout China’s eastern region. Mister Softee China has created a menu that combines its classic American products of shakes, floats and sundaes with new Chinese products such as green tea ice cream, red bean ice cream, kiwi sundaes and milk tea floats. While its American counterpart operates almost exclusively with trucks, Mister Softee China has kiosks in downtown shopping areas and trucks throughout China’s ever expanding suburban neighborhoods and business districts.
Overview [1,3]
During 1962, Mister Softee issued a 10-card regional set of “Adventures of Captain Chapel … TRIP TO THE MOON” Ice Cream insert trading cards that were issued with Mister Softee Ice Cream products. The cards measure 3.41 86.57 × 63.75 mm, and are assigned the American Cards Catalog reference number F71.
As you recall, 1962 was the year that President John F. Kennedy gave his famous “Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort”, or better known simply as the “We choose to go to the moon” speech, which he delivered in front of a large crowd gathered at Rice University in Houston, Texas on September 12, 1962. It was one of Kennedy’s earlier speeches meant to persuade the American people to support the effort of NASA to send a manned space flight to the moon. Now we need to ask the “Inquiring Minds” questions: (1) Did the Mister Softee set of 10 “Adventures of Captain Chapel” cards inspire the JFK speech; (2) Did the JFK speech inspire the Mister Softee “Adventures of Captain Chapel” card set; or (3) Was it the Russians?
The fronts of the 1962 “Adventures of Captain Chapel” cards feature attractive uncaptioned color artwork which narrate the entire early space-age story of Captain Chapel. The color artwork on the fronts of the cards are well centered and are surrounded by a medium thickness dark blue/purple border line with an exterior white margin.
The backs of the cards feature the following vertical stack of six segments elements:
It should also be noted that card #10 referred to “Card No.11 which tell you of his trip to Mars and Captain Chapel’s adventures there.” This was to be a follow-on series which was never issued.
The following reference card shows the fronts and backs of a typical 1962 “Adventures of Captain Chapel” (F71) card. Click on the card images to reveal full-size computer enhanced 600-dpi images of the card.
Image-Guide 3,4
The following 1962 “Adventures of Captain Chapel” (F71) 10-card set by Mister Softee, USA, Image-Guide shows computer enhanced images of the fronts and backs of the 10 cards in the F71 set. Behind each thumbnail image is a 600-dpi computer enhanced card image that you may access. In addition, directly beneath the Image Guide, in tabular form, are links to the original scans used for this series. Please note the only reference card in the set we had was #10. The fronts and backs of cards 1 through 9 were all redrawn and computer enhanced for presentation purposes. The original images came from the Net54 F71 website. [4]
| 1962 “Adventures of Captain Chapel”
Mister Softee Ice Cream products, 10-Airplane Cards ORIGINAL SCANS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1
1b |
2
2b |
3
3b |
4
4b |
5
5b |
6
6b |
7
7b |
8
8b |
9
9b |
10
10b |
|||||||||||||||
Checklist
| 1962 “Adventures of Captain Chapel” (F71)
Mister Softee, 10-Cards, USA CHECKLIST | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| № | x | Card Title | |
| 1 | This is the story of Captain Chapel and … | ||
| 2 | This is the SC32 Space Craft which … | ||
| 3 | Captain Chapel is on his way to the … | ||
| 4 | Captain Chapel prepares to launch on the … | ||
| 5 | The U. S. Space Station which is in orbit … | ||
| 6 | Captain Chapel inspects the SV1, the … | ||
| 7 | After an uneventful voyage from Earth … | ||
| 8 | The exploring party is examining the … | ||
| 9 | Everyone in the exploring party is excited … | ||
| 10 | The explorers are shown loading one … | ||
References
