The Lazarus Department store (Ohio) featuring the Gotham G-895 NFLPA electric football game in a full page 1969 Thanksgiving Day advertisement.
Electric football games were a Thanksgiving Day advertising staple in the 1960’s. The above ad was run by the Lazarus Department store chain ran in the Mansfield News Journal on November 27, 1969. It was a full page ad that featured Gotham’s G-895 NFL Players Association electric football game.
Gotham player stickers. In 1969 they came in the NFLPA G-895 game, and the G-1512 Super Dome game.
Tudor had wrestled the NFL from Gotham in 1967, but that didn’t stop Gotham from still trying to stay connected to the surging profile of the league. So in 1969 Gotham signed an endorsement deal with NFL Players Association. In the photo you can see NFL players’ faces on the sides of the frame. The game also came with a set of stickers that could be mounted on the base of each electric football player. (Another standard part of the game was a wrap around grandstand that was not used in the photograph.)
Under the NFLPA contract Gotham could use the face and name of individual NFL players, but it could not use the NFL logo, NFL team logos, or NFL team names. These were all the property of Tudor.
In addition to the Gotham G-895, Lazarus was selling the Gotham Super Dome G-1512 model (it also had a NFLPA endorsement), and the Tudor AFL No. 520 model. It was not uncommon for retailers to carry more than one brand of electric football. That made the shopping all the more fun…if you weren’t a parent, that is.
In 1969 Gotham released its G-812 Joe Namath game, so the company was still in the game as far as electric football was concerned. And electric football was popular – this huge ad is firsthand evidence of that. In fact the games were selling so well that another toymaker was already plotting its entry into electric football.
This added competition would turn out to be more than Gotham could handle. The Gotham Pressed Steel name would disappear from toy world in 1974. But Tudor’s Bronx-based rival did make its mark in electric football. And the Gotham story is covered in detail in our Electric Football Trilogy — The Electric Football Wishbook, Full Color Electric Football, and The Unforgettable Buzz,
Earl & Roddy