Date |
Manufacturer |
Notes |
Outside
of Box |
Inside
of Box |
ca 1937 |
NOMA |
Here is a unique
outfit from NOMA, called their Miro-Star set. The cardboard stars have
individually set mirrors on each of the star rays, giving a brilliant
and beautiful effect on the tree. This is a very hard to find outfit,
which has kindly been shared with us from the collection of Chris Cuff.
|
|
|
ca 1937 |
NOMA |
From the collection
of Ken Noto, these NOMA plastic bells are similar in shape to the other
NOMA products pictured below, but are undecorated. The back of the box
specifies that the bells may be used either facing up or down on the
tree. |
|
|
ca 1937 |
Paramount |
Plastic light
shades became popular towards
the end of the 1930s. They were sold
separately like this set or complete with a light string as shown
below. The end of the box is pictured above. |
|
|
ca 1939 |
NOMA |
Plastic bell sets
like these were offered by various companies in the late 1930s. |
|
|
ca 1936 |
NOMA |
Licensed sets were
popular, and along with this Mickey Mouse set, Popeye (below), Scrappy
and the Katzenjammer Kids were offered as well. |
|
|
ca 1937 |
NOMA |
Another outfit from
NOMA featuring a Walt Disney theme, this set is from their Silly
Symphonies cartoon series and features popular characters from that
series. This outfit has been kindly shared with us by Kyle Sund, and is
from his large collection. |
|
|
ca 1937 |
Reliance |
This particular
Popeye outfit was offered by Reliance, but an identical outfit was sold
by The Leo Pollack Company as well. |
|
|
ca 1939 |
Paramount |
Paramount offered
this "Scrappy" licensed outfit, based on the popular cartoon
characters. |
|
|
ca 1939 |
NOMA |
Generic sets were
also available. This one has pictures of popular fairy tales on the
bells. |
|
|
ca 1940 |
Glolite |
Glolite was a
division of NOMA, and offered similar sets to those shown above that
were of lesser quality. |
|
|
ca 1940 |
NOMA |
Just before World
War II put an end to light sales for a while, "expanded" sets like this
were just becoming popular. |
|
|
ca 1940
|
Glolite
|
Here is a Glolite "expanded"
set-made by NOMA to sell cheaply.
|
|
|
ca 1939 |
Superior |
This set is a
typical representation of a late 1930s outfit-except for the most unusual
cloth cord, seen in close-up here. The covering consists of four colors
woven together, and was a short lived effort of several manufacturers
to make wire that blended in with both natural and artificial trees.
From the collection of Chris Cuff. |
|
|
ca1939 |
Amico |
This set was offered for a short time by Amico, soon to
become subsidiary of the huge NOMA Electric Corporation. The lamps in
this set were sold under the name of Permalite, and were imitations of
the GE and Westinghouse Mazda fluted cones. The lamps are marked
"Permalite", "14V" and "Japan" on them, and were offered in both solid
and two tone color variations. the lamps were shunt type, allowing the
entire outfit to continue burning despite the failure of one or more
lamps. Few of these sets exist today, indicating a short manufacturing
time. |
|
|
ca 1940
|
Amico
|
Another rare Amico/Permalite offering, this time with
geometric shaped shunt type lamps. the Amico company was bought out by
NOMA Electric during the war in 1942 or 1943. NOMA continued to use the
Amico name for outfits that included imported lamps. |
|
|