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Sears had no lock on Christmas catalogs that children would covet. Here’s a couple of thin-paper pages from 1961 with toys that any mid-century video-besotted-kid would want. Continue reading “As Seen on TV!”
It’s 1911: the Boy Scouts had been in existence in America for barely a year. Continue reading “Why Your Son Should Be an American Boy Scout”
Welcome to Boysville – Mid-century Sears modern. Continue reading Just like what Dad Wears
Today, once-mighty Sears Roebuck declared bankruptcy. Times change. Like these boys’ outfits. Continue reading Diff’rent Strokes: Goodbye, Sears
Schools can fall prone to gadget envy just like the rest of us. In 1918 this must have involved buying Victrola record players and finding ways to use 78rpm records in educational situations. Continue reading High Technology in Education – 1918 style
I had a train set as a boy, which mostly just went round and round once you snapped the track together. It needed considerable imagination and lying flat on the floor with your eyes as close to the tracks as possible to bring it to life…. Continue reading “Ives Toys make Happy Boys”
Montgomery Ward & Co, 1922 The start of the roaring ’20s’ and swimsuits were still modest – for the men as well as women. Although not quite as fully covering as swimwear from a decade before (arms and legs are starting to show) they still cover more than they reveal. Look at the “hero” outfit … Continue reading “Add to the Summer Joy of Bathing”
Here’s a charming page from the late 1920s Charles Williams catalog – an era when boys could legitimately go off to play wearing a costume and not get beaten to a pulp by the other neighborhood kids. Continue reading Caution – Boys at Play
As a sport, baseball in the 1930s was a national obsession in a way that was probably unmatched in America’s history. And everything you needed to play the Great American Pastime could be found on this oversized double-page spread. Continue reading Take me out to the Sandlot
We’re dipping once more into the 1968 JC Penney catalog, this time to see what the groovy kids were wearing in the late 1960s. Dennis the Menace here seems to be dressed in Lego colors… Continue reading Fisher-Price Females and Lego Lads
