Reddy for Christmas – 1950 & 1970

What would Christmas be without a visit from our old pal Reddy Kilowatt?

Although he’s retired now, he had lost much of his power in the early 1970s, with appearances in Ohio Edison newspaper advertisements becoming rarer. So we’ll have to reach back and pluck some of his ads from previous years if I want to post some of his holiday appearances.

This ad from the pages of the November 30, 1950 Lorain Journal has Reddy hawking Westinghouse Electric Bedcoverings, consisting of electric blankets, comforter and sheets.

An electric sheet? As the ad notes, “use it with your own favorite comforter or blanket.”

The prices are pretty shocking if you convert them to 2021 bucks using one of those US Inflation Calculator websites. The electric comforter at $49.85 converts to a whopping $574.93! Yikes! And the electric sheet would cost $287.75 today (maybe even more with today’s rampaging inflation)! No wonder Reddy generously offered a corn-venient payment plan.

Here’s an early 1950s magazine ad for Westinghouse Electric Blankets and Electric Sheets.

Fast forward twenty years and Reddy is now pitching Sunbeam appliances. Here’s an ad from the December 15, 1970 Journal.

There’s a pretty good selection of electrical items: a hand mixer, a frypan, a cooker & deep fryer, a toaster, a hair dryer, a sauce pan, an electric griddle, a can opener and a Mixmaster. 

Of course, since nobody cooks any more, I’m not sure that these gifts would elicit anything but a groan if they were under someone’s Christmas tree today.

Lastly, here’s the classic Santa Reddy ad that Ohio Edison trotted out beginning in the late 1960s. This one appeared in the Journal on Christmas Eve, 1970 and reminds us that it only costs pennies to light that Christmas tree.

I’m not sure how many people in 1970 remembered Christmas trees lit by candles, but Journal Staff Writer Lou Kepler did. She mentioned them in this charming 1969 reminisce about Christmas in the one-room schoolhouse.