Christmas Snapshots


Dec. 6, 1959, Christmas 

Dec. 6, 1959: Let’s look through The Times’ Christmas ads and see what we can find … 

Dec. 6, 1959, Schwinn

… This Schwinn Speedster costs $386.92, USD 2008 …

Dec. 6, 1959, Science Toys
 

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=2170759913343757068&hl=en&fs=true How many girls do you think got Erector Sets for Christmas in 1959? But look closely at this article. There’s a mention of the “Annie Oakley” TV show, starring Gail Davis, one of the few adventure/Western programs of that era with a woman lead character.

Dec. 6, 1959, Doll

… In 1959, girls get dolls!

Dec. 6, 1959, Dishwasher

… For busy housewives, a dishwasher!

Dec. 6, 1959, Lighter

… Hey it’s those cigarette lighters with little things floating in the lighter fluid. I never knew anyone who had one of these. I never saw anything but Zippos … 

image 
… Like these …

Dec. 6, 1959, For Men Only

… And men use Christmas shopping as an excuse for a night out with the boys…

Dec. 6, 1959, Shaver

“Well, hon, if you’re tired of cutting yourself shaving, why don’t you try an electric?”

”Because they’re lousy, that’s why.”

Dec. 6, 1959, Hifi Equipment

… Notice there’s no price on the Sherwood S5000. I guess people were supposed to worry about that later. Hint: Do NOT, under any circumstances, buy the Wollensaks. Leave them for the school A/V departments.

 

Dec. 6, 1959, Fragrances   Fragrances for the ladies, like White Shoulders …

Dec. 6, 1959, Fragrances

Rallet No. 1, Intimate, White Magnolia. I don’t recognize any of these fragrances.

Dec. 6, 1959, Film 

How to shoot home movies for the holidays: Put the camera on the floor for that arty effect.

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About lmharnisch

I am retired from the Los Angeles Times
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7 Responses to Christmas Snapshots

  1. One of the things I miss about smoking is my Zippos.

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  2. buddy summers's avatar buddy summers says:

    To bad times have changed for the worst…… It now cost a fortune for Christmas and everyone is so spoiled that it is disgusting and it is no longer a time of joy but a time of stress….

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  3. Junior's avatar Junior says:

    Buddy Summers said:
    To bad times have changed for the worst…… It now cost a fortune for Christmas and everyone is so spoiled that it is disgusting and it is no longer a time of joy but a time of stress….
    Hey Buddy,
    You cant say CHRISTMAS any longer! Yesterday afternoon my beloved wife put out the nativity set in the front yard…in jest, told her to look for a warning message from the community board asking that she take it down. Oh where oh where has American gone!!! Aaaaah, can you say, “political correctness?!?!?!?

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  4. howardroark43's avatar howardroark43 says:

    i had a metallic-blue schwinn stingray with a white sparkle seat that had the blue schwinn ‘S’ in the middle. also had the official schwinn headlight and custom ape-hanger handlebars that has stylistic indendations going up the vertical bars. i loved that bike. me, and the guys in my neighborhood who had schwinns, were continually washing them and going thruogh bottles of chrome polish. the kids who had huffy’s just let them fall to the ground, but us proud schwinn owners always used our kickstands. in the summer, i was on my bike from morning until my mom screamed for me to come in at night.
    one time, when i was around 10-ish, me and my best friend bobby curley and his brother timmy, rode our stingray’s (timmy had a huffy) allllll the way from our neighborhood to the beach about 8 miles away. our parents would’ve killed us had they known we’d set out on a mt. everest-like quest. we left early in the morning and by the time we got there, it was baking hot. we spent the whole day at the beach swimming and just hanging out. it was the kid-equivalent of going to vegas without the wife knowing. by late afternoon, we knew we had the brutal ride back and better arrive by 6pm – dinnertime. we were lobster-red with sunburn and hadn’t eaten a thing the entire day because we had about 3 cents between us. on the ride home, we were dizzy from heat-exhaustion and hunger. timmy, who was the mastermind of our group, suddenly swerved into a grocery store parking lot. we followed him and bobby and i began to threaten his life for holding out on us with money in his pocket. we locked our bikes (timmy didn’t, he had a huffy, remember?) and timmy, wordlessly pulled out his empty jean pockets. we followed him into the store as he went up and down a few aisles; bobby and i didn’t get it until timmy looked around… and then ripped open a bag of cookies, shoving broken fistfulls in his mouth. all three of us went up and down that aisle, laughing so hard but trying to get food down our gullets as fast as possible. we made a quick stop to the milk aisle and quickly shared a few big gulps with much of it winding up on our shirts. i still can’t remember if anyone saw us… i’m sure my guilty conscious has blocked that out. anyway, we ran out, laughing so hard i could barely breathe, got on our bikes and rode home invigorated.
    i wished i would’ve kept my schwinn stingray; just to look at it every now and then.
    btw – that was one of the worst things we’d done as kids. but it seemed necessary at the moment. when i die, i’m sure God will mention it but the angels and me and the curley brothers, will be laughing when He runs the footage. and Jesus will probably say, “look at that sweet metallic-blue Schwinn Stingray!”

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  5. Celia's avatar Celia says:

    Wow. The U$D has no worth today…

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  6. Stacia's avatar Stacia says:

    howardroark43, I think I had the EXACT same bicycle, same color and everything, except it was the girls’ version without the bar that went from the seat to above the front wheel. Thing is, I had that bike in the late 1970s; I wasn’t born until 1971. In fact, I think half of the stuff in my parents’ house was from 1959, if these ads are any indication. Dad had a Zippo with the golfer floating in it, and he and Mom had matching Zippos, silver, just like in the ad. And they also had that electric shaver. I know, because when I was a teenager in the 1980s Mom gave it to me for shaving my legs! Unbelievable.
    I knew a lot of the stuff we had about the house was old but until this post I didn’t realize how old it was. I would have thought mid-1960s at the earliest.

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  7. Frank's avatar Frank says:

    I still have my metallic-blue schwinn stingray from 1974 ready to give to my daughter to ride. I put many miles on that bike. I also have my 10 speed gray varsity schwinn bike from 1978. I take care of my things. The best thing I love about these bikes. They say “MADE IN CHICAGO” NOT china.

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