Eskimo Pie, the chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream bar wrapped in foil, was the invention of Danish Immigrant Christian Kent Nelson, who was a school teacher
and the owner of a candy store. He got the inspiration for Eskimo Pie in 1920 in
Onawa, Iowa when a young customer couldn’t decide between ice cream or a
chocolate bar. After experimenting with various ways of coating bricks of ice
cream with melted chocolate, Nelson began selling his discovery under the
name of “I-Scream Bars”.

In 1921, he filed for a patent and obtained an agreement with local chocolate
maker Russell C. Stover to mass-produce them under the new trademark
name “Eskimo Pie” (a name suggested by Mrs. Stover). After a patent was
issued to the Eskimo Pie Corporation on January 24, 1922, Nelson soon
franchised the product. One of the earliest advertisements for Eskimo Pie
appeared in the November 3, 1921 issue of the Iowa City Press-Citizen,
shown below.

Christian Kent Nelson

Edith Young

Aunt Jenny’s Real Life Stories was a 15-minute radio soap which aired from
January 18, 1937 to November 16, 1956 on CBS and was sponsored by Spry
Shorting. Aunt Jenny (full name Jennifer F. Wheeler) was played by Edith
Young. The show offered cooking tips along with some homespun
philosophy.  

Will Rogers

The Dodge Victory Hour, one of radio’s first variety shows, debuted on
NBC on Wednesday, January 4, 1928. The show starred Will Rogers
broadcasting from his home in Beverly Hills, Paul Whitman and his
orchestra from New York, Fred Stone in Chicago and Al Jolson who
was in New Orleans. It was a 47-station coast-to-coast program
sponsored by Dodge’s new Victory Six automobile. The show
reached an estimated audience of 35 million, the largest since
Charles Lindbergh’s return in 1927. The premiere was produced
at a cost of $67,600.

Paul Whitman

 
Al Jolson

Canadian actress Billie Mae Richards is the voice of Rudolph in the stop-
motion TV favorite.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a Christmas TV special that was produced in
stop motion animation by Rank/Bass. It first aired Sunday, December 6, 1964, on the NBC television network and was sponsored by General Electric and later moved to
CBS in 1972. It has been telecast every since, making it the longest running Christmas TV special, and one of only four 1960s Christmas specials still airing, the others being
A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and Frosty the Snowman.

Christmas shoppers waiting for the electric streetcar in Detroit, 1949

Christmas shopping in downtown L.A. in 1940

1934 Gimbels Christmas ad 

Window shopping