Wednesday, December 12, 2012

December 1961 Big Town Ad

Here's an ad for the well-remembered Big Town department store chain that ran in the Journal on December 21, 1961. (Give the image a click for a larger image.)

The store on Tower Boulevard in Lorain wasn't open yet (for that story click here), so this ad is actually for the one out in North Ridgeville on Route 20.

The Big Town ads were always very distinctive with their thick, unique borders separating the various items for sale. This one has a great-looking Santa.

Courtesy byemylife.com
This full-page ad is loaded with interesting things for sale. The one that caught my eye first was the Kenner Give-A-Show Projector ad featuring our old pals Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear. We had one in our house in the early 1960s, and it provided a lot of entertainment. (I can still remember the plots of some of the individual slides!) And if you got tired of looking at the cartoon strips, you could also use the device as an overhead projector. We used to project our own drawings on the wall and it was just plain fun. (Here's a link to a blog dedicated to vintage Give-A-Show slides!)

Other interesting items in the Big Town ad include card tables (remember when neighbors and friends got together to play cards?), Revere Ware tea kettles, and a 3-piece luggage set for $8.88!

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I goofed! We did NOT have a Kenner Give-A-Show Projector. We had the elitist Kenner Super Show Projector (shown below). My brother Ken still has ours!


It was kind of a sophisticated version of the Give-A-Show that allowed you to project your own drawings on the wall in addition to the cartoon slides.

It also came with these jointed cardboard "puppets" (below) that you could clumsily manipulate to create your own primitive cartoon show that was projected on the wall, big as life.


I remember as a kid being confused as to just what we were supposed to do with these things. We had the exact ones shown above. Notice how Popeye looks like he needs to see a chiropractor!

Anyway, that's what passed for high-tech entertainment for Baby Boomers!
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4 comments:

  1. KenDecember 12, 2012 at 7:44 AM

    I still have the Give-A-Show Projector and slides, Dan. Every once in a while I get it out and look at the old, strange slides, and I fell four or five years old again. Last time I burned my hand on the light bulb, just like old times.

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  2. Dan BradyDecember 12, 2012 at 8:31 AM

    Strange is a good word for them. I used to wonder why sometimes the likenesses of the cartoon characters were great and others were just plain awful. (I still remember the plots too. There was one with Clark Kent and Lois Lane sitting in a car looking at the moon and commenting on how close it looked. It turned out it really WAS close, it was hurtling right at them because of some space baddies.

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  3. UnknownJune 20, 2014 at 6:09 PM

    Worked at Bigtown as a stockboy 68-69. Owned by Morris Rapaport and Del Mintz. Fond memories of going concerts at Hullabaloo, the bowling ally, and the old McDonalds in the N. Ridgeville shopping center.

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  4. LisaJanuary 6, 2017 at 7:07 PM

    And right by Big Town was G.C. Murphy, a fabric store, and Meyer Goldberg.

    ReplyDelete