The cover of the 1968 FAO Schwarz toy catalog.
It’s sad news that the famous FAO Schwarz toy store in New York City is set to close its doors in July. Even though Schwarz never took Electric Football to heart like retailers Sears, Montgomery Ward, and JC Penney, and that most of us never had the opportunity to wander those hallowed Manhattan aisles, there is something poignant about the store’s demise.
Gotham Electric Football in the 1967 FAO Schwarz catalog. For Schwarz, Electric Football was just another toy.
On occasion while growing up in the 1960’s the FAO Schwarz catalog would arrive in my family’s mailbox. Compared to Sears and Wards, it was exotic, with cars you could drive and other expensive playsets and toys that where well beyond what my family could afford. I knew and accepted that, never asking for anything from the FAO Schwarz catalog. But I kept those catalogs and would still go through them from time. There was just something about the “possibility” offered by the eclectic FAO Schwarz line. It made it clear that there was “more” out there in the way of toys than I ever imagined.
The $75 FAO Schwarz “Besieged Castle” playset in 1968. The equivalent cost in 2015 would be $509.
That possibility of “more” was hammered home on a 1969 trip to Scotland when I turned a corner in an Edinburgh department store and ran smack into a Subbuteo Table Soccer Display. Within an hour we were in the store’s shipping office having a Subbuteo game — with battery operated floodlights! — sent back to my tiny house in Pennsylvania.
Subbuteo Table Soccer with Floodlights – confirmation there was more to the toy world than I ever imagined.
Without a doubt it’s this “more” element that inspired us to: play tape-recored NFL television theme music before kicking-off our games; cut NFL player names out of TV Guides for the backs of our Tudor NFL players; build stadiums, keep stats, collect teams and games; make Electric Football as realistic as possible through painting, molding, and tweaking.
A collection of 1967 Tudor NFL and AFL teams illustrating the concept of “possibility” in Electric Football.
Many claim that Schwarz’ special aura has long since disappeared, along with all the other independent mom and pop toy stores that once populated the toy world. Yet it’s still sad whenever and however the spirit of “possibility” fades from view. Perhaps that’s why we work so hard to keep it alive in Electric Football.
Earl