{"product_id":"antique-hello-bill-elks-celluloid-pinback-button","title":"Antique \"Hello Bill!\" Fraternal Greeting Pinback Button - Purple \u0026 White Celluloid Elks Lodge Collectible - Turn of Century Americana 📌","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n4xw-wZUTkA\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize: 1.25 inches ~\u003c\/strong\u003e New Old Stock celluloid on a straight brass pin. They vary a little one to the next.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eI like a design where the whole story fits in two words: HELLO stacked over BILL!, purple on white, ringed in a solid purple rim — and the words alone are the whole history lesson.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🦌 A Minneapolis Summer, 1897\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Hello Bill\" comes straight from the Elks themselves. At the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks' National Re-Union in Minneapolis in 1897, the man running the arrangements committee was William \"Billy\" Goddard of Minneapolis Lodge No. 44 — and he seemed to know the answer to everything a visiting Elk could ask. \"Go see Billy, he knows\" got repeated so often that members started walking straight up and greeting him with it: \"Hello, Bill!\" The joke caught on fast, and delegates carried it home to lodges across the country, where — in the Order's own telling — it grew into a greeting heard clear around the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🎭 Before the Elks, the Jolly Corks\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Elks themselves started with a band of actors. On February 16, 1868, Charles Algernon Sidney Vivian, a British-born performer working in New York, got a club of minstrel-show players together as the Jolly Corks - they'd just watched a fellow actor die of illness for lack of money to treat him, and they wanted a way to look after their own. By December of that year they'd taken a new name, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, picking the elk because it's a big, strong American herd animal that's still graceful and quick on its feet. And the purple and white on this button are the Order's own colors: royal purple for high favor, white for purity and truth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e🔘 Just the Words\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere's no Elks emblem or BPOE lettering anywhere on the button — no antlers, no clock, just the greeting itself in purple on a clean white field, with a raised dot marking the break between the two lines. That's the whole connection: not a printed badge of membership, just words every Elk in the country knew on sight. The back is plain metal with a straight brass pin and no maker's mark, which was normal for small fraternal buttons of the day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🕰️ Where It Sits in Time\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNothing on the button carries a date. But the greeting itself can't predate that 1897 reunion, and the construction — celluloid face, metal shell, straight pin, no spring clasp — fits right into the turn-of-the-century wave of fraternal buttons that followed it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e✨ New Old Stock\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt's New Old Stock: never pinned to a lapel, never carried through a lodge hall, just kept as extra stock from the start.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/rare-vintage-1960s-benevolent-and-protective-order-of-elks-decal-embla-crest\"\u003eRare Vintage 1960s Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Decal, Embla Crest ✨\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/rare-vintage-1960s-benevolent-and-protective-order-of-elks-decal-embla-crest-s2\"\u003eRare Vintage 1960s Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Decal, Embla Crest S2 ✨\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-1990-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-movie-pin-donatello-tmnt-treasures\"\u003eVintage 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Donatello Cartoon Pin 🐢 — Purple Bandana Bo Staff Pinback Button\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44023406362856,"sku":"VAG-8031179768040","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4340904511_oz6p.jpg?v=1785358739","url":"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-hello-bill-elks-celluloid-pinback-button","provider":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}