1962 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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1962 was by far Samsonite's biggest year of advertising, with 731 matches when searching "LEGO" and "Samsonite". Only ~20 results were unrelated/errors from text recognition. As a result, there's a lot to look at—much, much more than 1961.

To start, we will get out of the way the lion's share of ads. Two distinct formats dominated the columns of papers all over the US and Canada, the first of which is the same one from late 1961, running through the beginning of the year until around September. From The Asheville Times, April 31st, 1962:

The other format is similar to my newspaper, shown in the Introduction. The formats vary heavily, but all incorrectly think "Lego" just means "to play". From The Hastings Daily Tribune, December 12th, 1962:

Columbia Daily Tribune, November 28th, 1962. Essentially the same "to play" ad as above, but this one features the mockup model for the 717 Junior Constructor under construction. It also features a thin-pole flag:

Springfield News Sun, December 2nd, 1962. A relatively common ad, showcasing the full image from one of Samsonite's idea books. Also, after spending 1961 partially obscured behind other sets, the 717 Junior Constructor is now on prominent display. This ad was originally printed in color:

The Hamilton Spectator, April 18th, 1962. I saw a number of toy stores hosting various non-descript "demonstrations" of the LEGO system, but none were as odd as this one. I suppose it's intended for parents to see what children do with LEGO, as it was still new to most in 1962, but I think it's more funny outside of reason. "We're going to give a seven-year-old a pile of bricks, invite over the entire town, and see what happens." I assume demos like this were more common back in the day and I'm just not familiar with the culture:

St. Joesph News Press, December 2nd, 1962. As mentioned with the 1961 clippings, prices were higher in Canada than the US. The disclaimer in this ad(from Missouri, but I saw the same ad elsewhere) acknowledges the regional price difference:

I chose the next four for the same reason—they document the new arrival of Samsonite at various stores. That doesn't mean there was no LEGO sold in the local area previously, but instead a healthy growth of more toy retailers stocking LEGO on their shelves than did in 1961.

From The Belleville New Democrat, November 23rd, 1962:

From The Grand Rapid Press, July 22nd, 1962:

From The Republic, June 16th, 1962:

From The Herald Journal, November 19th, 1962:

Guess all those new sales reps they hired in 1961 paid off, huh? Speaking of that, here's another from The Post Standard, March 31st, 1962:

There were likely over 50 of these listings all over the US. Canadian ones were much rarer, such as this one from The Vancouver Sun, May 10th, 1962(note that the starting age is 25 years old here):

The Ironton Tribune, July 12th, 1962. This one also announces the arrival of LEGO to its local residents, but I separated this one because it deserves special attention. No, it's not the fact that LEGO was being sold out of an auto shop, though I do have some questions in that regard. Putting that aside, anyone familiar with the 005 Discovery Set pamphlet will recognize the name featured in this article:

Rowena Shoemaker, one of the people who gave the testimonials on the 005 Discovery pamphlet! And she'll be a recurring character in the LEGO saga.

Morristown Gazette Mail, October 28th, 1962. While on the topic of Rowena Shoemaker and the thought of the educational value of LEGO, here is a letter to parents that Rowena wherein makes another statement:

Hartford Courant, November 25th, 1962. I picked this one out as it shows a very rare open box image of the 725 Town Plan. It shows the set coming with roadsigns still in 1962:

Daily News, April 5th, 1962. This one offers "information" if you mail them an envelope they can use to send you some. It is some sort of pamphlet, but I've not yet identified what, if anything exclusive, it would've been:

The Republican, December 6th, 1962. This next one is The Republican describing the LEGO System from their limited perspective. Interesting they cite "soldiers" as something that can be made with the peaceful toy:

The Province, November 13th, 1962. First mention of the 245 Lighting Device. Nothing in the LEGO System existed to connect the leads to until 1965, instead they expected you to use a battery:

The Miami News, November 11th, 1962. I give this one as it has a unique image(unique to the newspapers at least, not sure what the origin is of this image):

Casper Morning Star, March 31st, 1962. In newspapers, they'd have "industry updates" that reported what companies were doing what, if the price of a particular staple had dropped or raised, etc. I almost didn't include this one, but just look at how they refer to Samsonite:

The Times Herald, January 11th, 1962. This one is interesting, as it is a LEGO ad with rare timing, as most (during this era at least) were late in the year. This one was from January. Seems this store still had overstock and undersold, though the fact that there isn't a discount speaks against that:

I know, I know. There's a lot. Two more.

National Post, October 20th, 1962. This one is neat as it gives detailed information about Samsonite's Stratford plant. We'll go further in depth somewhere else:

The Vancouver Sun, April 14th, 1962. The best for last, this one is a source of a plethora of information. The cost of a mold for Samsonite at $3,000-9,000, the rate at which they produced bricks(100,000 a day, which means we can estimate they produced bare minimum 100,000,000+ bricks in 1962 alone, even assuming an inconsistent production). The 1961 sets were released in five eastern cities(remember this was published in Canada), sales for the first two months after October-November in 1961 were $100,000 CAD, and the sales for 1962 were expected to be $500,000 CAD. Even the royalty Samsonite owed to LEGO, though it may be different for US sales. And, guess what? They finally translate "Lego" correctly!

An image of the Place Ville Marie can be found in the LEGO Club magazine below, thanks to Joey from BrickTrains {.img-center}

The only thing I find worthy of note is that the contest involves guessing the number of parts used in the model... except the above Vancouver paper already published the answer, 110,000 pieces!

I think it's also important to clarify what I notice missing too, as that often tells us as much as what's shown. I didn't notice any piece counts declared for 1962, at least any for the 725 Town Plan, the one I'm most curious about. I'll keep an eye out though.