Born in 1949, i had the entire 1950's landslide of goofy crap and fantastic ads and promises to dream about.
I got a "book" on Magic. It was tiny with I swear, type-setting from the American Civil War,tiny, hard to read and what seemed like an incredible amount of words and letters on one page!
The one "Magic" trick involved slitting a live chicken's neck to pretend to kill it and then bring it back to "Life"!?? (I never figured this one out? ) Maybe i was just a poor "Reader?"
Was the mail order place Johnson & Smith? I'm not quite sure of the name anymore.
The "Invisible Glasses weren't even "Glasses" at all,but just what looked like a piece of bird feather glued between two pieces of paper. Each paper had a hole in it, and the ribbing of the feather made a double-image of your hand , you didn't see any hand bones, and i knew they were there, under my skin!
A younger neighbor boy's Parents bought him the mail-order "playhouse" cardboard Army Tank for $4.98. (Not rain-proof)
I had a coloring book of all makes and kinds of "Cars". The book had pretty colorful stamps matching the cars to rip out,lick and put on the page next to the same un-colored drawing.
The last "Car" in the book was a futuristic "Flying" Car with a clear bubble-roof. the put the date for this car as : 195-- ?
"Where is my flying car!? They promised me a flying car by no later than 1959!.. Liars! "
By 1965 I had a 1959 Ford,it did have small fins,it tried to "Fly" .. some.
The "Thing" to put in your mouth to "Throw your Voice" was a small circular piece of thin leather? with a small,rounded piece of shiny metal attached to it. A Carnival was here in town and they were selling them for 50cents, after a brilliant public demonstration of how incredible they worked, but most kids could never duplicate the adult doing the demonstration... for some reason?
I could make it make sort of a whistling sound ,sometimes,but it tickled the roof of my mouth too much to keep doing even just that!
("The roof of your mouth,yes keep it there!".... was the main point of the instructor.)
Then get out of town quick before the complaints begin or some kid swallows it!
I did save my money, then successfully bought a life-sized Zachaurly? Poster printed on what seemed to be a movie screen, white with little sparklies in it,even though his image was just Black & White.
I had no idea who "Zach" was here in Illinois but he seemed like a Vampire or something, and attached to the outside basement door he scared ME more than any of the kids in my Parent's Basement Haunted House!
He kept scaring me for months as I would forget he was displayed there and I would catch him out of the corner of my eye,all LIFE-SIZED and everything!
A few short years ago i saw where these are still available for $25.00?
