Anchor Store
When I was growing up, Sears was a large anchor store at the mall. For a few generations before mine, Sears was a giant catalog that you ordered everything you needed from, whether is was a car, a prefab house, overalls or baking supplies. I wasn't sure if there were even any stores left out there but a quick web search tells me the nearest one is over 100 miles away, but they're happy to let me order anything I want online (though to be honest, I don't see anything I need that I can get cheaper elsewhere online). I don't ever remember seeing records in their store, but they must have carried them at one point or another as evidenced by this Christmas release. It's the sort of silky smooth string record that some folks seem to really enjoy, but it's hard to tell one from the next. Maybe that's right up your alley and you can't get enough. If so, download and enjoy Sears Golden Strings-White Christmas (Sears SPSX-503, Stereo).
Update: I found this record in the 1966 Sears Christmas catalog, page 340! It's down at the bottom of the page. Not sure if this was new that year or not, but there it is! Cost $1.69 in either stereo or mono. Cool! Lots of great stuff to see in these catalogs.
Hi Ernie,
ReplyDeleteI remember writing about this before. We had two albums of Christmas music in our home. One was a RCA and the other a Columbia one. My mother told me, they used to have them at the cash desks in case people wanted to buy them. Oh, I forgot, we had a third that was a Perry Como one too from Radio Shack. It was from a TV special I think. Anyway, when I was born my eldest elder sister was 21+ years old and my youngest elder sister was 16+ years old. My mother always called me her April Fools child. That being said, after my eldest sister married, in a shoot-gun wedding, hehee, she left us her record player to play these 3 Christmas albums and about 10 other albums on, The TJB, The soundtracks to: The 7th Dawn and The Yellow Rolls Royce. Otherwise, I had a radio and library albums to listen too.
Not much selection there. I hope you've got more music to listen to now. :)
DeleteI think Sears had other labels going back many years including Silvertone in the 1940s. This Sears label from the 60s was for reprints, as I recall.
ReplyDeleteI kind of thought this might be a reissue, or something they licensed from elsewhere, but I don't know where. And the sound is pretty good so it's not really old stuff.
DeleteI think I recall that at least some of their 60s output came from Capitol.
DeleteCould be. I feel like most of those reissues were very abridged, but this one is pretty long.
DeleteThis label was pressed by Pickwick International and basically repackaged albums on the Pickwick/33 imprint with different cover art, with a good portion of them taken from Pickwick/33s compilations of material that was initially issued on Capitol Records.
DeleteYes, the layout and catalog numbers look like Pickwick, but where else has this music shown up?
DeleteTo my ears, it sounds as if it was recorded sometime during the late-'40's or early-'50's, probably released on some of Eli Oberstein's many labels and later on Tops when Eli's son sold his budget record operation. There were several other albums from this group that were non-seasonal that are avaliable for purchase on E-Bay. Speaking of Tops, Sears issued an expanded version of Kate Smith's Tops Christmas album titled Joy to the World; It is currently available for purchase on E-Bay.
DeleteStill, great collection! Quite a few good tracks on it despite the overall generic sound and presentation.
DeleteIm sure i have that Kate Smith somewhere in the archives. And it was advertised on the same page as this record in the 1966 Christmas catalog. :)
DeleteCOOL!
DeleteAccording to my notes from who-knows-when-or-where, this LP was offered in the 1966 Sears Wishbook. Just hearsay, but maybe a clue!
ReplyDeleteAren't those wishbooks available online somewhere? I should look into that. 1966 sounds about right.
DeleteFound 'em! This should keep you distracted for days!
Deletehttps://christmas.musetechnical.com/
These types of albums are very much up my alley, and I haven't yet gotten enough, so thanks for this.
ReplyDeleteHappy to keep feeding your habit. :)
DeleteNow you're getting around to the kind of Christmas albums I enjoy looking for each year! Looking forward to checking out this one when I have the time.
ReplyDeleteMore to come in a similar style. I've got a little bit of everything in the pile this year. :)
DeleteSome time in the past year, I found a very interesting book at the library about the house kits Sears sold. They had something like 350 different styles available, and sold 75,000 or so. They sold the kits from about 1906 (I think) until 1940. If you know what to look for, the houses can still be found all over the country. They had certain distinctive architectural features, and if you know where to look you can find clues that positively identify if the house was a Sears kit. It's just too bad Sears faded out like they did.
ReplyDeleteNot really Sears related, but there's a local neighborhood where many of the houses look similar. I recently stumbled across a website that featured the flyer where you ordered your house, and there are all the different styles you could get. It's fun to drive through that area and see what's what. Some are bone stock, some of them are quite different 60-70 years later.
DeleteI've seen areas like that in several cities.
DeleteThe book I mentioned above noted that there were actually more kit house makers than just Sears. I think 2 or 3 were named but I don't know how many there were in all.
If it's successful for one person, others will always copy it.
DeleteAhhh, the Sears wishbook. Good memories.
ReplyDeleteYou want memories, go here:
Deletehttps://christmas.musetechnical.com/