Pitch perfect: toys

As the Pitch Perfect series continues, we today feature a collection of 1949 advertising slogans used to market games, toys, and dolls.

Always your dependable source of supplies for toys (Riemann, Seabrey).

BICYCLE is the card player’s choice (playing cards).

Dad played marbles, too (Akro Agate Co.).

Engineering for boys (Meccano toys).

For your children’s sake (slides, merri-go-rounds), Mettemaker Corp.

Heart’s desire for every youngster, The (Reliable dolls).
Home of toys, The (F. A. O. Schwarz), New York.

It must be good to be a Gund (toys).
Ives Toys make happy boys (Ives Mfg. Co.).

Made by the tiny Arcadians (toys), Arcade Mfg. Co., Freeport, Ill.
Made in America for American boys and girls (Kiddie-Kar), H. C. White Co.
Make men of boys (toys), Structo Mfg. Co.
Makes happy boys (toys), Ives Mfg. Co.

Playtime Pals for the nation’s kiddies (toys), Coronet Toy Mfg. Co., Seattle.

Reliable doll, A (Cuddles).
Roller skate with three lives (Chicago).
Roll on rubber (Chicago Roller Skate Co.).

Skate with a backbone, The (Winchester Repeating Arms Co.).

They look real (toys), Arcade Mfg. Co., Freeport, Ill.
Tiny Arcadians, The (toys).
Toys that are genuine (A. C. Gilbert Co., The).
Trains that railroad men buy for their boys, The (Lionel).
True and beautiful, The (George Revilo Carter).
Twice as much fun (Loco-Builder electric trains), Dorfan Co.

All aboard for Christmases Past

Is there a holiday gift that more effectively evokes Christmases gone by than model trains?

We never had a set ourselves, though we’ve always found them fascinating, and if ever we lived in a home that had an extra room (not likely as long we remain in NYC), it’s a hobby we wouldn’t mind adopting later in life.

We found the following footage, from 1940 and the 1950s, utterly charming and wanted to share it with the Cladrite community. It’s a lovely, if too brief, trip back in time.

And speaking of built-to-scale railroads (and the miniature villages they travel through), we love this short about the amazing Roadside America, one of our absolute favorite tourist attractions, which still is still thriving today in Shartlesville, Pennsylvania.

Roadside America is a must-see for anyone who might be passing through central Pennsylvania, and it’s especially appealing to anyone with an appreciation for model railroading.