Albert Frederick Schoenhut (1849-1912) created the A. Schoenhut Company, one of the leading toy producers in America at the turn of the twentieth century. [1] In 1872, he founded the Schoenhut Piano Company in Philadelphia, [2] which later became known as the A. Schoenhut Company and was incorporated in 1897. [3] They established a reputation, based on German handicraft traditions, and created toy pianos and other musical instruments in the early days. [4] Eventually, they introduced dolls, play sets, games and more and they became the largest toy manufacturer in America. [5] In 1919, Schoenhut patented his “All-Wood Perfection Art Doll” and in 1997, the United States Postal Service issued stamps of Classic American Dolls and included his wooden dolls as part of the collection. [6]
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is a 1964 American science fiction comedy film directed by Nicholas Webster, produced and written by Paul L. Jacobson, based on a story by Glenville Mareth, that stars John Call as Santa Claus. It also features an eleven-year-old Pia Zadora as Girmar, one of the Martian children.
The toy piano, also known as the kinderklavier, is a small piano-like musical instrument. Most modern toy pianos use round metal rods, as opposed to strings in a regular piano, to produce sound. The U.S. Library of Congress recognizes the toy piano as a unique instrument with the subject designation, Toy Piano Scores: M175 T69. The most famous example of a dedicated composition for the instrument is the "Suite for Toy Piano" (1948) by John Cage.
The Toronto Santa Claus Parade, also branded as The Original Santa Claus Parade, is a Santa Claus parade held annually on the third Sunday of November in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. More than a half million people attend the parade every year.
Mrs. Claus is the legendary wife of Santa Claus, the Christmas gift-bringer in Western Christmas tradition. She is known for making cookies with the elves, caring for the reindeer, and preparing toys with her husband.
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is a 1902 children's book, written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by Mary Cowles Clark.
The weepul is a small, spherical, fluffy toy, with large, plastic googly eyes, and no limbs. Weepuls come in various colors. Usually weepuls possess antennae and also large paper feet, with an adhesive layer on the bottom, which is protected by a layer of plastic that is peeled off before deployment.
Worlds of Wonder or WoW was an American toy company founded in 1985 by former Atari sales president Don Kingsborough, and former Atari employee Mark Robert Goldberg. Its founding was inspired by a prototype that became its launch product, Teddy Ruxpin. In 1986, it launched Lazer Tag and filed an IPO which Fortune magazine called "one of the year's most sought after stock sales". WoW partnered with the young Nintendo of America as retail sales distributor, crucial to the landmark launch and rise of the Nintendo Entertainment System from 1986 to 1987.
Thomas Dam was a Danish woodworker and fisherman associated with Gjøl in Denmark. Dam designed and invented the original troll doll also known as the "Good Luck Troll". He created the toy during a period of financial distress, and carved it from wood. Soon, the family had started up a new business and Dam earned enough to buy himself a small factory where the dolls were produced in plastic. Dam created many different trolls as well as plastic baby dolls. Dam formed "Dam Things" to market the dolls. Dam trolls are now considered collectors' items. The Victoria and Albert Museum of London have one in their collection.
Larry Schwarz is an American animation producer, entrepreneur, writer, and photographer. He was the founder and CEO of now-defunct cartoon studio Animation Collective. He is best known for creating Kappa Mikey.
Country Christmas is the eighth solo studio album and first Christmas album by American country music singer-songwriter Loretta Lynn. It was released on October 17, 1966 by Decca Records. Lynn would not release another Christmas album until 2016's White Christmas Blue, fifty years later.
The golliwog, golliwogg or golly is a doll-like character – created by cartoonist and author Florence Kate Upton – that appeared in children's books in the late 19th century, usually depicted as a type of rag doll. It was reproduced, both by commercial and hobby toy-makers, as a children's toy called the "golliwog", a portmanteau of golly and polliwog, and had great popularity in the UK and Australia into the 1970s. The doll is characterised by jet black skin, eyes rimmed in white, exaggerated red lips and frizzy hair, a blackface minstrel tradition.
Jillian: Namamasko Po! is a Philippine television drama comedy series broadcast by GMA Network. It stars Jillian Ward in the title role. It premiered on November 29, 2010 on the network's Telebabad line up. On January 13, 2011, the show was renamed as Jillian. The series concluded on January 21, 2011 with a total of 40 episodes. It was replaced by Machete in its timeslot.
"Santa Claus Is Back in Town" is a Christmas song written in 1957 by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and first recorded that year by Elvis Presley as the opening track on Elvis' Christmas Album, the best-selling Christmas/holiday album of all time in the United States. The song has become a rock and roll Christmas standard.
Girls' toys and games are toys and games specifically targeted at girls by the toy industry. They may be traditionally associated either exclusively or primarily with girls by adults and used by girls as an expression of identity. One commentator have argued that the market for girl's toys and games is more challenging than that for boys' toys and games.
The Philadelphia Doll Museum is located in Philadelphia at 2253 North Broad Street along the Avenue of the Arts. It is the only known museum in the United States that emphasizes the collection and preservation of black dolls as artifacts of history and culture.
The Humpty Dumpty Circus was a short stop-motion film directed by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith, the Anglo-American founders of Vitagraph Studios. The film is considered lost as there are no known copies.
Krampus, the "Christmas Devil" of Austrian and Bavarian folklore, has entered the popular culture of North America; Christian Jacobs notes that "thanks to the Internet and YouTube, [Krampus] is now very much on America's Christmas radar." Tanya Basu interprets this as part of a "growing movement of anti-Christmas celebrations": a "bah, humbug" rejection of – or novel alternative to – mainstream festivities. Brian Joines of Image Comics suspects that the reason Krampus has not been historically popularized in America is a social artifact resulting from "the nature of how we view Christmas in this country, both as a big day for kids and as the birth of a big religious figurehead". In some North American depictions, Krampus is an antihero who seeks to prevent children from becoming spoiled by rampant consumerism flowing from the economics of Christmas.
The Schoenhut Piano Company is an American manufacturer of toy pianos, dolls, and other wooden toys. It was founded in 1872 in Philadelphia as the A. Schoenhut Company by German immigrant and woodcarver Albert Schoenhut, who had begun making toy pianos during his youth in Germany. Both his father and grandfather had been toy and doll-makers. The company began with making toy pianos and soon expanded to other toys such as dolls, doll houses, and circus figures. By the time of Albert Schoenhut's death in 1912, Schoenhut Piano Company had grown to become the largest toy company in the United States, and the first to export its products to Germany. The Great Depression forced the company into bankruptcy in 1935, but a year later Otto Schoenhut opened a new company called O. Schoenhut, Inc., continuing the legacy. It was purchased in the 1980s by the Trinca family.
The Spice Girls are an English pop girl group that first came to international prominence in 1996 with the release of their debut single "Wannabe". The following year, the band became involved in a prolific marketing phenomenon, leading to an unprecedented number of Spice Girls merchandise and sponsorship deals. With their name attached to numerous sponsors including Pepsi, Cadbury and Polaroid, and the official Spice Girls branding on hundreds of different product tie-ins, they quickly became the most merchandised group in music history. Their global merchandising efforts alone brought in over £300 million in 1997, while the group's total grosses were estimated at US$500–800 million by May 1998.
The Legend of Holly Claus is a best-selling children's fantasy novel by American author Brittney Ryan published in 2004. It was originally part of the Julie Andrews Collection.