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.
That was neet that Ohio Edison had a store downtown.Speaking of appliance stores Dan,do you have any idea what is going on with the old Dyes Appliance store at 960 Broadway?There is fencing all around it and it looks like it is going to get torn down.It still looks like a very nice building as when Mr. Dye was running it he had it looking very good on the outside.The inside was another story.But since he has passed and his wife "retired" that left their son running things and it looks like it has gone down hill since then as their son has had his own problems with the law.
ReplyDeleteYes, the old Dye building is being torn down to become parking for the Community Action offices at 936 Broadway, according to an article in the Morning Journal on Nov. 8, 2021.
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard of an electric sheet before, although we had a toasty-warm electric blanket when I was a child.
ReplyDeleteI stopped using electric blankets because these would cause surges in my head during sleep--ZZZZAAAAAPPP--that would jolt me awake. These things were akin to having a do-it-yourself ECT machine at home! "Who needs a frontal lobotomy when you've got Ready Kilowatt?"
ReplyDeleteNot to get off of this main article but too bad about Dyes Appliance being demolished.That guy could fix anything.I remember he would have antiques in his showroom window and vintage jukeboxes.I think he actually restored the jukeboxes himself.Another talent lost.
ReplyDeleteDyes was a great place to buy a used washer and dryer if you couldn’t afford new. We bought our first ones there. Funny thing is, when they delivered them I don’t even think they were the ones we picked out at the store, but we paid so little for them it didn’t really matter. They didn’t match anyway and we didn’t care.
ReplyDeleteOne might begin to suspect one has an obsession with Reddy K.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know why you and my psychiatrist would think that – I’ve only done a mere 40 posts about him (surpassed only by the number of posts about “The Passing Scene").
ReplyDeleteAs long a you don't get "Ruff with Reddy" you'll be just fine!
ReplyDelete