A 1950 Hit!

I found this record among some other 78's at an estate sale last Friday.  Initially, I thought it was a musical hit from 1950, but it's actually a promotional record for the 1950 Ekco Pressure cooker.

It's a fictional award ceremony supposedly hosted at the Waldorf-Astoria Starlight roof

where excitement is running high as our host, Ben Grauer, interrupts a musical program to announce the winner of the National Home Safety contest, the newer and safer Ekco Pressure cooker, better known as the Ekconomic Lo-pressure cooker/sterilizer.

You can listen to the audio here.

Popular Science also featured this pressure cooker in their September 1950 issue as one of their "Aids to Modern Living" where they explain the main safety feature is its use of 3 3/4 lbs of pressure instead of the usual 5 to 10 and the special locking device that prevents premature opening of the lid until pressure is below 1/2 lb.  I'll bet somebody still managed to scald themselves with it.

Christmas Made in Japan

I went to an estate sale in South St. Louis City during my lunch hour on Friday and found these in a box of ornaments marked 50 cents.  They're all marked Japan and probably date from the '60's.  There were a few I wasn't particularly fond of, but I felt I couldn't leave them behind.  It would have been like banishing them to the Island of Misfit Toys.

The bases for these are made from a styrofoam bell halve

Merry Pixiemas

I picked these 2 pixies up at an estate sale a number of years ago.  They used to sit out on a shelf year round, but now only come out at Christmas.  They're ceramic and unlabeled, but probably made by Treasure Craft in the 50's.  They're seated, appropriately enough, next to a Brownie camera (I'd like to pretend I was clever enough to do that intentionally, but it was purely coincidence.)

Fröhliche Weihnachten

I came across these in a huge lot of other post cards at an estate sale this past Summer.  Evidently, the person was a collector.  I dug out my favorites.  The fact that the majority are written on and postmarked adds to the attraction for me.  I find it hard to wrap my mind around the fact that there ever was a 2 a.m. of December 24th, 1908, as one of them is stamped.  I was also impressed that presumably these arrived in time for Christmas, despite some of them being postmarked as late as 5:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

The postcards were all sent to the same family at 2517 N. Market St., St. Louis, MO which is just north of downtown St. Louis and is apparently sketchy enough to keep even the Google-vagen away as I couldn't find a streetview of the address.  The best I could do was a look down the street:

Up on the Housetop

In this post, I'm featuring some of the foreign-made Santa Clauses I've collected over the years.

These date from the '50's into the 70's.  I recall disliking the cheap plastic displays when I was young, but they now hold a certain charm.

First up is Santa arriving on the rooftop, reindeer slightly overshooting and clinging for dear (or is that deer... bah dah bomp!) life.

Safely inside, without a care for his reindeer, Santa sits on the mantle waving presents.  I found this one still in the package and committed the collector's unthinkable: I opened it.

I recognized this ornament from Christmas Vacation in the scene where Uncle Lewis burns down the Griswold Family tree.  This Santa drops from the tree melted and singed:

This one kind of creeped me out, but I couldn't resist:

I think this Santa pre-dates the others.  I believe it's Japanese (To me he even looks Oriental).  He's decked out in an unusual gold suit.  I thought something about the sleigh didn't look right.  It was clearly much newer.  When I got him home, I found out why: he was missing a foot and someone had salvaged him by placing him in this wicker sleigh and covering his legs in holly and tinsel.



Thanksgiving Wisdom

This was among the stack of children's magazines I acquired a few months ago.  The same stack as the Jack and Jill from October.

This is Wee Wisdom, November 1947 issue.  The cover shows the gang coming over for a game of football (or possibly picking the boy up) while the neighbor's dog looks on.

And How!

Here's my last minute desperate attempt at having at least one post in all of November!  I can't believe my last posting was Halloween.

Anyway, in the spirit of Thanksgiving and the Native American (okay, it's a bit of a stretch), I present a children's magazine from 1951 called "Here's How", a how-to guide for kids on subjects ranging from costumes to games to musical instruments.  Some of the projects would be deemed too dangerous for kids these days (oil drum fireplace, I'm looking at you!).

On this page, I learned the name for a Native American's loin cloth is a "clout".  I wonder how that relates to "having clout".

As indicated on the cover, this particular magazine belonged to Anna Meyer.  I picked this magazine up at an estate sale in Oakville a couple Saturdays ago.  In the garage, I saw this mural:

The resolution isn't the best, but you may be able to make out "July 31 1975 Anna" on the right side of the frame.  That means this book was already at least 24 years old before Anna received it (and a few more given the fact Anna wrote her name on the cover!)  I was a little perplexed by Anna's garage/nursery.  I wonder if they ran out of room by the time Anna came along.