Sears Wish Books 1937-1975

"The 1933 Christmas Book catalog started a tradition that made the Sears Wish Book an American icon. The Sears catalog and the name Wish Book were closely linked over the years. Prior to 1933, Sears customers often affectionately referred to the large, semi-annual, general catalogs Sears issued as the “Wish Book” or “Book of Wishes.” After 1933, the Wish Book name became synonymous with the annual Christmas Book catalog. In 1968, Sears made it official by renaming the Christmas Book catalog The Wish Book." -from the SearsArchives website

We'll concentrate and the guitars and amps that were offered in the yearly holiday catalog, but if you'd like to check out complete catalogs (and I KNOW you do), head over to WishBookWeb for full Christmas catalogs from Sears, JC Penneys, Montgomery Ward, FAO Schwarz and more!



Of course, there were *ahem* other catalogs from many stores and marketers... here are a few listings from other catalog vendors.
They're in no particular order, as I've added them as they came to me over the years.



1975. Some unusual instruments and amps from Simpson-Sears.



I've seen a couple of the amps, but never the guitars.




1957 at Simpson-Sears saw these all-black strummers:




... and back to 1973 at Simpson-Sears:

World War 2 cause many shortages in the US, and there was a real drought of instruments during those years. Montgomery Ward featured no guitars in 1944, but they did have something in their holiday catalog I really wish I had, though... this simple, beautiful wildly inaccurate lo-fi 'Twirl A Tune.'
 

1975. More Monkey Ward






Meanwhile... over at that OTHER store in 1966... there were a few guitars that Penneys sold that were quite similar to their Sears & Roebuck Silvertone counterparts.

#3 is obviously related to the Kay-made Silvertone 1412, and #6 is a fancier-decorated cousin to the rare Kay-made 604.


#1 is a sunburst version of the Kay-made Silvertone 1445, and look... it's a Guitaro!


Penneys was rockin' in 1967, too... with some great designs from Kay. Another 1412 sibling and more.




Some '67-style 'Penncrest' amplification:

Spiegel, 1942. A Kay-built 'Old Krafstman,' 'Del Oro' and more!



Here's an actual 'Del Oro,' still with its monogram labels!




Spiegel, 1955 featuring some guitars from Harmony:



More Spiegel! This bunch from 1972










While Western Auto sold real guitars from Kay, Teisco and others, these 'Santa Sizzlers' are focused on the low end with bargains mostly from Emenee.



Since we're here, we might as well dig this mid-60s Emenee commercial:


Here's another, featuring just the Emenee Tiger guitar and its TRANSISTORIZED amp:



The Emenee Swingin' Cat (seen in the first video above) was featured along with its amp on the 1966 Aldens Christmas catalog:

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I'm still looking for Wish Book pages to fill the gaps. If you've got scans of  Christmas/Wish Books from Sears for the years 1933, 1934,1935, 1936, 1938, 1939, 1948, and 1949, I'd sure appreciate you sending them to me. I'll even give you a free pair of Silvertone guitar picks for your trouble!



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