![]() By age 14, boys who needed or wanted to work, could find jobs that paid more than he could earn selling newspapers. The boys had to be at least 12 years of age and, according to the circulation director at that time, were “over the hill” at the age of 14. By then, the boys kept five cents of the 15-cent price of the paper and earned an average of between $1 to $5 a week. By 1962, Grit had 30,000 sales agents who were recruited mostly from advertisements in Grit, Boy’s Life, and Junior Scholastic. The distribution arrangement established in the late 1880s continued to function for the next 80 or more years. It seems Grit would substantially increase print runs on holidays.Īdults had a hand in this sales process too, you could nominate a boy and then you promised to give the boy “occasional advice and encouragement, should he need it.” Adults were entitled to a free six-month subscription if they promised. ![]() For the Easter issue, Grit had hoped to sell over 100,000 extra copies. As this card indicates, Grit was selling between 250,000-260,000 copies each week in 1905 through over 11,000 agents. At three cents a copy, Theo, sold 44 copies of Grit that March (March 1905 had four Saturdays, so Theo, sold 11 copies of Grit each week). Postally used in March 1905, this card acknowledges receipt of $1.32 from Theo F. This is an example of the monthly acknowledgement postcard that Grit used to contact its sales force. By the end of that year there were 14,000.Īll the arrangements between Grit and its local agents were handled by mail. He ran a lottery in the newspaper and set out across Pennsylvania to line up local agents to sell subscriptions. By 1885 Grit had acquired some 4,000 subscribers, but Lamade was determined to find more. The paper sold for five cents and had a circulation of 1,500. Two years later, Lamade and two partners paid $1000 for the name Grit and the printing equipment of a small local newspaper, starting Grit on its way as a weekly newspaper. One of the typesetters on that first edition was Dietrick Lamade (pronounced Lam-a-dy), a German immigrant. The first Grit newspaper was published on Saturday, December 5, 1882, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. And there on the list was Grit - so in a quite unintended way I ended up as a Grit subscriber, reconnecting with a few memories of my childhood. Since I was reluctant to have her go door-to-door, I ended up subscribing myself to a staggering number of magazines, putting them under a variety of aliases so that the Brownie mothers didn’t suspect the intervention of an overly cautious father. ![]() The last link in this memory chain came when my daughter was selling magazine subscriptions as part of a Brownie Troop fund raiser. I never sold Grit, but I do remember it and its advertisements, urging me to prepare myself for success in the business world. Another of those advertisers was a weekly newspaper with the improbable, but utterly American name of Grit. One item was Cloverine Brand Salve (a better smelling Vaseline). I do remember advertisements, directed at boys like me, which promised cash and “swell” free prizes in exchange for selling something door-to-door. Growing up in a small town, in an economically depressed area, in a time before fast food restaurants and 24-hour convenience stores, meant that when I was between 12 and 16, there were few opportunities for part-time jobs. ![]() This story grows out of a childhood in a small Pennsylvania town, memories of advertisements in boys’ magazines aimed at pre-teenagers to become “sales agents” in their neighborhoods, and my daughter’s magazine drive for the Brownie Girl Scouts – admittedly a very strange combination. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |