Flying Marvels As Theme Decor

I stopped by Portillo's after dinner tonight for a cake shake.* I've been to the chain before, but never this particular one. Like all the Portillo's, it has a 1950s' diner feel with lots of movie posters and signage indicative of the time period. And what do I happen to see JUST above the cash register, but this...

Enclased in an acrylic showcase are a set of Marvel Family paper flying figures. I looked it up when I got home. It's from 1945, and you can find sets available for anywhere between $10 and $50 depending on the condition. There's some good scans of the individual pages here.

Now, the way most of these types of places work, as I understand it, is that they have a couple of folks who just go around looking through flea markets, estate sales and consignment shops for old stuff to throw up on the walls. And somebody thought this was cool enough to include. What I have to wonder, though, is whether the person(s) deciding it ought to go on the wall in a themed restaurant really understood and/or appreciated the popularity of Captain Marvel in 1945... or it just had the right copyright date on it.

* A cake shake. Seriously. They take a chocolate cake -- frosting and all -- and run it through a blender with a chocolate milkshake. Sheer brilliance!

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