That's the subject of today's ad, which in the Lorain Journal on November 4, 1954. It's interesting seeing that the cover was a charming illustration, instead of the photos that we Baby Boomers were used to seeing on the catalog cover in the 1960s.
Here's a color photo of the 1954 Sears catalog depicted in the ad.
Courtesy Ebay
Picking out things that we wanted in the Sears Christmas catalog was an annual ritual in the Brady household during the 1960s. It never occurred to me to question why Santa Claus preferred us to do it that way.
Here's another Wish Book cover, this time from 1968 – one that I'm sure we looked at.
It's funny thinking back about thumbing through the Wish Books. There was such an amazing array of stuff that you could spend hours just soaking it all in.
Courtesy airplanesandrockets.com
There were always several pages devoted to the Peanuts gang (such as the 1969 page at left), with plenty of books containing reprints of the comic strips. Remember, Peanuts wasn't carried in the Journal in the 1960s, so our only exposure to Snoopy and Charlie Brown besides those paperbacks were the couple of TV specials that were broadcast once a year. (Come to think of it, one of the early specials – Charlie Brown's All-Stars – is never repeated at all.)
One year, my brothers and I all received Sears pajamas for Christmas with Snoopy on them. My Mom has a particularly sappy Christmas shot of the three of us wearing them (which I won't reproduce here – sorry).
The Sears catalog had a lot of exclusive things. I remember that for years Sears had the rights to produce Winnie-the-Pooh products (of which I had many, being a fan of the Disney cartoon). But the book was also filled with all sorts of strange toys that we'd never heard of. I remember seeing a photo of Jimmy Nelson's Danny O'Day ventriloquist doll and wondering who he was.
Sadly, Sears no longer produces the Wish Book, having ceased in 1993 (click here to read an article about the book's passing.)
If you'd like to relive the memory of flipping through the pages of a Wish Book, though, visit this website. (Someone has gone to the trouble of scanning entire Sears catalogs through the years, so get a glass of milk and some cookies and do some wishin' just like in the old days.)
Finally, click here to visit a page on the Sears Archives website to learn about the history of the Wish Book.
Although no one in my family ever worked for Ford, several of my high school buddies' fathers did, as well as several of our neighbors on Skyline Drive while I was growing up.
The Ford plant was a huge part of Lorain's heritage. Together with the steel mill, the shipyards, Thew Shovel, and various other industries, it defined Lorain as a working man's town. That's why it's still so distressing to drive down Baumhart and look over the closed plant (although it's enjoying some success being redeveloped as an industrial park).
Nevertheless, the former UAW Local 425 Union Hall still sits across from the former plant. It's the subject of today's vintage Journal ad from November 30, 1963 announcing its grand opening dedication (below).
Today the hall serves the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America Local 2192. Here is the link to its Facebook page.
Here's probably the most un-Christmas-like ad I've ever seen for a Lorain store's Christmas promotion.
The ad is for National Pharmacy, and ran in the Lorain Journal on November 15, 1954. It announces the start of the drug store's Christmas contest, in which people were invited to stop in and register to win a variety of prizes.
Courtesy Ebay
Prizes included a Mix Master, a Black Angus Giant Rotisserie, a Handy Hannah hair dryer (at left), a Brownie camera, 5 cartons of cigarettes, a cigarette lighter, an electric waffle iron, an electric toaster, gift certificates and many more.
What's amusing (to me at least) is the lack of any Christmas icons – no Santa Claus, holly, snow men, etc. Just... an organ grinder's monkey, tipping his hat.
I mentioned yesterday how I was having a hard time finding a Lanky Long doll on Ebay (as pictured in the above ad that ran in the Journal on November 4, 1954).
I described him in all sorts of ways in the Ebay Search box (a rag doll, a pixie, an elf, a vintage rag doll, etc.) but all I could come up were those ubiquitous 1950s Christmas elves with the bendable legs and arms.
But then I had an inspiration – and added the word "dance" to my description. That's when I came up with a listing for a Pinocchio Dance With Me Doll – but it's unmistakably Ol' Lanky Long himself.
Here are the photos, courtesy of Ebay.
Looking at the ad and the photos, I think Ol' Lanky Long is just a wee bit creepy, with his frozen, "eager to please" grin and unblinking eyes. It's easy to imagine this doll figuring prominently (and menacingly) in a Twilight Zone episode.
Here's the link to the Lanky Long doll on Ebay, if you're in the market for a doll to use as a punching bag/dance partner.
Once I began to search online for him as a Pinocchio doll, they seemed to start coming out of the woodwork. There was hatless one on Etsy (below), but he was sold.
There was also one on Worthpoint.com (below). Someone even went to the trouble to make him a Disneyfied Pinocchio hat – but we all know what's really supposed to be on his noggin.
I don't think very many Lanky Long dolls survive to this day. Maybe that's because more children chose to abuse him rather than fall in love with him – and he wasn't as unbreakable as originally thought.
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Not interested in a faux-Pinocchio doll as a dance partner? How about an ersatz Bugs Bunny-lookalike?
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A Lanky Long Update (December 31, 2014)
Shortly after my original Lanky Long post, the webmaster of the Oberlin In The Past Facebook contacted me, swearing that one of her brothers had an identical Pinocchio doll back in the 1950s. She was determined to try and find a photo of it to send me.
Well, she did! The hilarious subject line of her email with the photo attached was "I told you my brother had one of those weird dolls." She explained, "This is a badly deteriorating photo of my father and siblings that I ran across yesterday. I looked back on your blog to see if that doll matched the "Pinocchio" one. You can't miss that widow's peak."
Here's the photo, from 1954. As you can see, Lanky's (I mean Pinocchio's) hat didn't last very long!
Here's a memorable gift-with-purchase promotion from 1954 that some Lorainites might remember – or may possibly still be discussing with their psychoanalyst 60 years later.
Back in early November of that year, Wissman's Jewelers of Lorain was giving away Ol' Lanky Long, a 45 inch rag doll, with any purchase of $19.95 or more. The above ad appeared in the Lorain Journal on November 4, 1954.
Wissman's Jewelers was in one of the storefronts at the southern end of the Palace theater building fronting on Broadway. It appears to have been there from the mid to late 1940s (it was preceded there by Reith's Jewelry Store) until it disappeared in the 1963 Lorain City Directory.
But let's get back to the Ol' Lanky Long ad.
I'm not sure what's more disturbing – the ad's suggestion that you abuse him (Throw him! Drop him! Toss him!) or that you might "fall in love with him" and use him as a dance partner. Neither sounds like a good idea.
Anyway, half the fun of old ads depicting some product is seeing if there is any information about it online. In this case, I scoured the internet trying to find a photo, another ad or even a mere mention of Ol' Lanky Long, but I came up, er, short. I couldn't even find one on Ebay, despite describing him in a variety of ways in the 'Search' box. (That's not that surprising, though. How would you describe him? He's not really a Christmas elf or pixie. He's a tall guy with a pointy hat and a big bow tie.)
But then – a couple days before I was going to post this – I finally found one on Ebay.
So how did the Ebay listing describe him and what kind of shape was he in? Stop back here tomorrow to find out!
Here's a disturbing sight that greeted U. S. Route 6 motorists over the weekend: a wrecked Chris' Restaurant sign. That's it, lying on the ground in front of the remaining poles.
It's quite an apocalyptic vision compared to the usual scene (below).
I called the restaurant on Sunday to ask what had happened. They confirmed my guess that the destruction had been the result of one of the recent storms.
Note how a portion of the original Howard Johnson neon sign (that spells out RESTAURANT) is exposed. On the ground, you can also see what looks like some of the original Hojo blue sign peeking out from under the layers of paint of previous Chris' Restaurant logo designs.
Here's a classic Hojo sign (although it's for a motor lodge) with a similar 'RESTAURANT' component (below).
Here's hoping the restaurant has a good insurance policy – signs are expensive. But out of calamity comes opportunity. Perhaps a new sign – maybe even a classic neon one – can be designed to reflect the popular restaurant's heritage and longevity, and draw in even new customers.
Like me, you might still be enjoying some tasty Thanksgiving leftovers. So along those lines, I guess I'll start off my month of December blogs with some "leftovers" from November that I didn't quite get posted.
First up this week are some full page ads from November 1954 for O'Neil Sheffield Shopping Center that promote well-known musical guests and local celebrities appearing there on consecutive weekends as part of a Grand Opening celebration.
The musical time period of these ads is interesting. It's not quite the Rock and Roll era yet (but pretty close), so the acts are fairly wholesome and tame.
The first ad (below) ran in the Lorain Journal on November 4, 1954 and highlights the appearance of RCA Victor Recording Stars the Three Suns. Also scheduled to appear were local radio personality Johnny Andrews of WTAM radio, and Cleveland TV personality Uncle Joe Bova of station WNBK.
On the same day the ad appeared, The Journal included an article (with the photo at left) about the Three Suns, which told a little about their history. It stated, "Al and Morty Nevins, and their cousin Artie Dunn, originally formed their unique combination for an engagement in the Circus Room of the Hotel Piccadilly in New York City. Al Nevins, the guitar player with the group was formerly a symphonic musician, and his brother Morty studied piano seriously before taking up the accordion for his work with the group. Artie Dunn plays a Hammond Organ specially made for him, to provide the unusual effects for which the group is famous.
The article noted, "The Three Suns first gained national attention for the radio broadcasts which they made from the Hotel Piccadilly. They made a recording of their famous theme, "Twilight Time" – (one of their own compositions) – for Majestic records, and it became such a hit that it led to their present association with RCA Victor. Since they became Victor recording artists, they have made more albums than any other artists on the label."
Here's a little sample of what the O'Neil Shopping Center crowd might have seen that day, courtesy of youtube.
A week later on November 11, 1954, an ad appeared for other big name group appearing at the shopping center that would close out the Grand Opening festivities. This time it was the Four Aces. Also appearing that day was Capt. Glenn Rowell, host of a children's show on WNBK (one of the predecessors of Channel 3 in Cleveland).
As the Journal noted in an article that ran in the same edition, "The vocal group that has thrilled American with dozens of top recordings – the Four Aces – appear in person for the grand finale weekend of the great opening celebrations now in progress at the O'Neil Sheffield Shopping Center."
Courtesy theAuctionfloor.com
"The Four Aces, who will appear twice on Friday and twice on Saturday originally started out as an instrumental group, and the story of their success is really a show business Cinderella story. Two of the Aces, Al Alberts and Dave Mahoney, met while in the service. Al was a singer, and before the war had sung with Elliott Lawrence and Jan Savitt.
"His service hitch interrupted his journalistic studies at Temple University. Dave had been studying music at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, and was a good man on trumpet and sax. When the two men decided to form an instrumental group, they asked Sod Voccaro to join them as a trumpet player, and Lou Silvestri on drums completed the outfit."
The article went on to say that when they recorded the tune, "Sin," they had decided to use an organ background and just sing. The tune was so successful that it put the Four Aces at the top of many popularity polls, and they abandoned the instruments – becoming a purely vocal group.
Here's the Four Aces performing their big hit, "Sin."
All in all, it was a pretty impressive promotion put on by the shopping center's owners.
