Models Citizens

The original Lionel Corporation was founded in 1900 by Joshua Lionel Cowen and Harry C. Grant in New York City. Lionel Corporation was an American toy manufacturer that operated for more than 120 years. Lionel specialized in various products throughout its existence. Toy trains and model railroads were its main claim to fame. During its peak years in the 1950s, the company sold $25 million worth of trains per year. The Lionel Corporation was permanently derailed in 1993. However, model trains are still in production as Lionel, LLC.

Lionel made its trains larger than those of its competitors, making them appear a better value. Their earliest trains ran on two-rail tracks with the rails 2-7⁄8 inches apart. In 1906, Lionel began offering a three-rail track that simplified the wiring of reverse loops and accessories. Its outer rails were 2-1⁄8 inches apart, which did not match any of the existing standards that other manufacturers had been using since 1891. Lionel marketed the non-standard track as "The Standard of the World," and soon adopted the name in catalogs as Standard Gauge. By 1915, Lionel got on the right track with most of its U.S. competitors by adopting the smaller "O gauge" standard for its budget-level trains. Cowen convinced department stores to incorporate his toy trains in their Christmas displays, linking toy trains to the holiday, and making them popular Christmas presents. 

Diamond Strike

The Diamond Match Company has its roots in a business started in 1853 by Edward Tatnall in Wilmington, Delaware. Ownership passed to William H. Swift and Henry Courtney, operating under the name Swift & Courtney, and marketed their product as Diamond State Parlor Matches. Experiencing a boost in business during the American Civil War, Swift & Courtney would acquire other match manufacturers to become the largest match company in the United States. Swift & Courtney was itself acquired by O. C. Barber in 1880 who rebranded the company Diamond in 1881. 

Throughout the twentieth century, Diamond would expand into the forestry business and manufacture other wood and paper products including cotton swabs, ice cream sticks, toothpicks, paper plates, and playing cards. Private equity firm Seaver Kent acquired Diamond Match Company in 1998 until their bankruptcy in 2001. It became a revolving door of acquisitions with Diamond being purchased by Jarden in 2003 and Newell Brands becoming the owner in 2016 after the merger of Jarden with Newell Rubbermaid. In 2017, Newell sold Diamond (except the cutlery line) to Royal Oak Enterprises. The Diamond brand remains America's leading producer of matches, producing some twelve billion a year. 

Note: A 1956 advertisement above

Dentyne By The Stick

AFFORDABLE ORAL 

HYGIENE WHEN 

ALL ELSE FAILS

In 1899, a New York City druggist, Franklin V. Canning, formulated a cinnamon-flavored chewing gum that he promoted as an aid to oral hygiene. "To prevent decay, To sweeten the breath, To keep teeth white," was his mantra. The tooth-whitening agent was way ahead of the times. Today it is an obsession. And more effective. The name was a combination of the words "dental" and "hygiene" (pronounced denteen). Dentyne walked a fine line regarding their health claims as the main ingredient was sugar, not the best additive for healthy teeth. The sugar was finally removed in 2006. In 1916 the brand was sold to the American Chicle Company. By the 1930s, Dentyne was produced by the Adams Gum Company. 

Most candy and gum products were originally crafted to be medicinal in nature. Dentyne is one of the first products to be sold in stick form, but the early gum product was more like small square blocks. It was about fifty years before these products would start to be marketed as enjoyable as much as being healthy. 

Radio Curmudgeons

Radio was initially broadcast over a giant wooden cabinet with an equally large round speaker. Smaller models were soon available but it was the transistor that made these "devices" truly mobile. Radio was where everyone got all the audible news of the world, along with their favorite dramas and comedy shows. The "offline" version was the newspaper. 

Every radio network had a vast number of announcers and correspondents. The ABC network is profiled in the above advertisement from 1950. You are likely dead if you tuned in to these newscasters as an adult. Today, perhaps only three stand out because of their more widespread notoriety, namely Drew Pearson, famous for his Washington D.C. "Merry-go-Round" political column, Louella Parsons with her pulse on Hollywood gossip, and Walter Winchell, famous as a narrator away from his news desk, most notably for the ABC police drama, The Untouchables, nine years later.

Putting A Price On Knowledge

The World Book Encyclopedia is an American encyclopedia. World Book, Inc. is based in Chicago, Illinois. The 2023 edition contains more than 14,000 pages with over 25,000 photographs within 22 volumes.

World Book was founded by publishers J. H. Hansen and John Bellow, who realized that existing encyclopedias were too technical for most readers. Michael O'Shea, professor of education at the University of Wisconsin, once  stated, "... encyclopedias are apt to be quite formal and technical. A faithful effort has been made in the World Book to avoid this common defect." The first edition of the World Book Encyclopedia was published in 1917, by the Hanson-Roach-Fowler Company.

Note: The encyclopedia was an expense many families could not afford. It was cheaper to go to the local library. A complete 19-volume set for the 1957 edition pictured was $170. Other binding styles were less, however. The current 22-volume 2024 edition is $1,200.

From Utah to Indiana

Utah Radio Products Company, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Chicago, Illinois, is known for manufacturing of loudspeakers, transmitters and transformers from the early 1920s. In 1929 Caswell-Runyan merged with Utah Radio Products to build a radio reception combination. 1946 saw the merger with International Detrola Corporation. In the mid-fifties, Utah Radio Products moved to a new plant in Huntington, Indiana. The plant flourished in the 1960s and 1970s with one-piece console stereos that proved popular in the mass market. The highly respected Utah loudspeakers were produced until the 1980s when Utah folded, due in no small measure to the influx of Asian competitors.

Cementing A Vacation Plan

Lehigh Cement was founded in 1897 by six Pennsylvania businessmen who funded the construction of a cement plant in Ormrod, Pennsylvania. Then a second and third. Since the company’s cement was being shipped as far west as Kansas City, another plant was built in Mitchell, Indiana in 1902. By 1920 Lehigh Cement was the nation’s biggest cement company in terms of number of plants, with annual production of more than twelve million barrels of Portland cement. Lehigh’s profits reached a zenith after 1958, climbing to $75.8 million. Net income of $12.1 million on sales of $100.6 million in 1959 was far higher than Lehigh would again earn, at least as an independent company. About the time the illustration above was conceived.

Pictured is the one-year-only styling of a 1960 Ford Galaxie. The model introduced numerous styling trends that set the automotive industry on notice. Yet some Ford customers were not fans of the styling shock. It was devoid of recent Ford trends, most notably the round taillights and seemingly no hint of fins. Coupled with this was the fact the car was larger: it violated vehicle width regulations in many states. Garages got smaller. 

Speaking of fins, I find the 1960 model unique for its sleek "stealth" fins that begin up front as a vertically chromed arch defining the front fenders. The accent chrome magically transforms horizontally into flat fins, the "bottom" of which folds inward, stopping at the trunk lid. A beautiful execution that made the 1959-60 Chevrolets decidedly awkward. The 1960 Ford has since garnered many fins...er...fans in more modern times, especially the elegant Ford Galaxie Starliner.