Hart’s Jewelry Ad – Jan. 24, 1947

Yesterday’s post about Muir's featured the store’s longtime Scottish mascot.

Well, in today’s post, Hart’s Jewelry muscles in on Muir’s racket with their own leggy Scottish lassie. The ad ran in the Lorain Journal on January 24, 1947 – 71 years ago this month.

Image from a 1956 Harry Volk
Clip Book of Line Art

It’s kind of amusing how “Scottish thrift” was used over and over again as an easy marketing theme through the decades. At right is an image from a Harry Volk Clip Book of Line Art that has been at my desk at work since the mid-1980s. That particular image is from a 1956 collection entitled MONEY.

The association with Scots and saving money seemed to reach its climax with the Sandy’s hamburger chain’s founding in the mid-1950s with its "Thrift 'N Swift" tagline and Scottish lassie mascot.

I guess the whole concept was finally deemed politically incorrect and insulting (or perhaps just lame and unimaginative) because I haven’t seen it in any recent advertisements for a long time.

The last instance I can remember in recent years is the Great Scot grocery store chain in western Ohio, which utilized a tartan pattern in its signage. Until as late as the 1990s there was an outlet in Port Clinton.

The chain is still around, although I think it is now co-branded with Community Markets.

Muir's Closes – January 8, 1964

Muir’s Scottish mascot frolicking in a Dec. 1946 ad

I look through a lot of microfilm for this blog, and get used to seeing ads for specific stores or businesses that ran over the span of many decades starting in the 1920s. These stores seem to have incredible runs, thanks to loyal Lorain shoppers.

Many of them were regional stores, rather than one-shot Mom & Pop endeavors, but they were still part of the fabric of the life of Lorainites.

And then, usually around the 1960s, they closed for various reasons or went out of business. It was part of an unfortunate trend that eventually helped put Lorain in its current dismal shape business-wise.

One of these stores was Muir’s Drug Store. (I profiled the company back here in October 2016.)

It was back on January 8, 1964 that the ad below ran in the Lorain Journal announcing its ‘Going Out of Business Sale.’

Apparently it was big enough news to warrant some news coverage since the Lorain store was the first in the chain. Here’s the story as it appeared in the paper on the same day.

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Muir Announces Closing Of Drug Store in Lorain

Muir’s Self Serve Drug Store, 758 Broadway, original parent unit of the 30-store Muir chain, is closing shop about Jan. 15.

Charles White, field supervisor for the Grand Rapids, Mich., headquarters of the company, announced the decision to discontinue the 42-year-old Lorain store.

It was in 1922 that Boyce K. Muir and his father, John Muir, started the drug outlet, at that time located in the 500 block on the west side of Broadway.

Kenneth Muir, a brother, also worked at the Lorain store. A store was also established in Elyria.

Within a few years main offices, warehouses and a manufacturing plant were erected in Grand Rapids.

White said the Lorain store is being discontinued because the company is concentrating its operation closer to the main offices, and because the Lorain unit was the extreme eastern store, and off the main distribution routes.

In recent years, he said Muir’s has turned to larger sized outlets in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan and western Ohio.

In behalf of the company he expressed appreciation to the people of Lorain for their patronage over the years, and said the company is sorry to leave.

Mike Murphy, who has been with the organization for five years, has been manager of the Lorain store for the past year.

Persons who have brought in films for development are asked to pick up the finished pictures at their earliest convenience.

At one time there were four Muir stores in this area. The Elyria store was discontinued some time ago. The Lorain store has been at its present location for 12 years.

When established in 1922, Muir’s was known as the Muir Cut Rate Drug Store and was one of the first cut rate outlets.

The move leaves Lorain with three downtown drug stores, one at 8th St. and two in the Fourth-Fifth St. area.

Frigid Cold – Jan. 5, 1968

For many years, it seems that the really cold winter weather didn’t kick in until mid-January. However, we’ve already experienced a lot of single digit temperatures so far this winter – and it’s only the first week of the New Year.

Oh well, at least we’re getting use to it sooner. I’ve already had to buy myself a new parka (the last parka I purchased was back in the early 1980s from Cane’s Surplus for twelve bucks) and some winter boots.

Anyway, fifty years ago, winter was off to a similar chilly start.

An article on the front page of the Lorain Journal on January 5, 1968 told the story. It noted, “The frigid air out of western Canada that dropped temperatures in the area to zero last night and early today is expected to remain a factor locally for the next several days."

The photo and caption at right accompanied the article.

“However, tonight won’t be quite as cold with temperatures between five and 10 degrees predicted along with occasional snow flurries,” the article stated.

“Tomorrow the high is expected to reach only the mid-teens.

“Residents elsewhere experienced the same shivering blasts as winter struck hard with subzero cold from Montana to Maine. The mercury dropped near zero as far south as Kentucky and Tennessee.

“The U.S. Weather Bureau reported the coldest spots in Ohio were recored at Marion with a seven-degree below zero reading at 7 a.m. and the waterworks at Lima registering the same low level."

Self Cleaning Oven Ad – Jan. 2, 1968

It also wouldn’t be the Brady Blog without an occasional appearance by our old pal Reddy Kilowatt. Here he is in an ad promoting the self-cleaning oven that ran in the Lorain Journal on January 2, 1968.

It’s kind of an strange ad, with the housewife making her wish on a wishbone – by herself. (How did that custom get started, anyway? Click here to find out.)

According to some online sources, the self-cleaning oven had only been invented in 1963, so perhaps it was still a concept worth promoting in 1968.

All I know is that it’s a stinky process that takes a while to do. However, right now all I have is a gas oven without the self-cleaning feature. So I’d better use a little more foil under my chicken pot pie.

“The Passing Scene" Looks Back at 1967

It just wouldn’t be the Brady Blog if you didn’t have an occasional sample of Gene Patrick’s The Passing Scene comic feature that ran in the Journal. So here’s one that ran on January 1, 1968 – 50 years ago.

It features a nice look back at some of the local events of 1967, including the re-election of Mayor Woodrow Mathna, as well as the inaugural Lorain International Festival.

And as a bonus, here’s the first Passing Scene that ran in the Journal in 1968. It appeared on January 6, 1968.

Baby New Year & Cotton Club Ginger Ale – Dec. 30, 1947

Here's a nice New Year's-themed ad for Cotton Club Ginger Ale that ran in the Lorain Journal on December 30, 1947 – 70 years ago! Looks like Baby New Year is planning on having a few highballs.

After all the posts I’ve done about Canada Dry Ginger Ale, I guess Cotton Club Ginger Ale deserves a little attention.

(When I was a kid, I didn’t realize that the image on the Cotton Club bottle's label was a silhouette of a band, or that there was a famous Harlem nightclub by that name.)

Cotton Club Bottling was originally a Cleveland company. Besides their Ginger Ale, the company also manufactured Cherikee Red, as well as 50/50, the half-grapefruit, half-lime soft drink.

Of course, Cotton Club Less Sweet Ginger Ale is well-remembered for the brand’s comely mascot, Big Ginger, whose likeness adorned the bottle’s label.

You can read more about the company's history here on the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History website.

In the meantime for your amusement, here’s a 1970s disco-themed commercial for Cotton Club Less Sweet Ginger Ale.

The Big Ginger label can be seen in this ad with a full lineup of Cotton Club mixers from November 19, 1975.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all my readers and contributors, especially my older brother Ken who is celebrating his birthday today – the big 6-0 no less. Happy Birthday, Bro!

As my longtime readers might remember, Ken was Lorain's First Baby of 1958, which I wrote about here and here!

Now, since we know who Lorain's first baby was in 1958, how about 1968?

As reported on the front page of the January 2, 1968 Journal, “Janette Marie Dunnigan, 7-pound 12-ounce daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Dunnigan of 2288 N. Jefferson Blvd., Lorain, bounced into the world in St. Joseph Hospital at 2:43 a.m. New Year’s Day, several hours ahead of any Golden Crescent competition.

“Her father, 20, and mother, 18, the former Patricia Lynn Jessel, are both Lorain High School graduates. He works at Ford Assembly Plant.

“Janette’s grandparents are Robert C. Dunnigan, unsuccessful Republican candidate for council president in the November election, and Mrs. Dunnigan of 2883 Cleveland Blvd. and Mr. and Mrs. Mike Jessel, of 3337 W. Erie Ave."

Okay, so what kind of loot did Janette and her parents win? A $10.00 Gift Certificate from Kline's Baby Dept.; a ride home from the hospital in the all-new 1968 Ford Fairlane compliments of George May Ford; a $5 Gift Certificate for Dry Cleaning at Wayne Cleaners; a savings account with $1.00 per pound at birth at the Citizens Home and Savings Association; a maple-finish high chair from the May Company at Sheffield Center; a wicker dressing table from Rigbee's Bargain Town; a month's supply of free Jersey Lane Milk from Lorain Creamery; and a pair of professionally fitted Little Yankee baby shoes from Januzzi's.

By the way, Janette still lives in Lorain. Here’s hoping she’s doing well and has a Happy Birthday and a great 2018.

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Just a day before the above coverage of Janette Marie Dunnigan’s birth, the Journal did something interesting in the January 1, 1968 edition. The paper did a follow-up on two babies born on January 1, 1948 – 20 years earlier. 

Here's the paper's update on Dennis Losh and Tom Jere in which we learned that both graduated from Admiral King High School in 1966, and were preparing for two very different futures.

You can read more about Dennis on his page on the Lorain Sports Hall of Fame website here. He was an inductee in 1995.