Shake a Leg! The Alarm Clock Girls and the Tam-Tam Brothers

The Junghans Alarm Clock Girls with their long legs and the three Tam-Tam Brothers at Kienzle with their high hats began advertising clocks as from the 1920’s. This way they were supposed to create a sensation and increase sales.

Instead of hired chorus girls, female factory workers at Junghans showed their legs, doing so first to the authorized representative of the company prior to being allowed to flaunt them in alarm-clock costumes before the company’s invited guests.

Being an alarm clock girl was by no means looked down upon by these women. While providing amusement as “alarm clocks”, these female workers did not have to assemble clocks. They attracted the undivided attention of clockmakers and other visitors of the Junghans factory. This marketing concept worked out so well that Junghans allowed its female factory workers to show their legs from 1920 until well into the 1960’s.

Like Junghans, the Kienzle clock factory of Schwenningen set out to increase its sales by using human beings as a publicity medium. The “Tam-Tam” alarm clock, available in three different sizes, was introduced at the Leipziger Trade Fair of 1924 in the form of three men of different heights who sported Kienzle’s five-spoke wheel trademark on their chests.