Founded by Jim and Mary Thornbury in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1954, Thornbury's Toys was initially a true "mom and pop" shop. After expanding a few times they outgrew the first store located at 117 Breckinridge Lane in St. Matthews and opened a new store nearby at 4101 Shelbyville Rd. in 1960. This store became headquarters. Thornbury's, incorporated in 1965, grew year after year, peaking in the mid 1980's with stores in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, Ohio and Alabama. The formula for success: customer service, high "play-value" toys and bikes, and a strong management team combined with Uncle Jim's entrepreneurial and promotional flair, love of children, understanding of his customers, attention to detail, and loving family. Uncle Jim's motto was "the customer is always right". The company mascot, Thorny the monkey, who pedaled his bike day and night atop the St. Matthews store, also helped Thornbury's stand out.

Friday, March 6, 2015

Thorny's Whereabouts "Uncovered"


The video above is an edition of Louisville Uncovered by Cyndy Tandy.  It aired on WAVE3 in February 2015.  In the video, the first picture of Thornbury's Toys was actually at 117 Breckenridge Lane and it opened in 1954. Then, in 1960, they moved to a new, much larger store on Shelbyville Road, which is also in the video.  One more little note: Thorny was last spotted on top of Brundage Jewelers on Chenoweth Lane in the weeks before Christmas 2014 (see photo below, from here). Thanks WAVE3 and Cyndy for featuring Thorny and getting us motivated to tell the Thornbury's Toys story and sharing it with lots of people who have such fond memories of the toy store.


Posted by at
Labels: , ,

1 comment:

  1. AnonymousMarch 22, 2015 at 1:05 PM

    How many versions of the bike-riding Thorny were there over the years? And how many real ones? Thanks

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)