1938 Christmas cards

By Jondi Gumz

Reprinted from the

Santa Cruz Sentinel
Posted:   11/23/2012 04:40:33 PM PST

Click photo to enlarge
Pat Arnold is reprinting 1938 Christmas cards produced by her father, Robert Clay... ( Dan Coyro )

SANTA CRUZ -- For shoppers hunting for unusual Christmas cards, Pat Arnold has an only-in-Santa Cruz suggestion.

She's resurrected Christmas card images circa 1938 by a young Eyvind Earle, later an illustrator of "Walt Disney's Peter Pan and Wendy" for Little Golden Books, out of a catalog her father used to make sales calls at Bonwit Teller and Saks Fifth Avenue.

The colorful cards, printed on a digital press at Mission Printers, will be sold at the United Nations Association store, inside Western Union at 903 Pacific Ave. The price is $1 each.

The availability of these cards is pure serendipity.

Arnold, 87, founder of Arnold Publishing Co. and co-president of the Santa Cruz County United Nations Association, said ordinarily the store would have holiday cards from UNICEF in stock.

But demand exceeded the supply ordered by the new store buyer and after mid-November it was too late to order more.

Arnold recalled the card catalog, made of wood with brass hinges, each page with a different illustration, stashed in a cabinet.

"I cherished it, it was such a beautiful thing," she said, showing off the ornate lettering with Monroe (for her father Robert Clay Monroe) & Earle on the cover.

Earle, who worked on Disney's Sleeping Beauty film before returning to painting full-time, died in 2000 at age 84.

When a book of his Christmas card art came out that year, reviewers on Amazon called his work "mystical" and
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"truly breathtaking." The book sells for $275 and up.

The United Nations Association store is staffed by volunteers and open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Sunday. For information, call 426-3101.