in the 70s, Toys of the Seventies

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Commentor Name:	Rob Lambert
Comments left:	Some elaboration on my remark from five years ago. Came across video footage from "Bozo's Circus" over WGN-TV from 1969, in which a nine-year-old boy hit all six buckets on the Grand Prize Game. Along with twenty bucks in silver dollars, he won a Schwinn bike. Though not announced on air, winners had limited choice of bike, usually under $50 MSRP. The boy got a 3-speed with banana seat. Now, let's warp back to 1900, when Mr. Schwinn and a partner, Mr. Arnold, formed the company and built a sprawling facility at 1700 N. Kildare (area of North Av. near Pulaski) in Chicago. The early 20th century went fairly well, even through World War 2, when production was military equipment and few (non-civilian) bicycles. In the 1950s, Schwinn was called out for alleged, questionable tactics in dealing with competition. In the 1970s, the workers unionized, and this, along with an aging, outmoded facility, led to Schwinn closing the plant (1981) and turning to SE Asia to make its products. One positive about Schwinn was that it stayed put amidst major civil disturbances in the late 1960s. A mile or so to the south, the lengthy industrial strip of W. Lake St (Damen Av. to W. of Cicero Av.) quickly became a ghost town. For over 20 years, Schwinn was a loyal advertiser in Archie comic books, starting in 1945 ("New Postwar Schwinns Coming Soon!") to 1965. The old Schwinn site is now mostly green space.
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