The Festive Tablecloths were produced by King Features Syndicate in the USA in 1954. They were free giveaway items issued around Christmas/New Year time to business partners and agents of King Features Syndicate, with 2 alternating versions produced and distributed.
Founded by William Randolph Hearst in 1914 in New York, USA, King Features Syndicate established itself as a leading print syndication company. It was responsible for distributing over 150 diverse forms of content, including comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games to more than 5,000 newspapers worldwide. Operating as a division of Hearst Holdings, Inc., King Features Syndicate was an integral part of a larger entity that encompasses the Hearst Corporation’s cable-network partnerships, television programming, distribution activities and other syndication companies.
An industry leader in content distribution and licensing, King Features launched an innovative marketing campaign to highlight their wide array of syndicated comic strip characters. This campaign featured specially designed tablecloths, one themed for Christmas and another for New Year.
Each of these two tablecloths was packaged in a specially designed King Features envelope featuring portrait images of numerous King Features characters, including Disney’s Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and even the Lone Ranger.
The high-quality, heavy stock craft paper tablecloths printed in color measures a large 72″ x 54″, with illustrated borders on each side measuring 12″ x 54″. Although the illustrations on the boarders remain the same on both the Merry Christmas and Happy New Year tablecloths, the message written in the center variers.
The borders showcase 25 of King Features’ leading newspaper comic strip characters, including THE PHANTOM by Wilson McCoy, BEETLE BAILEY by Mort Walker, BIG BEN BOLT by John Cullen Murphy, BLONDIE by Chic Young, BRINGING UP FATHER by George McManus, BUZ SAWYER by Roy Crane, Disneys DONALD DUCK by Carl Barks, FLASH GORDON by Alex Raymond, GRANDMA by Charles Kuhn, HENRY by Carl Anderson, Hi & Lois by Mort Walker, HOME SWEET HOME by Bud Blake, HUBERT by Dick Wingert, JULIET JONES by Stan Drake, LITTLE IODINE by Jimmy Hatlo, MYRTLE by Dudley Fisher, POPEYE by Elzie Segar, PRINCE VALIANT by Hal Foster, RIP KIRBY by Alex Raymond, RIPLEY’S BELIEVE IT OR NOT by Paul Frehm, RUSTY RILEY by Frank Goodwin, SNUFFY SMITH by Fred Lasswell, STEVE CANYON by Milton Caniff, THE KATZENJAMMER KIDS by Rudolph Dirks & THE LITTLE KING by Otto Soglow.
The artwork on this beautifully designed tablecloth was thoughtfully selected from King Features’ extensive archives, incorporating both comic strip panels and images originally created for commercial advertising campaigns. This curated approach provided a comprehensive showcase of the syndicate’s intellectual properties.
A loser look of the Phantom profile image printed on both tablecloths can be seen below. Traditional Christmas festive colors were used throughout, which include green, red and yellow. The year of production and copyright information is also printed along the boarders, which include King Features Syndicate and Walt Disney Productions.
This Festive Tablecloths weren’t commercially available but served as premium promotional items. King Features distributed them as complimentary offering at Christmas time to publishing houses, business partners, and affiliated agents during the holiday season. This thoughtful gesture aimed to strengthen business relationships while highlighting the syndicate’s diverse array of beloved comic strip characters and maximizing advertising revenue potential.
Thank you Christopher Smith for assisting with images and information.
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