Roberto Clemente was an extraordinary baseball player with a presence that captivated fans, especially young people. Known for his powerful hitting, swift base-running, and an arm likened to a “rifle” for its strength and precision, Clemente left an unforgettable mark on the game. While he loved baseball, his devotion to his family and his homeland of Puerto Rico came above all else.

Today, baseball showcases players from many ethnic backgrounds, but there was a time when Latino players faced severe discrimination. Although Jackie Robinson’s entry into Major League Baseball in 1947 marked the beginning of integration, progress remained slow and uneven. For Latino players, even in the 1960s, segregation persisted, as they were often barred from staying in the same hotels or eating in the same restaurants as their white teammates during spring training in the South.

The Pittsburgh Pirates

Roberto Clemente (1934-1972) persevered, playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates for eighteen seasons. He won four national League batting titles; 12 Gold Gloves, recognizing his work as a defense player in right field. Remarkably, he achieved 3000 hits during his career (one of only ten players to do by 1972 when Clemente hit that record. He was also the first Puerto Rican to be voted Most Valuable Player (1971 World Series). Later, he was selected for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Clemente’s values involved doing all he could for his country of birth. Whenever he had the opportunity, he ran baseball clinics for children there, as that was an opportunity that he never had.

During the baseball season, he visited children in the local hospitalswhere the team played.

He died during the baseball off-season when he was in a plane crash taking supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua on New Year’s Eve 1972.

Early Life

Roberto Enrique Clemente was the youngest of seven siblings born to Luisa Walker in Carolina, Puerto Rico. His father, Melchor, was a foreman for a sugar cane enterprise. Resources were tight, so Melchor Clemente’s sons often worked alongside their father. Sugar cane is heavy and hard to handle so the boys became strong doing the work.

Both parents set an example of hard work and discipline. His mother took care of the family but she and Melchor also committed to providing lunch to many of the sugar cane workers. Luisa rose early every day to prepare the midday meal.

In high school, Roberto Clemente was a great athlete. He became a track and field star, participating in high jump and the javelin throw. But his preference for sports play was baseball.

Baseball in the Barrio

Baseball was a popular street game in the barrios, but in the Carolina district, many of the children did not have money for equipment. Clemente and his brothers sometimes used a broomstick or a Guava branch as a bat.

They often lacked a baseball, so they used a paper ball, a rubber ball, or a lumpy sphere of strings and old rags, according to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. 

During one barrio game, Clemente was noticed by an executive with the Sello Rojo rice company. The company sponsored a softball team, and the fellow recruited Clemente to play for them.  

Getting Noticed By the Dodgers

While still in high school, he signed with the Puerto Rican baseball team, the Santurce Cangrejeros, a winter league team supported by the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League. The first year he saw little play, but during the second year he was on the starting lineup. A scout for the Brooklyn Dodgers noticed him.

In 1954, the Brooklyn Dodgers offered Roberto Clemente a contract with a signing bonus. Following the Baseball League rules, players paid more than $4,000 as a signing bonus were considered “Bonus Babies.”  Clemente’s bonus was $10,000 to sign.

According to the League, the teams were to abide by certain rules with bonus babies. The signing  player was not to be shipped off to a farm team at the beginning of his contract. He was to stay with the team that signed him, playing when he could. In theory, this was a good idea, but bonus babies were young players and needed more opportunity to play before working with the Major Leagues, so in many cases, it was counter productive.

The Brooklyn Dodgers must have hoped that no one would notice that they placed Clemente with an affiliated team, the Montreal Royals. They wanted him to have more playing experience, but the coach of the Royals was told, “If you notice baseball scouts in the crowd, bench him.”

They knew Clemente was special, and they didn’t want him seen and possibly drafted by another team. 

Return to Puerto Rico For the Winter League

Customarily, Black and Latino players finished the regular baseball season in the U.S., and then joined a team to play for a Latin American country for the winter season. These players made less money than their white counterparts. They loved the game, but it also offered the opportunity to increase their income.

After Clemente finished his second season with the Royals, he returned to play ball with a Puerto Rican team as he always did. It was probably there that he was spotted by the Pittsburgh Pirates. According to Rule 5 in baseball, if the team that signed a “bonus baby” violates the contract, then Rule 5 permitted other teams to make offers.

Someone with the Pirates must have known that Clemente was playing for the Montreal Royals, so they bought out Clemente’s contract with a payment to the Dodgers of $4,000.

By the mid-1950s, Clemente was on his way to Pittsburgh.

Father Comes to a Few Games

 Melchor Clemente was a hard-working man. He loved his family but he didn’t have time for side interests or hobbies.  Finally, when Roberto was playing in the winter league and making a name for himself, Melchor agreed to come to a game. In an anecdote from David Maraniss’ book, Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero, Maraniss writes that Melchor did not understand baseball.

After one of the games, Melchor told his son he was very sorry that he was relegated to run around to all the bases when most of the others got up to bat and then got to sit down.

Joined the Marine Reserve

Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens by birthright. Because Roberto Clemente was a patriotic man to both Puerto Rico and America, he was proud to sign up for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in 1958. His training involved six months active service, split between Parris Island, South Carolina, and Camp LeJeune, North Carolina.

He ultimately said that the strength training he did with the military helped him overcome back problems he suffered since his car had been hit by a drunk driver when Clemente was only 20.

Personal Life

While home in Puerto Rico, Roberto Clemente became smitten by a young woman he met. It took persistence for Clemente to get Vera Zabala to agree to go out with him. Then when it worked out between them, he worked hard to persuade Vera and her father to agree to a marriage.

The couple was married in November of 1964. It was a great marriage. They had three children. The discriminatory atmosphere in the United States made both Vera and Roberto very uncomfortable. Vera visited when Clemente was in the U.S. but tended not to stay long

Both Vera and Roberto felt strongly that their children should be born in Puerto Rico, so each time, she was pregnant, she returned home.

The two were also united in the charity work that Clemente found important and rewarding.

Segregation

Both Latino and Black players continued to face discrimination in the United States, even as late as the 1960s.

Because Clemente was one of the first Latino players to qualify for a major league team in the United States, he often encountered discrimination. Three Latino baseball players, Victor Pellot, Hiram Bithorn, and Luis Olmo, known as the Three Kings—preceded him. There were still many obstacles to overcome.

When the team traveled, he could not travel or eat or stay with the team because of “whites only” restrictions. The practice was that the Black and Latino players wait on the bus while the white players went into a restaurant for a meal. When the team came out, they would bring food for the waiting team members.

Clemente was both saddened and angry by this and felt that there should be no “second class” team members.

By 1961, Clemente was sick of this treatment and complained bitterly. The Pittsburgh Courier, a Black newspaper, took up his campaign. Team management finally responded, but the solution was not to let the men join their white friends. They were provided with a station wagon. Instead of traveling on the bus, the minority players were able to drive themselves to the next destination and look for restaurants where they could be fed.

He and the team’s Cuban shortstop were placed with Black families in Pittsburgh because they could not stay with the team.

Visceral Understanding of the Civil Rights Movement

Clemente became friends with Martin Luther King, Jr, and the two men enjoyed the opportunities they had to talk together.

King was in Memphis in April of 1968 to aid the sanitation workers who were on strike. He was assassinated while there.

Clemente was beside himself at the loss of his friend and the civil rights leader. King was to be buried on April 9, and yet Clemente and his team were to start the new season on April 8 of that year. Led by Clemente, the Black players refused to play unless opening day was moved to April 10 so the players could attend the funeral.

As the Major League management saw what had happened, they wisely moved the opening day for all teams. Despite that, the early games took place against the backdrop of civil unrest in more than 100 cities. 

Demons

Roberto Clemente was first to admit that he had many demons. The car accident when he was only 20 dislodged three of the discs in his lower spine. Low back pain followed him the rest of his career. Every game was preceded by a trip to the team trainer.

He had great difficulty sleeping, perhaps partly because of the back pain. His disrupted sleep was particularly vexing during baseball season when he couldn’t get the rest he needed.

In all likelihood, the chronic pain led to many of his other health concerns. However in the winter of 1965, he came down with malaria and was seriously ill. He was hospitalized and lost almost 25 pounds.

To have been seriously ill only compounded his anxiety about his aches and pains. The media sometimes wrote of him as a hypochondriac. This further angered him.

Baseball Achievements

As a baseball player, he was beloved by the public and seemed to have a magnetic appeal. Clemente was known for excellent out fielding. He could catch and throw whatever came his direction. He had a strong arm, powerful wrists, and one writer described him as having eyes in his fingertips—his catches were so uncanny.

He earned 12 Gold Gloves for outstanding fielding, and he emerged from his career with 3,000 hits and was a four-time batting champion. He was also selected as outstanding player of 1971 World Series. (For complete statistics on Roberto Clemente, see his Major League Baseball page.

Because he stayed in such good shape throughout his career, reporters were always looking for answers to his eating and exercise routine. He got tired of answering the question as he got older and started telling writers that he put in a hard 3-hour workout during the off-season. In fact, nothing could have been further from the truth. He was more likely to be at home doing small repairs on the house than at the gym exercising.

The Bats He Preferred

At the time, Clemente became one of the baseball players that had 3000 hits in his career, he was one of only ten players. (Today that number is only 33 players. It’s an exclusive club.)

Fans loved watching him when he came up for bat. He preferred heavier bats. They were a challenge to lift, but Clemente made it look easy.

He originally used a bat made by Hillerich & Bradsby, commercialized as the Louisville Slugger bat.  Later in his career, he came to prefer a bat that was made by the same company but was originally made for a baseball player named Bernard Bartholomew “Frenchy” Uhalt. Uhalt played in the Pacific Coast League, and while his career spanned only 57 games in the minor leagues, he became well-known because Roberto Clemente came to favor his bat.

At the end of the season, Clemente generally met with a representative from Hillerich & Bradsby. He knew everything about the bats he liked, and one of the points he made was that the bats should be made of wide grains, He knew that wide grains were from summer growth, and that was what he preferred.

He tested the bats by swinging them against each other and could identify based on the sound.

Just before his death, the company was at work on a new model for him. In late December, they sent two versions of the bat so he could choose. Sadly, he likely never held either in his hands.

At the Plate

Fans loved watching him approach home plate when it was his turn to bat. He never smiled. He sometimes took with him two or three bats to the on-deck circle. According to Davad Maraniss, he carried them all in one hand and then put one knee down to check the bats again. He then made his selection, and clearly his system worked

Good Works

While Roberto Clemente’s time for other activities was limited during the baseball season, one deed he could do was visit children in hospitals, which he faithfully did. He generally sorted through the letters himself to decide which place he had time to visit.

After his career, he aspired to build a “sports city” in Puerto Rico so that kids would have opportunities he never had. Even before he retired, he ran clinics for kids whenever he could. (Today 30 percent of baseball players are Latino, the largest group of players in the MLB.)

Pride in Puerto Rico

Clemente took to heart that Puerto Ricans were U.S. citizens, and he couldn’t understand the condescending attitude he encountered time and again.

His love for his home country was sincere, and he wished to be respected for his patriotism to his place of birth. When the Pittsburgh Pirates won the World Series in 1971, Clemente made his first remarks in Spanish, paying homage to the values and skills that he learned there.

Even once he had been in the Major Leagues for a time, he always tried to return to play in the winter league in Puerto Rico. He wanted to do all he could to make the lives of his people better.

He and Vera also wanted all three of their children born there, so even if she was with Roberto for part of the year, she went home before her due date was near.

Good Works

While Roberto Clemente’s time for other activities was limited during the baseball season, one deed he could do was visit children in hospitals, which he faithfully did. He generally sorted through the letters himself to decide which place he had time to visit.

After his career, he aspired to build a “sports city” in Puerto Rico so that kids would have opportunities he never had. Even before he retired, he ran clinics for kids whenever he could. (Today 30 percent of baseball players are Latino, the largest group of players in the MLB.)

Earthquake in Nicaraugua

In late 1972, Roberto Clemente served as manager of the Puerto Rico national baseball team at the Amateur World Series. The games ended in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua.

When Managua experienced a massive earthquake in December of 1972, Clemente was deeply affected by the difficulties the country faced. He immediately started collecting food and supplies the people would need, in addition to raising money

The goods began being shipped to Nicaragua, but soon word came to Clemente that the money and the supplies were not getting through to the residents most affected by the disaster. Political graft was siphoning off money and supplies.

With that information, Clemente decided he had no choice but to take the latest collection of supplies to Nicaragua himself. A friend helped him find a plane he could charter. Neither of them knew that the airplane had been poorly maintained, and the pilot who was hired at the last minute had no experience with this particular plane.

The results were disastrous.  With Clemente on board, the plane took off. Almost immediately the aircraft dove into the water. All was lost and Roberto Clemente’s body was never recovered.

It was a sad day for baseball; a sad day for America, and an absolute tragedy for his family and the people of Puerto Rico who revered him.

Hall of Fame

The sports world was so stunned by the tragedy, they opted out of the five-year rule on when players were eligible for the Hall of Fame. Eleven weeks after the plane went down, Roberto Clemente was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Clemente once said:
“If you have a chance to help others and don’t, you are wasting your time on this earth…” 

Also read about Roy Campanella.

“Black Friday” has come to describe what is generally the busiest in-person shopping day of the year. Many assume that it refers to the season when retailers “move into the black” after months of businesses operating at a loss (in the red).

“Black Friday” has come to describe what is generally the busiest in-person shopping day of the year. Many assume that it refers to the season when retailers “move into the black” after months of businesses operating at a loss (in the red).

But the term is thought to have been first used by the Philadelphia Police Department in 1965. The officers used it to describe the heavy traffic on the Friday after Thanksgiving caused by shoppers. The city was particularly crowded because people from all over the country also arrived to see the Army-Navy football annual match-up. The game has traditionally been played in Philadelphia; it is a neutral location with a big stadium and plenty of room for attendees from both schools. (This year, Pennsylvania would have capped attendance at a low number because of the threat of the virus. For that reason, the game is scheduled for December 12 at West Point.)

Holiday Promotions

When we hear about “Black Friday” sales, what we think is the beginning of holiday shopping. Stores will be doing all they can to encourage us to spend. 

Every type of promotion used today has roots in the past, starting with the very first type of “promotional opportunity,” window displays.

Window Displays

Initially, all shopping had to be done locally. The first mail order catalog was sent out in 1872 by Montgomery Ward, and it took many decades before shopping by mail caught on.

As a result, going to town and seeing what stores were selling was the first phase of deciding to buy. This made store windows an important part of all plans.

Since the first purpose of windows was to let light into stores, it took time before merchants found the value of window displays, but they soon began showing their wares: fresh meat at the butcher’s, new hats at the milliner’s, an d tools and miscellany at the general store. The store purveyors soon noted this was good for sales. People would come in asking for a product they saw in the window. 

By the 1840s, the technology to make larger panes of glass expanded sales opportunities. The windows could be bigger, letting in more light and providing display space. In December, all the stores had displays of what shoppers might like for Christmas. The initial style was to place as many products as one could in the window. Surely a passerby would note one or two products that would bring them into the store.

Early automation offered the possibility of specialty displays. A nodding Santa attracted attention to the window and encouraged shoppers to stop and look. These early automatons were known as “trade stimulators.”

Theatrical Holiday Windows

Lord & Taylor in New York City (closed in 2019) laid claim to being the first department store to feature theatrical window displays. However, it may have been Chicago’s Marshall Field. Arthur Fraser added themes to the window designs, and may have been first to establish the concept of each window revealing a new chapter of a story as a shopper walked along.

Fraser also introduced the “less is more” idea for window displays. Up until the 1920s, most retailers put tables in the window and placed as much merchandise as they could out for display. Fraser saw that a sparser, more dramatic window display would encourage shoppers to venture in.

Santas

Santa was another enticement to shoppers. If families could bring their children downtown to see the toy displays and request toys from a real-life Santa, that was good for sales. Montgomery Ward was well-known for employing in-store Santas to attract customers. (Click here to read about the First Store Santa.)  

After each child explained to Santa what he or she wanted, Santa would reach into his toy bag and hand the child a small gift. At many stores it was a coloring book. In 1939, Montgomery Ward created the coloring book in-house, and the world gained Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, courtesy of Montgomery Ward copywriter. (For more on the story behind Rudolph, click here.)

Holiday Selling Still Important

As customers have turned to more online shopping, the theatrical Christmas stories that used to be featured in the windows of Lord & Taylor, Macy’s, Altman’s, Marshall Field, and Dayton’s, among others are now reduced to just a few major stores: including Macy’s, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks, and Bloomingdale’s.

And just as in the past, if merchandise does not start moving well, special promotions start. If all else fail, there will be big post-holiday sales. 

Each year, stores dust off and prepare for the future…hoping that the following year will be better than ever.

In the 19^th century many people could not read, so store owners placed carvings of various symbols in front of their shops so passersby knew what was sold inside. A carving of a wooden Indian indicated a tobacco store; a red, white and blue striped pole symbolized a barber; three gold balls represented a pawn shop; a mortar and pestle indicated an apothecary.

The use of the carved Indian as a symbol in front of a tobacco shop began in England the early 1600s as the ships from America began to bring back tobacco. The symbolism of the statues was because the source of the tobacco supply at that time was from Native Americans.  By 1650 tobacco was growing in popularity, and in London, several cigar store Indians gave rise to what became a form of signage that was used for 250 years.  These early carvings were made by carvers who had never seen a Native American so they were based on drawings or descriptions from those who had visited the colonies.  The sculptures were sometimes called “Virginians” or “Virginnie men” to clarify what they represented. 

Signage Tradition Crosses the Pond

The colonists also enjoyed tobacco, but initially, towns were small enough that townspeople simply knew where they could buy certain items.  By the 1850s, cities were increasing in size and there were more stand-alone tobacco stores. This was when the Cigar Store Indian took its place on American streets.

Carvers

Most of the men who carved cigar store Indians came from a shipbuilding background where they specialized in sculpting wooden figureheads for each ship.  These carvings—figureheads and store carvings–were generally out of a single piece of wood,  (An outstretched arm sometimes had to be attached separately.)  Everything from the selection of the material to the artistry of the carving made a difference.

Because there were not many carvers, cigar store Indians were not widely available until the 1850s when the shipping industry began to switch from wooden ships to ironclad steam vessels, and the ironclads had no need for figureheads.

When the ship-carving business dried up, the artists were delighted to turn to carvings for retail establishments.

Not every tobacconist wanted an Indian for the shop. Another popular figure for tobacco stores were Turks wearing turbans, soldiers in uniform, or a fashionable lady.

Each Cigar Store Indian Had a Personality

The statues used to mark various stores took on personalities given them by the townspeople.  In Reading, Pennsylvania, the cigar store Indian was known as Old Eagle Eye. Chief Blackhawk, carrying a warrior’s club and a lion skin, lived on the streets of Louisville, Kentucky.  Chief Semloh was created in 1849 in San Francisco, and he lasted on the streets there until the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. Semloh was removed from the street, but someone took an interest in tinkering with him. They made it so he could blow smoke through his mouth and talk through a loudspeaker in his chest.

Famous Carvers of Cigar Store Indians

Two of the more famous carvers of the nineteenth century were Julius Melchers (1829-1908) and Samuel Robb (1851-1928). Melchers was a German-born sculptor who immigrated to the U.S. in 1848 and settled in Detroit, where he established himself as a carver.  In addition to carving cigar store Indians, he did other types of sculpture.  In the late 1860s, Melchers was commissioned to carve the “larger than life” sand stone statues of Detroit’s four French pioneer: Antoine Cadillac, Father Jacques Marquette, Robert de LaSalle, and Father Gabriel Richard.  These were installed at the old Detroit City Hall in 1874, and they are now are on view at Wayne State University.

Samuel Robb was born into a family of Scottish ship carvers, and he grew up in Brooklyn, New York.  In his teens he apprenticed to a shipbuilder, and then took a job with a wood-carver where he further perfected his art. At night Robb took classes, first at the National Academy of Design, and then at Cooper Union.  In 1876 (when he was 25) he opened his own shop in New York City, and it became the largest shop of its kind during the 19^th century.  Robb became highly sought-after carver for his ability to create a wide variety of figures ranging from cigar store Indians to circus wagons and ventriloquist dummies. Because he was highly sought-after he eventually opened a second workshop.

Popularity of Store Statuary Declines

Beginning in about 1890, city streets were becoming increasingly crowded. Many cities passed laws requiring two feet of open space in front of each store.  In addition, tobacconists were expanding their product lines.  As a result, many of the cigar store Indians were retired or tossed. Today there are not many left. Those that exist tend to be in museum collections or in private hands.

The well-preserved ones by exceptional artists can bring over $100,000 at auction.  Here are some of the pieces carved by Samuel Robb that can be seen on Artnet.

At holiday time, a special treat for the family often involved a trip downtown (or to the nearest big city) to see the store windows, talk to Santa, and admire the town Christmas tree. Major cities still have this holiday atmosphere (think of Rockefeller Center and the windows at Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdale’s, and Saks), but in smaller communities across the country the fabric of the shopping experience has been changed by the rise of big box stores.

Today retailers compete for the consumer dollar during the holidays via enticing catalogs, additional advertising, free shipping, and that all-important factor—special coupons and price reductions. Many shoppers will also be using a phone app to make sure they are getting the best prices on the items they are considering.

But 150 years ago, the competition for customers was local, and holiday window displays became a key factor. A Santa in the store also helped lure buyers, and many small towns also had Christmas parades to kick off the shopping season. (A few towns still have a Christmas parade, though the numbers are dwindling.)

The Importance of Windows

In the early 1800s, the purpose of a store window was for one thing–to let in enough natural light for business to be conducted. Over time, merchants began using store windows to display their wares. Butchers hung whatever fresh meat they were selling that day, general stores displayed a sampling of their offerings, and specialty shops such as milliners showed off their latest creations. By the 1840s, the ability to make larger panes of glass expanded the opportunity for retailers to present more items in the store windows.

Competition Heats Up

Retailers have always looked for new ways to attract consumers, and in the late 1800s, the focus on creating an inviting and intriguing holiday experience began to grow. In the 1880s, a store in Boston hired a Scottish immigrant to serve as a Santa Claus, and the tradition of the department store Santa seemed to have spread from there.

See the story about the “First Store Santa.”

Theatrical Windows

Stores were also beginning to understand what creative window displays could accomplish for them–sometimes providing publicity, and almost always attracting a crowd. In New York City, Lord & Taylor prides itself on having first ventured into “theatrical” window displays, but the epi-center of change may have been Chicago where the World’s Columbian Exposition took place in 1893.

This event attracted the greatest talents from around the world who arrived in Chicago to create their country’s display. The “Midway Plaisance” (the mile-long park area along the park was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, and the list of men (and one woman, Sophia Bennett, the first American woman to receive an architecture degree) who created buildings for the fair reads like a “Who’s Who” of late nineteenth century architects.

The fair introduced Chicagoans and all other fair goers to new concepts of information and entertainment. At the time of the exposition, Marshall Field & Co. (now Macy’s) was headed by Harry Selfridge (1864-1947) who was a brilliant merchant. He is credited with creating the sales slogan that still dominates the air waves today “Only ____ Shopping Days Until Christmas.” While at Marshall Field (before leaving the U.S. to begin the successful, eponymous U.K. chain of stores) Selfridge hired a talented fellow by the name of Arthur Fraser to work at Marshall Field. Fraser began adding themes to his window designs, and over time, he established the concept of each window revealing a new chapter in a story with shoppers following it as they walked along.

Montgomery Ward and Rudolph

Down the street, Chicago-based Montgomery Ward employed in-store Santas to attract customers. After each child would explain to Santa what he or she wanted, Santa would reach into his toy bag and hand the child a free coloring book to keep the child busy until Christmas. In 1939 Montgomery Ward created the coloring book in-house, and the world gained Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, courtesy of Montgomery Ward copywriter. (For more on this touching store, click here.)

By 1948, Marshall Field had created a competing family of characters, led by Uncle Mistletoe and Aunt Holly who lived in Cloud Cottage. Cloud Cottage was originally only used in window displays, but then Marshall Field assigned to ad agency Foote, Cone, & Belding the task of creating a television show based on them. The show opened with a live segment featuring performers Johnny Coons and Jennifer Holt (daughter of cowboy movie star Jack Holt). The program then switched over to a “live cartoon” that was drawn on air by a cartoonist. The cartoon images were projected on a screen using an overhead projector that were then filmed using two different cameras, which gave the general idea of animation. The system was crude but less time-intensive and therefore, more affordable)

The television program about Uncle Mistletoe and Aunt Holly was very popular in the early 1950s, and lasted for several seasons. However, Rudolph won in the long run, as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, both the song and the television show, are still enormously popular today.

Over time, stores everywhere began to copy the idea of window displays, and today in cities where displays are still featured, music and animatronics have become staples and the displays can take a full year to plan and execute. While people still line up outside some of the major department stores to see the windows, the customer today is very likely to be snapping photos with their cell phones and then using those phones to compare prices on the gifts they are planning to buy today.

This year retailers are again offering “layaway plans” as a mechanism to stimulate sales. These programs became popular in the 1930s before the credit card era so that people could buy merchandise and pay it off installments. They pick up the merchandise only once it’s fully paid for.

I wrote about layaway plans in a newsletter where I also featured trading stamps. Maybe they should start offering those, too? To read about shopping in other eras, check out my e-letter on “Shopping and Saving.”

What did your family buy with trading stamps? Email me as I would like to know!
kate@americacomesalive.com

Today we awoke to news that a shopper at a California Walmart used pepper spray on other shoppers to gain an advantage on getting into the store for Black Friday shopping bargains. That’s a new one for the books.

In years past there have been other safety issues that stores have had to guard against around holiday time. In the 1920s and 30s fire was a huge concern, and an article in The New York Times in 1929 noted that the store was taking these precautions:
• Post guards at entrances to stop persons from carrying lighted cigars and cigarettes into the building.
• Instruct all floor-walkers to stop all smoking by smokers.
• Do not place paper shades over electric lights.
• Organize and maintain a fire brigade.

For more stories of safety at holiday time–including the amazing foiling of a robber–click through to a story I write two years ago: “Holiday Hazards of the Past.”

Safe shopping!