It's a Candy Cane World at Victory Park – 1966 & 1968

A 2011 view

One of the Holy Grails (or white whales, if you prefer) that I've been on the hunt for on this blog is any information about the Big V sculpture in the park at West Erie Avenue and Fifth Street in Lorain. Who put it there and when? Nobody knows.

The last time I put out the word for help was back in 2018 on this post. And back on this 2011 post, I compared my hunt for the Big V to the treasure-seekers' quest to find the Big W in the movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

Anyway, when old issues of the Lorain Journal finally became available online, with a search capability, I thought for sure that I could solve my mystery. But although I've spent hours plugging an endless variety of words to describe the Big V into the 'Search' box, I've still come up short.

However, I did manage to find a few mentions of the Big V and even a few photos – strangely enough, with a Christmas angle. At some point in the mid-1960s, it became an annual ritual to decorate the Big V so that it resembled two candy canes.

Here's an article from the Thursday, December 15, 1966 Journal explaining how a few women's groups decorated several Lorain city parks – including the one at West Erie and Fifth. (It's not really Victory Park, since there was already one with that name in Lorain, but in recent years it's been called that anyway.)

And here's a photo from the December 23, 1968 Journal.

It's interesting how the Big V in the two photos is quite different from the one that is there today. It's a much more condensed typeface. I know that it was clobbered by a car at some point (maybe even twice) but I can't find any mention of that either in the old issues.

Since I watch a lot of GRIT TV and Westerns on MeTV, I've seen lots of shows with bounty hunters, like Josh Randall (played by Steve McQueen) on Wanted: Dead or Alive. Hmmmm.... is anyone interested in collecting a bounty to help me solve my mystery?

Barbie & Ken & Babs & Bill

Everybody has heard of Barbie and Ken – the iconic girlfriend/boyfriend dolls manufactured by Mattel that have been played with by young girls since 1959. But have you ever heard of Babs and Bill?

I haven't either. But they were more or less clones of Barbie and her boyfriend, manufactured and marketed by a Mattel competitor. And here they are, in this Penneys ad from the Lorain Journal of Dec. 13, 1963.

It's interesting that the name 'Babs' is short for 'Barbara' – which is almost Barbie! The Penneys ad even includes Barbie's Dream House!

The whole Barbie and Babs thing reminds me of Stony Smith and G.I. Joe. Both were action figures that were soldiers (my brothers and I had both). But one (G. I. Joe) was the original and the other (Stony) was the less well-done rip-off. But we enjoyed and played with both of them – although Stony did all his soldiering standing up (his legs didn't bend). 

Here's one on eBay right now. (I gave mine to my nephews when they were tykes.)

I remember we even used a black Sharpie magic marker to make Stony look like Adolf Hitler (!) so we could bash, shoot and destroy/kill him! I guess that's what happens when your father fought in WWII.

If you'd like to learn more about Babs and Bill, visit this link on a very interesting website called "The Vintage Toy Advertiser."

Marathon "Christmas Carols" Ad – Dec. 18, 1953

Marathon was the subject of a blog post last month that featured a November 1953 ad promoting its "Cat" gasoline. A month later, the Ohio-based petroleum company ran this ad inviting the public to stop in at any Marathon Station and pick up a free copy of a book of Christmas Carols. The ad ran in the Lorain Journal on December 18, 1953.

I like how the carolers in the ad have gathered under a Marathon sign all decked out for the holidays with a wreath and bow. 

According to the ad, Marathon had three area stations: Galbraith Marathon Service at 300 East Erie Ave. in Lorain (roughly where the Pure gas station is today); Louis Horvath at Middle Ridge and Quarry Road (where Horvath's Deli is today); and Bobrowski Marathon Service at E. 28th & Denver Ave. (where Freddy's Auto Repair is today).

When I initially scoured the internet and eBay to find a copy of the Christmas Carol giveaway book, I didn't have much luck. Perhaps this is one piece of holiday ephemera that didn't survive, I thought.

But I was wrong. When I added the word "Marathon" to my search description, one lonely, tattered copy turned up – and is on eBay right now. 

Maybe, as noted in the ad, this book of carols did bring "a special warmth to Christmas, down through generation after generation" for it to survive all these years.

Hills Christmas Ad – Nov. 14, 1963

From the November 14, 1963 edition of the Lorain Journal comes this Hills Dept. Store Christmas-themed ad featuring a variety of toys designed to whet the appetite of every little girl and boy.

For girls, there's the Barbie Wardrobe Trunk, "in which to store your Barbie Doll," with "accessory drawers and plenty of room to hang her clothes." I'll have to ask my sister if she had this. I kind of think she did, because I seem to remember the illustration of Gold Digger® Barbie on the trunk.

There's also Chatty Baby from Mattel, "more lovable than ever." "She talks, cries, laughs... 18 different things." I wonder what the other 15 were?

Like Barbie, Tiny Chatty Baby is trapped in her own vinyl Alcatraz

There were a variety of toys for both boys and girls, including the Sno-Cone Machine, the Lie Detector Game and the Match Game. (They're all on eBay too, so it's not too late for you to get your hands on one or all, if Santa neglected to back in 1963.)

How about some ketchup on your snow-cone?

The Lorain Police Department may want to get its hands on this device.

And finally, for the budding scientists, there was this Microscope from A. C. Gilbert. One of my brothers had a microscope, and I remember us putting all kinds of weird stuff on slides and taking a closer look. Yuck!

Lorain Journal Front Pages – Dec. 6-11, 1941

Today is National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day – and the 82nd Anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Hopefully we'll never forget to pause and reflect on what happened that day, just as we solemnly acknowledge the attack on 9/11/2001 each year.

I've posted the front page of the Lorain Journal of Monday, December 8, 1941 before on this blog. This time, though, I thought it would be interesting to include the day before the attack – to get a snapshot of an unsuspecting nation – as well as several days after, to see the mobilization and jitters of a country suddenly plunged into war.

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I remember as a kid pumping my parents for information about WWII. That and the Great Depression were the defining events of their lives, and I wanted to know how they felt about them.

Dad didn't want to talk about his time in the Army too much. When I asked him if he ever killed an enemy soldier, he said something like, "Well, when you're shooting at an enemy you can't see, it's hard to know." He maintained a pretty tight-lipped silence about his Army life. He was away from Lorain and his loved ones from 1942 to 1945, and he preferred to put it out of his mind, I guess.

Fortunately, Dad came home with a lot of photos – places in France where he'd been and photos of him and his Army pals. Mom was smart enough to make him label them all. 

As for Mom, I asked her about what it was like to be a teenager during the War. She said it was kind of scary in the early months, because our victory wasn't a sure thing.

Of course, Admiral Ernest J. King had no doubt about a successful outcome of the War. When asked in August 1942 for a prediction, he stated, "We're going on to victory, of course. We will win this war."

Christmas Club Ads – 1953

Does anybody still contribute to a Christmas Club account?

I guess the question really is, do banks still offer them during these times, when many people live paycheck to paycheck?

That's a good question. A quick look online reveals that, surprisingly, they're still around. First Federal of Lorain still has one, and Northwest offers something called a Holiday Account, which I assume is the equivalent.

But neither of these organizations seem to devote any advertising dollars (or even social media posts) to promote these clubs.

Anyway, that wasn't the case 70 years ago. Just about every local bank or savings & loan promoted their Christmas Clubs in the "Gift Ideas for a Jolly Christmas" catalog (featured on yesterday's post).

Here are the three Club ads, for First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Lorain, Lorain Banking Company (which became Lorain National, and later, Northwest) and Citizens Home and Savings Association.

It's interesting seeing the different approaches used in each ad. I suspect that the Journal art department did the ad layouts, because some of the clip art used (including the man with the Santa mask and the woman hugging him) can be found in other Journal ads from that time period.  

Today, the marketing departments of banks have established design templates for sub-contractors to follow, to guarantee that their brand has a consistent look. Thus, today you'd never see an ad like the one for Lorain Banking Co., which mixes different types of clip art.

Speaking of Lorain Banking Company, I recently drove by its former building at Sixth and Broadway. Due to some kind of damage to the "600 BROADWAY" sign that has adorned the front of the building for years, you can see the bank's inscription peeking through.

Here's a reminder of what it looked like in the 1950s.

"Gift Ideas for a Jolly Christmas" Catalog – 1953

Just in time for the start of the holiday season, the Lorain Journal included a special supplement with its November 26, 1953 edition. Entitled, "Gift Ideas for a Jolly Christmas," the 80-page catalog provided Journal readers with a dazzling array of suggestions of what to buy – as well as providing us with a nice snapshot of Lorain businesses at that time.

Here's an ample sample of some of the catalog pages, which paint a picture of a prosperous Lorain in its 1950s post-war heyday.

I love the fact that many of the companies used illustrations to depict their gift items in the ads. It adds an element of intrigue. It's also impressive how so many of the businesses had a distinctive logo and 'brand,' such as Ted Jacobs and Louis Cohn.

I made sure that Delis Brothers Furniture was represented in the ad round-up. That's because I recently had the pleasure of exchanging emails with a member of the Delis family, whose great-grandfather Christ Delis founded the store. I mentioned to her that my parents bought their dining room set from Delis Furniture, and it was the one that was used from the 1950s all the way to the 2020's.