There once was a time when, just by virtue of being a kid, you could totally sell product. You didn’t have to be the star of the new teen drama or be a pop singer. You could just wear a pinafore and bows – or knickers and a western tie – and some catalog company in Philly would photograph you and use your very average-looking visage to hock toys to other average-looking children.

Those were the days. In 1936, the Philadelphia-based toy company L.A. Hoeflich, manufactured a catalog featuring a little girl and boy – Billy and Ruth – in various acts of play. Billy may have wielded a toy pistol in one catalog while Ruth twirled about with a Shirley Temple doll in another.

Before long they became known as America’s Famous Toy Children and, along with their dog Terry, were staples of the annual pre-Christmas toy catalog for L.A. Hoeflich and several other independent toy retailers over time. Billy and Ruth appeared for two decades in toy store magazines and even had their own Boys and Girls Club, complete with club member buttons, promotional cellos and game kits. But by the late 1950s, toy chains replaced the independent market and corporate mascots cropped up in place of the everykid.

Wouldn’t it be nice if your kid didn’t have to be a cherubic, fresh-faced, singer/actor to appear in a Sears or Toys “R” Us catalog? Wouldn’t it be cool if they used more normal high schoolers for the covers of teen magazines to model homecoming gowns, as opposed to young movie and music stars?

Billy and Ruth surely thought so.