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New Blood Enlivens York Toy, Doll, and Advertising Show

by Dick Friz

Although still a work in progress, the York (Pennsylvania) Toy, Doll, and Advertising Show on February 9 under new promoter Dan Morphy bristled with diversity, vitality, and unbridled enthusiasm. The York Fairgrounds Memorial Building rocked, recalling the glory days when crowds surged down the aisles like a warren of energized rabbits.

Founded in 1988 by respected promoters Jim and Donna Burk, the York toy show, now in its 14th year, bears its own inimitable stamp as an antiques-only doll and holiday ephemera fair. This event, along with a number of other national shows, has been beset by Internet auctions and dealer attrition and has seen a down cycle in recent years.

Jim Burk, 72, decided it was time to turn the reins over to Dan Morphy, who is well known in the hobby as a lifelong toy and bank collector, is the head honcho of the Adamstown Antique Gallery in Denver, Pennsylvania, and has many contacts and an astute sense of the market. The overriding factor in handpicking Morphy, according to Burk, was youth, a prime requisite to revitalize the York toy show.

In taking the show's helm, Morphy moved quickly and decisively. Citing antique toys and advertising as "a natural crossover," he renamed the event the York Toy, Doll, and Advertising Show to broaden the buying and dealer universe. In recent years, merging the carnivalesque with the classic has been a common practice among major toy auction houses, including Noel Barrett Antiques and Auctions, Bertoia Auctions, Randy Inman Auctions, Julia's, and most recently Skinner's. Another consideration was that for years the Northeast has lacked a strong advertising show; now it has one, just a few weeks prior to the big Indianapolis event.

At the revamped show's February 9th premiere, a seamless synthesis of over 150 dealers, both hard-core veterans and first-timers (many who never before set up at a show), included a veritable who's who of the best and the brightest in their field, with the strongest contingents hailing from Pennsylvania and Maryland. Among the exhibitors was Morphy's father, Dr. John Morphy, a recently retired oncologist from Pittsburgh. A longtime collector of apothecary jars, syrup dispensers, and exceptional early toys, he was on hand to launch his second career as a dealer.

Other dealers included Chris Savino, pressed steel and tin motor toys, Breesport, New York; Russ and Sheila Harrington, early cast-iron and Fisher-Price toys, Baltimore, Maryland; Paul Fink, 1870-1935 board and skill games, Kent, Connecticut; generalist dealer Keith Spurgeon of Boston and his pet Senegalese parrot; Klaus Banke of D<129>sseldorf, Germany; and Elio Re of Milan, Italy.

The town of York's brief fling with fame came when it served, for nine months in 1777, as our nation's first capital. Headquarters for Harley-Davidson motorcycles, it has a wealth of farmer's markets dating from the 19th century. The area's biggest bumper crop may well be its toy dealers/collectors.

The roster of Pennsylvania exhibitors at the February show included Bernie Dreher of Jim Thorpe; Don and Betty Jo Heim, banks and vintage toys, Williamsport; Rich and Pat Garthoeffner, toys and folk art, Lititz; Judith Lile, one of the top Schoenhut dealer/collectors, Lititz; Jay and Connie Lowe, folk art, dolls, and vintage toys, Lancaster; Bob Brady, banks and cast-iron transportation toys, Lancaster; Ray Haradin, a major mover in Britains militaria and mechanical banks and new publisher of the Old Toy Soldier journal, Pittsburgh; James Maxwell, banks and early tin toys, Lampeter; Tom Sage, early American and European tin trains, Allentown; Tom Sage Jr., comic character toys, Allentown; Stevie and William Weart, cast-iron transportation toys, Allentown; Grace and Roy Olsen, games, candy containers, and holiday memorabilia, Radnor; and Terry and Alan Joy, early cast-iron and stuffed toys and holiday candy containers, Philadelphia.

Familiar faces in the advertising realm included George and Dolly Yanolko of Allentown; Robert Apgar of Lititz; Gary Metz of Muddy River Trading Co., Roanoke, Virginia; Richard Lehmann, advertising and country store memorabilia, Frederick, Maryland; William Morford, leading mail-order dealer in Maxfield Parrish, vintage advertising, and ephemera, Cazenovia, New York; and Steve Butler of York, Pennsylvania.

Our random telephone follow-up a short time following the show elicited the following observations.

<195> "We were impressed with so much fresh merchandise and, most important, many new faces in the crowd," said Grace Olsen. "Dan [Morphy] has a lot of enthusiasm, and it's infectious. He is very open to suggestion and takes time to listen to what we old-timers have to say. He personally polled all the dealers and was particularly sensitive to how the move to have a second show in August might be perceived."

<195> "It's a good start, and Dan Morphy did all the right things to get the show on track," William Morford told M.A.D., referring to Morphy's heavy promotional investment in trade media, sending out 3000 targeted flyers as well as bulk e-mails, and even purchasing billboard space in key locations.

<195> "I'm ecstatic. This was by far the best York I've had in years," said Ray Haradin.

<195> "It's great to have a viable show right in our own backyard," said Stevie and Bill Weart. "We've cut down on the number of shows we do largely because they're so time-consuming. We'd done the Chicago toy show for years, but it consumed seven or eight days of our time."

New promoter Dan Morphy said, "We had a gate of a little over eleven hundred, and we expect to double, even triple those numbers in upcoming shows. The response from dealers has been incredible, and less than a week after York, we're almost completely booked up for the second date added to our fledgling roster, on August thirty-first, Labor Day weekend. The show will actually be a double-header, as Melvin Arion's original one hundred thirty-ninth semiannual sale of general-line antiques will be set up in the east and west halls on the same premises, with only two walls and a short walk separating the two shows. We feel our dealers will benefit from increased foot traffic, and [it will] give visitors the option of a greater variety of merchandise."

For more information, call Dan Morphy at (717) 335-3435.