This was my favorite ad, (any many more like this):
I was a sucker for Captain O. I got the catalog several times because I either wanted the bike or the TV, never happened. I don't think I even turned in the money to what little I actually sold...
In the 1950s, Grit continued to be sold by newsboys, with about 30,000 carriers delivering more than 700,000 copies.
Among Dad’s greatest joys of accomplishment was the army of business and industrial leaders who gained their first commercial experience, lessons in honesty and integrity, and the value of self-application, by selling Grit in their hometowns
This and the one-man submarine were two things I wanted to order just to see what came in the mail
I love the episode from "Get A life" where Chris elliot orders the sub from a comic book ad. ANd liek 20 years later he finally gets it. Damn now I want to see Get a Life again.
I used to like the old sea monkey ads. I tried to link a pic, but my amazing lack of forum posting know how failed me. I'll stick to just reading comics! :D
Kind of surprised these weren't posted before @warpangel mentioned them (unless I just zoned out over a post)!
This is a great thread with a lot of good stuff. Basically I agree with everything posted in this thread. Jack Davis was probably the first artist I recognized, thanks to the Dr. J ad and Mad, etc. The best line is Zhurrie getting value out of his lockpicking and deadly pressure points books! :))
I ordered X-Ray Specs once, but they never came. :( I thought I had the 100 piece soldier set, but mine weren't flat so they must have come from somewhere else. Like others, I also spent a fair bit of time looking at the Grit and Olympic ads. What a bounty! $-)
This and the one-man submarine were two things I wanted to order just to see what came in the mail
I love the episode from "Get A life" where Chris elliot orders the sub from a comic book ad. ANd liek 20 years later he finally gets it. Damn now I want to see Get a Life again.
This 1969 release, by a group called The Traits (no relations to Roy Head and the Traits!), was an attempted cash-grab following the mega success of "Sugar Sugar" by the Archies, a fictitious pop music group based on the comic book characters.
I remember hearing this song for the first time on a Dr.Demento show while living in the States as an exchange student back in the mid-eighties. 3:-O
It is so amazing how absolutely clearly I remember those ads. I actually ordered a "Book Safe" from one of the them. I think this might even have been the actual ad:
It took what seemed like a MILLION YEARS to finally arrive. And when it did I was appalled. It was made of plastic and paper. Not AT ALL what I was expecting, and it didn't even remotely resemble a real book.
It is so amazing how absolutely clearly I remember those ads. I actually ordered a "Book Safe" from one of the them. I think this might even have been the actual ad:
It took what seemed like a MILLION YEARS to finally arrive. And when it did I was appalled. It was made of plastic and paper. Not AT ALL what I was expecting, and it didn't even remotely resemble a real book.
So how come I desperately wish I still had it?
I also ordered one of those outta a comic book. Took like 2 months to get it in. And I agree it looked nothing like a book.
This 1969 release, by a group called The Traits (no relations to Roy Head and the Traits!), was an attempted cash-grab following the mega success of "Sugar Sugar" by the Archies, a fictitious pop music group based on the comic book characters.
Sounds a little racist to me: "Don't allow no green skinned people in here." Seems like that would have been pretty inflammatory, esp. given the era!
I always wanted the 8ft. Frankenstein, which was probably a cut out, but I thought would look like a full size statue.
I did get that one, and it was...underwhelming as I recall. I think it was just paper, but it was a long time ago.
I haven't gotten through the whole thread yet, but already I've seen a bunch of my faves (hostess, the various soldier ads).
Surely someone has mentioned the book Mail-Order Mysteries, where the guy actually tracked down, explained, and showed what you actually received? That book rocks! Still reading...
Ah, someone did mention Mail-Order Mysteries early on, sorry.
SEA-MONKEYS were, arguably, the biggest disappointment of my childhood. I was REALLY young, and was convinced I was buying an entire civilization from the ads! What I got were little white specks that moved a bit...
I'm probably the only kid that loved (actually I still do and all the variants) Sea-Monkeys. I guess I wasn't expecting Neptune-like creatures with tridents and jobs and transportation. I still can watch them for hours. I recently bought my nephew a whole setup with them and his even bred and had new sea-monkeys, he was thrilled. I had my eye on a grown-up version that were moon jelly fish in an enclosed whole biodiverse system but when they finally came out for orders they were close to $500 and I passed... but just barely. :)
I'm probably the only kid that loved (actually I still do and all the variants) Sea-Monkeys. I guess I wasn't expecting Neptune-like creatures with tridents and jobs and transportation. I still can watch them for hours. I recently bought my nephew a whole setup with them and his even bred and had new sea-monkeys, he was thrilled. I had my eye on a grown-up version that were moon jelly fish in an enclosed whole biodiverse system but when they finally came out for orders they were close to $500 and I passed... but just barely. :)
I can see how they could be fun, but as a kid, it was all about the exaggerated expectations I had going into it. I absolutely thought you'd be able to see them, tell them apart, watch their civilization. IIRC, the instruction book even had things like how to separate them if they were fighting. Like you could even tell! (ha)
I am another who have owned many colonies of Sea Monkeys over the years. I have most of the various iterations on the tanks, and I still pick up a new starter kit every once in a while. I've only really had one truly successful tank, with multiple generations, but still I love 'em.
I'm also a former Grit salesman. I found an apartment with mostly older folks, and they loved the thing. I sold quite a few for quite a while there. All the oldsters loved me, and loved having someone to talk to.
Just out of curiosity, how long do a generation of those things live for? Did the instructions (if there were any) actually explain changing the water, pH, etc?
@DavidAkers FINALLY!!! One of my life goals, semi fulfilled! To find an enterprising GRIT salesman! Do you remember how much you made? Did you amass great fortunes and deliver your GRIT in a three-piece suit with a posh ascot? (this was part of my dream of GRIT success) Kudos on the captive old people angle! We are certainly cut from the same cloth sir! Except you were both a successful Sea-Monkey rancher AND GRIT salesman, so you win.
...and @RobAnderson, I don't think they were "fighting." *wink *wink *nudge *nudge
I don't remember that I made a lot, and I not think I did it a long time, probably more like a couple months or so.
As for the sea monkeys, they started reproducing after a month or two old. And I had one who lived for close to a year. He got huge!
You don't really need to change the water, just top off the tank when too much had evaporated. Supposedly, letting it evaporate down some caused the salts in the water to concentrate and would help the sea monkeys molt.
And you can definitely tell the difference between fighting and piggyback mating!
For a young man years away from a driver's license, is there anything better than building your own hovercraft?
I say thee, nay!
I did a science fair project on hovercrafts JUST so I could convince my parents to let me buy these glorious plans and build my own personal transportation.
As I remember, we actually recieved two sets of plans - ones for the complicated (yet cool looking) single-engine "tricycle" version up there, and ones for a more powerful (yet simpler) two-engine saucer.
Since this was, as the ad stated, "a great father and son project," my father dictated that his weekends off from the auto plant would not be filled with trying to get the tryke design to work, so we went saucer.
First off, this was... 1984 or so, and even by that point, the vacuums required for this "easy to build" (ha ha ha) saucer were not even being made anymore. We spent weeks going to garage sales and thrift shops trying to come up with two of these bizarre cannister style vacuums.
Finally finding two of them, we then had to cut them in half and mount them on a MASSIVE six foot 3/4" plywood circle. Then came the skirt that would hold the cushion of air. I can't remember what material they wanted us to use, but I remember my father saying, "We'll just use a shower curtain." It probably called for marine vinyl, the cost at which my father probably balked.
We painted the saucer light blue (because that was the "oops" can of paint at Aco), and tested it out... without a seat installed.
It actually worked. That is, to say, it lifted this massive saucer up about 2 inches or so. There was no propulsion, so I would sit on it and my father would have to push on my back (remember, no seat yet), and I'd move about six inches. Plus, with two ancient vacuums running, you couldn't hear thunder over the sound of this thing.
Later on, we put on a seat (which is exactly the two pieces of wood that it looks like) and I demonstrated it at school. While my teacher was mightily impressed, it was more of a subdued reaction from the other students.
After all was said and done, we rolled the saucer into the basement and it was never used again. We eventually moved from that house, and it was torn down and turned into a parking lot.
And, sometime, in the far distant future, archaeologists will one day unearth that hovercraft that was in the basement, and wonder what the heck it was supposed to be.
This thread has exceeded my wildest dreams, thanks seriously to everyone! I just knew other people had to have a similar love and fondness for this junk :)
The hovercraft story @EarthGBilly is awesome! I always wanted to build one and my father somehow knew what was involved (the vacuum cleaner motors and no propulsion) without ever seeing the plans and always said it wasn't worth it. I always thought he was just being cheap or lazy, but later in life I knew he was definitely right.
@CaptainCarrot, I never saw that particular ad before! I always saw and wanted this one: My dad had a monkey as a kid and I'd see him on old 8mm movies. He always told me how much trouble he was though and vowed to never have another one. His would sometimes bite other kids, eat birds eggs from nests in their trees, climb trees and whip rocks or acorns at them, and all kinds of things, but the allure of a pet money in a collard shirt in the palm of my hand drove me crazy as a kid. I still would love to have one, but just not have to take care of it.
Comments
I was a sucker for Captain O. I got the catalog several times because I either wanted the bike or the TV, never happened. I don't think I even turned in the money to what little I actually sold...
Read more: http://www.grit.com/grit-history.aspx#ixzz1tHFYs06L
I just love that stuff :D
I love the episode from "Get A life" where Chris elliot orders the sub from a comic book ad. ANd liek 20 years later he finally gets it. Damn now I want to see Get a Life again.
Kind of surprised these weren't posted before @warpangel mentioned them (unless I just zoned out over a post)!
This is a great thread with a lot of good stuff. Basically I agree with everything posted in this thread. Jack Davis was probably the first artist I recognized, thanks to the Dr. J ad and Mad, etc. The best line is Zhurrie getting value out of his lockpicking and deadly pressure points books! :))
I ordered X-Ray Specs once, but they never came. :( I thought I had the 100 piece soldier set, but mine weren't flat so they must have come from somewhere else. Like others, I also spent a fair bit of time looking at the Grit and Olympic ads. What a bounty! $-)
This 1969 release, by a group called The Traits (no relations to Roy Head and the Traits!), was an attempted cash-grab following the mega success of "Sugar Sugar" by the Archies, a fictitious pop music group based on the comic book characters.
I remember hearing this song for the first time on a Dr.Demento show while living in the States as an exchange student back in the mid-eighties. 3:-O
But this one amuses me.
"Run at 200mph"?
I think you mean hop at 200 mph, or run in a circle
I actually ordered a "Book Safe" from one of the them. I think this might even have been the actual ad:
It took what seemed like a MILLION YEARS to finally arrive. And when it did I was appalled. It was made of plastic and paper. Not AT ALL what I was expecting, and it didn't even remotely resemble a real book.
So how come I desperately wish I still had it?
I haven't gotten through the whole thread yet, but already I've seen a bunch of my faves (hostess, the various soldier ads).
Surely someone has mentioned the book Mail-Order Mysteries, where the guy actually tracked down, explained, and showed what you actually received? That book rocks! Still reading...
SEA-MONKEYS were, arguably, the biggest disappointment of my childhood. I was REALLY young, and was convinced I was buying an entire civilization from the ads! What I got were little white specks that moved a bit...
I'm also a former Grit salesman. I found an apartment with mostly older folks, and they loved the thing. I sold quite a few for quite a while there. All the oldsters loved me, and loved having someone to talk to.
...and @RobAnderson, I don't think they were "fighting." *wink *wink *nudge *nudge
As for the sea monkeys, they started reproducing after a month or two old. And I had one who lived for close to a year. He got huge!
You don't really need to change the water, just top off the tank when too much had evaporated. Supposedly, letting it evaporate down some caused the salts in the water to concentrate and would help the sea monkeys molt.
And you can definitely tell the difference between fighting and piggyback mating!
For a young man years away from a driver's license, is there anything better than building your own hovercraft?
I say thee, nay!
I did a science fair project on hovercrafts JUST so I could convince my parents to let me buy these glorious plans and build my own personal transportation.
As I remember, we actually recieved two sets of plans - ones for the complicated (yet cool looking) single-engine "tricycle" version up there, and ones for a more powerful (yet simpler) two-engine saucer.
Since this was, as the ad stated, "a great father and son project," my father dictated that his weekends off from the auto plant would not be filled with trying to get the tryke design to work, so we went saucer.
First off, this was... 1984 or so, and even by that point, the vacuums required for this "easy to build" (ha ha ha) saucer were not even being made anymore. We spent weeks going to garage sales and thrift shops trying to come up with two of these bizarre cannister style vacuums.
Finally finding two of them, we then had to cut them in half and mount them on a MASSIVE six foot 3/4" plywood circle. Then came the skirt that would hold the cushion of air. I can't remember what material they wanted us to use, but I remember my father saying, "We'll just use a shower curtain." It probably called for marine vinyl, the cost at which my father probably balked.
We painted the saucer light blue (because that was the "oops" can of paint at Aco), and tested it out... without a seat installed.
It actually worked. That is, to say, it lifted this massive saucer up about 2 inches or so. There was no propulsion, so I would sit on it and my father would have to push on my back (remember, no seat yet), and I'd move about six inches. Plus, with two ancient vacuums running, you couldn't hear thunder over the sound of this thing.
Later on, we put on a seat (which is exactly the two pieces of wood that it looks like) and I demonstrated it at school. While my teacher was mightily impressed, it was more of a subdued reaction from the other students.
After all was said and done, we rolled the saucer into the basement and it was never used again. We eventually moved from that house, and it was torn down and turned into a parking lot.
And, sometime, in the far distant future, archaeologists will one day unearth that hovercraft that was in the basement, and wonder what the heck it was supposed to be.
Still... cool project.
The hovercraft story @EarthGBilly is awesome! I always wanted to build one and my father somehow knew what was involved (the vacuum cleaner motors and no propulsion) without ever seeing the plans and always said it wasn't worth it. I always thought he was just being cheap or lazy, but later in life I knew he was definitely right.
@CaptainCarrot, I never saw that particular ad before! I always saw and wanted this one: