"Injun-uity" Cards

Item Details

Nabisco, 1949-1952

Good+

From 1949-1952, the National Biscuit Company, also known as Nabisco, ran a radio program in coordination with advertising cards in packages of Shredded Wheat. The subject of this campaign was Straight Arrow, a fictional Comanche orphan raised as Steve Adams. Each tale involved him assuming his secret Indian identity to pursue justice, often with his horse Fury and sidekick, Packy McCloud. The Shredded Wheat cards came in sets of 3 separating the layers of biscuits, totally 4 books of 36 cards each. The cards contained “Indian lore and know-how” – or Indian ingenuity, from which the portmanteau title was drawn. 

Fred Meagher of Magazine Enterprises drew the cards, printed in green ink on  7 ¼” x 4” grey cardboard. This collection includes 29 cards from Book 3, the full set of Book 4, an almost complete Book 4 (missing one), and a set of 28 cards from Book 4, and 28 more duplicates form Book 4. It also includes 2 of the cards from the later special edition in which Straight Arrow broke into the world of television through finger puppet crafts. One is the instructions, and the other is a script entitled, “Who Stole My Hoss?”. The character also found his way into comic books and toys.

An early example of merchandising. All 158 cards are in good+ condition. 

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