The other day I was
looking up some items not to be found in a local mall. In fact,
not in any mall anywhere. Because when they were commonly sold
malls had not yet been conceived.
These items were in
the 1902 edition of the Sears, Roebuck catalogue, which in days
of yore was the nearest thing to a mall you could find. Today's
malls don't even stock Sears' most popular offerings. Take corsets,
for example. A frugal women in a mild climate could buy a summer
corset for 25 cents: No. 18R 4932 , Summer Corset. Good quality
of net and exceptional value for the low price we quote. Sizes
18 (who has an 18 inch waist these days) to 30. Color. White.
If by mail, postage extra, 12 cents.
But for really elegant
bulge control, you could go the whole nine yards with No. 18R4912.
$1.33. Flexibone, French Model Military Figure: A bias cut full
gored corset, in which are combined the qualities of perfect workmanship,
durability and graceful shape . Has low bust, long skirt, with
tabs for hose supporters. (For that one, the added postage was
15 cents)
Over their corsets,
smartly-dressed women wore silk shirt waists ($2.98 and up, plus
postage) and what we would now call maxi skirts. Underneath all,
sensible long legged flannel underwear.
There are 28 pages
of firearms and ammo — shotguns, rifles and handguns. It's
possible to find a .38 revolver with a 3-inch barrel for $3.95
(plus 24 cents postage). But Sears hasn't sold firearms for years.
Without leaving the
comfort of your
own home you could buy buggy tops, bustles, button shoes, butter
churns, anvils, stereoscopes, frock coats, wood-burning ranges
and hair switches (28 inch gray mixed, red or blonde ones were
$6.95).
And men didn't have
to journey to Big and Tall Men's stores (which did not exist then,
anyhow). They could order stuff like Underwear for Fat Men
from Sears. French Balbriggan Undershirts, 44 to 52 chest, and
the same waist-size drawers were 70 cents.
If a man, or a woman,
didn't want to be eligible for "fat" clothes he or she didn't
go running off to a health club. It would be pretty hard to run
anywhere in a tight, cinched-in corset and high-buttoned shoes
and anyway, I don't think they had health clubs in 1902. They
went to the Sears catalogue and ordered Dr. Rose's Obesity Powders
(50 cents). "Too much fat is a disease." was the pitch.
If smoking or drinking,
not obesity, was the problem, Sears & Roebuck and Co. could handle
that, too. Sure Cure for the Tobacco Habit, 40 cents: ".nature's
own remedy, entirely harmless. It cures because it builds up and
fortifies, rejuvenates the weak and unstrung nerves caused by
overindulgence in this poisonous weed." The German Liquor Cure
was 42 cents. "That drunkenness is a disease that can be cured
by medicine, just as any other disease can, is a fact becoming
well-known."
Should one delay fatally
long in turning to Dr. Rose's Obesity Powders, Sure Cure for
the Tobacco Habit or the German Liquor Cure, one's
survivors could order a 2-foot tombstone of royal blue Vermont
marble (guaranteed not to fade) for $7.65. "Sunk name and date
letters" could be added at 6 cents each.
There were no zippers
on anything in the catalogue. To fasten stuff there were buttons,
hooks and eyes, laces and thongs (a thong was not something to
wear under a skirt but something for tying things up).
There were no transistor
radios or any other kind of radios. Or ballpoint pens or light
bulbs or instant cameras. But they had movie projectors, listed
as Moving Picture Outfits. They didn't come cheap even
in those days. The top of the line was the 1901 Projecting Kinetoscope
and Combined Stereoscope, which would set you back $105, not counting
freight. (To Houston, where my elders lived, first-class freight
from the home warehouses in Chicago was $1.50).
Of films to show on
your Edison, some as much as 50 feet long. The catalogue says,
"We carry so large a stock.that it is well-nigh impossible to
give a detailed list in this place." It did mention a few though,
including "The Passion Play At Oberammergau" and The
Funeral of Queen Victoria.
I wonder if they have
them at Blockbusters?
