Dispensa's Castle of Toys was a toy store near the Oakbrook Center shopping center, in DuPage County, Illinois. The store opened to the public in 1967. Kiddie Kingdom amusement park opened in 1975. Kiddie Kingdom closed its doors for good in 1984.
The store received a fair amount of attention due to its unique shape, as a stereotyped castle. It was a staple of Chicago television advertising, particularly during the Christmas season.
Its jingle featured a woman singing this song, with a child's voice interposing spoken comments:
- Dispensa's Castle of Toys
- (It's a toy store!)
- Dispensa's Castle of Toys
- (It's a castle!)
- Dispensa's Castle of Toys
- (It's toy-mendous!)
- Come to Dispensa's Castle of Toys
- Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois
Despite the visual attempt to rhyme, the last line was pronounced the proper way, "Ill-i-noy", rather than the colloquial "Ill-i-noise".
The site of the toy store and "Kiddie Kingdom" is now occupied by an office building called the Oakbrook Terrace Tower.
Famous quotes containing the words castle and/or toys:
“The splendor falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story;
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“The great passion in a man’s life may not be for women or men or wealth or toys or fame, or even for his children, but for his masculinity, and at any point in his life he may be tempted to throw over the things for which he regularly lays down his life for the sake of that masculinity. He may keep this passion secret from women, and he may even deny it to himself, but the other boys know it about themselves and the wiser ones know it about the rest of us as well.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)