THE OTHER CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS TREE
The birth, shining life and resurgence of the aluminum Christmas tree
Everyone probably knows the story. In the 1965 TV special, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” Charlie Brown is tasked with finding a Christmas tree for the school’s Nativity play. Lucy tells Charlie Brown to “get the biggest aluminum tree you can find,” and “maybe painted pink!” So Charlie Brown ventures out with Linus and searches through a huge lot of aluminum Christmas trees. Instead of choosing an aluminum tree, however, he chooses a small, sparse, real tree instead.
Aluminum Christmas trees were a craze from 1959 until 1972. Their space age look fit with futuristic design trends of the era, in every color from silver and green to blue, red, gold and (yes, Lucy) even pink. Their roots can be traced back to a chance encounter in Manitowoc, Wisc.
Born in Manitowac
Back in 1959, two of the largest manufactures of aluminum products were the Aluminum Specialty Company and the Mirro Aluminum Company, both in Manitowac, which became known as “the aluminum cookware capital of the world.” Both companies also made toys, and contributed to the American war effort during the First World War.
But while Mirro continued to focus on cookware even into the twenty-first century, Aluminum Specialty became famous for a different product altogether.
The Wisconsin Historical Society notes that “Thomas Gannon, toy sales manager for the Aluminum Specialty Company … attended a toy show in Chicago in 1958 and spotted a metal tree in a Ben Franklin store window.” This had been manufactured by Modern Coatings, Inc., of Chicago, but it was too expensive — $90 to $125 — and bulky to become a household item.
According to The Wisconsin Historical Museum, Gannon took
the tree back to Manitowac, where the company worked to improve on the design. “The prototype was produced in 3 months,” says Joseph E. Kapler, Lead Curator at the Wisconsin Historical Society, “and it was introduced at the American Toy Fair in New York in March of 1959.”
The tree was a huge success at the fair, and Aluminum Specialty took a gamble and produced hundreds of thousands of trees just in time for the 1959 holiday season. Their gamble paid off and in 1960 the company branded their tree the Evergleam.
According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, “the Evergleam brand had 60-65 percent market share in the United States and Canada throughout the 1960s.” People bought their trees at Montgomery Ward, Ben Franklin and Woolworth’s, while the Sears Roebuck catalog listed many types of aluminum trees, three out of four in silver.
While Aluminum Specialty could craft the Christmas trees, the aluminum had to come from somewhere. Enter the Aluminum Company of America, or Alcoa.
The Alcoa Records at the Heinz History Center “extols the benefits of using Christmas trees made of Alcoa aluminum.” An Alcoa Aluminum Newsletter from 1960 describes them trees as “durable delights” that “twinkle from every needle.” Alcoa even published a brochure as part of launching the trend in 1959 titled, “How to decorate your aluminum Christmas tree.” During the holidays, aluminum Christmas trees were prominently on display in the lobby of the Alcoa Building in Pittsburgh.
A Space Age fad
What made aluminum Christmas trees so popular? The marketplace at the time was dominated by traditional holiday decorations, but these trees were a new, fascinating innovation. “They utilized new materials and had a clean modern look,” Kapler says. “Aluminum Specialty never promoted their trees as ‘artificial,’ but referred to them as a ‘permanent’ tree.”
“They were cleaner, safer, no dry needles, no sap,” adds Kapler. Since putting electrical lights on an aluminum tree could create an electrical shock or a fire, multicolored light wheels were designed to shine an array of colors on their branches, and rotating tree stands were produced to show off their ability to reflect light. In 1960, 20 different companies jumped on the bandwagon to produce aluminum trees. But the Evergleam took off in the 1960s, alongside the Space Age.
The aluminum Evergleam tree appeared at the right place and the right time. The Soviet Union had just launched Sputnik on October 4, 1957. Then Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space nearly four years later. After Gagarin’s flight, President John F. Kennedy asked Congress to concentrate on “landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth,” before the end of the decade. Apollo 11 achieved thatmilestone on July 20, 1969.
It was a time when television, movies, music, fashion, art, architecture and even our automobiles were influenced by the Space Age. We were watching “Star Trek”, “The Jetsons” and “Lost in Space;” eating freezedried ice cream; listening to “Telestar” by The Tornadoes; wearing Moon boots; and driving cars with huge tailfins.
“There was a degree of innovation that followed the original tree,” says Kapler. “Their looks changed and a hundred different styles were produced.” Silver was the most popular color. Other colors produced were pink (most rare), gold and green. More exotic colors and blends had names like “pompom,” “frosty fountain,” “true taper,” “slim line,” “peacock,” and “straight needle.” The trees originally sold from $5 to $25.
The aluminum needles of the Evergleam were inspired by the strands of aluminum known as “chaff” which planes dropped to create a smokescreen againstenemy radar during WW II.
The second act
The popularity of the aluminum Christmas tree began to fade in the 1970s. “But today they are in their second act,” says Kapler, “and it’s bigger than the first act.”
In 2004, photographers, John Shimon and Julie Lindemann sparked the resurgence of aluminum trees after returning to their hometown of Manitowoc and falling in love with the vintage holiday decorations. They bought trees at estate and rummage sales, antique stores and thrift shops. Then they displayed a “Silver Forest” in their studio windows.
After seeing what joy these trees gave to people who walked by, they decided to publish a book called “Season’s Gleamings: The Art of the Aluminum Christmas Tree,” which attracted national media attention and the rebirth of aluminum Christmas trees had begun. Kapler says their recurring popularity is due to “the love of midcentury design intersecting with the most popular holiday.” Today the trees sell from hundreds to thousands of dollars online.
In 1958, Thomas Gannon’s chance encounter outside the Ben Franklin store in Chicago triggered an idea that launched a national craze that lasted over a decade, but is being reprised today. After more than 60 years, the Evergleam aluminum Christmas tree continues to shine.
The late Jerry Waak, former head of sales for Aluminum Specialty and later vice president of the toy division once said, “We were selling half a million to a million trees a year for a while. It’s amazing how the whole thing took off.”
I’m sure Lucy would agree.