I have a memory as a small child of visiting a supermarket and there was a little booth like an arcade game where you could sit and watch cartoons for quarters. Was this a real thing?
I don’t personally remember them, but entering “cartoon booth” in Google resulted in a suggestion for “cartoon booth coin operated”, which yielded plenty of results, including images, nostalgia discussions, and videos. Apparently “Kiddierama Theater” was the a (the?) common brand name.
So, definitely a real thing.
Aha! Yes, I should have Googled it first. Pity they died out.
I never saw a coin-operated cartoon booth, but the grocery store where my mom shopped had a little “theater” shaped like a miniature trolley car with a TV set at the front. I spent many hours in that thing.
That was in the early 1960s. These days, parents probably wouldn’t want to leave their kids unattended that long.
I never saw such a thing at a grocery store. But, back when I was young I saw them at Chuck E Cheese.
This jogs some sort of distant memory. I’ll bet my parents plunked me down in one back before I turned three or so.
I remember them from the 50s, although I preferred the more action-oriented palomino pony.
I remember them from my childhood in the early 1970s. I believe the local K-Mart had one.
I never saw one in a grocery store. I did see one in a porn shop, but it was not showing cartoons.
My grocery store had a fancy pants one with a pistol mounted to the horse that would make shooting sounds when you pulled the trigger.
I was in kid heaven.
I also remember the cartoon booths. It seemed to feature Heckle and Jeckle a lot. (The crows)
The above reminds me of this ad for A&P grocery stores, which appears to be from the 1950s. It depicts a bunch of kids and babies waiting outside of the grocery store, while their moms shop inside. A different era, for sure.
My jaw literally dropped at that image. I can only imagine what would happen now if someone parked a kid in a stroller outside a Kroger or Safeway. They’d probably find the cops waiting to arrest them when they emerged from the store.
Yes! I remember that!
A regional grocery chain called Meijer, used to (early 1970’s) have an area in the middle of the store called ‘the oasis’ which was an unsupervised play area with televisions and fiberglass animals for kids to climb on while parents shopped.
Technically, they were magpies.
I suspect they used them because they were cheap – Terrytoons probably cost a lot less than Warner Brothers cartoons.
I remember these, as well. My memory is of Deputy Dawg cartoons.