National Sleep Awareness Week

 The calendar is littered with odd holidays and observances, but one of my favorites has to be National Sleep Awareness Week. Strange to be aware of sleep, don’t you think?

Here’s a Tuska Radio ad from the December 1922 issue of Popular Science advertising the fact that your children can listen to the Sandman’s Story.  I’m guessing that this is a reference to Hans Christian Andersen’s 1841 folk tale Ole Lukøje. Andersen wrote:

"There is nobody in the world who knows so many stories as Ole-Luk-Oie, or who can relate them so nicely. In the evening, while the children are seated at the table or in their little chairs, he comes up the stairs very softly, for he walks in his socks, then he opens the doors without the slightest noise, and throws a small quantity of very fine dust in their eyes, just enough to prevent them from keeping them open, and so they do not see him. Then he creeps behind them, and blows softly upon their necks, till their heads begin to droop. But Ole-Luk-Oie does not wish to hurt them, for he is very fond of children, and only wants them to be quiet that he may relate to them pretty stories, and they never are quiet until they are in bed and asleep. As soon as they are asleep, Ole-Luk-Oie seats himself upon the bed. He is nicely dressed; his coat is made of silken fabric; it is impossible to say of what color, for it changes from green to red, and from red to blue as he turns from side to side. Under each arm he carries an umbrella; one of them, with pictures on the inside, he spreads over the good children, and then they dream the most beautiful stories the whole night. But the other umbrella has no pictures, and this he holds over the naughty children so that they sleep heavily, and wake in the morning without having dreams at all."

It seems odd to me that the ad execs at Tuska were so specific about the fairy tale. It would have been good enough to have said the kids can listen to their favorite fairy tales and then you can enjoy adult programming after they’re tucked into bed. The oddities of old ads, I guess.

Tuska Radios were manufactured by Clarence Denton Tuska. He graduated Connecticut’s Hartford High School in 1915 and by 1916 was secretary of the American Radio Relay League in Newington while at the same time attending Trinity College. From 1922-25 he manufactured radio receivers such as the one advertised in Popular Science. Tuska would serve during World War II and died on July 1, 1985 at the age of 89.

We’ve traveled pretty far afield of Sleep Awareness Week, but I can tie it together nicely. When I was a boy I used to sneak a little transistor radio into bed with me. Once the house got quiet and my parents were asleep I’d turn it on and scan the airwaves. I’d listen to just about anything, baseball games and talk shows, music and news, what mattered was the magic of catching a whisper on the night air and transmuting it into a voice. Inevitably I’d get caught and scolded for listening to the radio or I’d manage to keep my secret, fall asleep, and wake to a dead battery. The magic drew me in, regardless of the cost and though Tuska never became the household name like General Electric, Philco, or RCA I have to believe the same magic that captured me, captured Clarence.

So, sweet dreams Mr. Tuska and thanks for the part you played, thanks for bring the airwaves to life.