Jack and Jill Magazines
By Euphrates



You may only remember these magazines from trips to the dentist or doctor.  
There was usually either a Jack and Jill or a Highlights there for you
to thumb through nervously while waiting for someone to open the door
and bark your name.  I, like many kids, actually had a subscription for
many years and couldn't wait for them to show up in the mailbox.

In the '40s and '50s, Jack and Jill was a way to keep kids busy reading 
stories and doing crafts and puzzles when it wasn't normal to plant a 
child in front of a television.  The crafts generally consisted of 
paper dolls or paper figures that you glue to cardboard and then cut
out to make holiday scenes.  There were also word games and regular
features like Baba Yaga, Perky Puppet, Diz and Liz and "My Father is a ..." 
which let children boast about the accomplishments or occupations of their 
pops.  I don't recall any "My Mother Maintains a Household Consisting of 
Six Children" pieces, but I stopped reading them in the early '70s.  Some
of the "My Father is a ..." articles were:
My Father is a Steelworker
My Father is Skipper of a Sailboat
My Father is TV's Mike Douglas
My Father is a Banker
My Father is TV's Bozo the Clown
My Father is Ivan Tors
My Father is Host in the Everglades
My Father is a Policeman
My Father is a King 
My Father Rents Trucks (bet he doesn't get to play with the kid above...)
My Father is a Tiger Trainer
My Father Draws Beetle Baily


In the '60s and '70s, the magazine started to feature more TV and movie-related
stories/promos like Gentle Ben, The Jungle Book, The Banana Splits and Lancelot Link, 
and beautiful, color ads promoting Mattel toys like Barbie, Thingmakers and Liddle Kiddles.
These issues and issues with uncut paper dolls and unmarked puzzles are the most popular with
collectors and can bring up to $10-$15 at auction sites.











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