Wooden Christmas

By this week, the nation's stores had almost all the mechanical toys they will get before Christmas. They were precious few, and the supply was uneven. Example: Chicago's big Marshall Field had gotten only 56 tricycles up to last week, while nearby Mandel Bros, had 1,300 of them. In Boston no scooters were to be had at any price.

In Atlanta, black marketeers were getting between $45 and $60 for rickety secondhand bikes as against the ceiling of $39.50 for new ones. Tricycles, with a ceiling price of $9.75, were going for $25 or $30 each. In Manhattan, R. H. Macy & Co., Inc., which usually prides itself on underselling everyone else, was getting $54.50 for its de luxe tricycle.

Electric trains were almost nonexistent. The Lionel Corp., biggest U.S. model-train maker, was turning out 1,500 trains a day, a mere trickle compared to the demand. It did not expect to get into production on its famed scale model locomotive, the Hudson (see cut) until next year. Chicago's two main stores managed to get a total of 385 train sets, sold them almost overnight. When one woman who had ordered a $49.50 train last summer went to the store to pick it up, she was offered $80 by another customer.

Even old established toy stores, like Manhattan's famed F. A. O. Schwarz, were no better off. Schwarz had plenty of stuffed animals, games, etc. But it had so few mechanical toys that it finally took newspaper ads to tell its customers: "Start camping on Schwartz's doorstep if you want the new toys." This was the only way the U.S. parent this year could assure a satisfactory performance on Christmas.

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