Spaid's Sportsmen's Shop Ad – Dec. 20, 1946

I love this Christmas-themed ad for Spaid's Sportsmen's Shop, which was located at 116 Eighth Street in Lorain. The ad appeared in the Lorain Journal on December 20, 1946 – 71 years ago.

Look at the unbridled glee in the eyes of the man, who received a new Nydar Shotgun Sight. He's crazed with excitement as he looks forward to greater accuracy and bringing home more game.

Meanwhile, his wife looks pretty happy too, as she lovingly examines the tag on her new fur coat. (And please don't ask me what she's wearing under that fur coat.)

It's just a thought, but perhaps if she had bought him that Nydar shotgun sight sooner, he might have been able to blast the fur-bearing critter himself and have a custom coat made for her.

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Jack W. Spaid was the man behind Spaid's Sportsmen's Shop. The store carried Evinrude outdoor motors, fishing tackle, guns, ammunition and other hunting supplies.

According to his obituary in the Frederick News-Post, Jack W. Spaid "grew up in Lorain, Ohio, where he developed a life-long interest in boating, hunting and fishing.

"During W.W. II he proudly served as an officer of the U. S. Army Transportation Corp. in Australia, New Guinea and the Philippines. He received an honorable discharge in February of 1945. In 1950, he married his beloved wife (Phyllis) and they settled in Frederick in 1957 and raised their family there."

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But getting back to that shotgun sight in the ad. Here's a link to the forgottenweapons.com website, where you can take a look at a Nydar Model 47 sight, introduced in 1945.

I saw a 1940s ad online for a Model 47, which looks pretty much like the sight in the Spaid ad. The price? $27.45. That's about $350 bucks in today's dollars, which won't even buy you a fur muff.

I think the wife in the Spaid ad got the better deal.

Frank Fontaine MC's the Mary Lee Tucker Benefit Show – 1957 – Part 2

It’s impressive just how much time and effort went into putting on the Mary Lee Tucker Christmas benefit shows of the 1950s and 60s. Besides booking nationally known talent like Frank Fontaine to headline and emcee the show, there was the auditioning and selection of local acts to make up the majority of the program.

Sometimes there were additional professional acts added to make the show even more spectacular. For the 1957 show, the Cornell Sisters were added to the list of performers. As the article below (which appeared in the Lorain Journal on November 28, 1957) notes, the Cornell Sisters had appeared in Detroit and Chicago nightclubs, as well as on the Arthur Godfrey Talent Scout program.

The Sisters were in town for an engagement at Ben Hart’s Showbar in early December. At some point in their career they issued a 45 RPM record with One Sided Love on one side and Walking Along on the other.

But getting back to the show. On December 4, 1957 the Journal included a last promotional article for the show, which was to take place that night. The High Toppers dance group were featured in a cute photo.

As expected, the show was a big success, raising $1,500 (that’s $13,000 in today’s money). Frank Fontaine was featured in a photo in the article below, which ran the next day.

The article stated that Fontaine kept the show moving at a fast pace. "He ‘fractured’ the audience with his ventriloquist bit in which he used two St. Mary High School boys picked from the audience as his “dummies,” it noted.

“He brought down the rafters with his impersonations of Arthur Godfrey, Amos and Andy, Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Lorre, Claude Rains, Jimmy Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, Charles Boyer, Jimmy Durante, Winston Churchill, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Liberace and Billy Eckstine.”

Other performers included Maria Bryant, who played the accordion while blindfolded and wearing gloves and with the keyboard covered with a black cloth; the Mozambi Trio, three ‘educated and talented apes’ in formal attire (behind the rubber ape masks were Harry Mayer, Russ Owens and Nate Margolis); the Jimmy Dulio 14-piece band, which supplied all the music for both professional and local entertainers; Joe Kohart, who did a pantomime of Elvis Presley; tap dancers Sandy Humphrey and Danny Walker; and many, many more.

Frank Fontaine MC's the Mary Lee Tucker Benefit Show – 1957 – Part 1

The Morning Journal’s annual Mary Lee Tucker Clothe-a-Child program has been underway now for several weeks, so it’s a good time for this post.

Back in 1957, the Mary Lee Tucker program still included a big charity show at the Palace theater as the primary fundraiser. (I’ve written extensively about these shows, with multi-part series about the early days of the program, as well as a more thorough history of it through the decades.)

Anyway, for the 1957 benefit show, there was a very special Master of Ceremonies: Frank Fontaine. Of course, you might know him better from his role as lovable drunk Crazy Guggenheim (shown at right) on the Jackie Gleason Show. Gleason (as Joe the Bartender) would enjoy a comedic chat with Crazy, who would eventually be cajoled into singing a song with his beautiful voice.

But in 1957, Fontaine had not yet created his Guggenheim character. Instead, he was well known from The Jack Benny Program from his appearances as a bum named John L. C. Sivoney.

Here’s a portion of the front page Journal article announcing his upcoming appearance at the Mary Lee Tucker show on December 4, 1957.

The balance of the article reveals his family’s show biz heritage, noting that his parents were vaudeville performers and that his paternal grandparents were a well known Barnum and Bailey circus team. "His grandfather was a strong man and his grandmother, a trapeze artist."

“Frank and his brother Raymond toured with their parents, went to school all over the United States and Canada or had private tutors when truant officers caught up with them.

“Frank’s talent became apparent when he imitated his parents from the time he was five.

“Married at 17, he depended on amateur show prizes for subsistence until he was able to get nightclub bookings.”

Fontaine served his country during World War II, and after his discharge, “returned to the nightclub circuit, then joined up with Vaughn Monroe and toured with the bandleader’s orchestra as featured comedian for two years.”

Here’s the ad that appeared in the Journal on November 29, 1957, with Fontaine in character as John L. C. Sivoney.

The cover of this record album (below) showcasing Fontaine’s singing provides a better view of the photo used in the Journal ad.

Want to see Fontaine in action as John L. C. Sivoney on the Jack Benny show? He makes his appearance on the 1961 program below at the 16:22 mark in a police station sketch. It’s pretty funny, and nice to hear that inimitable laugh again. Fontaine also comes in at the end of the sketch for a final punchline, and even makes a curtain call as himself at the close of the show.

Schenley Whiskey Ad – Dec. 5, 1952

Courtesy
whiskyantique.com

I've mentioned before how it seems that the Lorain Journal ran liquor ads in its pages every day during the 1950s. A few of the whiskey brands became blog fodder, including Old Log Cabin (which I wrote about here and here) and PM Blended Whiskey.

Well, above is an ad for another whiskey brand: Schenley. The ad appeared in the Lorain Journal on Dec. 5, 1952. It features a nicely stylized snowman. (I love it when classic children's holiday icons sell adult products.)

Unfortunately, it appears that the Schenley brand melted away over the years.

According to this Wiki page, the liquor company was purchased by Guinness in the late 1980s. The brand has not been available in the United States for some time. It seems to have been discontinued in Canada as well over the last few years, although there are still some cases out there according to this website.

Whistle Ad – December 17, 1947

Vintage sign currently on Ebay

Since I mentioned Canada Dry yesterday, here’s an ad for another soft drink that in days gone by was bottled in Lorain – Whistle.

The ad, which ran in the Lorain Journal on December 17, 1947 – 70 years ago this month – is quite charming, with chubby elves involved in wintertime antics. Gee, those guys really aren’t dressed for snow.

I did a two-part series on the Lorain Whistle Bottling Company back here in 2012. The company was located near the railroad tracks at 1138 Lexington Avenue.

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Want to see some more Whistle advertising featuring the drink’s distinctive elves? Then you’ll have to visit this blog: Enchanted America: In Search of Elves, Fairies, And Other Mythical, Magical Beings, Places and Things Along the Highways & Byways of North America (whew, that’s a long one).

Canada Dry Ad – Dec. 19, 1959

I found this ad (which appeared in the Lorain Journal on December 19, 1959) interesting, because it identified the name of a drink that I like to make at home. That is, I like to add some Canadian Club to my Canada Dry Diet Ginger Ale for a nice, Canadian-themed drink.

According to the ad, that drink is called a highball. Gee, I’d heard of that drink but didn’t realize that was what I was making. Suddenly I feel very old.

Anyway, I have another reason for posting this ad.

One of the features of this blogger website is the ability to review statistics to see which posts get the most visits. And for some inexplicable reason, one of the most-visited posts that I have ever written is this one  from 2013 about the old Canada Dry bottling plant building at 1251 Colorado Avenue.

I don’t know why, but when I check my stats each week, that Canada Dry post is usually at the top of the heap. It had more than 500 visits in November. Why?

I can’t figure it out. Does anybody out there have any ideas?

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Here’s some information about the Canada Dry bottling plant on Colorado Avenue that I've found since that original post.

According to an article in the Lorain Journal on June 21, 1955, “Canada Dry Bottling Co. of Lorain was established here as a franchised carbonated beverage manufacturing firm in 1947.

“The company, which bottles Canada Dry beverages for Lorain, Huron and Erie counties, is owned and managed by David E. Mowrey.

“Mowrey is widely known in Lorain and is past president of the Lorain board of education.

“The firm employs five persons. Three large trucks are used for quick delivery service.”

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Our old pal, longtime blog contributor Bob Kovach sent me (as he put it) the "relic" at right. 

It's a well-worn piece of correspondence from the Canada Dry Bottling Company of Lorain, Ohio, Inc. to its customers, dated August 27, 1948.

The letter is on an elegantly designed masthead that shows some of its Canada Dry products at the time, including two I'd never heard of: Spur and Hi-Spot.

Spur appears to have been Canada Dry's cola product. Hi-Spot was a lemon-lime soda that probably competed with Seven-Up.

Thanks for sharing your find with us, Bob!

To visit a terrific vintage advertising website that includes a history of Canada Dry along with vintage labels and ads, click here. 

Saturday Evening Post Cover by Stevan Dohanos – December 27, 1952

The "Log of Lorain" column in the Lorain Journal of January 13, 1953 included a mention of Lorain artist and illustrator Stevan Dohanos' latest Saturday Evening Post cover.

It noted, "Lorainites were well represented on the cover of the Dec. 27 issue of Saturday Evening Post. Steve Dohanos, a Lorain native, painted the cover. The man carrying pine boughs into the church is also a Lorain native. He is Loyal Theron Lucas.

"Lucas was working summer stock in Connecticut last summer and apparently posed for the picture at Dohanos' studio at Stamford, Conn."

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Loyal T. Lucas was born in Lorain on December 4, 1904. Although his name doesn't seem to be included in the list of successful Lorain-born entertainers, Mr. Lucas enjoyed a fine career in Hollywood, judging by his page on imdb.com. Here is the link.

It looks like he specialized in playing miners and old coots on TV Westerns. These appearances included Have Gun – Will Travel (1961), Tales of Wells Fargo (1962), Death Valley Days (1964), Branded (1965), Wagon Train (1964 & 1965), Gunsmoke (1961 & 1965), and The Virginian (1965).

He also had roles on Bachelor Father (1962), The Addams Family (1965 & 1966) and Quincy M.E. (1980).