Child's Play

Child’s Play iHORN  is made from an antique child’s electric phonograph record player made by Lindstrom Tool & Toy Company, in approximately 1930.  It is red and yellow, decorated with singing birds and serenading bunnies for the children of the day.  It is the perfect interplay of the old and the new, making a wonderful addition to any nursery.  The music plays out of both the front and back of the iHORN.

Specifically, the Child’s Play iHORN is a Lindstrom Model 276 Gramophone Record Player made by Lindstrom Tool & Toy Corporation, which was founded in 1913 continuing production until 1940.   As part of the War machine of U.S. production, the Lindstrom factory was taken over to produce tools and other materials needed for the war effort, staffed by women, as were most of the U.S. factories.  Interestingly, after the War, Lindstrom took the position that women were no longer “strong enough” to work in their factory, resulting in 23 women picketing the factory for the right to work.  Lindstrom Tool & Toy Coproation made mechanical toys and games of pressed-steel and tin, including stoves, sewing machines, amusement park-type games, and a coin operated Juke Box.  While Lindstrom resumed production after World War II, it never reached the same prominence in the toy manufacturing it held before the War.

Child’s Play iHorn is old but young, sophisticated but naïve.  It is a beautiful representation of the history of music players and hope.  It represents unbridled joy and limitless possibility.