Among the topics discussed on the “Holiday Time at Disneyland” tour was how Santa Claus is portrayed around the world. The image we have (in the U.S.) of Santa is largely influenced through views done by commercial artist Haddon Sundblom for the Coca Cola Company starting in 1931.
The jolly old elf in his red suit enjoyed a number of poses in amusing holiday situations. Of out the more than thirty-five years of advertisements, today’s effort focuses on one in particular. The 1962 view shows Santa enjoying “The pause that refreshes” in front of a Christmas tree and bring surprised by a helicopter in mid-flight as a Lionel train (in the popular Santa Fe Railroad’s “Super Chief” warbonnet red and yellow paint scheme) passes in front of him.
Now for many of us, that image of the train circling the tree is a fond one from childhood. I’ve enjoyed a number of such over the years, and will admit that Lionel trains are a favorite. Now that shouldn’t be much of a surprise. But I have enjoyed other manufacturers products and sets in different scales than those offered by Lionel. (Yes, I still play with trains, even today; HO Scale being the preference as a long time member of the Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society.) I recall an uncle and my father setting up and getting their fair share of enjoyment out of a train set at the home of my great-grandfather (the locomotive engineer). That interest seems to have run on my mother’s side of the family as well. Her father had a nice collection of pre-war and post war Lionel that was always a favored toy on those special occasions it would be set up in the San Francisco home. As well there were many hours spent in envy looking over the pages of various Lionel catalogues from the Sixties.
In the years before everyone had their own automobile or before airline travel became the preferred method, odds are if you went home for the holidays, it was by train. Lots of memories of holidays gone by are evoked through simple images that tie railroading and Christmas together. With all of that to play at our emotions, it should be little surprise that toy trains were and still today are popular with children of all ages.
Toy trains date way back. Ward Kimball had one of the most amazing collections of them that I know of. A short film, “Toccata for Toy Trains” by the amazing husband and wife design team of Charles and Ray Eames, features some of the best of them, all to an Elmer Bernstein soundtrack.
The earliest of toy trains range from hand-powered (as in you push, it goes) to clockwork and even live-steam powered. Batteries or electricity didn’t make their inroads until just before the turn of the 20th century. Wood gave way to cast iron that in turn gave way to lithographer paper and tin. It was not uncommon for toys to be as ornate as the prototypes upon which they were based.
When one thinks of toy trains, the name most likely to come to mind is Lionel. It wasn’t the only company of its kind, but perhaps the one still most associated with the hobby more than 100 years later. Joshua Lionel Cowen got his start not with trains, but with another simple device we all might easily take for granted today — a battery-powered flash lamp for photography. It was only a short step to the flashlights we know today. And even if Cowen couldn’t claim that invention, his flash lamp did open doors that led him into business with the Navy providing detonators for mines. Profits from that venture led to the creation of the Lionel Manufacturing Company engaging in the “manufacture of electrical novelties”.
Electric trains had been around for sometime before Lionel came along, and even for sale. The company’s first such product was designed as an advertising tool more than a toy. Using battery power, small four wheel cars would carry merchandise around a shop window. Those eventually became popular as toys and the first Lionel electric train catalogue (16 pages in black and white) tantalized prospective buyers in 1902.
Fast forward through the company and the country’s history. Lionel found a market and competition for its products. World War I changed the manufacture of trains being replaced by that of compass binnacles for the Navy. And while the years after the War were good, the Depression found the company in serious financial peril — much of it made by the company it’s self. And most folks were spending money on things more essential than electric trains, when they had it to spend.
As popular as Lionel had become, it would not survive without a new way to increase sales. Depending on who tells the tale from here on, it was two mice and a wind-up toy train that did the trick. A great resource on Lionel is “All Aboard” by Ron Hollander. (Although it is out-of-print, there are a fair number of copies for sale on Amazon, both in hardback and softbound.) Ron relates the tale of how these Disney characters (and others) played their part in keeping Lionel going during those tough years.
I’ll give you a brief synopsis of the tale. Lionel often received suggestions from it’s customers on what they thought might be good products to add to the line. One in particular was a version of a handcar (so-called because men would stand on either side of a hand operated lever and push up and down to propel the car along the railroad) with a cartoon character. Taking the concept even further, a Lionel employee experimented with figures of Mickey and Minnie Mouse found at a local stationery store. The finished product was ready just in time for the Christmas season. A clock-work (a.k.a. wind-up) toy with the Mice was sold with a circle of track for only a dollar!
Mickey and Minnie make their toy train debut
The fall of 1934 saw the company produce 253,000 of them and turn down additional orders for a further 100,000 units. Not even included in its traditional holiday catalog, it was considered a genuine “winner” of a product. Some folks even gave the Disney characters credit for turning around the fortunes of the Lionel Company. Radio commentator Lowell Thomas was among them, as Hollander relates “commenting on the fairy tale quality of Lionel’s successful journey on the little wind-up railroad of Mickey and Minnie, bravely pumping around their circle of track. There was irony in the world’s greatest electric train company being saved from extinction by a turn-of-the-century wind-up train.” In a nation looking for good economic news after years of bad, a tale like this was genuinely welcomed.
Yet, the reality is another story entirely. Lionel found its corporate butt in a sling as the result of financial mismanagement and even some downright illegal maneuvers (that resulted in court actions against the perpetrators). The sale of the Mickey and Minnie handcars had been good, but not as good as they appeared. Even though priced at a dollar, the actual cost was more in the neighborhood of sixty cents for retailers with very little in the way of profit margin for Lionel (especially after Disney got their cut). Doing much better was a model of the Union Pacific Railroad’s new Streamliner “City of Salina.” It sold well with a much high profit margin, and was the first in a series of new trains that the public picked up.
Over the years since, Lionel has gone through a series of changes and re-emerged as an industry leader in the toy train business. A continued good relationship with Disney has offered all kinds of products featuring likenesses of many Disney characters. The handcar has been reproduced as well, and originals in good condition definitely are worth more than that original dollar — like many Disney collectibles from the same period.
As amusing a tale as it could have been, the truth is that Mickey and Minnie merely played their part, not starred in the Lionel success.
Next week … is it Macworld already?
As usual, if you’d like to toss a couple of dollars in Roger’s Paypal Donation Box, he’d appreciate it. Really.