By the time this decade began,
Americans were beginning to feel the full effects of the stock market
crash of 1929. The majority of the population had little or no money for
unnecessary luxuries such as Christmas lights, so they either went without
or made their older outfits last a few years longer. Many of the light
sets pictured in the previous category were also sold during the early
30's, and because of this it can be difficult for the collector to
accurately date some outfits.
In
1933, President Roosevelt, newly elected and attempting to relieve the
effects of the Depression, called for emergency legislation—the National
Industrial Recovery Act—which in turn set up the National Recovery
Administration (NRA). The administration was to work with American
businesses to set prices, rates of pay, hours of work, and other "codes of
fair practices" for each industry. The NRA itself was attacked as being
both communistic and authoritarian. Although it was voluntary, only
businesses that complied with the industry codes could display the NRA’s
blue or red eagle symbol in their windows or on their packaging. Those who
did not display it were
made to seem unpatriotic and selfish. Since the codes were drawn up mainly
by the largest companies, small businesses were hurt. In May 1935, the
Supreme Court declared the NRA unconstitutional on the grounds that it
improperly delegated legislative powers to the executive branch of the
government and that the constitution granted to the federal government
only the power to regulate interstate commerce, not intrastate commerce. Christmas lighting outfits that
bear the NRA symbol can therefore be dated quite accurately to a
manufacturing time between 1933 and 1935. Earliest boxes with the symbol
are simply rubber-stamped, while later issues carry the printed logo shown
here to the right.
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These 1920s-era outfits, among
others, were sold in identical boxes in the early 30s. Only the
string and lamps inside were changed. |
Date |
Manufacturer |
Notes |
Outside of Box |
Inside of Box |
1930 |
Unknown |
Judging by the
number of this outfit still in existence today, quite a few of
these outfits were sold in the early 1930s. This collector has seen
them with both Japanese and Mazda lamps. Either way, they were
always C-9 intermediate base lamps. |
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1930 |
Good
Lite |
Circa 1930, this
outfit from the Good Lite Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut is a
typical offering from that company. The lamps are outside coated
Japanese C-9 intermediate base examples, and the cord is marked
Good Lite, which is uncommon. Most Good Lite offerings were economy
sets, with low quality cords and inexpensive imported lamps. This
set is no exception, as the cord lacks the typical weatherproofing
usually evident on more expensive sets. Note the box art, which is
quite primitive when compared to the competition's offerings. Many
Good Lite sets are this way. |
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1930 |
Paramount |
This box style from
Paramount was used for the company's C-9 intermediate base lamp
sets. The sets sold throughout the 30s. |
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1932 |
Paramount |
This box housed
Paramount's C-6 light sets in the early 1930s. |
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1932 |
Royal |
Although this box,
which houses a C-9 intermediate base lamp set, closely resembles the
box pictured above from Paramount, the two companies are not
related. |
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1932 |
Crest-O-Lite |
This is an outdoor
outfit using intermediate base C-9 lamps, and is weatherproofed for
outdoor use. It was produced throughout the mid 1930s. Crest-O-Lite
was a small New York State company, and was not in business very
long. |
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As the Depression years dragged on, Christmas lights
sales were less than half of what they had been at the end of the
last decade. Lighting companies started introducing a large variety
of new designs and novelty lights, in an attempt to spur sales. The
vast majority of these lights were of Japanese manufacture. |
1932 |
General Electric |
General
Electric first sells "bell lights" to the Christmas lighting
industry. Although not shown here, green and red colored bells were
sold as well. The unusual purple color is quite hard to find. The company continued to sell these lamps up until the
beginning of World War II. |
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1932 |
Reliance |
Although unmarked,
this offering is from Reliance. Normally sets sold under this brand
name used imported lamps, but in this case the only bell shaped
lamps available at the time were American made GE Mazdas. |
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1932 |
Royal |
Royal Electric also
offered the new bell lights in their outfits. This is a typical box
from that company, and is almost identical to the 1930 Paramount
offering. |
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1932 |
NOMA |
The cover of this
NOMA set of C-9 outdoor lights gives no clue as to
the unusual variation in the contents. A over pasted white label on
the inner flap
describes the use of spring loaded sockets, a new development for
NOMA. The set is well weatherproofed for outdoor use, including the
berry beads, which are plastic instead of the more common wood. The
inner flap of the box describes the set as a model 3000, but the end
of the box says it is a 3005. A look through the NOMA catalogs
reveals that this outfit is a first year (1932) issue, as by 1933
the sets did not incorporate the berry beads and were referred to by
NOMA as "red cap" outfits, whereby the wires passed through the
sockets at the bottom, rather than up into and then back out. Also, 1934 and later sets had a
properly printed inner flap with no over paste label. It is unusual
to be able to date an outfit to a specific year of manufacture.
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