Redartz: Greetings and salutations! And before you say anything, I know it's not quite Halloween yet and here we are referencing Christmas. Well, if you remember back to our collective youth, the yearly tradition of Catalog browsing started about this time each year. At our house, late October meant watching the mail for the arrival of those huge volumes of toyland dreams. Montgomery Wards, Sears, J.C. Penneys; all three were regular residents of our coffee table for the last three months of the year.
My brother, sister and I would spend hours trading off one catalog for another, poring over pages of books, toys, games, race cars, record players, and just about everything else. The Christmas catalogs were a perfect means to put together that list for Santa, or later on, that want list for parents and relatives. Actually, the ritual of catalog browsing became a greatly-anticipated part of the whole holiday scenario.
And aside from the obvious attraction of the toys, sometimes the catalogs offered other enticements. I still fondly remember a couple of years when the Sears catalog was full of Dennis the Menace cartoons; making the Christmas dreaming even more fun...
For those interested, here's a great website for looking over those vintage catalogs. Many years represented, and you can leaf from page to page just like we used to...
http://www.wishbookweb.com/the-catalogs/
And now, here's some images to prime your memories. Enjoy, and then we can compare our 'want lists'...
20 comments:
Yep, the Sears Wish Book was a fixture in our living room as well-- I remember circling scores of toys, making lists, etc, etc. There is no doubt that the '68 edition you've pictured was one that we would have perused to a frazzle. Penney's was probably on-hand as well-- but I don't think they had nearly the same amount of pages devoted to toys. . .
The biggest let-down, of course, is when you hankered and asked and campaigned for a particular best-thing-EVER item from the catalog. . . and then it proved to be not one fraction as cool or enjoyable as advertised. . . ("Moon-Boots", anyone-?)
The other section in the Wish Book that I always enjoyed were the several pages of beautifully packaged and presented Holiday Food Gift items-- which looked SO scrumptious and delectable in the catalog. Fancy candies and confections and meats and fruits, etc. They all had (to my little kid sensibilities) this opulence and bounty that seemed forever exotic and unobtainable ('cause MY folks were never gonna spend good money on "junk" like than, nossir!)-- and then one year (possibly even '68), my Dad got a HUGE assortment package from his staff, and man, I even ate stuff I didn't care for very much-- like cheese-- just 'cause it was THERE at last---!
HB
In my house we had a mail-order catalogue called "Burlington's" but it was exactly the same as the ones featured here today. When the Autumn/Winter edition arrived, sometime around October, my sister and I headed straight for the toys & books at the back. I was especially interested in the annuals - in the UK an "annual" is a hardback book traditionally given as a Christmas present so the Winter catalogue had lots of them such as Dr. Who, Space 1999, The Beano (but no Marvel UK annuals as I recall).
HB mentioned his father receiving a hamper (he called it an assortment package - same thing!) and I remember one Christmas in the early '80s when we bought a hamper which included a French Christmas cake - yum, yum it was absolutely delicious and much nicer than the British variety.
This is wonderful. I'm sure I probably stared at those actual pages of Mego dolls and Star Wars toys. Leafing through that catalogue was a ritual in and of itself. I ended up getting that Twin-Pod Cloud Car, as well as Batman, Robin and Spider-Man dolls (several times over, I kept breaking them and losing bits of their costumes over the years...I still have two Spider-Mans lying around...).
And Moon Boots rule! I still have the pair I got in 1981! (bit of a hoarder's confession there...)
-david p.
Hey Colin do you remember the Peter Craig catalogue? That one included the UK hardback Annuals.
It was the same tradition in my house: flicking through the toy section, dreaming of owning those wonderful goodies. Anyone remember the Cyborg and Mutant action figures from Mego?
Those catalogues were like a portal to another world where everything glistened, full of promised delights...
I vaguely recall some catalogues, but they're mixed up in my mind with the advertising supplements from the Sunday newspapers; mostly I remember stuff from the majoe department stores, like K-mart, Fred Meyer (anyone from the Pacific NW will be familiar with that), Penney's and Monkey Ward, but I don't recall that we ever had one of those big Sears catalogs. However, speaking of the latter, just last week I listened to a real interesting On the Media podcast extra in which that catalog was discussed - mainly how it became a tool to subvert the Jim Crow system in many US states. Fascinating stuff.
Yeah, I always loved the Sears Xmas Wish Book ... too bad they don't send it out anymore. I had a bunch of those Marvel/DC Mego dolls, plus quite a few Star Wars toys. (I still have a Tauntaun somewhere, I think.)
I'm afraid Sears is done, Mike. I'm sure the Wish Book/Catalog sales end of their operation ceased to be profitable long, long ago. It would be tough to offset the printing and mailing expenses in this digital age, and right now the whole company looks like it's trying to wrap up its run with a bit of dignity.
Ultimately, it's a business, and businesses have a lifespan (even beloved, iconic ones), and Sears' has been longer than almost anyone's I can think of-!
HB
We always used to get the Marshall Ward catalogue. Come to think of it, I don't have a clue who Marshall Ward were. I've never heard anything about them beyond us getting that catalogue turning up on our front doorstep every three months.
I don't think any of my Christmas presents ever came from it because Europe's biggest toy store was only about two miles away from where we lived, so all our Christmas presents came from there but that didn't stop me looking at the toys in the catalogue and getting suitably excited by them.
Hi, my siblings and I wore out those Sears catalogs in the late 60s LOL. Hot wheel cars ruled the day!
Colin and Anthony I would actually get the DC Thomson catalogue too! Man we would drool over those Annuals!!! Beano, Dandy, Victor, Hotspur, Sparky and every other year a Dennis the Memace!!!
CH47-- yeah, Hot Wheels were HUGE! A staple of both the catalogs and Saturday morning commercials. Ha-- I know I still have those very first ones in a big bucket o' cars in our basement. . . paint off, missing wheels, battered beyond hope of redemption. Their just kinda existing til I leave this mortal plane myself, I imagine.
And that brings to mind another not-as-great-as-it-looked-in-the-ads BIG toy--- anyone recall that very first iteration of the Hot Wheels Super-Charger Sprint Set--? With the little battery powered thingy that kept shooting the cars perpetually around the track? That ran on expensive D batteries? And started sucking the life out of them after about 5-10 minutes of continuous play? It's like Duracell and Mattel had an unholy alliance on that one---! It also fell prey to the obvious flaw with self-propelled race-track type set-ups. It is DEAD BORING to just sit and watch cars go 'round and 'round a little 36" track on their own. Probably the next day we cannibalized the whole set to make our preferred gravity-powered races with loops and crashes and everything. . .
HB
Charlie, I didn't know there was a DC Thompson catalogue.
But I remember the Marshall Ward and Peter Craig catalogues. Another one was Grattan which featured L.S. Lowry paintings on the covers as I recall - or maybe it was just one particular cover I'm thinking of.
Great memories, all; makes me want to rifle through a Wish Book this evening!
HB and Charlie- Yes indeed; Hot Wheels were a HUGE hit. Our Christmas stockings were usually graced with a few cars each year. HB, you are quite right about the Supercharger. Those devices really did burn through batteries, and what's more, they tended to shoot the cars out so fast that they'd overshoot the curve and fly off the track. I much preferred the gravity method, especially with the Drag Race set (including the Snake and Mongoose funny cars).
Oh, and regarding the food catalog section: they were most enticing. It seemed like every bountiful arrangement included petits fours. Incidentally, did anyone else regularly get the catalogs from Swiss Colony?
Colin- hey, one thing I've wondered about the Annuals you refer to. Were they reprints of, say, newspaper strips, or did they feature new material?
Colin - the DC Thompson catalogue was mailed from Scotland to our home near Chicago probably late October every year? But it was perhaps only an 8 (?) page affair with a picture and description of each Annual. This is in the early 1970s. I recall around 30 years later getting it for my little kids and there were fewer Annuals (certainly no more war- themed) and more of their general product line like Scottish-themed calendars and magazines. I think they still mail a catalogue if you’d like?
Red, the annuals were all new material but the Marvel UK annuals were reprints (like the Treasury Editions).
And the 2019 annuals are on sale now but obviously on a much reduced scale from the heyday of British comics as most of those comics have long since disappeared. Charlie mentioned The Dandy which, along with The Beano, is (was) a classic British comic - The Dandy ceased publication a few years ago but an annual of new material is still produced every year.
Charlie, thanks for that information. The Beano and The Dandy annuals are usually on sale in my local supermarket along with a Beano Christmas Special.
Colin would you know why Dennis the Menacewas only published every other year as an Annual???
Charlie, unfortunately I don't know. Every two years does seem strange.
I will say this about that:
(The Moody Blues singing Joe Cocker's "Feeling Alright")
I remember in the late 70s, 77 or 78, our town got a Sears Catalogue Store. Now, when you ordered stuff out of the Sears Catalogue, you could ship it to the store and pick it up there. I think around the same time, Sears stopped sending the catalogue to your house. You would get a card, take the card to the store and get your catalogue there. They also had little areas set up where you could look through the "specialty" books. Work clothes, medical stuff and what not. They also had the returns and "scratch and dent" stuff for sale.
(The Weeknd singing The Mamas and The Papas' "Monday Monday")
We also had the S&H Green Stamps program. Something in my head makes me think that our Gibson's was the claim center. You could walk around and look at the things and see how many books each item required. I remember that was how I got my first 10 speed. From S&H Green Stamps. I think with both catalogue shopping and S&H Green Stamps, there was a certain amount of delayed gratification. Whether through begging or collecting Green Stamps, you had to work for your reward...
(Simply Red singing Foreigner's "Blue Monday")
Shopping changed with the opening of Service Merchandise. There wasn't one in our town but there was one close enough to drive. When my oldest sister was home from college, she took us to buy our first microwave. When you walked in the store, you got the little paper strips and that putt putt golf pencil and then you WENT TO TOWN!!!
When you saw something you wanted, you wrote down the item number, when you were finished shopping, you'd go to the register, pay, get your receipt and then move to the order pick up area. They'd call your number, your stuff would roll out on a conveyor and you'd lug it to your car. I have this weird memory that that microwave and I took up the entire back seat...
(Free singing Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock")
Just a personal note, I've posted all twelve chapter's of Marvel's Super Heroes Secret Wars and am now working on DC's six part Legends...
(Last night I was dreaming
I was locked in a prison cell
When I woke up I was screaming
Calling out your name (whoa)
And the judge and the jury
They all put the blame on me (the blame on me)
They wouldn't go for my story
They wouldn't hear my plea
Only you can set me free
'Cause I'm guilty (guilty)
Guilty as a girl can be
Come on baby, can't you see
I stand accused
Of love in the first degree
(Guilty) Of love in the first degree
Someday I'm believing
You will come to my rescue
Unchain my heart, you'll keep him
Let me start a new (you)
The hours passed so slowly
Since they've thrown away the key (away the key)
Can't you see that I'm lonely
Won't you help me please
Only you can set me free
'Cause I'm guilty (guilty)
Guilty as a girl can be
Come on baby, can't you see
I stand accused
Of love in the first degree
(Guilty) Of Love in the first degree
(Guilty)
Of Love
(Guilty)
Of Love in
(Guilty) Of Love
(Guilty) Of Love in
(Guilty)
Of love in the first degree
And the judge and the jury
They all put the blame on me
They wouldn't go for my story
They wouldn't hear my plea
Only you can set me free
'Cause I'm guilty (Guilty)
As a girl can be
Come on baby, can't you see
I stand accused
Of love in the first degree).
So Red-- OMG, I was totally gonna mention Swiss Colony. . . but figured no one would ever have heard of it! Somehow, upon moving to DC for grad school, I ended up on their mailing list-- and I assumed (then) that they must have been a mid-Atlantic operation or something. I'd never heard of them. And man, that catalog turned into a beloved harbinger of Christmas for me as I progressed from student-adulthood into regular-person adulthood. I ordered something from them almost every year--- simply because I COULD (no parents to stop me. . . an extension of the "chocolate milk whenever I want" phenomenon. . . ). And y'know, their products really were not too great-- often rather bad-- but we did get our first "married" set of little glass Christmas ornaments from them (also cheap and none-too-durable), many of which are still with us. Finally gave them up entirely 'cause of their use of cottonseed oil, which triggers awful migraines in my poor lovely wife.
Service Merchandise, Prowl-! I'd forgotten about them! I know we picked up a few things from their South Bend branch, ourselves! My Mom was kind of a sucker for wildly oddball items if they were on a huge sale, though. (Six-man toboggan that we used exactly once; an ENORMOUS inflatable river-type raft that was used exactly once. . . etc) But also our first microwave, as well. Leather hamburgers, anyone?
HB
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