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.
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.
Above is a short --and rare-- video of Thorny. It was uploaded in 2009 to Youtube by "snackcake68" and titled "Thorny the Chimp 1970" and captioned "Birthday party for Thorny the Chimp at the Louisville Zoo, 1970. Thorny was the mascot for Thornberry's Toy Store." Some of the comments posted thus far on Youtube in response to the video are below:
Loney John Hutchins 4 years ago
Hi..... I've been trying to find ANY pictures or video of any mall that had a Thornberriys. So many early childhood memories. A photo of a Barrel of Fun would be amazing as well.
Campbell Evans 3 years ago in reply to Loney John Hutchins
Absolutely. Most of my childhood toys came from Thornberry's in the Turfland Mall, Lexington, KY. You know there must be lots of photos taken of places like that but they haven't been sorted on the internet yet. I wonder if they ever will.
mrsniallhoran628 2 years ago
My great grandpa is actually the owner and founder of Thornburys Toys, we have lots of pictures.
coldbowlofchili 2 years agoin reply to mrsniallhoran628
WOW! I have a friend, Don Noe, who tells us the stories where he dressed up as thorny! could you possibly send some photos of him to me! that would be GREAT! His Uncle owned the store???
coldbowlofchili 2 years ago
WOW! Don Noe our friend used to dress up as thorny! begging for photos or video!
