Golden Book back cover with Big Bird and Oscar

[minor muppetz]

There's been a number of times (the book Sesame Street Unpaved, the A&E Biography, and Caroll Spinney's biography) that state that Caroll Spinney felt that he had "made it" when he looked at the back cover of a Golden Book which showed Big Bird and Oscar alongside various cartoon characters he had grown up with. But has anybody ever seen this back cover?

Growing up I've seen a number of Golden Book back covers featuring various characters who were appearing in other Golden Books (both licensed and original), and there's only two I recall seeing with Sesame Street characters, but neither had Oscar (they both had Big Bird, Ernie, and Bert). I've looked at the Muppet Wiki page for Golden Books and also did a google search for "Golden Book back covers" but couldn't find any that have Oscar the Grouch.

Part of me wonders if Caroll Spinney might have misremembered the back cover. But I think every time he's recounted this tale he's said that it had Big Bird and Oscar. In fact when Spinney talked about it in the A&E Biography, an image of a different back cover was shown (one of the ones I grew up with). Maybe it's a very rare back cover, but even if it's very rare I'm surprised I couldn't find an image on Google.

 

[Bliffenstimmers]

I only remember 2 back covers with Big Bird, Ernie and Bert (plus Mickey Mouse, maybe Bugs Bunny and Winnie the Pooh, and of course the original Golden Book characters) but I never recall any with Oscar. One with a green backgrounds with all the characters on a train, and the more common one with all the characters around a gold seal. That one's still used today, if I remember correctly, except most of the characters have been removed.

 

[minor muppetz]

One with a green backgrounds with all the characters on a train, and the more common one with all the characters around a gold seal. That one's still used today, if I remember correctly, except most of the characters have been removed.

Those are the ones I remember as well. There's also a different version of the green background one where the Sesame Street characters don't appear, with a cat in place of Ernie and Bert. I wonder if that one came before or after Golden Books started publishing Sesame Street books.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

Yes! I remember those! And I have so many Golden Books downstairs in my basement. I'll snap a picture of one and I'll post it here.
I remember Big Bird on the back cover among many other famous characters, like, Bugs Bunny, Bambi, and some other ones...don't remember Oscar being there.

I think it was Ernie there..not sure. I'll take a look and see if I can find any..