I don't remember the explorer club but I had a similar experience ordering a "Crimes and Punishment" Time/Life book club and every month they'd send a book that covered various crimes of the century (Lindbergh baby, etc.). For 3 mos. they sent us one book a month with a bill for $10. Then in the 4th month, they sent 17 books at once and a bill for $170.00. Boy was my dad pissed off and he spent a ridiculous amount of time figuring out how to get those shipped back. Now that I think of it, I have many memories of my dad trying to undo things I had signed up for (especially record clubs).

Wow-What a flashback! I remember getting those fabulous packages from all over the world and racing into the sanctuary of my bedroom to listen to the floppy records and check out the treasures from places I'd never heard of. It infected me with the bug and as an adult I travelled all over Central America. Wish I could find more on the old Commander!

Good grief!

I can't believe that I found someone who remembers Commander Whitehall's World Explorers Club. I received the boxes in the mail each month for nearly two years back in late sixties-early seventies?. The pan flute, the drum thing that you twirl between your hands. I still have a little brass bell that the Commander sent to me. The little paper thin records were great, too. I remember that a few came from countries that no longer exist (Ceylon, for example). After a while, the country boxes ran out and Commander Whitehall moved off into other directions. There was a box with foreign coins. Another contained fossils and shells (including a shark's tooth). My personal favorite from these was a box that introduced us young explorer types to rocks and minerals. It included a small lump of asbestos (a mineral used to make fireproof clothing!). That was nearly forty years and twenty countries ago for me. I wish I had that stuff (with the exception of the asbestos sample).

I also had searched for information on the Commander and found nothing, until your post on the subject! I couldn't remember the name of the club. Still have some of those flexi-discs packed up somewhere. It has been over 30 years since I looked at or listened to them. Not sure if I still have the twirl drum on a stick or not, but did have it for many years. I recall receiving the very same things Eddie Suttles mentioned in his post, so we were likely in the club during the same time period, which was late 1971 to early 1972. I didn't realize about the asbestos, though I do remember a little crumbly thing being included in that bag of rocks. The bag of stamps was interesting too, and I have those packed up.......somewhere. I'm curious about whatever happened to Commander Whitehall. Remember when he was on Mount Everest? I could almost feel the wind howling on that flexi-disc as it muffled the Commander's voice. I need to dig out those disc's and give them a listen, if they survived storage.

Was looking at a pop culture book and remembered the World Explorer's Club. It was not in the book, so I looked on the internet and saw this listing! Fantastic! I thought I was the only one who knew about the World Explorers Club? Of course I was a kid in the 60's when I was apart of it! The recollections are dead on! Yes, It was neat to get the little white boxes with the neat items. A full size map, the vinyl record and the item of that country. I remember the zanfer flute from Ecuador, a little burro, a rattle, and several other items! I actually did a display of all the stuff I got fromk WEC and got an award from my Webolos unit! Thanks for the memory and I wish I had all that stuff from them. I might have some of it in a drawer someplace!

I wonder if anyone has any photos of all this stuff? I would love to see it again! I wish I had all the world explorers stuff I collected! I think I did it for about a year! I don't remember the coast per month, but it was pretty cheap! I thnk the pan flute from Ecuador was the neatess and largest item I got. I remember the little black burro! A rattle made from some kind of black rouund nut! The vinyl 45 records were interesting to listen to! I would bet some of the featured countries may have even changed names in some cases?

So happy to stumble onto this conversation. My kids were watching Jumanji and there's a character that emerges from the game that made me think of Commander Whitehall. Do you think he was a real person or a nom de plum?

I'm in the process of cleaning and reorganizing and my parents saved everything, so I'm a pack rat too. I have all of my World Explorer goodies, except I don't have the silk cocoon any more. When I get more time I'll get pics of all the goodies and post them somewhere. Does anyone else remember the little red seed with all the elephants inside? That's one of my favorite cool things.

I( still got some of those boxes UNOPENED in my Mom's Attic...cool...lol

Does anybody know if the Commander was really who he said he was, or was it just someone playing the part. Ron, we need a podcast of some of those old Commander Whithall records! Would be fun! Where is the Commander today?

Hello all,

I cannot believe I finally found others who remember the Explorers Club! I loved getting these each month. Why is there not more info about this? Because of this program I became interested in Geog. and Science. Still to this day. What a wonderful club for kids back then. Somewhere I still have the hand drum thingy, the bean with the carved animals and the white silkworm cocoon. That is all I have left after all these years. I lost the records long ago.
Traci