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Show First Christmas'Wish Book' held wonders If the first Christmas "Wish Book" from Sears in 1933 was any indication of what was under the American Christmas tree that year, you would have found a cedar chest with floral-patterned stationery, felt slippers, a pearltone dresser set in a satin-lined satin-lined gift case, a five-pound box of chocolate drops and a "two-in-one" Tiddledy Wink game. A blanket cloth robe was $2.98, and there was a selection of "hard-to-break" dolls for 69 cents. Mickey Mouse watches made their early appearance in the catalog pages, and a metal band version with moving Mickey hands to tell time was $2.29. Things certainly hve changed. Catalogs from Sears have long been known as barometers of American lifestyles and economic conditions, and are frequently referred re-ferred to by movie makers and historians as the gospel to what people were buying in a particular time period. While American children today ask for Wonder Woman dolls, Superman belts, Rocky T-shirts, disco roller skates and hotdogger skateboards, the kids of 1933 had vastly different tasts. Dolls with real hair and "eyes that sleep" were the obvious choice of that decade's little girls. -The catalog carried their favorite "Miss Pigtails" for only $1. A solid oak children's dining set for those late afternoon tea parties, par-ties, was one of the more expensive expen-sive gifts, at $5.95, for the younger set. "Any boy would be 'tickled pink'," the catalog copy read, "to get a Strike Out King baseball with a How-to-Pitch booklet by Dazzy Vance himself." Now, who among us will admit to remembering re-membering Dazzy Vance? |