This Week in History, 1920: Retailers bounce back at Christmas
Credit to Author: John Mackie| Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2019 23:29:59 +0000
During the First World War, the federal government brought in a luxury tax on many consumer goods. But the world had started to come back to normal by Christmas 1920, so the tax was lifted. And retailers were ecstatic.
“All Luxury Taxes Have Been Abolished,” blared a Hudson’s Bay ad in the Dec. 21, 1920, edition of The Vancouver Sun. “You Can Buy Cheaper Now.”
Indeed. The Bay’s Fairyland toy department was offering 20-inch American “Victory Dolls” with “jointed body (and) moving eyes” for $5.95, $3 off the regular price of $8.95.
One of the hot new consumer goods of the time was a vacuum cleaner, and the Bay’s ad advised husbands to “Give Every Woman a Hoover.”
“If Santa Claus would only do this, what a happy lot of women we would have in Vancouver this coming year,” said the ad. “And it’s so easy to do, too: $8.25 cash and $6 per month.”
Both the Bay and the David Spencer store had two-page ads in The Province, which was Vancouver’s biggest newspaper. Woodward’s doesn’t seem to have been as big as The Bay or Spencer’s — its ad was only three-quarters of a page, the same size as Drysdale’s, Vancouver’s premier ladies’ shop.
There were a lot of ads for phonographs, the big home entertainment item in 1920.
Victrola ad in the Dec. 21, 1920 Vancouver Sun.
Walker F. Evans Limited was selling the handsome Victrola, “The King of Instruments.” The smaller tabletop Victrola IV was $45, while the “tall, dignified cabinet model” known as the Victrola XIV was $365.
“Forty-seven inches high, 22 inches wide and 23 ¾ inches deep,” said the ad. “In mahogany or oak. Victrola No. 2 sound box, 12 inch turntable, automatic brake, automatic indicator, quadruple spring spiral drive motor.”
Walker Evans gave out records with their Victrolas — 10 for the cheapest model, up to 30 for the expensive ones. The store also sold Brunswick phonographs, which advertised that they were “all phonographs in one.”
This referred to Brunswick’s “scientific creation,” The Ultona reproducer, which was able to play all three types of records that were being manufactured at the time.
“It is designed to play the three main types of discs sold in that period: normal lateral shellac (Victor and Columbia 78s), vertical cut shellac (Pathe), and vertical cut Diamond Discs (Edison),” explains an article on the Tim’s Phonographs & Old Records website.
“The reproducer has four movable parts which can be adjusted to play any record. Steel needles can be inserted, played, and then removed. Twist the reproducer and its permanent diamond point (with independent stylus-diaphragm) plays Edison discs.”
Brunswick is the same company that manufactured pool tables. It started off making wooden cabinets for other music companies, then started making its own phonograph, the Ultona, in 1917.
Brunswick ad in the Dec. 21, 1920 Vancouver Province.
Today, the B.C. Electric company is remembered for supplying Vancouver’s power and running its streetcar system (it was nationalized by W.A.C. Bennett in 1961 and turned into B.C. Hydro).
But in 1920, B.C. Electric also had stores that sold “Electrical Gifts” like table lamps, piano lamps, reading lamps and boudoir lamps for $6.25 and up. Toasters were $7 and up, electric irons were $7.50 and $8, and percolators were $21.25 and up.
The B.C. Electric ads are always quite beautiful, illustrated with the items for sale. Walker Evans ads are also attractive — an Evans ad for musical instruments features a lovely illustration of a “Voice-like Saxophone.”
A soprano sax was $150 to $185, an alto was $130 to $165, and a tenor was $145 to $225. Guitars were much cheaper, $9 to $75, while a ukulele could be picked up for only $6.
The Owl Drug Company had the coolest logo, an owl perched behind the company name, balanced atop a black line that had the company motto, “The most of the best for the least.”
A Millar & Co. ad features a Santa who seems to be all pumped up for Christmas: he’s holding his right fist aloft and yelling, like his favourite sports team had just scored.
The Knowlton’s Drug Store ad features a far different Santa, with a big belly and bleary eyes. For some reason he’s talking on the phone, and is depicted a foot or so off the ground, beside a lamppost. Frankly, it looks like he’s a bit tipsy.
The Knowlton’s Drug Store ad in the Dec. 21, 1920 Vancouver Province.
Owl Drug ad in the Dec. 21, 1920 Vancouver Province.
Millar and Coe ad in the Dec. 21, 1920 Vancouver Province.
B.C. Electric ad in the Dec. 21, 1920 Vancouver Province.
Walker Evans ad in the Dec. 21, 1920 Vancouver Province.
Brunswick logo in the Dec. 21, 1920 Vancouver Province.
Hudson’s Bay Company ad in the Dec. 21, 1920 Vancouver Province.
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