Easter Parade of 1946 Ads

Easter-themed ads in the Lorain Journal during the 1946 holiday season are a mixed bag (or basket if you prefer). The era of the big royalty-free clip art books (like those produced by Harry Volk Corporation) didn't really begin until the 1950s. So some ads have what appears to be artwork created by a professional artist at an ad agency, while other ads seem to have illustrations that were done locally, perhaps by a Journal staffer in the newspaper's art department. 

In either case, it is all fun to look at.

So here is – what else? – an ample sample of ads that appeared in the Lorain Journal around Easter 1946. You'll find ads from Sears, Smith & Gerhart, the Reidy Scanlan Company, Sutter's, and others.

April 10, 1946

April 15, 1946

April 15, 1946

April 17, 1946

April 18, 1946
The name of this drug store makes me think it would be
more at home on Red Square than Downtown Lorain

April 18, 1946

April 18, 1946

Fisher Foods Fall Festival Ad – October 26, 1955

Fisher Foods must have been feeling a little squirrelly when it came time to come up with a theme for its annual Fall Festival promotional ad. Various cute, bushy-tailed nut gatherers romp all over this full-page ad which ran in the Lorain Journal back on October 26, 1955.

It was only a few days away from Halloween, so there are a few sale items related to the holiday, including Fisher's Special Halloween Cake (59 cents), Candy Bars For Tricks or Treats (a box of 24 for 89 cents), Candy Corn or Halloween Mix (29 cents) and Apples for Halloween Treats.

It's funny thinking how we used to get the odd apple while trick-or-treating. I remember one year, a little old lady on Skyline Drive in the next block gave us apples. Nevertheless, Mom used to just have us discard them out of concern that someone might have stuck a pin in it or something. 

There are a few interesting items on the flyer. Donald Duck left his webbed foot print on the ad, with his namesake Orange Juice (2 46-oz. cans for 63 cents) and Donald Duck Grapefruit (4 1-lb. cans for 55 cents) as two of the offerings.

(By the way, my blog has received a lot of hits from people seeking information about the discontinuation of the irascible waterfowl's orange juice. Same with Quisp cereal.)

Anyway, the ad also includes some Aunt Jane products. Aunt Jane was one of the house brands (similar to A&P's Ann Page) carried by Fisher Foods. 

There's also a listing for Cheezee American Cheese Food (a "loaf" for 66 cents). When I tried to research it, Google's AI Overview blew a gasket, giving me a several incorrect assumptions, including informing me that "Cheezee" is a misspelling of "Cheez Whiz." Harrumph. 

So whatever happened to Fisher Foods? 

According to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, it was acquired by a group of local grocery executives that included Carl and John Fazio. Thus a name change occurred in 1967 (below).

Detail from May 31, 1967 ad

"Foods for the Fourth" Fisher Foods Ad – June 28, 1945

The Fourth of July is coming up fast –can you believe it? 

For many of us, that means a cookout or perhaps even a picnic (or pic-a-nic, if you're a Yogi Bear fan). If you're in the latter camp, then the ad below for Fisher Foods might be of interest. It's from the June 28, 1945 Lorain Journal and it offers suggestions regarding what foods you might need for your outing.

I'm happy to see that the list of foods includes South Shore Pepper-stuffed Olives, fresh from Vermilion, Ohio. But the ad also has some curious items, like a one-pound jar of Derby Hot Tamales. Here's a 1946 magazine ad for Derby Tamales.

I had to chuckle a bit when I saw this, because tamales in a jar were a staple in the Brady household in the 1960s and beyond. If you think about it, there really weren't a lot of nationally distributed Mexican food items that would find their way onto the shelves of a west side Lorain grocer back then. You didn't have a Goya food aisle like you have now. 

The funny thing is, I still buy canned tamales. They're like a nostalgic treat.

As for Derby, I remember that they also produced Peter Pan Peanut Butter. Mom never bought it (she was a choosy mother that chose Jif). But somehow – probably through magazine ads – I was aware of the Peter Pan brand, and the fact that the ad mascot was a woman dressed in a Peter Pan outfit. Here are a few vintage ads featuring the unusual mascot.

Maybe it's not so unusual when you consider that for years, a woman traditionally portrayed Peter Pan in those stage musicals that were sometimes seen on TV. Of course, sooner or later the Disney suits would get involved, and today the Disney version is on the label in silhouette. But I've got to say that the Honey Roast (below) is the peanut butter I buy today.

Fisher's Ad with Wampum Specials – Nov. 4, 1964

For more than half a century, grocery stores have used a variety of creative tactics to get shoppers to regularly patronize their establishments. 

In recent years, the loyalty card programs have ruled. Giant Eagle, for example, uses fuel discounts at its GetGo stations as an incentive for their card holders to keep coming back.

Back in the 1950s and 60s, Top Value Stamps were popular, and helped Kroger's maintain market share. There were also various programs at other stores in which shoppers could assemble a set of encyclopedias, or even a set of dishes, one each week.

But here's a program that I've never heard of, used by the local Fisher's chain of stores: wampum coins. 

I had originally planned to post the above Journal ad from November 4, 1964 because of the funny illustration of the kid with the apple and the roll call of brand name products. But while reading the ad copy, I saw a mention of Orange Wampum Specials and became curious as to how the incentive program worked.

I found this explanation that ran in the paper on June 20, 1964. It seems that the Orange and Blue Wampum coins were earned by spending money at the store. The coins could then be used as money on weekly specials that were color coded to correspond with them.

In this full page ad from June 18, 1964, we get a look at one of the coins (the Native American is holding one.)

The whole Wampum coin gimmick enabled Fisher's to feature a lot of cartoon Indian clip art in its ads.

July 15, 1964 ad

July 29, 1964

Of course, today the whole Wampum program would be seen as politically incorrect and in bad taste, and rightly so. But in the more innocent times of the early 1960s, after a decade of TV Westerns dominating the airwaves, it was just a way to have some fun while saving money.

Fisher Foods Ad Featuring Nellybelle Promo – July 22, 1954

That's Pat Brady to the left of Roy and Dale

Are you old enough to remember watching The Roy Rogers Show on TV? 

The Western TV series featuring the clean cut cowboy ran on NBC (according to this Wiki entry) from December 1951 to June 1957. CBS aired reruns of the show on Saturday morning from January 1961 to September 1964 (which is where my siblings and first I saw it).

Besides Roy Rogers and his real wife Dale Evans, the show also starred Pat Brady (no relation) as comedy relief. But while Roy rode his horse Trigger, Pat Brady drove a jeep called Nellybelle.

Here's Pat Brady explaining in a comical song why he drove Nellybelle instead of riding a horse.

Nellybelle apparently had a mind of her own, sometimes speeding off – driverless – without Pat. As a result, the jeep became very popular with the kids.

Which is a roundabout way of explaining why this Fisher Foods ad that ran in the Lorain Journal on July 22, 1954 included a special promotion in which kids could win their very own Nelly Belle Jeep [sic].

The ad notes that the Nellybelle jeep was a pedal-pusher model. Here's a section of a page from a 1954 Sears catalogue with what is likely the type of car that the kids could win.

The catalogue describes Nellybelle as blue-gray with a baked-on enamel finish, with white and red trim. Would you believe that there are several of them for sale online? This one (from classicautomall.com) appears to have its original paint job.

Somewhere in the dark, cobweb-filled recesses of (what's left of) my mind, is probably a dim, forgotten memory of seeing Nellybelle on The Roy Rogers Show. How else can I explain why I always wanted a jeep?

Maybe I wanted to be just like Cousin Pat.

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Roy, Dale and Pat were the subject of several other blog posts – when they appeared at the Lorain County Fair in 1968.

Fisher Food Ads – April 1964

Sixty years ago this month, the 1964 New York World's Fair opened. (You can read about it and see some great photos here on the NYC Parks website).

Naturally, the Fair provided opportunities for promotional tie-ins with businesses. You can see one above in an ad for Fisher Foods that ran in the Lorain Journal on April 1, 1964, that was a joint effort by the grocery store chain and the Cleveland Zoo.

As the ad copy notes, "Each year, along with the lions, tigers, the elephants, monkeys and the reptiles, the Cleveland Zoo is stocked with several species of the more common domestic animals which are equally interesting to children, among the, pigs, lambs and calves which are corralled in the zoo's Red Barn Yard. It's a famous stop on the miniature railroad at the zoo.

"We at Fisher Foods take pride in presenting these animals to the Zoo this year for the pleasure of you, yours and thousands of children who will be zoo visitors."

(Let's hope the animals that were donated weren't shrink-wrapped cuts and chops suitable for roasting.)

So what was the contest? Kids could win a trip for 4 to the New York World's Fair just for naming 3 pigs or 3 lambs at the Cleveland Zoo's Red Barn Yard and writing one sentence explaining "Why I want to visit the Cleveland Zoo this summer." There were 10 prizes in all: 2 for the World's Fair and 8 Second Prizes consisting of a day at Cedar Point.

The fine print of the contest rules stipulate to "be sure to give appropriate names to males and females." It's kind of sneaky that there's a female piggy in the middle of the porcine trio. I'm not sure if my entry – "Hammy, Spammy and Sammy" – would work.

Likewise, just to throw the kids off, there's a boy lamb centrally placed in the woolly threesome. 

Feel free to suggest names for the Mutton Trio in the comment section. (Sorry, no Greyhound Bus trip to New Yawk for the winner this time.)

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Fisher Foods also mentioned the contest a week later in its April 8, 1964 ad. But good old Chief Wahoo and the Cleveland Indians ticket promotion dominates this time.

That's a nice rendering of the Indians' beloved mascot.

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I combed through the Journal's online archives but was unable to locate the names of the New York World's Fair contest winners or their monikers for the two meaty trios. Sorry!

Fisher Foods Stokely Ad – March 18, 1954

Advertising mascots of the past are one of my specialities here on the blog, with such old friends as Reddy Kilowatt, Speedy Gas Flame and Willing Water making regular appearances. National advertising mascots such as Sparky the Fire Dog, Smokey Bear, Tony the Tiger, and Sugar Bear also show up, since they were featured in ads in the Journal.

But every once in a while, I see a mascot that is completely new to me – like the guy in the ad above for Fisher Foods promoting a sale on Stokely products. The full page ad appeared in the Lorain Journal on March 18, 1954.

Here's a closer look at him. Who is he – a shirttail cousin to 'Pop' of Rice Krispies fame?

No, his name is Easy (good thing he's a guy mascot) and he symbolizes the 'Easy Does It' philosophy of Stokely and its food preparation convenience. He seems to have first appeared in the late 1940s.

Here's Easy in a short clip from a 1948 Stokely Van Camp promotional film (and here's the link to the whole film). 

One online blogger identified Easy's voice as voice artist Dick Beals, who also did Speedy Alka-Seltzer and various voices for animation studios.

Easy didn't seem to be utilized very much, and it's not very, uh, easy to find him in 1950s ads. Magazine ads rarely featured him. Here's one that did, for Stokely Van Camp's Pork & Beans.

However long Easy's reign was as a symbol of Stokely, he was apparently well-known enough to be immortalized as a ceramic advertising figure.

By the 1960s, Easy seems to have been retired. Here's hoping the little guy is 'taking it easy" in the Retired Ad Mascot Hall of Fame.

Fisher Foods Ad With Donald Duck – 1950

Here’s another vintage ad from the Journal featuring a Walt Disney character. Only this time, it’s a full-page Fisher Foods ad from November 16, 1950 and the highlighted products are Donald Duck Brand grapefruit sections and citrus juices.

Fisher Bros. had several areas locations at the time, including 330 and 1820 Broadway, 1154 Ninth Street (later the home of Andy’s Hardware), 211 Park Avenue in Amherst, and 3018 Pearl.

Let’s take a closer look at the Donald Duck portion of the ad.

That’s a nice rendering of Donald Duck. It’s very similar to the art on this can (courtesy of eBay).

Here are a few other can designs. They’re rather cute.

However, I’ve never understood the idea behind assigning Donald Duck’s name to orange juice, grapefruit juice, grapefruit sections, etc. There’s no real connection between ducks and citrus foods. Maybe a brand of soft, white bread would have been more appropriate.

Nevertheless, being one of those people who like orange juice anytime, I’ve brought the irascible Disney duck’s brand products in my lunch for years. Thus I had plenty of time to study the label and each subsequent redesign.

This is the one I’m familiar with.

But when it switched to this design, I lost my appetite. It seems that the Disney corporation just had to pollute the label with their corporate brand.

Too bad the current designers forgot that Donald Duck’s popularity in the old days was specifically because he was a jerk – always angry, always quacking unintelligibly, always fighting with Chip ’N Dale or some bee or bug and getting the worst of it.

Obviously whoever designed this vintage signage understood this.

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Hmmm... Donald Duck seems to pop up on this blog somewhat regularly (although not as often as Reddy Kilowatt). I did a post about a 1937 Donald Duck collectible glass here, and the sailor-suited waterfowl appeared on this post about the Arlington Traction Company. And he even showed up (in fact, was literally dug up) for this entry about a guerrilla archeology trip to the now-demolished Captain Aaron Root house.

Downtown Lorain Fisher-Fazio Closes – Nov. 1968

Fisher Foods was a Downtown Lorain mainstay for decades. The neon sign for the store near the Loop even showed up on a few vintage postcards.

The store even survived right into the 1960s.

Store logo circa 1963

Mid-1960s view of the store

That's why it was particularly sad when it was announced in November 1968 that the store – now operated by the merged Fisher-Fazio organization – was going to close.

The store still did a good business. But its location (right across from the Broadway Building) was right in the city block that was the proposed location for the new civic center.

Fisher-Fazio denied that the store was closing because of the potential loss of it to the civic center. You can read all about it in the story below, which appeared in the Lorain Journal on November 1, 1968.