Trigger Happy Toddlers

Last month I ran a newspaper ad (above) from September 1959 for the Neisner’s store in Lorain. The ad shows a variety of toy guns designed to appeal to those kids glued to their TV sets watching the countless Westerns being shown.

To me, the ad triggered (no pun intended) thoughts of a simpler time, when kids could live out their western gun fantasies without causing fear and panic throughout their neighborhood.

On that post, I remarked how my brothers and I all had toy guns as kids, and that there were photos of my older brother Ken and me from the late 1950s/early 60s posing with our toy six shooters.

Well, I dug up the photos. They're from Christmas 1960, which means that Ken was a few days away from being three years old, and I was a couple months short of two years old. Here’s a ’split screen’ photo of us. I love the look of unbridled glee on Ken’s face.

Although I’m not wearing a holster (maybe I was going to tuck my pistols in my cuffs), I did get one for Christmas along with my guns. It was visible in the uncropped photo of Ken. The holster was sitting in its open box on the coffee table to the left of him. You can clearly see the name Hubley on it.

The box lid looked like this.

Toy guns were big business back then. Hubley produced entire catalogs of guns and holster sets. Here’s a cover and page from two catalogs.

Anyway, it was a different time that’s for sure.

Just for fun, I took a look at the collection of Harry Volk clip art from the 1950s where I work, in the Art Department of a Cleveland printing company. Sure enough, there were plenty of illustrations showing pistol-packing preteens.

Here are a few of those stock illustrations.

1955

1955

1956

1956

1958

I guess that means that Ken and I were just your average, well-armed American kids.

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UPDATE (Oct. 4, 2019)
I received an email yesterday from a regular reader, who is about my age, who has contributed some great content to the blog over the last few years. Attached was photo (below) of himself as a rootin' tootin' toddler, with cowboy hat, boots, guns, holster – and diaper! "Got you beat!" was his comment. I think he does!

Neisner’s Toy Gun Ad – Sept. 1959

Here’s another post demonstrating how times have really changed in the last sixty years.

It’s an ad for Neisner’s ( a “five and dime” store) featuring a variety of toy guns that ran in the Lorain Journal on September 16, 1959.

It’s not too surprising that boys wanted to play with guns back then. In the 1950s, there were dozens of Westerns on TV. One online article said there were more than a hundred from the 1950s through the 1960s.

The guns in the Neisner’s ad look pretty cool, since they employed “shootin’ shells.” This old TV commercial explains how they worked.

The Buckle Gun in the ad is pretty hilarious. As the ad copy notes, it fit any buckle and required no hands to shoot. “Just an outward push of the stomach fires the shootin’ shell from the gun.”

Hope the little hombres wearing that thing took it off before tying on the feed bag at the dinner table!

Anyway, we had toy guns in our house like everyone else. There are a few Christmas photos from the late 1950s/early 60s with my older brother and I each posing with our six shooters. 

Later in the 1960s, my brothers and I each received our own toy rifle. We were disappointed that they didn’t shoot BBs, but they did make a tremendous ‘pop’ when pumped and fired. I remember we used to stick the end of the rifles in the dirt and blast away.

1961 Neisner's Halloween Ad

Well, here's my final vintage Halloween ad, which ran in the Lorain Journal on October 26, 1961. It’s another Neisner’s ad, one that ran two years after the one I posted yesterday.

By this time, TV characters are the rage, specifically the Hanna-Barbera gang, including stars Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and Fred Flintstone. But rather than have their commercial artists go to the bother of creating some half-baked illustrations of the costumes, the Neisner’s advertising department merely assembled their ad using some licensed artwork of the characters.

Only the Peter Rabbit costume warrants an inked rendering. The Peter Rabbit mask looks suspiciously like Bugs Bunny.

Interestingly, the same characters in the Neisner’s ad (including the blond Fred) could be found in an ad for Carl’s Basement Toyland, apparently a part of the Carl’s Shoporama store in Schenectady, New York (below). Perhaps the costume wholesaler provided the artwork – which the Neisner’s artist just recycled.

Courtesy Yowpyowp.blogspot.com

Anyway, to keep that retro Halloween spirit going and to see some vintage photos of 1950s and 60s trick or treaters, click here to visit a great pinterest site.

Hope you have a great Halloween! 

1959 Neisner's Halloween Ad

Well, yesterday we saw what Halloween costumes Woolworth's was offering in October 1959 – so let's see what was on the sale shelves at Neisner's during that same year.

Neisner's?

In case you've never heard of it (like me), Neisner's was a variety or "five and dime” store. The chain had downtown stores in Lorain and Elyria, as well as out at the O’Neil - Sheffield Center.

It first showed up in the Lorain City Directory as Neisner Brothers in the 1926 edition, making it a much older business than I thought. Its very last appearance in the 1963 directory, before the 332 Broadway address went vacant and the only Neisner’s listing was at O’Neil’s.

The Neisner's chain was acquired by Ames in the late 1970s.

As it turns out, Neisner's was peddling pretty much the same Halloween costumes in 1959 as Woolworth's, including Disney's Zorro and Mickey Mouse as well.

The lone TV-inspired costume is Felix the Cat. I’m sure you Baby Boomers remember him and his theme song. Did you know that Jack Mercer – the voice of Popeye – also did Felix on TV?

The Felix costume was pretty easy to find online.

This mask (below) was a little hard to find. Is that a pagoda on her head?

Like all clowns, this fireman is kind of creepy. 

And although I couldn’t scare up a Moon Man costume on Ebay, I did find this photo of a kid wearing it. It looks a lot better than I thought it would.

I feel sorry for the little girl with the mask that doesn’t fit, although she doesn’t appear to mind!