Voices from the Past: Mrs. Blue Devil (1941)

Voices from the Past: Mrs. Blue Devil (1941)

My friends Jim Garrett and Skip Brooks sent me the following blurb from The Sporting Goods Dealer from December, 1941 that featured a female tackle manufacturer. I thought it might be of interest to some of our California friends, as she hailed from El Monte.


"Mrs. Blue Devil" Lives Up to Her Name

Mrs. L. Glidewell, president of the Blue Devil Mfg. Company, 304 Washington avenue, El Monte, Cal., popularly known as "Mrs. Blue Devil," is pictured above with a catch of white sea bass made with Glidewell's Blue Devil leaders. The late Mr. Glidewell invented and built the machines on which the wires of which the leaders are made are twisted an on which they are tied, and for the past year and one-half Mrs. Glidewell has been operating the business, making more than 100,000 of the leaders in each of the past two summers, she reports. "Aside from the responsibilities of running the business," Mrs. Glidewell points out, "it has a magnetic interest; so much so, that we plan to open a retail store in connection with the leader factory, if that proves to be feasible next spring." Mrs. Glidewell's dog sniffs with interested approval at his mistress' catch.

A fascinating blurb! One wonders if WWII shut down the Glidewell enterprise, or whether it continued on. Suffice to say Mrs. Blue Devil was quite a woman!

-- Dr. Todd