What! No Capt. Midnight decoder ring?

[Hilarity_N.Suze]

I just read–somewhere–that there was no such thing, ever, as a Captain Midnight Decoder ring.

What about all the baby boomer males who absolutely remember such a ring? I know several. Could this possibly be some kind of mass delusion, or was the place I read this just wrong?

[brianmelendez]

There was never a Captain Midnight premium actually called a “decoder ring”:

there is a strange phenomenon connected with Captain Midnight. Nearly everyone who has ever heard of the program can conjure up a “decoder ring.” Yet, exhaustive research has failed to prove there ever was such a premium.

But there were several Captain Midnight rings, including the Flight Commander Ring:

Inside the ring, on the reverse side of the crown, in raised letters, it says, “Captain Midnight Super Code 3.” As explained in the manual, a message might be sent to Flight Commanders (i.e., those who’d earned the rings by recruiting other Squadron members) without a “code” setting. They were to look inside their rings to get the setting for their “special” messages.

There were also the Whirlwind Whistling Ring, the Sliding Secret Compartment Ring, the Mystic Eye Detector Ring, and the Initial Printing Ring. There were several other decoding devices that were not rings, including the Mystery Dial Code-o-graph, the Photomatic Code-O-Graph, the Magni-Magic Code-O-Graph, the Mirro-Flash Code-O-Graph, the Whistling Code-O-Graph, and the Key-O-Matic Code-O-Graph.

Ovaltine, which sponsored the “Captain Midnight” radio program from 1940 to 1948, did market the Ovaltine Secret Decoder Ring in 2000 and 2001. But it was not a Captain Midnight premium.

[mobo85]

Perhaps they are confusing it with the Little Orphan Annie decoder ring, an actual Ovaltine premium made famous in A Christmas Story.

[kniz]

Actually, I doubt that many “boomers” actually remember Captain Midnight or any other program offering rings [sup]and other such things.[/sup] It was on radio that rings were offered by many different heroes. If Captain Midnight didn’t have a decoder ring then “Sky King” or “The Green Hornet” might have and memory gets it all confused. Boomers were raised more on TV with programs like “Howdy Dowdy” and “Captain Kangaroo”
[ul]:eek: [sup]That should get some reaction![/sup][/ul]

[brianmelendez]

*Originally posted by kniz *
Actually, I doubt that many “boomers” actually remember Captain Midnight or any other program offering rings [sup]and other such things.[/sup] It was on radio that rings were offered by many different heroes. If Captain Midnight didn’t have a decoder ring then “Sky King” or “The Green Hornet” might have and memory gets it all confused. Boomers were raised more on TV with programs like “Howdy Dowdy” and "Captain Kangaroo"

kniz, you’re probably right. Johnny Quest, a character much more familiar than Captain Midnight to boomers, had a P.F. Magic Ring that was commonly called a “decoder ring” (although, like Captain Midnight’s decoder ring, it wasn’t officially marketed under that name). I just saw one listed on eBay as “PF Flyer Premium Secret Decoder Ring 1960’s.”