Category: Happy Days

Sears Roebuck Catalog and the CCC

Knowing a CCC enrollee had $5-8 spending cash each month Sears Roebuck wanted them to have easy access to a Sears catalog.

It didn’t take long for Sears Roebuck and Co. to recognize the business potential of a young CCC enrollee who possessed, possibly for the first time,  $5 – $8 in cash each month. Money they were free to spend whenever and however they chose, especially if they had access to a Sears catalog.

Used wisely during those Great Depression years, these hard earned dollars had exciting purchasing powers. Thousands of would-be customers were isolated deep within the nations parks and forests, a group Sears recognized as:

“the finest thing in America . . . as fine American manhood as the world has ever seen is being made, right now, in the Civilian Conservation Corps.”

The September 3, 1938 edition Happy Days,the national newspaper of the CCC featured a full page advertisement. The Sears Roebuck and Co. ad promised that a “spic and span” brand new catalog would be sent to every CCC camp in the United States.

Revolutionary Idea – Same Day Processing

Capitalizing on their ability to move products quickly a special offer was made for those in the CCC . . . “we mean to fill such orders the same day they are received”!   This was a revolutionary concept prior to the days of Amazon Prime,  same day, and overnight shipments or the seemingly impossible reality of immediate delivery by an unmanned aerial vehicle, a Drone .

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CCC Art – Solving the Mysteries

Solving the mystery of CCC Art and its origins sometimes happens when you least expect it.

It is an exciting research day when one of the mysteries surrounding CCC Art can be solved, especially if you weren’t looking for it.

A component of the first federal government sponsored fine art programs, the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) included depictions of the government work programs, the most popular being the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  Artists, who were considered roving artists, were briefly sent into camps to make a pictorial record of the life and work.

Leland Roger Gustavson (1899-1966) was one of these roving and prolific HAPPY DAYS 3/24/2934 picture of CCC/PWAP art with officials.PWAP artists. Gustavson was sent to several CCC camps during the harsh winter months of January and February 1934.

In its March 24, 1934 edition, HAPPY DAYS the unofficial national newspaper of the CCC included a front page report and photograph on the PWAP CCC art projects.

Until recently the identity of the CCC boy and the camps where Gustavson’s CCC art was created was long ago lost to history.

courtesy ccclegacy.org

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