Comic Book Ad from 1956: How I Made a Small Fortune in Spare Time!
Published on - October 9th, 2010 (by J.D. Roth) 
Last month, I mentioned that I got my entrepreneurial start as a kid by selling stuff door to door. This “stuff” generally comprised products advertised on the back of of comic books: seeds, greeting cards, and so on.
For more than thirty years, companies recruited armies of salesboys and salesgirls through comics. I was one of them. But it wasn’t just kids they recruited.
I was reading an October 1956 issue of Blackhawk — a fanciful war comic (the Blackhawks didn’t just fight commies; they also fought space aliens) — when I came across this gem of an ad that touts how much a man can make selling Mason Shoes.
That’s a little small to see on the blog, so you can click through to see the entire ad on Flickr. Here are some of the best bits:
Bill’s friend Jim introduces him to the world of Mason Shoe:
Look how that shoe gleams in the second panel! Naturally, Bill started selling to his friends, relatives, and co-workers. Everybody wants comfortable shoes:
And here’s the end-of-the-page sales pitch:
“Bill! A new toaster!”
It’s probably obvious why I love this.
For one thing, it’s an ad in comic form from inside a comic book. For another, it’s promoting one of my favorite aspects of personal finance, personal entrepreneurship. True, it veers toward the “get rich quick” side of things (but then all sales schemes like this do), but that’s okay — in order to succeed, the Mason Shoe man will have to pour his soul into his work. Finally, I’ve done plenty of door-to-door sales in my day, so I have a soft spot for this sort of thing. (It’s never this easy!)
By the way, Mason Shoe still exists, though I can’t tell from their website if they still manufacture their own shoes. It may be that they just sell other brands…
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Their web site says that they employ 450 people in norther Wisconsin. I would assume that to employ that many they would be still making many of their own shoes. I have ordered Mason Shoes for a long time since they have any size needed.
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An interesting part of the story is that the wife got so excited about the new toaster. No-one in my house would even blink if a new toaster was brought into the home. A new big screen TV maybe.
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Mason Shoes is still going. My late husband signed up to be a salesman so he could get a discount on his extraordinarily large shoes. Four years after his death I’m STILL getting their catalogue, even though I even called them once to tell them they were wasting their money on the catalogue. So it goes.
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Looks like the same artist who did Mark Trail.
Sales is never an easy job. I understand the secret is really believing in the product you are selling.
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My father bought his work boots from Mason Shoe exclusively until the moved manufacturing to China and the quality declined.
I got a pair of leather sandals for Christmas in 1999. Although the insoles wore out disappointingly fast (before spring), the sandals themselves lasted until 2 years ago.
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What a hoot!
I remember those comic-book ads. They had one where you could order away for life-size dinosaurs!
Well, life-size was about the size of a four-year-old, which was pretty big for a mail-order tyranosaur. They were blow-up balloons…lasted about three days. LOL!
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What an entertaining ad! Gotta love that “new toaster!”
In all honesty, mail order and things of that nature were a very popular industry through to the 1970′s, but like #4 mentioned; once lower-costing mass-production came into play, most of these industries all but evaporated.
The modern twist would be tupper-ware selling, things of that nature…I personally believe that online selling has truly replaced alot of the person-to-person and mail-order sales industries.
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I am disappointed that you missed the chance for a bad pun: Mason Shoe man will have to pour his SOUL/SOLE into his work.
The world needs bad puns. Please be more vigilant in future.
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My brother and all his friends wanted to sell “Grit”.
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Ha! My dad became a Mason shoe salesman in the early 90′s to get a discount on their shoes. He bought two pair for himself, and my mom bought some walking shoes through him. He got a letter the next month saying he was salesman of the month. Either their salesmen weren’t very good and everyone was just buying their own shoes, or everyone got this letter after the first sale. Either way, it’s still a family joke that my dad was a top Mason shoe salesman.
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This was so fun for me to see on “Get Rich Slowly!” I am from Chippewa Falls orginally and Mason Shoe is a part of the town’s great business economy and tradition there. Very cool!
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Contacted Mason shoes on Sat. Morning, Oct. 9 asking about source of shoes: They sent me this reply:
Dear Customer,
Most of our shoes come from overseas, although there still are a few that are made in the US. The only way to tell would be to give us a style number and we could tell you where that particular shoe was made.
Thank You
BA Mason
Customer Service
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I love this. I remember the comics we used to pour over as kids and all the great advertisements that just spoke to the inner desires, like this one. Aside from the nostalgia, it also a commentary on who we are as humans and a society. There’s always a way for someone to earn a little extra money if they are willing to go out and do the work.
Earlier this week I stumbled across a vintage book, early 1900s, written for women on how to earn “pin money” from home. And the list was as valid today as then – even if the culture, technology and value of the dollar have changed.
At our inner core, there’s always that desire to earn a little money for those little luxuries, whether that be yummy food or vintage comics
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I was just talking last week with a couple gals who used to work at Mason shoes… I work at the hospital down in Chippewa Falls every week or two.
The topic of conversation was about getting paid by the piece rather than by the hour. Mason shoes had an assembly line, and the gals would come in 30 minutes before their shift just to be sure they were absolutely ready when it was time to start. Then it was a mad dash to get as many pieces finished during their hours at work, and when given a break they would resist or come back quickly because time away from the line was time they weren’t making money.
Currently they don’t make the shoes, they brand shoes made somewhere else. The gals said it was just another shoe store now, strongly implying it was something special back then. Working there obviously made an impression on them, it was definitely more than “just a job”, even though they were in high school at the time.
I’ll have to stop by the place some time just to see what it is like now.
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This is a blast from the past. I remember my dad signing up to be a Mason Sales man back in the early 70′s I believe. I think he did it mainly for the discount but I know he sold a few pairs to relatives and co workers.
I remember around the same time signing up to be a grit newspaper boy. I would go around the neighborhood selling copies for 25 cents. I made around 5 -8 dollars awwek which was OK for a 9 or 10 year old. I may still have the old newspaper delivery bag somewhere in the attic.
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Good stuff, liked the post. I remember my friend had like all these classic comic books and his grandmother forced him to sell in a garage sale. Whatever didn’t sell he would have to dump. The guy had like a full Hefty garbage bag full of these things. It’s possible he could have been sitting on some very expensive gems.
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I sold Mason shoes as a kid! They were still around in the 80s, and I ended up making a little spending money — seems like I only sold 2 pair though.
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If you love old comic book ads, I ran a blog briefly with just those kinds of ads, even amassing quite a few “get rich quick” and “make money selling _____” ads:
http://spiderads.blogspot.com/search/label/money-making%20opportunities
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I sold them back in the early 80s in Maryland and I still have my kit somewere. It had the cardboard foor ruler and several other parts as well, order forms etc.
It was fun for me. Found the add in a comic book.
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