Evening Star Newspaper, December 14, 1930, Page 93

\ SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C", I_)F.CF,MBF.R 14, 1930. 3 THE - — m— | Toys Old and New ftor Christmas 1930 Revival of Amusements LPopularVhenMother and Dad Were “Kids” Noted in the Shops, Together With More and More Mechanical Contrivances to Tax the Ingenuity of Youngsters. BY CAROL BIRD. JYS that reflect the national tempera- ment with marked fidelity have been creatsd this year for America’s chil- dren. All of the country’s fads, fancies and foibles, sports, occupations and industries are cleverly wrought into playthings. Scarcely 8 detail has been overlooked. Miniature sky- scrapers and the machinery with which to con- struct them. Outdoor and indoor golf courses. Airplanes, Zeppeclins and gliders, automobiles, motortrucks, overland busses—all of them with the latest improvements and accessories. Motion-picture machines ard radio outfits with the very latest gadgets. Motorboats and yachts, speedboats, racing cars and transconti- nental and transoceanic flying machines. Utra- modern homes in dolthcuse form. All these and many others are represented in reproductions mirroring virtually every phase of American grown-up activity. Toy manufac- turers, displaying their usual acumen, have borne in mind the imitative qualities of the child and have patterned their designs accord- ingly. They have anticipated the various yearnings of the lads and lassies of 1930 and have given them counterparts of all the differ- ent objects they see about them daily. And these playthings furnish the key to open the revealing door of the Nation’s loves: love of mechanics, love of speed, love of travel, love of sports, love of buildings with sky-kissing spires, love of ultra-modern, colorful and expensive equipment in the home. There is a bit of pathos in the fact that toys this year are so highly mechanized, complex, noisy and excessively modern. Gone is the ten- dency toward simplicity. Even in the realm of the play room is injected the whirr of machin- ery, the frenzied speed of fast-moving vehicles, the compact and crowded idea of the modern American apartment home, the swift pace of American life. The staccato note of the rivet- ing machine. The incessant and shifting pic- tures on a screen. The ceaseless noise of the radio. The blare of jazz-band instruments. Never before have toys been so highly me- chanized, so sophisticated, so noisy or so educa- tional and scientific. It is as though the mythical old gentleman of legendary reindeer fame had dumped a whole carload of toys down the artificial fireplace of the American home and said: “Go ahead, children! Get busy! Make a noise. Work fast. Add your bit to the coun- try’s racket. Join the orchestra of sound. Start the machinery whirring. See what you can do! Try to garner a lot of money.” A tour of the toy market brings to light the fact that this year there is a big run on con- struction toys and golf sets. Miniature golf sets constitute the particular venture of toy creators this year and, judging from the way they are selling, every American youngster will soon be batting small balls through tunnels, into a hose pipe, over a hill and into a hole. The vogue for miniature golf courses was bound to be copied for the children ‘T has been estimated that the American peo- ple spent between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000 on miniature golf last Summer. With the development of hundreds of these miniature golf courses for adults came the in- evitable introduction of golf outfits for the younger generation. They are of varied kinds, l’ing-por:g is @ game for the older boys and girls, but dad and mother will prob- ably enjoy it quite as much as the youngsters. all calculated to capture the fancy of both boys and girls, and are of a wide price range. They are built to be played on lawns, verandas, in the library, on the dining table, pent-house roof or in game rooms. Some of the sets are full-sized, all-steel, with parts brilliantly enameled in orange and black, and complete with metal hazards, tee-markers, cups, flags and hole-cutters. Part of the fun children will derive from such a gift will be the business of laying out the courses, the fairways and the greens and labor- ing over blueprint instructions, after the fashion of their elders who like to put things together. Ping-pong has returned to popular favor, as have croquet and a lot of other old games. These one-time favorites, which long ago were voted “back numbers,” have staged a comeback. Their return is attributed to the present-day vogue for games of all kinds. Not the quaint old parlor “rolics, such as “post office” or “kiss the pillow,” but swagger games of the sophisti- cated type, such as backgammon, camelot, American derby, chess and dominoes. Miniature billiard and pool tables, table ten- nis, archery sets for the lawn or veranda, chess and checker outfits, ouija boards, miniature marionette and puppet shows, motion-picture houses, magic sets, movie projectors and silver screens, cribbage boards, dart games, croquet, dice, fish ponds, masquerade and fancy dress outfits for staging special parties, ring-toss and poker chips are all among the games featured in the toy departments of the stores this year. There are admirably suited to the older chil- dren, the subdebs and their playmates. They hint at a revival of the old amusements, the kind that can be played and enjoyed on cold . Winter evenings, while fires crackle and chest- nuts roast. Perhaps this heralds a return to home life, a renewed interest in recreation that can be staged around the fireside, instead of the kind that must be bought outside in enter- tainment temples among the bright lights SOME of the more expensive toys include circuses, perennial favorites with children. Those this year are somewhat more elaborate, so that lucky small owners can stage “the greatest show on earth” and perhaps turn a pretty penny in the venture, thus helping papa, who may have lost his all in a stock-market crash. The circus playthings can be set up in back yards after the fashion of the miniature golf sets. These marvelous circus outfits include not only the big tent and the sawdust ring, but side- shows, menageries, clowns, equestrians and other performers, trapeze sets, wagons, stoves, cook tents and arenas for the animals. Looking over the construction toys, a grown- up will be rather disconcerted to learn that he will be unable this year to escape from the clat- ter and whirr and turmoil of building opera- tions even when retiring to his children’s play room for a bit of relaxation. Heavy steel toys, the electrical and mechanical kind, have been turned out in big lots by the manufacturers, who are always alert to respond to the imagina- tion and yearning of youth. Anything and everything that boys and girls can take apart and put together again is in great demand this year. Not only will these toys tax the youngsters’ ingenuity and skill, but they are complicated enough to keep even daddy plugging away at their intricate parts, noisy enough to drive mother into visions of a noiseproof door on the nursery. HILE these construction toys are primarily for the boy, little sister isn't overlooked, and she is certain to have a happy Yuletide, too. Never before have doll houses been so thrillingly real, so cleverly patterned after the real thing. The more expensive ones cost hun- dreds of dollars and have full electrical equip- ment, with every modern household appliance. It is somewhat amusing to note how closely the details of the American home have been: Santa’s little elves have been very busy this year building beautiful doll houses. The one shown above is a reproduction of a town house in Berkeley Square, London. applied in the creation of these particular play- things. Dolls’ bath rooms are gay with colored enamel fittings: green, pink, black and lavender, Miniature radios grace the living rooms, mo- tion-p‘eture screens are strung up for the doll g::oets, reflector lamps throw their warm beams toward the ceiling, vacuum cleaners are shown in store room cupboards, and there are built-in radiators, French windows, Venetian blinds and dinettes in kitchen corners. . Color is rampant, just as it has been in the American home recently. Colored sheets, showerbath curtains, tea sets, kitchen tables and chairs, napkins, bath mats, kitchenware can be detected by peering into the windows of these swanky dolls’ houses. Some of the homes are built in the Colonial style and are sur- rounded with closely clipped artificial English hedge. There are “Summer homes,” with col- ored wicker porch furniture, hammocks for the doll babies and porch floor lamps. Some of the doll homes have pent-houses, verandas, window boxes, elevators and garages for the toy cars. Most of them have real elec= tric stoves where a small girl can actually cook for her doll children. It is a modest doll’s house, indeed, which does not boast some sort of electric equipment. Some of the houses have small electric refrigerators and the electric stoves are equipped with all the latest gadgets for determining the exact temperature of the oven. Most of them have regulators to turn the heat “low,” “medium” or “high.” Every device that modern woman employs in running her home and simplifying her house- hold ‘tasks is duplicated for her daughter's amusement. Racks for the various kinds of brushes are shown, radiator and sink brushes, brushes for cleaning out room corners, molding and so on. While dolls this year aren't strikingly novel, their layettes and wardrobes are. They are super-smart, and every article is almost an exact copy of their small owner's clothes. Lit« tle fur coats, cloth ones with tiny capes, pert velvet and crocheted berets, tiny galoshes for stormy days, little beach pajamas for Summer days. Even the infant dolls have elaborate out- fits, with stacks of soft-colored wool blankets, fancy pillows and snowy dresses in neat stacks in toy cupboards. Older dolls have coat and dress hangers of bright-painted wood in painted chests, cup- boards and in wardrobe trunks, made in various sizes to serve for both dolls and their small mistresses. Here the American love of travel, the chare acteristic which has placed citizens of this country in the foremost rank of tourists, is eme phasized in traveling baggage, carried out with careful fidelity to detail to duplicate adults’ be= Jongings. There are shiny black wardrobe trunks and leather suitcases, plastered all over with a motley array of foreign labels. They have, obviously, passed through the customs and bear the stamp of foreign parts. There are also leather overnight bags and small vanity cases ! Continued on Seventh Page