1932 Helm's Bakery Olympic Village Physician's House Box

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Okay, on to the show...

While we still have one more 1932 Olympic themed toy to feature tomorrow, today marks the last of the Helm's Bakery Olympic Village boxes made by the Standard Paper Box Corp. of Los Angeles. This building marks a departure from the others in that it doesn't look like something out of a Ma & Pa Kettle movie. The sign on the front door reads "Dr. Jones Physician" and its California Bungalow, stucco-sided design really does look contemporary to the times. Athletes need doctors to administer to their varied injuries and it is the just what our Olympic Village needs. There are slits on the roof that appear to be used for separate dormer pieces but they don't look as if they've ever been used. Except for the Grain and Milling company which looks like it should have had a water wheel, none of the other buildings have separate pieces other than the basic box construction (four walls and a floor made from one sheet of cardboard plus a separate roof piece as the box lid). The building measures 7 3/4" (19.7cm) W x 6 3/8" (16.2cm) x 4 1/4" (10.8cm) H. Enjoy!

Below is a Model Power O-gauge figure standing in front of the door. As you can see, the buildings are just the right size for an O-gauge layout.

The slots for the dormer don't appear to have been used

1932 Helm's Bakery Olympic Village First Church of Olympic Village Box

Our fifth building of the 1932 Helm's Bakery Olympic Village series is up next - the First Church of Olympic Village. Although the Church has that same small town rustic feel, as does the other buildings in the series, it could very well be used for any village, rustic or modern. There doesn't appear to have been a steeple on this church, only the suggestion of one by the flap coming out of the roof at the front of the building. The building measures 4 7/8" (12.4cm) x 7" (17.8cm) D x 5 3/4"  (14.6cm) H. Enjoy!

1932 Helm's Bakery Olympic Village Grain and Milling Company Box

We continue our special on the Olympics with a look back at a series of buildings made by the Standard Paper Box Corp. of Los Angeles for Helm's Bakery. The buildings are made like boxes, copyrighted 1932, and feature 'Olympic Village' graphics. 1932 was the first year an Olympic Village was constructed and these boxes were no doubt meant as an advertising tie-in to that. There is a disconnect though, in that this paper village is portrayed as quaint and rustic, while the real Olympic Village was built to the modern standards of the time. Still, it's that quaint rusticness that makes our village exude charm.

Today we feature the Olympic Village Grain and Milling Company, a nice building to complement Helm's Bakery. It appears as though there may have been a water wheel on one side of the structure but that is long since gone. The building measures 7 7/8" (20cm) W x 5 1/2" (14cm) D x 4 5/8" (11.7cm) H. Enjoy!

German Olympic Photo Card

We're taking a break from the Helm's Bakery Olympic Village boxes to bring you a picture card - not a post card - showing another aerial view of the 1932 Olympic Village. The card was printed by a German firm as part of an overall series or collection. However, the publisher is not listed on the card itself so I cannot give credit to them. Enjoy!

Card translated:

Collection Nr 6

O l y m p i c s   1 9 3 2

Picture Nr. 7          Group 22

The "Olympic Village"

In which the participants from nearly 40 nations

were housed;

for each nation was translators, separate kitchens

and cooks available for each kitchen.

Collection Nr. 6 "Olympia 1932" is published in a linenbound edition. It contains a comprehensive chronicle from well-known sports writers of the Competition of Nations in Los Angeles and the III Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, and includes many powerful drawings and a series of full-page illustrations. Color and black-&-white pictures (picture groups 19-23) complement the Olympic book in a collection of great importance in sports history.

In the same format you will find the Olympics Games of 1936, Works 13 "Olympia 1936 - Volume 1" (picture groups 53-56) and 14 "Olympia 1936 - Volume 2" (picture groups 57-61).  Work 13 covers the IV Olympic Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Work 14 portrays the competition of the XI Olympic Games in Berlin.

To-date all publshed collections are numbered on the back

Further works are in preparation

1932 Helm's Bakery Olympic Village General Merchandise and Post Office Box

Toys & Stuff presents our third building in the Helm's Bakery 1932 Olympic Village set of boxes: the General Merchandise and Post Office. Both this building and the Hotel (featured a couple of days ago) have a really neat covered walkway out front. Unfortunately that makes it impossible to get decent scans of the building. I've made fun of the way in which these boxes portray a rustic version of what really was a modern (for its time) Olmpic Village. In spite of that though, these really are a neat set of buildings and stand on their own for their portrayal of a time long gone. Today's building measures 7 1/2" (19.1cm) W x 5 3/4" (14.6cm) D x 4 5/8" (11.7cm) H. Enjoy!

1932 Helm's Bakery Olympic Village Hotel Box

Today we present another building in the rare 1932 Helm's Bakery Olympic Village series of boxes, the Olympic Village Hotel. You've got to admit, after looking at this building, how laughable it is to see how the Olympics were portrayed back in the day. I guess Helm's thought it was 'cute' to portray the world's first Olympic Village as a rustic, almost backwoods kind of place, when in fact it was a bold first attempt at providing modern facilities for the athlete's in 1932. My building is a little rough and clearly, the way in which it was constructed, unfortunately doesn't allow me to take scans of the parts. The Hotele measures 7 3/8" (18.7cm) L x 6"D (15.2cm) x 5 1/8" (13cm) H. Enjoy!