Lindsay's Toy Factory Ltd records, artwork and designs, photographs, realia, 1934-2000s

fonds

1934-2000s

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Ephemera, Drawings, Paintings, Design Drawings, Prints, Photographs, Clippings, Badges, Objects

1184341

A.L. Lindsay & Co. was established by Albert Leslie Lindsay (1882-1957), who during the 1920s started producing Indian head dresses and children’s leather cowboy suits. By 1936 the Lindsay toy factory, at 90-94 Parramatta Road in Stanmore, was also producing Indian suits, cowboy and cowgirl hats and playsuits, and a range of calico tents.

The firm continued to operate during the war years with a special dispensation to employ staff not covered by the reserved occupations. As part of the war effort the company began production of gas mask covers.

After the death of Albert in 1957, the firm was taken over by his son Philip (1918-2005) and his wife Hilarie (1922-). Both Philip and Hilarie Lindsay were active committee members of the Toy & Games Manufacturers’ Association (TAGMA), later the Australian Toy Manufacturers’ Association and Hilarie became the first woman in Australia to assume the presidency of the association. In this capacity she was the first woman to serve as president of any division of the Chamber of Manufacturers.

Hilarie Lindsay developed products with a special appeal to girls, initially through the Annie Oakley costume range. Outfits were routinely devised for both girls and boys: cowgirls and cowboys; Indian women and Indian braves; Batgirl and Batman; Jane and Tarzan; nurses and doctors; Maid Marian and Robin Hood; Wonder Woman and Superman.

During the 1940s, the Lindsays began using Buffalo Bill as their registered trademark, capitalizing on the boom in westerns such as Rawhide, Wyatt Earp, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and Have Gun will Travel. The firm produced a range of western costumes manufactured under licence from large motion picture companies including Walt Disney and Warner Brothers in the United States. Some of these licensing agreements are included in the collection.

Some Lindsay costumes were based on Australian characters such as Ned Kelly, and 1970s local television shows such as Skippy, Romper Room, and Humphrey B Bear.

Other popular products were occupational and aspirational dress-up costumes including bridal gowns, ballerina tutus, park ranger uniforms, army fatigues, racing car driver outfits, police uniforms, and tram and bus conductor uniforms.

By the 1960s, many Sydney toy manufacturers had gone out of business or moved away from toy production. Lindsay’s carried on and started selling plasticine modelling clay and finger paints, and in 1973 began children’s book publishing with its own imprint, Ansay.

In the 1980s, Hilarie Lindsay opened the Children’s Treasure House Museum at the Beeson Street factory premises in Leichhardt. The character merchandising was abandoned by the firm in 1985 though it continued to trade first as Lindsay’s Leichhardt Pty Ltd and later as Lindsay’s Toy Factory Ltd. Following the death of Philip Lindsay in 2005, Hilarie Lindsay assumed the role of Managing Director. The business continues to trade.

References:
Library correspondence file
The A.L. Lindsay Story (1993) / Hilarie Lindsay.
Powerhouse Museum. http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/ (accessed 3 March 2016)

The collection offers a detailed insight into the shaping of products, the domination of American popular culture in the-post war years, a record of the Americanization of Australian childhood in this period, and examples of the firm’s outreach and promotion in the expansionist years of the 1950s to 1970s. Documentation is also present of the firm’s efforts to develop a more distinctively Australian range of products.

SERIES 01
Lindsay's Toy Factory Ltd records, 1934-2000s

SERIES 02
Lindsay's Toy Factory Ltd artwork and designs, ca. 1980s-1990s

SERIES 03
Lindsay's Toy Factory Ltd photographs, ca. 1963-1991

SERIES 04
Lindsay's Toy Factory Ltd realia, ca. 1960s-1980s

Copyright status:: In copyright - This collection has multiple has multiple rights owners
Approval for reproduction required: From the copyright holder
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holders