This photograph, dated December 8, 1937, was one in a series recording Santa’s visits to various local retailers in the weeks before Christmas.
The series appeared in the Evansville Press, perhaps to perk up sales slowed by uncertainty in the Depression years. The frigid weather was also not cooperating, with temperatures hovering just above zero, the lowest in nearly a decade.
Here Santa adjusts the dial of a Silvertone console radio in the R & G Furniture store at 114-122 Main Street. The popular brand, introduced by Sears & Roebuck, was on sale for fifty dollars, promising dependability and “worldwide reception†to consumers.
The R & G firm, founded in 1901 by Ignace Rosenthal and Ferd Gumberts, was a downtown fixture until it closed in 1967.
