A king, a queen, and a clown

Posted

Billy and Ruth's Toy Headquarters promo

In the Communications Office space, we have a sizable storage room that houses our publicity archives.

This storage room used to be the park’s dark room. (Back when photos were taken using large cameras and black-and-white film, they were developed … in a “dark room.”)

We don’t have to tell you how photography has changed over the years, and especially the past decade or so. (You’ve seen what our HoliDrone has captured over the season, right?)

… but still, there’s something rather mysterious about digging through our archives and discovering a black-and-white photo like this:

Billy and Ruth's Toy Headquarters promo

We recognize Santa, of course. That’s Santa Jim. This photo was taken on October 18, 1959, in the room at Santa Claus Land where Santa visited with countless children over the decades.

Upon further research, we discovered that this photo was the culmination of a “Billy & Ruth Day” promotion. Children from all over entered this promotion for a chance to win a 26″ Deluxe Bicycle by drawing a picture of Santa Claus.

Who’s that clown on the left?

That’s Peppo the Clown, from WEHT-TV in Evansville. A 2014 article from the Evansville Courier & Press reveals Peppo was actually Chicagoan Ulysses A. Carlini, Sr. Mr. Carlini endured the 30-minute application of clown makeup each Saturday morning because he knew the kiddos watching from home enjoyed his show.

The children who won the promotion were “King Billy” David Risinger, 11, and “Queen Ruth” Gloria Majors, 10, both of Evansville. In addition to winning bicycles, they were guests on Peppo’s TV show.

Here’s a quote from that week’s “Bish Thompson” Saturday Special column in the Evansville Press: Throughout the day there’ll be events of bugeyed interest to the small fry. If they’ve been yammering to go to Santa Claus, looks like tomorrow will be the day for it.

But wait! There were second-place winners, too:

Billy and Ruth's Toy Headquarters promotion

That’s Reed Sugg, 6, from Morganfield, Kentucky, holding his Lionel Train Set prize and Becky Holbrook, 11, from Owensboro, Kentucky, with a 36″ doll. (They don’t look quite as happy as King Billy and Queen Ruth, though, do they?)

And who’s that peeking through the window behind the two fellows? And, for that matter, who were Billy and Ruth? (Google keeps trying to convince me their last name was Graham, but I know that’s not right!) Billy and Ruth Steltz’s father owned the company in Philadelphia that provided catalogs to a series of hardware stores across the land. One of those publications, starting in 1929, was “Happy Hours with Billy and Ruth,” a magazine-like toy catalog sprinkled with children’s stories, poems, and even connect-the-dots puzzles.

We hope you enjoy these stories as we occasionally lose ourselves in our history. Please post a comment if there’s any topic you’d like us to explore, either here on the HoliBlog or on our podcast.

 

 

 

Your daily floss

Posted

Long ago, my oldest son explained to me the difference between a “geek” and a “nerd.” Tom now works at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (which you may recognize from The Big Bang Theory), so whatever he told me then was no doubt correct.

Thing is, I don’t exactly remember what he said …

But whether you’re a geek or a nerd, if you like fun facts, read on. Somehow I think this “27 Fun Facts About Fun” video from Mental Floss magazine will do the trick.

Be sure to catch #18!

Do you remember our Santa Claus Land days? Please post your favorite memory here!
___
Would you like to receive HoliBlog notices – along with news releases and sweepstakes – by email? Sign up here and you can choose whether to receive the emails weekly or the same day the blog posts are published. Thank you!

Photographic memories

Posted

A lovely email from longtime friends:

My family has been going to your park for many, many years. My grandparents used to visit back when you were called Santa Claus Land. Generations have come and gone to your park. For the second time we will be taking my daughter to your park to celebrate her birthday. She will be 14 this year, and when asked what or where she would like to go for her birthday, your park was the first place she picked.

Anyway, I was going through my parents’ old photo albums gathering pictures that we wanted to scan for preservation, and I found these two pictures that I wanted to share with you. They were developed in November 1955, but I do not know the date of the visit. One picture is of my uncle and cousins…


…and the other is of my grandmother, her sister, and their mother (my great-grandmother).

So when I tell you that many generations from our family have visited, I wasn’t kidding.

Thanks so very much for all the past and future memories!

Sincerely,
Becky C.
Bloomington, Indiana

Yum, yum, yum!

Posted

Santa selling Jell-o and cereal

Anyone else out there a cornball who loves to listen to old radio shows from the ’40s?

I grew up hearing my folks talk about Fibber McGee‘s closet, Jack Benny‘s squeaky violin, and Baby Snooks’ antics.

Thanks to satellite radio those shows are available again, 60 years later.

And the commercials are a hoot

Either the plugs are non-too-subtly inserted into the script or the cracky, nasally voice of Henry Aldrich belts out a jingle.

Tums for the tummy. And Jell-O, yum, yum, yum!

A Kraft Foods employee emailed the other day. He was so pleased to see this photo of Santa.

Long ago, during our Santa Claus Land days, Santa posed for an advertisement with a variety of products, including Jell-O.

Santa selling Jell-o and cereal

Upon closer inspection, it appears that it was Jell-O pie filling.

Lemon pie filling to be exact.

Santa Jim and Jell-o

We sent the Kraft Foods gentleman a copy of the photo to display in his office. Talk about connections!
___
Would you like to receive HoliBlog notices – along with news releases and sweepstakes – by email? Sign up here and you can choose whether to receive the emails weekly or the same day the blog posts are published. Thank you!

More memories of feathered friends

Posted

Baseball-playing chicken

It’s amazing the Santa Claus Land memories that are stirred whenever we talk about the Educated Animals.

Here’s an email from last week:

I really appreciated the picture of the educated animals. I tried to tell my wife about them but could not do it justice. One of my greatest memories is of my mother putting money in the chicken who played baseball stand. Mom hates birds (don’t ask me) she is scared to death of them. The bird immediately went out to second base, did his/her daily constitutional and went right back to its change. The look on my mom’s face was priceless. Thanks for the memories. See ya this summer.

Keith B.
Vienna, Illinois

Sure enough, here’s a photo of the Educated Animals display of a baseball-playing chicken:

Baseball-playing chicken

___
Would you like to receive HoliBlog notices – along with news releases and sweepstakes – by email? Sign up here and you can choose whether to receive the emails weekly or the same day the blog posts are published. Thank you!

Will’s favorite ride

Posted

Pleasureland

When you saw the subject line of this post, you probably assumed the top was going to be coasters.

Right?

That’s a reasonable assumption, but truth be told there’s another ride from Will’s childhood that is right there at the top.

Pump cars.

Pleasureland

See them there, in the middle of the photo?

This is the Pleasureland ride section of Santa Claus Land. 

When asked by reporters over the years, Will and his four siblings are unanimous in their delirious memories of the pump cars.

They. Were. The. Best.

The reason why they were the best, though, explains why they’re no longer here.

“You could pump really hard, build up some speed, and then crash off the track when you came to a curve. It was great!”

I won’t credit that quote to a particular Koch. I believe I’ve heard all three of the male siblings say it.

When preparing the above photo for this post, I emailed a piece of it to Will. My question was regarding whether the pump cars were individual cars, or connected, as it looks here:

pump cars

Will’s reply: Yes, they are the pump cars. They are individual units. However, if the person in front is going too slow…
___
Would you like to receive HoliBlog notices – along with news releases and sweepstakes – by email? Sign up here and you can choose whether to receive the emails weekly or the same day the blog posts are published. Thank you!

Our answer to the Christmas debate

Posted

Pat Koch and Santa's Elves

Have you been following all the fuss? About whether it’s a Christmas tree or a “holiday tree”? Not a terribly new debate, sadly.

We had to go back seven years to find this, but thought it was worth dusting off. Back in 1998, we were approached by a national newspaper chain to write a “counter-point” opinion piece about one man’s push to have Christmas removed from the list of national holidays.

He was suing the government in an attempt to turn December 25 into just another day here in the U.S.

Here’s the reply, from Mrs. Koch, that was printed:

Point/Counter Point

Dear Santa, I have been trying to be good this year but my little sister gets me in trouble. I hope you give me lots of toys this year. I’ll be happy with anything you give me this year. Your friend, Bubby B.

Dear Santa, I what my dad to be smarter. Love, Robbie D.

Dear Santa, I have been a very, very good gril this year. I want your picer. Your friend, Annessa P.S. Go to Mrs. Johnson’s house to get me a cat. She has lots of them.

Dear Santa, I like board games. I promise to leave you some cookies and milk. Oh, don’t forget to turn off the TV this year, you forgot to last year. From your friend, Michael

Pat Koch and Santa's ElvesAs thick as snowflakes in a blizzard the letters come, year after year, as children send their letters to Santa Claus.

Somehow these letters find their way to the tiny post office in Santa Claus, Indiana, from all around the world even though at times the address is simply “Santa Claus, USA,” with a colorful sticker where a 32-cent stamp should be.

Somehow the harried postal workers see to it that the letters get to Santa Claus in time. And somehow this town provides enough volunteers to make sure that each of the thousands of letters receives a personal reply from one of Santa’s Elves. Everyone is busy, everyone has shopping and cooking and wrapping to do. But the sweet and sometimes sad letters from children from all over the world are too important to ignore.

Christmas is about children. Although we Americans sometimes complain about the commercialism of the holidays, we must look beyond the hustle-bustle and into the eyes of our nation’s children, for it is there that we will rediscover the true spirit of the season.

Children understand Christmas

They know it’s about believing.

It’s about sharing and loving and giving from the heart. As adults, it’s about gathering the little ones in your lap and telling them about what you asked Santa to bring you (back in the dark ages when you had to walk eight miles to school in ten feet of snow). It’s giggling as three generations try to remember the gift given on the eleventh day of the Twelve Days of Christmas, and blinking back tears of tender love as the tiniest grandchild recites the names of Santa’s reindeers.

It’s taking time off from work and school to be home with loved ones. Oh, and it’s breaking bread together, and giving thanks for family, good health, and for the blessings of living in America. It’s a time to donate to a good cause, to prepare meals for the less fortunate, to bring flowers to a shut-in.

Thousands of children visit Santa Claus, Indiana, during their summer vacation each year to get an early visit with the town’s namesake. As they climb up into his lap, there are no questions about religious or ethnic background. The only questions are: “Have you been good this year? And what would you like Santa to bring you?” Nothing political, nothing controversial, simply a quiet conversation between a little child and kindly old gentleman.

During the years when Americans have been overseas at war, the bombs stopped while soldiers from both sides gratefully celebrated the Christmas holiday. There was no question of religion for these cease-fires, but a universal agreement that on December 25th there would be no war.

Can a holiday with the power to halt wars not be a national treasure?

Christmas is as American as the 4th of July. It should be celebrated by all who wish to recapture the belief and hope of a small and trusting child.

Patricia A. Koch
Santa Claus, Indiana

Honoring our Veterans

Posted

Jim Yellig

The eleventh day of the eleventh month. Veterans Day.

Time to say thank you.

To people my parents’ age, my own age, my son’s age.

Each has a story. Some choose to talk about their military days, others don’t.

Jim YelligMrs. Koch likes to tell the story about her dad.

This is a photo of him. Jim Yellig was a Navy man during the first World War.

One Christmas, he was stationed on a ship at the Brooklyn Shipyard in New York.

Everyone on board, so far from home, agreed to hold a Christmas party for local underprivileged children.

But where was Santa?

“Hey, Jim — you do it! You’re from Santa Claus, after all.”

Truth be told, Jim Yellig was from nearby Mariah Hill. But who could resist talking about a town named Santa Claus? Not Jim.

Jim wasn’t thrilled about the idea, but agreed to do it.

The experience changed his life forever.

When he saw the hope and love and trust in the eyes of these little children, frightened by the war and hurt by poverty, his heart melted.

As he told the story years later, “Afterwards, I said a little prayer: God, if you get me through this war alive and send me home, I’ll forever be Santa.”

Both promises were kept.

God bless our Veterans on this, and all, days.
___
Would you like to receive HoliBlog notices – along with news releases and sweepstakes – by email? Sign up here and you can choose whether to receive the emails weekly or the same day the blog posts are published. Thank you!

Anyone know these beauties?

Posted

We were sorting through some archival photos the other day and wondered about this photo:

Bathing beauties at Santa Claus Land

Goodness! Is that Marilyn?

And what’s with those high heels?

Must be beauty queens. (If so, where are their sashes? Their tiaras? Didn’t they have tiaras back then? What good is it being a beauty queen if you don’t get to wear a tiara…)

If you’re wondering where this was taken, it was back when the Santa statue was located in front of Santa Claus Land’s main buildings (this area is now “back of the house”). Santa was elevated somewhat, and there were steps to get up on the same level with him.

Anyone recognize these ladies? If so, please be sure to email me so we can share the story.

(The above blog entry was first posted on 9/8/05 and by the next week, we had some “answers.” Here’s the second HoliBlog post:)

Where are they now?

Remember those mystery ladies from one of last week’s posts? We’ve identified them all!

Thanks to a series of emails from interested parties (actually, they were all from my Cousin Jeff in St. Louis), we now know that those beauties all went on to find successful careers in the public eye.

Again, this is a photo from our Santa Claus Land archives. No scribbled notes on the back. No date.

Marilyn?But don’t you think this might be Marilyn?

Just take a quick look and you’ll probably agree.

Don’t stare, though.

That’s rude.

Jackie?

 

And couldn’t this possibly be Jackie?

You know…Jackie O. …back when she was Jackie B.

 

After identifying the most famous beauties, I was stuck.

Cousin Jeff came to the rescue within hours via email.

Lucy's friend?

This beauty next to “Jackie” looks like Lucy’s friend (not Ethel … her other friend) but I’m drawing a blank.

Hmm … let’s Google that

Oh yes – Betty Ramsey! (The actress’s name was Mary Jane Croft. She hailed from Muncie, Indiana. )

Andrea?

And Jeff says this next bathing beauty must be Andrea Martin.

By golly, she does look familiar, but I’m not sure if the ages synch up.

Close enough.

We’re almost done!

But this one (no offense, Jeff!), I really do question.

Bertie?

According to Jeff, “The final beauty is now a grandma. Why, that’s Lindsay Lohan’s grandmother Bertie Lohan. Her friends just called her “Bert.”

Maybe we’ll try this again someday. We have lots and lots of old photos. And for some reason, every single face looks familiar.

Was it this hot?

Posted

Santa on ice

Was it this hot back before we had Splashin’ Safari?

It’s just hard to believe, isn’t it?

What did people do before water parks?

Before wave pools and fountains?

Before air conditioning?

How did they keep cool?

Santa had the right idea

Santa on ice

Was it this hot back then? Best I can tell, Santa is sitting on a thin pillow to keep from sticking to his ice-block throne.

I’m guessing the photo was taken in the ’50s, as it’s in black and white.

Even back then, Santa was one cool fellow.
___
Would you like to receive HoliBlog notices – along with news releases and sweepstakes – by email? Sign up here and you can choose whether to receive the emails weekly or the same day the blog posts are published. Thank you!