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.



A handful of pages from Montgomery Wards.

1969 brings a couple of flattops, a banjo, and a stockingful of effects and even an AM-transmitting early wireless unit.


Here's the opposite page featuring a complete rock show setup, complete with rock band!


For good measure, here's the above band, ORPHEUS, in a 1969 TV appearance.

 

1968 Montgomery Ward, the imports are making inroads






1967 Montgomery Ward, Guitars by Harmony


A little flattop, similar to the Silvertone 604



1966 Montgomery Ward, Harmony supplying plenty of six-string action, with three of the axes having nearly identical Silvertone counterparts



1965 Montgomery Ward, Harmony-built six-stringers


Jumpin' Jiminy! It's an Emenee! The 'Tiger' is the same as Sears 'Wing Ding.'


Supro built that 'Res-O-Glas' Airline.



1964 Montgomery Ward, and a genius jump on the Beatles bandwagon


Supro built this cool Airline-branded ampcase setup for Montgomery Ward



1963 Montgomery Ward,  Double-pickup Kay-built 'Vanguard'-based electric guitar in the mix, Harmony uke, Kay acoustic


1962 Montgomery Ward


1961 Montgomery Ward, You'll recognize Harmony-built guitars similar to those offered by Sears


1960 Montgomery Ward, with guitars from Harmony, Kay and Supro, with the Supro ampcase beating Sears & Dano's efforts by a couple of years

More JC Penneys
1969



1968 JCPenneys







JC Penneys 1964, trying to hit the 'Folk Boom' stride, just like Sears... and a single-pickup Vanguard-based electric


Whew! That's all for now... but I'm always on the hunt for more!

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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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