{"id":5929,"date":"2014-05-06T12:34:52","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T16:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=5929"},"modified":"2014-05-06T12:34:52","modified_gmt":"2014-05-06T16:34:52","slug":"montgomery-ward-catalog-from-1960","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/06\/montgomery-ward-catalog-from-1960\/","title":{"rendered":"Montgomery Ward catalog from 1960"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Check out <a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/photos\/118285941584671534729\/albums\/6010343939076519777?authkey=CLDMjdqsuPTwkAE\">these photos from the Montgomery Ward 1960 Fall and Winter catalog<\/a>.\u00a0Here are some things that I found interesting:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"padding-left: 30px\">\n<li>nothing could be more wholesome for a mass market retailer than a father and son going out to kill birds with a pair of shotguns (there was no suggestion of mom and sister joining!)<\/li>\n<li>as part of its full-service ethos, the store would loan you whatever tools you needed to do a home repair\/install job<\/li>\n<li>sales tax in New York City was 3% (today: 8.875%), in Connecticut 3% (today: 6.35%), in Rhode Island 3% (today: 7%)&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>a subset of the\u00a0functions of a modern mobile phone could be obtained at the following costs:\n<ul>\n<li>Rolleiflex still camera (uses &#8220;popular <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/127_film\">127 film<\/a>&#8220;): $68.50<\/li>\n<li>Movie camera: $100<\/li>\n<li>Movie projector: $100<\/li>\n<li>Smith-Corona portable typewriter (only 21 lbs!): $119.50<\/li>\n<li>Audio recorder (open-reel): $280<\/li>\n<li>Portable television (&#8220;so light&#8221; at only 33 lbs.): $158<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\">(total: $826 or $6594 in 2014 dollars)<\/p>\n<ul style=\"padding-left: 30px\">\n<li>bathing oneself in ultra-violet light was considered &#8220;healthful&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>a person over 35 was considered &#8220;geriatric&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>you could order a 10&#215;40&#8242; steel building kit for $383<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Check out these photos from the Montgomery Ward 1960 Fall and Winter catalog.\u00a0Here are some things that I found interesting: nothing could be more wholesome for a mass [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - 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