Goldsmith’s – Memphis Flyer

1941 Commercial Appeal ad

During my lonely days and nights in the Lauderdale Mansion, I’ll often pull out musty copies of The Commercial Appeal or Memphis Press-Scimitar, settle back in my La-Z-Boy with a jug of moonshine, and relive the good old days.

And sometimes those days seem pretty strange. Case in point: In December 1941, Goldsmith’s (describing itself as “Memphis’ Greatest Christmas Store”) had apparently advertised some “interwoven” socks for sale. You could pay 39 cents for a pair, or get three pair for a buck. Seems reasonable, no?

But wait — that was WRONG. The following day, the store ran this correction, saying, “We are sorry — this was an error.”

Oh my gosh. What horrible mistake did they — COULD they — have made in a simple ad for SOCKS?

Why, they got the price wrong, and were losing almost 10 cents on every sale! Just look. The correct price should have been three pairs for … $1.10.

Boy, I guess they must have planned on selling lots of these socks to pay for the cost of running the correction.

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Ask longtime Memphians about downtown department stores, and the first ones that usually come to mind are Goldsmith’s, Lowenstein’s, and Gerber’s. But my personal favorite was Bry’s, just because of the sheer volume of merchandise they offered. I’ve mentioned before that, according to historian Paul Coppock, the store at one time sold airplanes, for pete’s sake. I’m not sure if you carried those to the cash register, or if they delivered them to your home.

But I recently turned up a 1927 newspaper advertisement for the store’s sporting goods department, and just look at the amazing selection. If you have trouble reading the ad, let me just mention a few of the items for sale, and their 1927 prices:

Spalding golf clubs (irons) — $3.50
Spalding golf clubs (woods) — $5.00
Narragansett Livewood tennis racquets — $2.95
Louisville Slugger baseball bats — $1.85
League baseballs — $1.25
Shakespeare automatic fly reel — $4.50
… and lots more

Golf bags came in “all sizes” with the prices starting at just a dollar and stretching all the way to $45, which was a stupendous amount of money to spend on a golf bag in the 1920s. For you, I mean, not for me.

Note that they also sold a baseball glove called the “Dazzy Vance” (a fine name indeed) for the rather steep price of $8.50. Nothing with the Lauderdale name on it ever came cheap, I assure you.