Mostly about my backyard chickens. (Boring, I know), but there are a lot of us out here. Mine are only kept as pampered pets. I could eat a neighbor's chicken, but not MINE. There may be a comment on current events only if I get riled up enough. And there will always be a cartoon or a joke to cheer us. I promise to try my very best to respond to comments. Now I have to figure out how this blogger thingy works....
Ever wonder what Great Grandma and Grandpa played with? A tea party circa 1913. (Courtesy of William Creswell)Toys haven’t always been a part of childhood. It was only during the
Victorian era that families began viewing play time as central to a
child’s development. Paired with industrialization, that meant the
invention of many new and exciting toys, with some more enduringly
popular than others. The Sears-Roebuck catalogs archived on Ancestry.com offer a glimpse at what kept your grandparents and great-grandparents entertained. 1860s: War Toys A Sears-Roebuck Catalog from 1901.
The Civil War excited the imagination of children across the country,
which the nascent toy industry exploited. Manufacturers marketed
colorful Zouave regiment uniforms, dolls, and toy muskets. Hearing
stories of young drummer boys leading troops into battle, kids clamored
for toy drums and bugles. The instruments stayed popular well into the
20th century. 1870s: Zoetrope Reel An 1899 image of a zoetrope reel. (Courtesy of Internet Archive Book Images)
If your family had this optical toy in the nursery, you were a very
popular kid. Patented by Milton Bradley in 1867, the machine created the
illusion of movement by spinning still drawings inside a drum. The
zoetrope was the first hint that children would one day become addicted
to animation. 1880s: Magic Lantern A catalog listing from 1905.
Though they had been around for many years, magic lanterns really
caught on as a Victorian parlor amusement in the 1880s. Hand-painted
slides in wood frames slipped into a machine and could be projected onto
a blank wall. Toward the end of the 19th century, manufacturers began
marketing the lanterns to children. Slide shows could be entertaining or
educational, as a tool to teach geography and history. Children also
liked giving presentations themselves. 1890s: Dolls 1900 catalog.
Sears-Roebuck catalogs at the turn of the century are filled with
dolls, doll costumes, tiny furniture, plush strollers — even doll
hammocks. According to an 1895 article in the New York Times,
dolls were the staple of the toy trade, with consumers spending $2
million on them annually! (That’s about $55 million today.) They were
primarily made in Germany and sold at low cost by street vendors. The
article notes that girls preferred blond dolls to brunettes and liked
them in fancy clothes. 1900s: Teddy Bears 1907 catalog.
In 1902, President Teddy Roosevelt went hunting, wanting to see a
bear. But when his friends caught one and tied it up, Roosevelt declined
to shoot it, believing it unsportsmanlike. The bear was later killed
anyway, but word of his merciful gesture got out and was made into a
cartoon that showed Roosevelt with the bear. After hearing the story,
two immigrants in Brooklyn made a stuffed bear and displayed it in their
store window. Suddenly, everyone wanted one and a craze began. The
Sears-Roebuck catalogs of the time hawked many varieties of teddy bears,
including ones of imported plush that made a noise when squeezed.
“These bears are the most sensible and serviceable toys ever put before
the public,” read a 1907 catalog. “Not a fad or campaign article, but
something which has come to stay on merit alone.” 1910s: Electric Trains 1911 catalog.
American manufacturers began incorporating electricity into toys at
the beginning of the 20th century. This fueled the country’s growing toy
industry, which was also aided by the decline of German industries
during World War I. Classic German trains were run by winding up a box.
New American sets had a third rail, battery, and a switch. As the
Sears-Roebuck catalog put it, that equaled “more fun to the dollar than
any mechanical toy ever sold.” 1920s: Chemistry Sets 1920 catalog.
With an increasing emphasis on child development, educational toys
grew popular in the 1920s. The A.C. Gilbert Company was a pioneer in the
field, introducing its chemistry set in 1923. Containing alcohol,
chemicals, copper plates, and glassware, the kits were intended to —
literally — spark boys’ interest in a chemistry career. There were
instructions for magic tricks and, OK, some toxins like sodium cyanide.
Sure, there was a risk of explosions, but that was part of the fun. 1930s: Buck Rogers Rocket Pistol 1934 catalog.
Introduced in 1934, the Buck Rogers pistol was the first ray gun ever
made. It was modeled on the one carried by a popular radio and comic
book character Buck Rogers, a World War I vet who is exposed to
radioactive gas and spends 500 years in suspended animation. He wakes as
a superhero with a futuristic weapon. Making a pleasing zapping sound,
the gun came out in several versions over the decades and was often sold
alongside other Buck paraphernalia, like an outfit, helmet, or holster. 1940s: Slinky The famous Slinky. (Courtesy of Roger McLassus)
Richard James invented the Slinky by accident in 1943. A mechanical
engineer, James knocked a new sensitive spring from a shelf and noticed
that it seemed to walk instead of fall. It became a hit two Christmases
later when he demonstrated it in a Philadelphia department store.
Millions of Slinkys later, it’s still a popular toy.
...... Saturday morning! It wasn't supposed to get THAT cold, so the light was not on in the coop for extra warmth. Poor Charlie and the girls! They got an extra ration of oatmeal and raisins for breakfast to warm them up. I let them out in the yard while I cleaned the pen and put more hay down, but they ran back in by themselves when they realized I put the light on in the coop. It works wonders - it takes the horrible chill out.
It started to snow later - didn't amount to much although it made the stairs slippery:
Spring must be coming soon - the first seed catalog arrived!
I cracked open that huge egg Maude made. Yup, it was a double yolker!
Used some of it to glaze the top of an apple pie. I gave the rest to the gang as a treat.
Eddie Lawrence Dies at 95; Comedy’s ‘Old Philosopher’
Eddie Lawrence, Comedian, Actor and Pitchman, Is Dead at 95
Eddie LawrenceCredit
GAB Archive/Redferns
When
Eddie Lawrence first performed his new comedy routine for his agent and
a few entertainment executives, they told him that they loved it but
that it was too clever for most people to understand. Mr. Lawrence had
more faith in his audience.
He began the routine in a nasally whimper, a voice he later described as “sort of a crying Jolson.”
“Hiya,
folks,” he said. “You say you lost your job today? You say it’s 4 a.m.
and your kids ain’t come home from school yet? You say your wife went
out for a corned beef sandwich last weekend — the corned beef sandwich
came back but she didn’t? You say your furniture’s out all over the
sidewalk cause you can’t pay the rent and you got chapped lips and paper
cuts and your feet’s all swollen up and blistered from pounding the
pavement looking for work? Is that’s what’s troubling you, fella?” Then,
as banal background music gave way to a marching band, Mr. Lawrence
abandoned the whimper for a bellow.
“Lift
your head up high!” he thundered. “Take a walk in the sun with that
dignity and stick-to-it-iveness, and you’ll show the world, you’ll show
them where to get off. You’ll never give up, never give up, never give
up — that ship!”
Released
in 1956 as a three-minute single, “The Old Philosopher” rose into the
Top 40 of the Billboard charts. Decades later, it continued to provide
Mr. Lawrence (and some imitators) with a flexible framework for comic
sketches, commercials
and many television appearances. Many people became familiar with the
routine, or variations on it, even if they did not know Mr. Lawrence by
name. But it brought him new opportunities. He worked as a lyricist,
pitchman, actor, writer and director. In the 1930s, he performed in
variety shows at the Roxy Theater. In the Army in World War II,
he was a disc jockey. Soon after the war, he did impersonations on
radio, including on a show with the actor John Marley, and he began
recording albums of comedy routines in the 1950s, many of which included
versions of “The Old Philosopher.”
He
became a regular on “The Steve Allen Show” and appeared on “The Tonight
Show Starring Johnny Carson.” In the 1980s, he adapted “The Old
Philosopher” for commercials for the Claridge Hotel Casino in Atlantic
City.
Decades
earlier, he appeared off Broadway in “The Threepenny Opera” and had a
prominent role on Broadway as a bookie in “Bells Are Ringing.”
In 1965, Mr. Lawrence wrote the lyrics for what became something of a pop standard, “I’ll Never Go There Anymore.”
Stephen Sondheim once listed it among songs he wished he had written,
but it was also linked to one of Mr. Lawrence’s most frustrating
experiences, the 1965 musical “Kelly.” Inspired by the story of Steve
Brodie, who supposedly survived jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge in 1886,
the show became the biggest flop Broadway had ever seen at the time.
Mr.
Lawrence wrote the book and the lyrics, and Moose Charlap composed the
music. It was a labor of love for both of them, intended as a nuanced,
unconventional story that reflected their serious artistic ambitions.
But after producers decided to make substantial changes, Mr. Lawrence
and Mr. Charlap sued, trying to stop the production from going forward.
The cost ballooned from $450,000 to $650,000, considered exorbitant at
the time.
The show opened on Broadway on Feb. 6, and closed after that one performance.
The
experience was a lifelong sore point for Mr. Lawrence. He was pleased
many years later when a concert version of “Kelly,” as originally
written, was produced by the York Theater Company, with Brian d’Arcy
James in the lead role.
Eddie
Lawrence was born Lawrence Eisler on March 2, 1919, in New York, the
oldest of two brothers. His father, Benjamin, was a banker, and his
mother, the former Bess Garbowsky, was a garment worker. He graduated
from Boys High School in Brooklyn and he later studied art at Brooklyn
College, where he graduated in 1940.
His survivors include his wife, the former Marilyn White, and his son, Garrett Eisler, who confirmed his father’s death.
Mr. Lawrence sometimes said no when asked to perform his signature routine to pitch products.
When
that happened, it was not unusual for him to later hear an imitator on
the radio, hawking whatever it was he had decided against pitching. But
he often said yes. In 1974, he was surprised to get a call from John
Lennon. Mr. Lennon had produced a record by Harry Nilsson and he asked
Mr. Lawrence to do a promotional riff for the record. He gave Mr.
Lawrence creative control.
“Hiya,
pussy cat,” Mr. Lawrence said in the 30-second spot. “You say you
opened up a bicycle wash and the first six customers drowned, and they
picked you up in the wax museum for trying to score with Marie
Antoinette? Is that what’s got you down, pussy cat? Well, rise up, get
yourself Harry Nilsson’s new album, ‘Pussy Cats,’ produced by John
Lennon. Nilsson’s latest — ‘Pussy Cats.’ On RCA records and tapes. Meow,
and purr.”
