Description: JOHNSON SMITH & COMPANY CATALOGUE #124Surprising Novelties - Puzzles - TricksJoke Goods - Useful Articles - Etc._________________________ This is #124 of the catalog, and it shows as Racine, Wisconsin. The company moved to Racine in 1923, and then to Detroitin 1935, so this is from one of the years in between. DETAILS:7.75" x 5.25" x 0.75"Labeled: "CATALOG NO. 124" and "JOHNSON SMITH & COMPANY RACINE, WISCONSIN USA" on frontShows "THE RONSON REPEATER" ad on frontCHINESE GOOD LUCK RING on backMany many other interesting ads inside*NOTE: Many of the items are not ones you would find acceptable by today standards being politically incorrect or downright dangerous.But there are others that would be so fun to find. Including musical instruments, books, watches, mushroom spawn, toys, joke items, even imitation bed bugs and much more. They seemed to have carried something for everyone. I have done a bit of research and have not seen this early of a version (in original form) offered anywhere. HISTORY: The Johnson Smith Company (Johnson Smith & Co.) was a mail-order company established in 1914 by Alfred Johnson Smith in Chicago, Illinois, USA that sold novelty and gag gift items such as miniature cameras, invisible ink, x-ray goggles, whoopee cushions, fake vomit, and joy buzzers. The company moved from Chicago to Racine, Wisconsin in 1923, to Detroit in the late 1930s, and from the Detroit area to Bradenton, Florida in 1986. The company would put ads in magazines devoted to children and young adults such as Boys' Life, Popular Mechanics and Science Digest. Their ads appeared on the back cover of many historically significant comic books, including Action Comics #1, June 1938 (first appearance of the character Superman) and Detective Comics #27, May 1939 (first appearance of character Batman). In 1970, humorist Jean Shepherd wrote the introduction for the reprint of The 1929 Johnson Smith & Co. Catalogue writing:"The Johnson Smith catalog is a magnificent, smudgy thumbprint of a totally lusty, vibrant, alive, crude post-frontier society, a society that was, and in some ways still remains, an exotic mixture of moralistic piety and violent, primitive humor." _________________________
Price: 188.94 USD
Location: Portland, Oregon
End Time: 2023-12-08T16:44:21.000Z
Shipping Cost: 0 USD
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Return shipping will be paid by: Seller
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 30 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Brand: Johnson Smith & Company
Type of Advertising: Catalogue