This clip dates from 1951, produced by WGN TV in Chicago. I have no idea of where the three came from. They look like the characters that used to appear in department store windows back in the day, but whether they were featured in one of the big downtown Chicago stores like Marshall Fields or Carson Pirie Scott I have no idea. Santa looks rather Asian because the stop-action animation used was the work of a Chinese American, Wah Ming Chang.
Afterwords
Marshall Fields is now owned by Macy’s. Carson Pirie Scott is now “Carson’s”. I grew up in the DC area but lived in Chicago in 1967 and got a flavor of what was still pretty much fifties Chicago, when the downtown was still the center of things.
