1967.12.19 Nashville Tennessean Page 1 "Supply of Toys Grows Smaller" Article

1967.12.19 Nashville Tennessean Page 1 "Supply of Toys Grows Smaller"

Seems toys were in such high demand in 1967, at least in Tennessee, that the Nashville Tennessean put an article about it on the front page. This is the December 19, 1967 article "Supply of Toys Grows Smaller" by Pat Welch. Unfortunately I didn't save the second part of the article so this is only partial, but does contain the Major Matt Mason reference. Transcript below.

1967.12.19 Nashville Tennessean Page 1 "Supply of Toys Grows Smaller" Detail

Supply of Toys Grows Smaller

By PAT WELCH
Toy counters throughout town got a thorough going over yesterday, as Nashville shoppers, intent on beating the Christmas deadline, and their vacationing children fought over the few toys left in yesterday's springlike weather.

"The best thing in the world for a toy department is to run out of merchandise. We're not out, but we're getting out - thank goodness!" said Mrs. Richard Conquest, assistant toy buyer at Harveys.

MRS. CONQUEST and other salespeople prepared for the worst this week. With five shopping days to go, she said: "Every day's a busy day. And it should get worse each day."

"There are quite a few people who wait until the last minute," she added. "And people who work, like we do, have to do their shopping whenever they can."

Temperatures that pushed almost into the 70s yesterday made skis and sleds seem incongruous. Several shoppers were spotted wearing shorts, and most settled for the traditional favorite - dolls for the girls and balls and bicycles for boys.

"This year it's westerns and space," said Richard Porch, toy buyer for Woolco.

THE TRADITIONAL toy soldier has been replaced by space toys like "Major Matt Mason," according to Porch. And Mason also has dozens of accessories, such as a "space station" and several kinds of capsules for interstellar cruises across the backyard.

"And we just couldn't buy enough robots," he added.

"We still sell oodles of dolls every year," Mrs. Helen Drolsum, supervisor at Harveys in 100 Oaks, pointed out.

"Fads come and go, but every little girl gets a doll every year. At least, I hope so. I've bought my two daughters a doll every year, whether they wanted one or not," she said.

Porch agreed that dolls "are the big things" in 1967.

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"DOLLS GAINED this (Turn to Page 18, Column 4)

(photo) Linda Loves Teddy - Staff photo by Frank Empson
Linda Ferguson finds a friend in the toy department. She didn't take him home, however; she couldn't lift him.

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