Bubble lights for Christmas decoration were first patented in the United States by Carl W. Otis in 1944 and introduced there in 1946 by NOMA, one of the largest American manufacturers of Christmas lights. While NOMA was the largest company to make these lights, other manufacturers included Raylite (Paramount/Sterling), Royal Electric Company, and Good Lite/Peerless. Bubble lights were very popular as Christmas lights from the 1940s through the 1970s, before miniature “fairy” lights became popular.
The company survived the stock market crash of 1929 and subsequent economic contraction with clever marketing proposed by Propp. Their advertisements made Christmas lighting seem like an essential part of the holiday, and the holiday celebrations essential in such trying times. The campaign worked, and NOMA was successful from 1929 through the depression years, despite its product being previously viewed as a luxury item.
On Morris Propp’s death, Henri Sadacca became president. His family owned one of the original companies that formed NOMA. During World War II, NOMA sold wooden toys for the holiday season, switching its electrical manufacturing to the war effort. Sadacca bought a number of other companies, and focused manufacturing on incendiary devices.
In 1950, NOMA still had 35% of the holiday lighting marketing. In 1953, NOMA separated its Christmas light manufacturing operations into a subsidiary NOMA Lites, Inc. and enjoyed considerable success. Sadacca, by now chairman of the board, together with company president James Ward, formed a plastics company named TICO to vertically integrate manufacturing.
By the early 1960s, the company faced increasing competition from cheaper, imported miniature light sets. Ward was replaced by Morris Goldman for 1963. The company began a policy of reducing manufacturing and relying on cheap buyouts of stock from other companies in the industry as they failed in the face of the cheap imports. Sales still fell in the following two years, and NOMA Lites filed for bankruptcy in 1965, and started using cheaper components, while still assembling in the United States factory, under the name “NOMA Worldwide, Inc.” In 1967, this was renamed simply “Worldwide, Inc.”
In February 2007, Electrical Components International (ECI) purchased GenTek’s wire and cable assembly business known as NOMA Corporation. ECI owns the NOMA brand but is not involved in the design, sourcing or manufacture of these products.
My parents had them on our tree every year when I was a kid (1960's). Loved those lights. There was nothing like them.
ReplyDeleteThey look like the most easily broken tree accoutrement ever. Did people buy a new set every year?
ReplyDelete