Thursday, January 13, 2022

Hills Dept. Store Ad – Jan. 13, 1961

The former Hills Department Store on Route 57 (which has been a junkyard of sorts for years) in Lorain has been in the news lately. The building is due to be torn down and replaced by mixed-use apartments, with retail tenants on the first floor.

So it’s a good time to post this old Hills ad, which ran in the Lorain Journal back on January 12, 1961.

It’s kind of an odd ad, with its Friday the 13th theme. That cat looks like he belongs in an ad for the Friday the 13th Jinx Show at the Palace. 

But those prices are out of this world. If I could, I’d buy one of those 13 cents men's ties – if I had a reason to wear a tie.

3 comments:

Buster said...

Right above the 13 cent ties are 8 cent records. Which reminds me that I started collecting records by rummaging through such bins in the dime stores and even drug stores of the 1950s.

Anonymous said...

Just saw the Polaroid 800 camera for $113.00.That is alot of money back then.Especially for a camera.I checked the inflation calculator and that would be equal to over $1000.00 in todays market.Still a large sum now for a product like a camera.They must've sold very well as you still see them at flea markets and garage sales all the time now for cheap.How did people afford high price items like a Polaroid back then?

Dennis Thompson said...

The Polaroid 800 was their professional model. All brushed metal with adjustable lens and bellows with parallax correction. We had some at work. Their simpler plastic ones must have been far cheaper since I had one around 1964-65.