REO built the first lightweight personal power lawnmower but the engine was not quite so powerful as this advertisement suggests. REO ran a series of humorously illustrated advertisements suggesting mowing was fun for everyone at any age. One's dad or grandfather may have been the proud owner of these first-generation, self-propelled mowers.
REO got its name from the initials of Ransom Eli Olds, involved in many enterprises in and around Lansing, Michigan until his death in 1950. Reo Motors became well-known for its trucks, supplying many trucks and engines during World War II. Reo started the Lawn Mower Division in 1946 with the common push-type reel mower and slapped an engine on top to create a power mower. But by the early 1950s, the mower industry was rapidly changing to the rotary-blade mower, which was much cheaper to produce and easier to operate than the reel-type unit which Reo continued to sell, hurting sales for the next few years. Reo eventually marketed a rotary mower, but their design was a mechanical disaster. In 1954 Reo sold their lawnmower division to Motor Wheel Corporation of Lansing, and continued the Reo line. But the "writing was on the wall" and Motor Wheel sold their entire Reo line to Wheel Horse Products in South Bend, Indiana in 1963. Wheel Horse continued the Reo line for several years before dropping the Reo name.
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