ON Boston's Summer Street last week, an elderly woman gazed at a store window and said: "It's the loveliest thing I ever saw." Behind the glass, Jordan Marsh Co. had set up an orchestra of 14 tiny angels dressed in gold and white against a pastel-blue background; the blond leader tapped a baton, and his musicians lifted their instruments to the strains (recorded) of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. The woman's comment was heard often around the U.S. last week. For Christmas 1953, retail stores had spent $30 million to turn their windows into a shopper's art gallery.
No one wanted to be...
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