Irregular shaped yellow text on a black background. 

This button was to promote the Obie award winning musical The Me Nobody Knows (1970), with music by Gary William Friedman and lyrics by Will Holt. The musical was one of the earliest rock musicals to play on Broadway and the first Broadway hit to give voice to the sentiments of inner-city American youth.

There are three areas: a red colored section on top, a white section in the middle with blue text, and blue section on the bottom. 

Even though France, and especially Paris, is one of the most visited cities by tourists worldwide, Paris is known to be unwelcoming to tourists. In 2013, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Paris and the Island of France decided to tackle the problem. They launched a campaign called: “Do you speak touriste?” The “Speak Touriste” campaign includes a brochure providing broad guidance to the hospitality industry for dealing with tourists according to their cultural expectations.

Therefore, the persons wearing the “I Talk Tourist” button tell the tourists that they are onboard with the campaign and are willing to treat tourists according to their needs.

White cursive text on purple background. 

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Black text in a circular formation above a larger piece of black text on a yellow background. 

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An illustration of a yellow school bus with black text above and below it on a yellow background. 

The traditional school bus was invented in the early twentieth century. Previously, children were transported to school in repurposed farm equipment and horse-drawn wagons.  By 1919, buses were being used in all 48 states, but there was no standard design. In 1939, transportation officials met with Dupont and Pittsburgh paints to formulate the classic yellow specifically used on school buses. Yellow buses were easier to see and the black text was legible in low lighting.  The bus design shown here was the style during the 1940s. In addition to the bright color, the current safety standard requires exterior warning lights and signs.

Black text inside a four leaf clover on a black background. 

Penny King gumball machines are antiques that were small and designed to sit on a countertop. They typically had a body made from cast aluminum and a globe made from glass. For just one cent, they dispensed pin-back buttons as prizes during the mid-twentieth century. Buttons that read “Quit Your Kiddin’,” “Hot Dogs,” and “Let’s Get Acquainted” were just some that could be collected from these machines.

A man knocking on the door to an outhouse begging the person inside to open up. The text is green colored with a yellow background and a green outer edge. 

Dusty Fletcher first performed “Open the Door Richard” as a vaudeville act at theaters like the Apollo in New York. The skit involved Fletcher “drunk,” dressed in rags and attempting to climb a ladder. He would continually fall off the ladder and perform comic monologues in between his attempts. The musical version of this skit was created by Jack McVea and his “honking” saxophone. McVea and his band stumble home “drunk” and try to get Richard the “sober” band mate with the key, to let them in. This song was recorded in 1946 and reached the Billboard bestseller chart in early 1947.

Many artists covered the song after McVea, including Count Basie, The Three Flames, and Louis Jordan. The phrase “Open the Door Richard” was also adopted by the Civil Rights Movement and appeared in routines by Jack Benny, among others. Jimmy Durante and Burl Ives also both recorded versions of the song. The phrase also appeared in a couple of Looney Tunes cartoons in the late 1940s. 

Black text on a white background. 

The text on the button "We Will Make You An Offer You Can't Refuse" is a reference to the much-repeated line in the classic The Godfather trilogy, written by Mario Puzo.

The first occurrence of the line "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse" was in the scene when Johnny Fontane, a famous singer passing his prime, asked Don Vito Corleone, the Godfather, for help to secure him a role to boost his fading career. Don told Johnny not to worry about the head of the film studio and said: 

"I'll make him an offer he can't refuse."

Then in the most memorable scene of the movie, the studio head wakes up to find the bloody head of his racehorse in his bed, and Fontane is subsequently given the part. 

Large white text on a pink background. 

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Large red text on a white background. 

Chuck Daugherty's biggest promotion for his Detroit-based nighttime radio show, All Night Satellite, came in the form of “Moon Goon” buttons distributed at Daugherty's DJ dances, which were collected by local teens who listened to the show and could be seen all around the city. The show was known for its outer space sounds and wacky jokes, and quickly became popular among younger listeners in the late 1950s.