On This Date in Minnesota History: February 6

February 6, 1946 – This morning The Dayton Company unlocked their vault where they had been storing pairs of nylons since November 1, 1945. The store’s board of directors had resolved “that no pair of nylons would be sold to anyone, not even to wives of officers and directors until a sufficient supply had been stocked to answer the demand.” The company announced that over the next three days, 60,000 pairs of nylons would be available for sale: 20,000 on this date (Wednesday), 20,000 on Thursday, and 20,000 on Friday.¹

Crowds estimated at 13,000 “began to gather at 6:30 a.m. despite a heavy snowfall. The 20,000 pairs of hose allotted by the company to be sold two to a customer on Wednesday were gone by 1 p.m.” Twenty-one police officers and eight firemen were detailed to work with the crowd. Police Sergeant Jack McLaughlin looked exhausted, according to the Minneapolis Morning Tribune, “and said he would have rather been assigned to capture George Sitts” (a murderer that had escaped from the Hennepin County jail 17 days earlier and had been trailed to and found in Latrona County, Wyoming). Fire Chief Arthur Spotwood said, “This is much worse than firefighting, but there’s plenty of heat here too.”²

Possibly adding to the crowd’s hysteria was an article on the front page of Wednesday’s paper where the president of the National Association of Hosiery Manufacturers announced that 1946 women’s hosiery production would approximate at most 10 pairs per woman, as opposed to an average of 14 pairs per woman a year before the war.<sup>3   

1</sup>Minneapolis Morning Tribune; “20,000 Pairs of Nylons Go on Sale Today”; February 6, 1946; p. 14.
²Minneapolis Morning Tribune; “Stocking Stampede, 13,000 Battle to Buy Nylons”; February 7, 1946; p. 9.
³Minneapolis Morning Tribune; Poor Miladay! She’ll Get Only 7 Pairs of Nylons in ’46; February 6, 1946; p. 1.

Line to get into Dayton's to buy hosiery 

http://www.emarketingdashboard.com/