Gambling on Advertising

Dell 1st Edition B142

The Maverick TV series, launched in 1957, was immensely popular. It starred James Gardner (in his first major role) and Jack Kelly, as brothers Bret and Bart, and Roger Moore, as British cousin Beau. The first editions of this Dell book hit the newsstands in 1959 with the back cover shown (center). But there were THREE variants of the book also released, each showing advertising from the TV show's three main sponsors. The back cover (right) and inside cover (below) are both courtesy of Tom Daniels, and show the Jeep variant. Another cover was done for Kaiser Aluminum, and it also had a stiff paper advertisement for a local Kaiser distributor tipped in. Yet a third displayed cover ads for The Drackett Company, a Cleveland chemical manufacturer that produced such products as Windex, Vanish, Drano, Behold, Endust, Renuzit, and others. (The company eventually sold out to Bristol Myers, and then later became part of Johnson & Johnson.)

If collectors will send scans of the other variants, I'll add them to this page.