SkyMan goes 6Gs.

[SkyMan]

One of the things I most enjoy about collecting coins is that they are history that you hold in your hand. One of the reasons that I have become much more interested in collecting space memorabilia (SM) is that I can associate the items that I have won/purchased with specific historical events/figures in a field that has fascinated me since I was a kid. Quite literally the first thing that I can unquestionably remember is watching the liftoff of John Glenn's flight when I was 3+ years old.

 

As a coin collector might try and collect all the coins from a given series I have been trying to purchase a Flown item from all 27 of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo (MGA) flights (6, 10 and 11 respectively). Until yesterday I had "filled" 3, 6 and 10 slots respectively. Yesterday I was able to win 3 lots at a SM auction. Two of the items that I got were able to fill two more "holes" in the MGA set, specifically one Mercury (Sigma 7) and one Gemini (GT-3) slot.

 

Apollo items are BY FAR the most commonly found items of the MGA era due to the size of the spacecraft. They are kind of like 1909-S VDBs... you don't have any problem finding them, but they are pricey. OTOH, most of the Apollo flown material is fairly generic... on the lower price end; heat shield plugs, or ends of film rolls, on the higher end; flags, Robbins medallions, pages from assorted manuals etc. Finding unique, or almost unique items, for any of the Apollo flights, particularly the Moon landing flights, is by definition VERY difficult.

 

Finding items for Gemini flights is MUCH more difficult than finding items for Apollo flights (as there were fewer flights and the capsule was much smaller), but IN GENERAL, the Gemini items are less expensive than a comparable Apollo item. My best guess is that there is less of a collector base for Gemini than Apollo, although for a true history/space junkie like me, Gemini is actually a more interesting series in that basically everything that was done on the Apollo flights (except the actual Moon landing) was done First in the Gemini series (or by the Soviets even earlier).

 

Finally you get to Mercury flights. Finding flown items from Mercury flights is dang near Impossible. The capsule was VERY small. The astronauts had to be less than 5' 11", and they had to enter the capsule in a very specific manner otherwise they could not fit into it. The astronauts called getting into a Mercury capsule being "shoe horned" into it. The ONLY items you can find every now and then on a semi-regular basis are the dimes that flew in Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7 (the 2nd Mercury flight). Finding pretty much everything else is on a total wing and a prayer.

 

One of the things that I particularly look for when collecting SM is something that will humanize the flight. The astronauts were special folks, but they were not gods, they were just as human as anybody else. One of the things that they liked to do was to pull pranks on each other. These pranks were called "Gotcha's". Let's call these Gotcha's "G's".

 

Of the three lots I won yesterday two were "Gotcha's", and one lot included 4 G's if you will. The Sigma 7 (officially Mercury-Atlas 8) and Gemini-Titan 3 (GT-3) items both filled MGA "holes" that I needed to collect.

 

The King of the Gotcha's was Wally Schirra who loved to pull pranks on people. He was the 5th American to fly into space. When he flew on Sigma 7 in Oct. 1962, Gordo Cooper was his backup, so Gordo decided to pull a "Gotcha" on Wally. Gordo (in conjunction with Jim Rathmann, an Indy 500 winner and a good friend of the Mercury astronauts) smuggled some scotch (individual serving size bottle) and cigarettes aboard Sigma 7, as Wally was known as a partier. They were stashed in a compartment Schirra would only open later on in his flight. (To give you an idea of how small the capsule was, Gordo even took most of the cigarettes out of the pack). Needless to say, Schirra was quite amused by the gotcha. Schirra drank the scotch as soon as he had the chance on the recovery ship, and kept the cigarettes as a remembrance. Accompanying the cigarettes is a CoA from Schirra's wife (and another that I haven't included from Jim Rathmann on his letterhead).

 

Here is Schirra getting into his capsule:

 

Here are the cigarettes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gus Grissom first flew on the 2nd Mercury flight, Liberty Bell 7 (LB7). He brought 2 rolls of dimes with him (all three of the dimes that I've seen were 1961-D) that he stashed in his spacesuit (along with some other items) that he was planning on selling. Grissom's capsule sank in the ocean and he nearly drowned. He was partially weighted down by the rolls of dimes and assorted other stuff that he was going to sell. When he next flew, he was the commander of the first manned Gemini flight, GT-3. He wanted to be totally professional on this flight as he felt that he had somewhat smeared his reputation by "losing" LB7. Therefore he brought only ONE dime on the flight which he planned to give to Guenter Wendt, NASA's "pad leader", the man who made sure the spacecraft was in tip top condition before the flights.

 

One of the nice things about collecting these flown items is that oftentimes they were associated with peripheral people in the whole "Space Race" story. Guenter Wendt was one of the unsung heros of the space program, and both he and Jim Rathmann were totally interconnected with the astronauts... Guenter at the professional level (and to a certain extent the social level) and Rathmann very definitely at the social level (as you might imagine, the early astronauts were big fans of any machines that went fast). I was able to win the dime yesterday, and that gives me 4 more G's for the title of this thread... Gus Grissom's Gemini dime to Guenter wendt. FWIW, GT-3 did one of the most important of all space "Firsts". It was the First spacecraft to change it's orbit. All spacecraft before then had been on ballistic "tracks" that they were unable to change.

 

Here is GT-3 taking off:

 

Here is the dime. You'll note that GT-3 was scratched onto the lower left obverse field by Gus Grissom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you might imagine, by far the most expensive Apollo items are from Apollo 11, the First Moon landing. It seems that by serendipity I have backed into collecting Apollo 12 material, which is MUCH less expensive than Apollo 11, but it is still, after all, the SECOND landing on the Moon, so it is by NO means inexpensive, and obviously has quite a cachet all it's own. From that flight I've got Moon dust recovered from a spacesuit, a flown mission patch, flown bread and a variety of (unflown) autographed pictures, including one made out to me by Alan Bean (one of the 3 crewmen) when I met him last November.

 

The backup crew of Apollo 12 (which eventually became the prime crew for Apollo 15), decided to pull a "gotcha" on the Apollo 12 crew. As you might imagine, the Apollo 12 crew had a wide variety of tasks to perform, so they were given printed out checklists that documented what they were to do (in some cases in a second to second progression). The 2 Moonwalkers had checklists (basically very small books) attached to the cuffs of their spacesuits so they could follow what to do while on the Moon's surface. The backup crew, in one of the major gotcha's of the Apollo era, snuck 2 images of Playboy bunnies onto the checklists, so that when the Moonwalkers turned the previous page they were surprised to find quite an unexpected treat. Since the cufflists were black ink on white paper the images were also black and white so as not to give away the surprise.

 

At the same time this was occurring Gordon, the Command Module pilot (CM, the spacecraft that orbited the Moon and eventually returned the men to Earth), had various projects he had to do in the CM. He opened up one of the lockers that he was supposed to, at a specified time, and found the following item. The item measures 4.5" x 6.5". It is one of only two color Playmate pictures that were flown to the Moon (the other one was on a later flight). Needless to say, the 3 Apollo 12 crewmen were all thrilled to have been given the pictures. They could not mention them over the (public) radio, so if you hear the tapes, when the time comes for the 3 crewmen to find their surprises you'll hear them start to bust out laughing. After the flight was over it became known as the "Bunny Flight". Included with this lot, along with this flown item there is a CoA from Gordon and another color nude picture given by DeDe Lind (the Playmate) to Gordon, after the flight, on which she writes a semi-racy note to him.

 

Here is a view of the Lunar Module taken by Gordon from the CM:

 

Here's the picture. Notice the velcro attached to the rear to keep the image from floating around in zero G.

 

 

 

So there you go, 2 Gotcha "Gs" and 4 "Gs" from Guenter wendt's Gus Grissom Gemini dime...

[robec1347]

I love it all Sy. What an awesome collection you're acquiring.

[cpm9ball]

Very cool, Sy! Thanks for posting it.

 

Chris

[rrantique]

Very cool, Sy! Thanks for posting it.

 

Chris

 

(thumbs u

[WoodenJefferson]

Ah yes, I remember her well, DeDe Lind, the girls of summer, Miss August 1967 (the picture that has been to Vietnam & outer space) I only read Playboy back then for the articles.

[johnny9434]

that is quite a good thing your putting together there. that almost beats coin collecting as far as some of the stories behind it best wishes

[cpm9ball]

I only read Playboy back then for the articles.

 

They had articles in them?

 

Chris

[thebeav]

Some more neat stuff.

I really enjoy reading these stories and seeing this stuff.

 

Paul

[bsshog40]

Cool stuff there Sy. Poor lady looks like she had a bad tata surgery, all mangled and blurred like that. Must've been ashamed of them!

[Conder101]

I only read Playboy back then for the articles.

Unlike today?

 

And it does have some pretty good articles Which is what I read it for today......unlike back then..

[coinman_23885]

I only read Playboy back then for the articles.

 

They had articles in them?

 

Chris

 

[Coindude]

I only read Playboy back then for the articles.

They had articles in them?

Chris

YES!!! Don't you remember when you unfolded the centerfold and it had all her likes and dislikes?