Quodlibetica

Antique Fables & Fairy Toys

Written By: Jake Ramberg Constellation 07 4.1.10

David Sollie’s show at the Bockley Gallery, America’s Sweetheart: A Brief History of the Shackway Corporation, pieces together said history through the display of old advertisements and promotional posters. The ads that were created by Shackway’s in-house design firm now serve as a powerful reminder of the most productive time in Shackway’s relatively short life.

I sat down to discuss the ads and also the history of the corporation with the would-be-heir and curator Sollie who has brought these ads out of the basement to be displayed in an almost apologetic fashion. The prints themselves serve as a colorful and energetic glimpse into the shadowy past of the Shackway corporation and its morally ambiguous products.

Founded in the shadows of World War II, the Shackway corporation was the brainchild of Bruce Milburn, an American hero and entrepreneur. Though history has not been kind to Mr. Milburn, or Shackway for that matter, it cannot be denied that Milburn was a truly inspirational figure in the years following the war. His business, which started off selling mechanical poultry separators, would become one of the most dominant forces in countless markets, ranging from shampoo and cheese to television shows and toys. Sadly, many of Shackway’s products have proven to be somewhat hazardous — even lethal, in some cases, as with the “Vampire Hunter: Hunting Kit,” which was a toy for children based on the popular Australian television show Vampire Hunter. Although products such as the “HProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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ting Kit” mar the memory of Shackway and place emphasis on the flaws, the display of their old advertisements at the Bockley Gallery sheds a nostalgic and refreshing light on this corporation’s heyday.

Being a child of the 80’s, what I remember of Shackway isn’t much more than a block of Shackway 1,000 Year-Old Gouda (from the “Perpetual Cheese” product line) that my Grandmother had from the mid 50’s and demanded to be buried with. There was also a neighbor lady who would barter “Belly Filler” nutrition bars every few weeks for lawn work. So when I visited with David Sollie in preparation for the display of the old Shackway advertisements he had dug up, I was shocked by the extremely eclectic variety of goods they used to sell, locally and globally: Floating cake trays, mechanical ducks that promoted the pyromaniacal tendencies in children, and a Soap Opera about a traveling clown troupe complete with racy plots of treachery, murder, body doubles, and even subconscious oedipal intrigue.

The 50s were a time of unmatched materialism and fear, with communist uprisings, proxy wars, Russians in space and a whole lot of babies; it was a beautiful time for Shackway. Selling cheese that could last for generations in a fallout shelter or Ironing Surf Boards that would singlehandedly turn their owners into shining beacons of unadulterated efficiency and style, these were the products that made the 50s. Shackway cured fears of Russian-dominated space with UFO kits, and appeased fears of a nuclear apocalypse with snack trays for the deceased. In 1941 FDR spoke of the freedom from want and the freedom from fear; after the war, Bruce Milburn finished the job not by buying war bonds, but by selling consumer confidence and American nationalism through beautifully-designed print ads.

After the visit with Sollie I related a few of the discoveries to my father, who experienced some of Shackway’s more innovative moments throughout its turbulent history. Unbeknownst to me, my father was an extremely troubled child and had been prescribed a series of Shackway toys by his pediatrician in conjunction with the faculty of his school. The Shackway “Tricky Cat” was one of these much-loved “Toys for Mean Kids.” It was a mechanical cat that could be fed mice (or anything that fit inside) and the crank on the side of the cat would drive the gears inside to push the mouse through, grinding up the little rodent body. Possibly unintentionally, Shackway desensitized thousands of children to random acts of violence against animals but also taught those kids about the fragility of life and the importance of freedom.

Other, kinder products — such as the “Poet Girl Diary” which included a “Shackway Mood Pen,” a color-changing pen that worked much like a mood-ring – helped Shackway to capture the imaginations of the literate, emotionally volatile prepubescents with whom the “mean kid” toys may not have resonated. In its prime, Shackway was an innovator in all consumer product fields which helped to raise its popularity in mainstream cultures around the world.

Lurking behind the production and distribution of the Shackway products were even darker issues that, when eventually brought to light, would bring down the multinational corporation. “Tub Chasers” were agents of the Shackway corporation that had the task of finding the least safe seafaring ships to haul unwanted cargo around the world in hopes that it would simply disappear. Within the Shackway corporation, a high profile pyramid scheme existed that resembled more of a cult to non-believers than an intricate network of sales personnel. During the mid 60’s the sales department came under scrutiny for implementing what was later coined, “the Shackway Doers Circle Love Shack.” The “Love Shack” was actually a series of apartments and hotel rooms that were rented through the Shackway corporation and were reserved for management level use as well as borrowed out as perks for sales personnel under the guise of housing for jet-set employees. These “shacks” were inspiration for an academy award winning Hollywood film but also what would be one of the final straws that subsequently destroyed the Shackway corporation.

Bruce Milburn eventually paid the ultimate price for bringing Shackway into this world: by the late 80’s Shackway had reached the pinnacle of its popularity but also was known worldwide as one of the most corrupt businesses in existence.

By the 80s Bruce Milburn had given up the reins of his company to his son Vance Milburn (and father of David Sollie) who continued to let the company spiral out of control. Eventually the accumulated vice enlivened enough outrage in various consumer groups and other organizations that Vance Milburn was bludgeoned to death at the DFW International Airport by an extremist from a Hare Krishna group during a layover in Dallas in 1988. Sollie remembers the impact it had on his family, particularly on his grandfather Bruce Milburn, who began to sell off large portions of the company and call it quits on his lifelong dream. This marked the exact turning point in the company’s history that sent the Shackway corporation into a rapid decline. Little was left of Shackway’s empire by the 90s and even less of what Bruce Milburn had saved monetarily survived the Bernard Madoff scandal of 2009, which left practically nothing in the family coffers after the extravagant funeral services were performed for both Bruce and Vance Milburn. Bruce Milburn, who had become very enamored with the Old Kingdom period in Egypt, gave both his son and himself lavish burial plots along the Nile in what would eventually become Mr. Milburn’s largest personal investment.

What remains of the Shackway corporation primarily exists in the form of advertisements due to the massive recalls and the “Tub Chaser” lost shipments. Many products such as the Shackway nutrition bars have lived on, not under their original product names but through buyouts and international technology exchanges. These print ads seem to be the only reliable clues left as to what happened at Shackway apart from personal stories and rumors collected by Sollie, many of which are unpublished. This precarious historical knowledge relies heavily on the ads collected for this Bockley show and makes for an interesting read of the deceased corporation and decades past.

The ads themselves are unique in that many of the pieces combine both elements of photographic printing techniques and illustration to give a surreal otherworldly feeling. This trick was used not only by the design department but also was a familiar technique used in Shackway’s animated show “Jeff McKenzie” which featured an animated fisherman pickle that would catch real fish by taking advantage of cheap stock footage instead of paying illustrators to animate the entirety of the show. The inclusion of photography in the final work seems to add a level of kitsch that would otherwise be unreachable but in the ad for “Past Without Pining” the landscape photography places what would otherwise be a classic clown performance directly in the middle of a highway, a perfect foreshadowing of the sixth season finale in which Blinky Conhubris is struck with the clown car by his long-lost stepmother who has returned to take back the ringleader Sisyuscardiem’s hidden treasure.

More often than not these estranged elements lend themselves very well to the uneasiness of Shackway’s past. In combination with the juxtaposed compositions, the eerie product tag lines like “He Say He Show Them God’s Garden” and the subtle and perplexing “Open Road” hint at the strange nature of these goods even if the viewer is not familiar with the specific products. Perhaps purposefully Sollie has not attached a written explanation to any of the product advertisements he has acquired, the result being that they force the viewer to either research these long-forgotten products or to simply explain the images through the viewer’s own personal well of lies.

David Sollie’s proclamation that Shackway’s dark past must come to light and that “the truth needs to come out” is completely secondary to what this work does. The advertisements push the viewer to connect dots that may no longer be there in an imaginative fashion that rivals the imagination of Shackway’s founder, Bruce Milburn. From his humble beginnings to his eventual mummification, Bruce Milburn sold exactly one thing: the American Dream. The “truth” that Sollie seeks to bring to light seems to be the offensive power that can sometimes lie in such dreams.

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank David Sollie for taking the time to answer most of our questions in February 2010.

Images:

1) Shackway Afterlife Snack Tray.

2) Past Without Pining.

3) Famous Place Kit.

4) Lovely New Computer.

5) Mischief Girls.

6) Poet Girl.

America’s Sweetheart continues through April 24, 2010, at Bockley Gallery. (Gallery Hours: Wednesday through Saturday, Noon to 5 p.m.)