1961 Newspaper Clippings
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Note: This article was composed when I was simply gathering evidence for the archive, far before I'd began proper research or committed facts to page. I've left it generally as is, as it is an excellent reflection of my mindset as well as our ground up approach to information on the site, wherein we let the evidence lead us to the conclusion rather than lead the evidence to our conclusion.
Also note this is not nearly all the newspaper clippings we have onsite. The rest can be accessed via the Gallery.
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These newspapers are featured in no particular order.
When looking through 1961 ads, this is the most common one you'll see, though variations exist with omissions, organized differently, shortened, etc. This one comes from The Flint Journal, November 30th, 1961:
This next one is very similar but this newspaper states that LEGO was featured on "The Wonderful World of Toys". From The Lima Citizen, November 15th, 1961:
"The Wonderful World of Toys" only ever aired once on November 11th, 1961, four days before publication. There is a town built with a plastic building system featured(about nine minutes in), but it was not LEGO. Regardless of who is at fault here, given LEGO was brand new to most everyone in North America, it's an understandable mistake. Worth correcting at least.
Fort Collins Coloradoan, November 12th, 1961. I picked this next one out because of its unique approach to selling LEGO. While every other one pictures the boxes or models, this one decided to simply show the bricks:
Greeley Daily Tribune, November 11th, 1961. This one caught my eye due to the odd canister pictured. It reminds me of an American Bricks canister, though I don't believe AB ever had wheels. LEGO would not patent their first wheels for another two years nor were the canister sets out yet. The artist's inspiration for drawing is unknown to me. Check it out:
Poughkeepsie Journal, December 11th, 1961. Don't exactly remember why I selected this one—its essentially the same as the first.
It's subtle, but it's interesting that the 725's image is made of two images: one being the two children featured on the final box and the other image being the isometric drawing featured on the back of the board(it's at a different angle than the real image). Why? My guess is that compared to the raw image, the drawing printed better. Also worth noting all branding(present on 725's drawing) and prints are missing.
The Hamilton Spectator, November 28th, 1961. This one has two important details. One, fortunate for us are the piece counts for all 1961 sets, we will reference them later. Two, it's a rare Canadian newspaper. The flat box 705 Basic Set was only ever pictured in Canadian newspapers:
The Hamilton Spectator, December 1st, 1961. Another Canadian paper with several unique models printed. I've never seen the two buildings before, so I cannot attest to whether these are Samsonite made(like the Empire State Building model they love showing) or designed by some third party. It is at least notable for being the first appearance of that infamous LEGO clock, though no moving parts exist to make it functional:
The Montreal Star, November 23rd, 1961. This one simply corroborates the piece counts from earlier. For the Canadian market, sets were marked up—the 725 costs $2.50 more(that's a ~$20 today!):
The next two are job postings to be a sales representatives for Samsonite's LEGO division. There were many more of these, but I picked these out:
St. Louis Globe Democrat, December 16th, 1961:
The Los Angeles Times, April 30th, 1961:
And finally, I saved the best for last. From The Toronto Star, published August 4th, 1961, we first have a previously unknown name in Samsonite lore: Allan Knight (at least unknown to me). Another is the quantifying element: it wasn't that Samsonite hired hundreds of people to handle LEGO's manufacturing in Stratford, they hired only 25 and only planned for 100 total. I don't know what I expected, but I would not have guessed that correctly. It also obviously isn't indicative of the total workforce, as we saw there were sales representatives being hired all over the US later in the year. You'd also have to account for the current employees of Samsonite being given new roles and responsibilities, but it's a fascinating peek into information we wouldn't have otherwise.
Lastly, there is the remark that "We'll be in production by October, in plenty of time for Christmas." Remember this is being printed in early August, and the 25 jobs are simply being announced, probably not yet all filled yet. On one hand, it's impressive Samsonite pulled everything together in time, but on the other, it makes sense why Samsonite imported so much(specialty elements like trees, cars, gas pumps, etc.) early on. They simply were rushing to set up in time. This also explains the absence of LEGO from most major toy catalogs. Anyway here it is:
