Where do tacky treasures come from?

I don't know where all the tacky treasures in existence have come from, but I have stumbled across a major source: the 1930s. This must have been a very tacky decade, if I am to go by the advertisements that I found in a 1939 issue of Popular Science. My favorites are the ads for making money in your home at dubious trades, such as taxidermy. This is understandable, since the Depression was still affecting the American economy at that time. Just about everyone needed some extra money. What I want to know is what happened to all those squirrel lamps, frog ashtrays, and rabbit bookends? I haven't seen any in the antique stores, flea markets, or thrift shops I've visited. Don't tell me someone thought they were too tacky to keep!

The other thing about the 1930s was the way one was allowed to make brazenly false claims in advertising. The amazing machine that grows hair is that decade's answer to the hair club for men. An intermittent vacuum attached to the scalp was supposed to stimulate the blood vessels in the head and cause hair growth. In an odd twist, several decades later, someone invented the Flowbee™ which cuts hair using a vacuum. I, personally, would not recommend the use of either product, though not for the same reasons.

The makers of the tonette claimed it was used by "orchestras and professionals." This was news to me. With usual unrigorous research I give to my writing on this web site, I did find that P.D.Q. Bach wrote a chamber piece that included the tonette, the Gross Concerto For Divers Flutes, Two Trumpets & Strings in C Major which features the left-handed sewer flute, a slide whistle, a tonette, a nose flute, an Oscar Mayer wiener whistle and two sizes of ocarinas. Peter Schickele, biographer of P.D.Q. Bach is quoted as describing the tonette as "a cheap, synthetic recorder with amusing pretensions."

My research continues. If I find anything else of interest, I'll be sure to report it.

Advertisement for taxidermy lessons (from Popular Science, August 1937)

Amazing Machine that grows Hair (from Popular Mechanics, 1939)

The Tonette, a plastic recorder
(from Popular Mechanics, 1939)