In the 1959 premiere season of “The Untouchables” (based on the book by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley) the opening title jumps off of the cover of the book and stretches out into tall, extremely condensed lettering. This inspired the type font Federal Agent JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

For 138 years, the Milton Bradley Company (of Springfield, Massachusetts) has been the leading producer of board games, toys and educational/instructional materials. The company was acquired by Hasbro in 1984. It was merged with the also-acquired Parker Brothers in 1991 and became Hasbro Games until both brand ID's were dropped in 2009. “The Moving Picture Game” was a 1920s-era board game created by Howard R. Garis (credited as ‘the author of the Uncle Wiggily game’) and capitalized on the still-new motion picture industry. On top of the storage box is the game’s name – hand lettered in a free-flowing Art Nouveau sans serif that more closely resembles the titles found within animated cartoons or in the ‘bubble letters’ a school child doodles on notebook paper. Recreated as a digital typeface, Pratfall JNL (named after the slips, trips and falls taken by silent era film comedians) is available in both regular and oblique versions.

From 1958 to 1964, one of ABC-TV’s popular shows was the detective series “77 Sunset Strip”. Based in Los Angeles, the fictional detective agency was located next door to Dino’s Lodge, (partly owned by Dean Martin and actually located at 8532 Sunset). It was originally known as the Alpine Lodge. The adjacent building where Stuart Bailey and Jeff Spencer’s private detective service was located in fact housed a popular modeling agency. The ‘77’ address did not exist outside of the realm of the series. However, a wonderful sign with Art Deco-influenced lettering graced the set (on the wall of the office foyer) saying “Bailey & Spencer Private Investigators Suites 101-102”. A screen capture of this sign served as the working model for Private Eye JNL, which is available in both regular and oblique versions.

Gimcrack is "showy but cheap or badly made" - that's what a search on the internet says. Well, that description fits this font quite well - although it was deliberately made that way!