Charles’ 
Slide of the Week: December 21st, 2006
Christmas Morning, Santa Ana, CA 1959
Who is the creative design genius that was able to get their half-flocked Christmas tree to blend into the wallpaper? That is not an easy effect to achieve! This Slide was marked “Janet’s first look at Santa’s Gifts.” The life-like, wide-blue eyed plastic toddler in full make up, formally dressed, rubber-faced, stuffed plushie man-dog and a deluxe dollhouse with all the trimmings are all wonderful gifts. But what I want to know is which one sent a signal to her brain that then sent a signal to her hands to reach down and give herself a reverse Melvin?
HAPPY HOLIDAZE!
Charles Phoenix
Los Angeles
December 2006
Sets this Slide belongs to:
Holidays
21 Comments on “Christmas Morning, Santa Ana, CA 1959”
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December 21st, 2006 at 8:53 pm
Wonderful memories here! My mother read Dr.Spock when she was pregnant with me, so in 1959 I got a pink wringer washer and a pink refrigerator! (The Dr’s motto was “Children should have toys of both sexes.”) Good for me! I had the best toy kitchen on the block! (However, I had to be a full-grown old man before I got my first doll house
Happy holidays, Charles! Thanks for a great year!
December 21st, 2006 at 10:32 pm
My parents always told me it was hellish growing up in the 50’s, and looking at this Christmas slide really sends that home for me. It’s like something out of a nightmare between that creepy doll and the weird stuffie. No wonder the kid is tearing at her pajamas.
December 22nd, 2006 at 9:21 am
Reverse Melvin!
Hahaha!
I laughed so hard I cried…not an exaggeration!
1959…I was 6 weeks old, but a year later I had similar jammies and a similar tree standing in front of similar wall paper. But alas…no reverse melvin.
xo
Miss Kay
December 22nd, 2006 at 9:44 am
Oh my gosh!! This is my house and my presents when I was about 9. Even the lamp shade looks likes what we had in our house. Mom insisted that all the wood furniture be maple and all the cloth furniture be “colonial”, whatever that meant. Thanks, Charles, for a quick trip down memory lane.
December 22nd, 2006 at 11:04 am
Perhaps due to over whelming excitment our little princess had to go potty. If I remember correctly as kids we thought this trick would stop our urge. Heaven forbid those footy pajamas get wet, as she will end up with soggy feet as well!
Charles thanks for your gift of laughter, it makes everything work!
Love ya,
Lynn Graves
December 22nd, 2006 at 11:42 am
Hey! That big gorgeous doll is Patty Play Pal. She was one of my favorite dolls….evah!!!!
My Patty Play Pal was an early version…a few years later some smart toy engineer figured out how to make Patty walk…sort of. She actually was stiff-legged and moved forward kind of like Frankenstein. This was quite frightening for a child of 5 or 6!
Happy Holidays to you, Charles Darling!
December 22nd, 2006 at 1:18 pm
Little Janet does need to make wee wee here howver I think she is mostly entranced by the beautiful locks on her Patty Play Pal. She cant wait to take the scissors to that golden mane the same way Mommie did to her. I received the same haircut with a pair of electric shears bought on TV from my own mother. I made sure I did the same to all my dolls!
December 22nd, 2006 at 4:21 pm
So many things about this slide are startling. The most is how so many colors blend together like a sort-of Escher painting. Brr!
That chair next to the door sure is low to the ground. Was it maybe a child’s chair?
December 22nd, 2006 at 4:21 pm
Forgot to say: Happy Holidays to Mr. Phoenix and all his fans!
December 22nd, 2006 at 5:36 pm
is a reverse melvin the same as a camel toe?
December 23rd, 2006 at 1:49 am
What on earth is a “reverse Melvin”? And isn’t that a Fisher-Price play house? Hardly F.A.O. Schwarz!
Merry X-mas, Charles!
December 23rd, 2006 at 10:20 am
Charles, I am not sure how old you are, but I am assuming we are in the same age range. These photos you so lovingly show are more real to me than today’s world. I am one of those who recalls his childhood with full 100% clarity and you have provided a time machine which is like no other I have seen. These photos are incredibly nostalgic and touching.
Instead of mocking the long departed, you actually honor them and bring them back in their full tacky turquoise and teal glory. I admire your work incredibly. The only thing that worries me is that I have seen all your shows and am hungry for MORE fodder! Happy holidays and see you soon..Curt
December 23rd, 2006 at 7:09 pm
Dear Sir, since I attended your last show I spent 33 months called up to active duty from my classroom where I teach at John Marshall High in in LA.I was particularly interested in your presentation style as it obvioulsy grew form the same nurturings I had with my dad who wrote for Sesame Street TV and was he voice of the Hamburgler on McDonalds commercials for years.
At the last holiday show which I attended, I saw you had a slide of a Shriner in the Rose parade who was my Grandfather and lo and behold I found the true Shriner Fez hat from your photo and will wear it to the next show my dear homie claus!
Anyway sir, you transend from just a “holiday” show to a true soul enriching experience. You have entered the iconic hall of fame along with Jean Sheapard and his Red Ryder rifle. Alas, the Lionel train set I gotway back in the early 60’s is now worth too much to run over my German soldiers with, yet your show allowed me many a laugh/grimace on lonely watches at sea. Never prefering nurtured hopes to proven disappointment…. I shall return. Mr. Arbo
December 23rd, 2006 at 9:09 pm
I definitely remember those candles with Santa sliding down them on top of the tv. Also remember the taste of lead tinsel from the tree.
When was the last time we saw such a spotless home?
December 24th, 2006 at 3:37 am
Melvin… Heh heh…
Merry Christmas all…
Trish
RIP Jerry
January 19th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
I think the plush doll is Huckleberry Hound made by Knickerbocker toys.
January 26th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
This photo was most likely taken within an about an hour of my birth.(8:22am,12/25/59 - central time). Funny thing is, the first thing I noticed was the doll (my mom still has her) and the dollhouse - had one just like it. Got those a few years later.
August 30th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Hi Charles. Oh my God! 1959 I was a boy but I remember my Christmas Eve without gifts because we were poor and we had lost our father. An empty home with a mother and her four children.Those days. But was Christmas for us.
November 16th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Ahhh, sweet memories. I was 6 years old in 1959 and also received a Patty Playpal doll (mine had brown hair) and the dollhouse shown (it was metal, with lots of plastic furniture, like the pink bedroom shown). That house was a bit of a one-trick-pony: all the rugs, paintings, etc. were painted onto the walls, so the furniture always had to go in the same place . . . kind of killed the creative juices - I’m still not much at interior home design!
December 24th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
I’m not the same Cindy who posted above, but I was 5 in 1959 and I got Penny PlayPal while my 8 year old sister got Patty!!! Wonder if my mom just made up the name Penny? I also got a metal dollhouse with everything painted on as well. They must have been big sellers at Woolworth’s or Grant’s. Janet looks just awful with that pixie haircut her mom forced on her, doesn’t she? I had a pixie cut too, but only after I took a pair of electric Snippy scissors to my head and gave myself a haircut. Remember those? They were red and made to resemble birds. You cut stuff with the beak-paper, hair, whatever. Wonder why they don’t make those anymore, or those toy electric irons either? Remember how they got really hot so you could iron doll dresses on your little ironing board, just like Mom??
February 11th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I was 8 years old when this photo was taken.
2 years later I received a Peter Playpal under the family X-mas tree and my sister received a Patty Playpal.
Seeing those big dolls under the tree was a wonderful experience at the time. I can still recall the way the plastic smelled. I actually like it. Kind of like that famous new car smell!
Not all children had great X-mases.
A big family down the street could hardly afford presents for their kids.
My sister and I were so lucky. We usually had good X-mases.