We are all aware that during the original run of the show, Dukes of Hazzard was incredibly popular. It was the second most watched show on television for several seasons and was number one for more than several weeks during those seasons. The Dukes of Hazzard was hot. Everyone wanted a piece of the show and the stars. The cast received fan mail in huge quantities. With so much mail coming in, it wasn't always possible to respond to the letters and post cards, but our heroes couldn't disappoint their fans! That's where Tamkin comes in. In this post I'll show off the complete collection of Dukes of Hazzard Tamkin autograph cards as well as a few other autograph and postcards and give a little history on Tamkin.
Before email and twitter, the only way to interact with your favorite stars was a good old letter. Some time before the Dukes came around, Jack Tamkin opened Tamkin Color, which later became Studio Fan Mail. Jack built a business receiving and replying to fan mail. He was contracted by studios and stars to read and answer each piece of mail, and he took his job very seriously. Though his interaction level differed depending on the show, movie, star, or studio, Jack and his company had a mission never to let a fan feel ignored. Jack worked with Henry Winkler during Happy Days and was still sending out star's pictures into the 2000s when Hollywood started to push interaction online. Jack was a pioneer and highly valued in the industry. From what I can gather, Jack already had a working relationship with Warner Bros. by the time Dukes came around and he began sending out autograph cards when the show became red hot. Jack passed away in 2014.
There are a total of thirteen different Dukes of Hazzard Tamkin autograph cards and some are much harder to find than others. I did a lot of searching and comparing to track them all down. Unlike most pictures I post to the blog, I took an extra step and added watermarks to these images. These are scans of the original cards and it would be too easily for Boss Hogg like characters to steal these beautiful images and sell them as their own, so I watermarked them all up. Sorry Boss! Let's take a look at all the Dukes Tamkin cards.
The first card, and most common, happens to be from my favorite photoshoot. This image, that was taken after Enos left the show, is one of the most iconic group shots of the cast of the Dukes of Hazzard. Like I said before, the actual card does not have the text "Property of Warner Bros. Scanned by DukesCollector" over and over again on it, I just had to add that for security. This picture was taken in early '81. I have a feeling the cast was responding to their own fan mail for a little while during the beginning of the show, and Tamkin was brought in when it started to get out of control. They used the best possible picture.
The other side of the card has a printed reproduction of the casts' autographs. Everyone also added a note. The autographs include "All Best Wishes!" from Tom Wopat, "Yee Haa!!! from John Schneider, "Love You Lots" from Catherine Bach with xox and a smiley face, "Best Always Denver Pyle Jesse Duke," "Hey Y'all!" from Ben Jones, and Cooter 10-4, "Keep your Dukes up! from Rick Hurst "Cletus," "Don't take no wodden nickels" from Sorrell Booke "Boss Hogg," and "I love it I love it" from James Best "Rosco."
Autographs really don't change much in forty years. I watched Ben, Catherine, Tom, John, Rick and James sign these same autographs countless times and many times include the same or similar notes. The bottom of the card includes the WB Television logo as well as "Tamkin Color 8909." Unfortunately the number doesn't mean much to us as not all the cards are numbered. This is the most common Tamkin card. I've seen these cards pop up all over and bought them in bulk. My guess is this is the one Tamkin printed the most of.
I don't know when the different cards were produced, or why there are variations, but the second card is a variation. The front is the same image as the first card. I've studied it and it's one hundred percent the same image. You will see in other cards, studying is sometimes required.
The difference with this one is the back. Tamkin Color 8532-4 only has "Best wished from the cast of 'The Dukes of Hazzard'" on the back. This variant is tougher to find. I have no idea why the individual autographs were omitted from this one.
Card 3 is an even bigger mystery. Quickly glancing at the card, you would think it's the same image used on the above two cards. Then you start to notice things. What jumped out at me is Daisy is laughing, hard. Something really made her bust out. Then you start to notice some other differences like Boss's mouth is slightly more open, and Rosco is trying not to laugh. Luke has his head back a little and Flash isn't looking up. Bo looks like he is laughing more in this one too. There are some aspects of both images that seem like better shots. I guess they thought each was good enough to release so they put out both. I think the "laughing Daisy variant" is the rarest of the three.
The back is identical to card 1, except it does not have a number after Tamkin Color.
The next card is another group shot. This time it's a lesser used image of the cast standing beside the gazebo in front of the court house. Enos is on this one, instead of Cletus. This one might actually be earlier than the one above, but judging by the boy's shirts and hairstyles, I think it's actually one of the latest ones and the photo was taken after the Coy and Vance debacle. The General Lee is barely visible in the right behind Enos.
The back has a reproduction of the same autographs used before, but Cletus is replaced with Enos. His signature says "Love y'all" Sonny Schroyer "Enos." with a heart and a smile. This card does not have a number after Tamkin Color.
I have a slightly different version of this card that I debated including as a variant but I decided it's different enough to include. This version nearly cuts out Flash. Poor Flash! The Nearly No Flash version also shows even less General Lee. The image is slightly zoomed in as you can see less railing on the far left side and it cuts off Bo's left boot tip.
The back is identical. It might not be a fully different production piece, but cutting off a main character makes it a different card to me.
Ok, there's been one main character basically missing from these cards so far. A big orange main character. With most Dukes of Hazzard items, conventional logic tells you that if there's a Coy and Vance version of something, there was first a Dukes of Hazzard version. I'm not certain the Bo and Luke versions of this card came first. The reason I think that is because, as you'll see later in this post, there are individual Coy and Vance Tamkin cards and not Bo and Luke ones. The Tamkin card campaign could have started during Warner Bros.'s big media push to assure the world not to panic when John and Tom left the show. It's very likely these cards were produced to make the fans feel like Hazzard wasn't changing for the worse during the fall of 1983 and then once the world went back to normal, in Hazzard at least, they continued making these with Bo and Luke replacing Coy and Vance. None of them are dated so I don't know if that's the case, but it might be. Regardless, I'm going to start with the Bo and Luke version of the General Lee card.
The front of the card features a glorious shot of the big orange main character in flight. Like the group by the tree image used on the first card, his image was used on a
National Picture and Frame Co. picture that was sold framed. During the episode that shows this particular jump, there is a Daisy mannequin in the passenger seat and the head almost falls out the window and it's pretty funny. You can sort of make it out in this image.
The back of the card is full of fun information about the General Lee. It's definitely worth a zoom in to read it. The writer makes a big deal about the Gen'ral being a boy. The bottom shows Tamkin Color 9387.
The second version of the General Lee Tamkin card uses the same image but has a printed tire track and the sentence: "A genuine autographed (Tire track) photo of the "Dukes of Hazzard's" General Lee." There is a lot to take in here. First, I find it interesting the "the" is left out of the quotes in that sentence. The actual title of the show is "The Dukes of Hazzard" even though "the" is commonly left out when speaking the title. It's hard to find many licensed products that don't include the "the." That's splitting hairs. What's really interesting is the tire track autograph. There is a Dukes (the Dukes?) legend that says the General Lee got just as much fan mail as the cast of the show. The existence of this card proves that. But the legend also says that produces of the show would run over pictures of the car to send to fans. That legend was made popular in the pages of TV Guide. It seems a lot of what fans believe to be facts were popularized by TV Guide as it was one of the biggest sources of TV info during the time of the Dukes. But many of these legends were strengthened by David Hofstede in his Unofficial Dukes of Hazzard companion that relied heavily on early TV Guide articles. I knew I sure took everything he wrote as Gospel when I was first deep diving in to Dukes of Hazzard lore in the late '90s. Much of David's info was correct, but I'm pretty sure the producers of the show had more important things to do than drive a General over pictures for fans. The picture would get dirty and bent up anyway. I think this particular legend came from this exact Tamkin card and grew out of control. I'm not saying there weren't a few pictures driven over at some point, but they definitely weren't mass produced, or mass run over, and if there were, I would have seen evidence of one during my years of collecting.
The back of the tire track General Lee card is the same as the non-tire track card except it names Coy and Vance instead of Bo and Luke. So this adds a little fuel to the legend fire, as the original article was written in TV Guide before season five so maybe there were pictures driven over. Who knows? Have you ever seen one?
From one beautiful Dukes image to another. This is Daisy's Tamkin Autograph card. Are you still reading? Hello?!?
Ok, you're back? Good. This image of Daisy wearing a red bikini is amazing. Except for one thing. What the heck is she doing with here left hand? I showed this card to my dad and he said what hand. It does take a very long time to notice.
The back of this card features a large autograph from Catherine. Like in the group card, her signature includes "Love you lots" with a smiley face and xox, but it's not the same autographed used. The Tamkin Color card is numbered 9629 and doesn't include the WB TV logo.
Next up, Crazy Cooter gets an autograph card. This image is probably the most used image of our favorite mechanic. Ben is wearing his famous Georgia Special Olympics yellow hat. This is a great picture.
Oddly enough, the back of this card is basically blank. Is has a line down the center implying it's a standard postcard. It includes Tamkin Color on the bottom with no number or WB. I've become quite close to Ben over the years and might have a little insight as to why this card doesn't include a reproduction autograph. I would not be surprised if Ben wanted the card blank so he could sign each one sent out individually. Ben loves signing autographs for his fans and I bet he took the time to read each piece of fan mail and respond by hand. We all know that's just the kind of guy Ben is. We love Ben Jones!
Now this is where it get's interesting. As I wrote before, I'm under the impression that the Tamkin cards came into play during the Coy and Vance era to appease the jaded minds of the fans that were upset when Tom and John were no longer behind the wheel of the General Lee. Or as part of the media push to appease those minds before they were jaded by seeing new Dukes when they were expecting the same Dukes. But if the cards were being produced for the upcoming shock of season five, they continued to be produced through season five and beyond. After eighteen grueling episodes without Bo and Luke, out favorite Duke Boys returned to take the keys to the General back from Coy and Vance. The fans rejoiced and so did the producers. There were quite a few Dukes collectibles that switched from Bo and Luke to Coy and Vance including the Mego action figures, the lunch box, and some Gordy toys. There's not many products that include both pairs of cousins on the same item. The only thing I can think of is the
Dukes Novel, Gone Racin'. This Tamkin card, that's the only black and white card, is one of the only Warner Bros. licensed products that includes all four Duke Boys. It's quite an item. It clearly came out after the next couple of cards, because they are pure Coy and Vance era items, but I had to highlight it first. In the image we see Boss standing beside Cooter and Luke. Cooter has his arm around Boss and his other around Coy. Coy and Vance are arm in arm and Vance has his other arm around Uncle Jesse. Luke, Daisy and Bo are seated in the center and Enos is behind Bo. Rosco is seated in the corner with Flash. The fact that the three main Duke cousins are sitting on director style chairs, even though the picture is taken in front of the Dukes farm, really gives it a "behind the scenes" feel. Everyone is smiling in the picture. Years ago I would make the argument that Tom doesn't look genuinely happy because the other Dukes are there, but in the past few years I've worked side by side with Tom and Byron and I no longer prescribe to the grumpy Wopat theories. I'm sure this was an uncomfortable atmosphere for everyone because they didn't know what would happen next. The existence of this officially licensed photo suggests that maybe Warner Bros. had plans to keep Coy and Vance around for a while instead of doing what we all know they did, immediately showing them the door. I'm as happy as anyone that Bo and Luke came back, but wouldn't have it been cool to check in on the other Duke Boys a few times over the next two seasons? Maybe Bo and Luke needed help here and there and an Avengers style team up would have been great. I digress.
The back of the card included everyone shown on the front. That's a lot of autographs. Tom and John are at the top and the signatures are the same ones used on the other cards. This card is very rare and I didn't know it existed until recently. It's a fun, unique piece of Dukes history and shows that maybe there were inklings of future plans for the New Dukes.
The last few cars are straight from season five. Warner Bros. wanted to make sure you loved Coy and Vance as much as you loved Bo and Luke. Remember Boss Hogg even said they were better than Bo and Luke? I bet Sorrell hated delivering that line. The first card is a group shot that features Cletus, Rosco holding Flash, Daisy, Coy, Uncle Jesse and Boss Hogg in front of the General Lee with Enos, Vance, and Cooter on the roof. I wonder how many people can sit on the roof of the General without doing damage? During season five, you have to look at the positives. The supporting cast really stepped up their game. After his spinoff was canceled, Enos came back to the show. In a stroke of genius by the producers, they made him share a police car with Cletus. Their bickering and fighting about who gets to drive this time were some of the funniest moments of season five.
The back of the card somehow doesn't include Enos though. I wonder how that mistake was made.
Speaking of mistakes, the produces couldn't be called genius and then not screw it up. Long before Bo and Luke came back, Cletus was booted out of his patrol car and out of Hazzard. WB had to stick to their formula and that didn't include two dipstick deputies. We didn't see ol' Cletus in Hazzard again until the reunion movies. Because there had to be a Tamkin card for each cast change, a variant of the previous card was issued that simply cropped Cletus out. Again, the same image is depicted, but it's a tighter shot and Cletus is conveniently edited out. The General Lee is also a victim of the crop and is barley visible in this version. It's almost too convenient how easy it was to drop Cletus from this one. I wonder if the photographer told Rick to stand just a little bit over there, just in case.
The same autographs are used as before, but Enos is included and replaces Cletus. If we're dreaming up scenarios where Bo and Luke need Coy and Vance's help, I'm also going to dream of more screen time for Enos and Cletus together. Those two were gold together and we were ripped off by Cletus's unexpected dismissal.
The final two Tamkin cards feature the New Dukes. It's interesting to note the Bo and Luke didn't get individual Tamkin cards, but neither did Boss Hogg, Uncle Jesse, Enos or Cletus. There are cards for Daisy, Cooter, Coy, Vance and the General Lee. I wish I could have picked Jack Tamkin's brain about the selection of these cards. Coy's card features a shot of him on the hood of the General Lee. I can't figure out of he's performing a perfect hood slide or if he's seated on the hood. What do you think?
The back features a larger autograph from Byron. The note reads "Thanx so much for watching, love ya." There is no number beside Tamkin Color or WB logo.
The last card in the bunch is Vance's card. His card depicts him out the window of the General Lee. Besides the individual General Lee card, the two Coy and Vance cards feature the Gen'ral the most prominently.
Chris's autograph reads "thanks for writing - and please keep watching 'Dukes' all the best always." It also doesn't have a number beside Tamkin Color or WB.
The Tamkin cards are a great, fun, little mini collection that I'm glad I was able to track down. I had the standard tree card for a while and tried to pick up the different ones when I could. Some are rare and expensive. It seems a bunch were recently discovered as there are two sellers on ebay that seem to have an endless supply of several cards. I'm nearly positive there aren't any other Dukes Tamkin cards or variations but just like all these Dukes items, I'm surprised all the time. Do you know of any others? Am I missing any? I love finding unexpected Dukes stuff.
While preparing this post I gathered a few other autograph cards and postcards that I had around the collection. The blog really helps me organize my stuff and there's no reason these cards shouldn't be stored in the same vicinity as the Tamkin cards. Since I had them around, I scanned them too and thought it would be fun to share them as well.
Sonny always has autograph cards on him. Every time I've seen him and worked with him he has them in his pocket. He's always prepared. The above card is an older one from the time the show was on. I got it on ebay. He autographed the front and the back has a preprinted autograph and note from Sonny. I love that the text on the front mentions not only Dukes, but also Alice and Love Boat. We all know Boss and Enos guest starred on an episode of Alice in character when Boss tried to by Mel's Diner from Mel. It's a fun episode and great to see our beloved characters in a fish out of water situation. I had no idea Sonny guest starred on an episode of Love Boat during the Dukes. Wouldn't it have been cool if he played Enos on a cruise? Sonny's record is also mentioned. He released an album after his spinoff Enos ended and he came back to the Dukes. The album is called Back in Hazzard. This is a fun addition to the album.
These other two card are newer and similar to the ones Sonny carries with him. The front have great black and white images and the backs have a resume of sorts all about Sonny. Both pictures are a lot of fun.
Next is a golden era Uncle Jesse autograph card. This is not a Tamkin card. It appears Denver might have sent out his own autographs, or maybe this was before Tamkin came into the picture. It has the same address as the first Enos card. I'm surprised the fan mail was directed to CBS TV and not Warner Bros. studios. Pam Dickson sent a request to Denver and he obliged by sending her a card and autograph that included "Hi Pam!" I blacked out Pam's address when I added the watermark. I never had the opportunity to meet Denver so adding any autograph from him to the collection is an honor. These aren't as formal as the Tamkin cards, but actually being autographed make the Enos and Uncle Jesse cards very special.
Next up is a Daisy Duke card that might be one Catherine had made up herself. The front has a great picture of Catherine in Daisy Dukes looking similar to what Daisy would wear, but not quite in a Daisy outfit. There 's a preprinted autograph on the front. The back says "Watch for Catherine Bach on 'The Dukes of Hazzard.'" There is room for a message and an address. This one looks like it's never been sent through the mail and nothing is written on it. I'm guessing Catherine sent these out or gave them out at appearances during the show's run. This is a very cool and unique card.
But if you want to talk about unique, this is a great one. After the Dukes, Catherine starred in a show on The Family Channel called African Skies. The Family Channel is now called Freeform and before that was ABC Family and The Disney Family Channel. Catherine's show ran for two seasons from 1992 to 1994 and was filmed in South Africa. Catherine's co-star was none other than Robert Mitchum. Among his many film credits, Robert starred in a movie called Maria's Lovers that was filmed here is little old Brownsville at the same time Catherine was filming the Dukes.
Here's a picture of my Aunt Leann (on the right) and my mom with Robert Mitchum while filming Maria's Lovers in 1982. It's a weird turn of events that I could make that connection. What an interesting and unique piece the African Skies card is. I'm not sure if there is much African Skies merchandise out there and I'm excited to have this card in the collection. I've never asked Catherine about her time filming the show. I'll have to do that soon.
I've been told that Sorrell did his appearances in character as Boss Hogg. Wouldn't that have been a thrill to actually meet Boss Hogg at a parade?
Next up as a silver era postcard that features the Dukes cousins from one of the early photoshoots before the cameras rolled in Georgia.
Next up is a promotional postcard from the relaunch of the Mini Cooper by BMW in 2002. The text reads:
"Let's jump in through the window. Let's slide across the hood. Let's Bo and Luke-it. Let's Daisy Duke-it. Let's install the loudest Dixie horn in Hazzard County. But seriously folks, let's try to keep them wheels on the ground. Let's Motor."
This is a really good Mini Cooper promotional post card.
Next is a postcard advertising the Dukes on Australian TV. It's from the later silver era or the early modern era. It's some kind of pop out but I'm not going to pop it out to see exactly what it does. The front features another early photo of the cousins and an 01-less General Lee. The Dukes aired in syndication on TV1, and they show television's greatest hits. Dukes definitely fits that category.
The last card is a strange one. This one if from Argentina. I blogged about it on
this post. It advertises the Dukes being aired on Retro TV and features unique artwork, images from coloring books and pictures of toys. I would bet Retro TV put this one together themselves using all kinds of different sources. It works for me.
I'm always on the lookout for more Dukes postcards. I think I have all the Tamkin Cards, but you can never be sure. Do you have any Dukes postcards that aren't in this post?
What a great post and so much information to take in.
ReplyDeleteFor all these years I've believed that the General did actually run over some photographs for the tyre track autographs so it's a bit disappointing to know it's probably just a legend.
I wondered if a good idea for a future post would be the most widely believed untrue Dukes legends? I certainly took everything in David Hofstede's book to be true, so it would be great to know what has since turned out to be exaggerated or just plain wrong.
That's a pretty good idea. I'm sure there are a lot of untrue legends out there.
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