52 Trade Houses Part 13: Manhattan Marine & Electric Co. of New York City

Over the course of the next year, we'll be detailing the history of 52 companies that sold branded fishing tackle. 52 trade houses in 52 weeks -- some obscure, some famous, and all available exclusively here on the Fishing for History Blog! If you have any items from the week's entry you'd like to share with us, please send it my way and I'll make sure it makes it on the blog.

For a discussion of what exactly trade tackle is, Click Here. Enjoy the 52 for 52!

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Trade House Tackle, Part 13:
Manhattan Marine & Electric Co. of New York City

One of my goals in 52 for 52 is to show everyone the sheer diversity of fishing tackle sellers in American history. So far, we've covered discount stores, department stores, wholesale hardware concerns, a bookseller, a plumbing supply store, and today, we get a marine hardware company.

This particular company is called Manhattan Marine & Electric Company and it was a staple of the yachting set in New York for eight decades. Founded in December of 1923, Manhattan Marine became "something of a bible for all the ships at sea," as the New Yorker declared in 1979.

And what an institution it was! Filled with all of the latest nautical inventions, as well as all the staples that the well-to-do absolutely needed for their trip around the world. Looking through a Manhattan Marine catalog is like peeking at Santa's list for the nautically minded. Their catalogs were beautiful and revered and many of them that come to market today show consistent use, much like the old Herter's catalogs among hunters and fishermen.


This colorful 1953 Manhattan Marine catalog was typical of the company's fare.

Manhattan Marine catalogs through the years.
The firm was also a pretty active advertiser. Here are three magazine ads from 1950 and the 1970s.


An ad run in Popular Mechanics for January 1950.

A pair of 1970s advertisements.
The kinds of items that Manhattan Marine marked were, of course, nautical in nature, and today can be quite collectable. Below is a catalog cut from 1959 showing their line of very collectable boat lights, and a nifty 1940s yacht clock marked with the firm's name.


1959 catalog page.

Nice Manhattan Marine clock.
As for fishing tackle, the firm did not sell a lot of it as it tended to concentrate on the yachting set. However, I have seen two examples of Manhattan Marine branded tackle. The first were saltwater snelled hooks in a Manhattan Martine & Electric envelope. The second, pictured below, is a pair of connected wooden fishing line spools bearing the firm's name.


A wooden line spool with the Manhattan Marine & Electric label on it.
These spools date from the late 1920s or 1930s and indicate in the early years, the firm likely stocked a broader line of items in order to attract a greater customer base. Once they solidified their position as one of the leading yachting outfitters in the world, it is likely they dropped this line all together. However, they did take out a trade name "Seatest" in the 1950s, which was noted in their application that it could be applied to marine hardware of all kinds "and fishing rod gimbals."

I think Manhattan Marine & Electric fishing tackle is very rare, and it is a nice reminder that many of the companies involved in the boating trade could (and did) transition into fishing tackle sellers, at least for a time.

-- Dr. Todd

52 Trade Houses Part 12: Davidson's Firearms of Greensboro, NC

Over the course of the next year, we'll be detailing the history of 52 companies that sold branded fishing tackle. 52 trade houses in 52 weeks -- some obscure, some famous, and all available exclusively here on the Fishing for History Blog! If you have any items from the week's entry you'd like to share with us, please send it my way and I'll make sure it makes it on the blog.

For a discussion of what exactly trade tackle is, Click Here. Enjoy the 52 for 52!

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Trade House Tackle, Part 12:
Davidson's Firearms of Greensboro, NC

This episode of 52 for 52 will deal with one of my very favorite kinds of trade houses: gun dealers that sold fishing tackle. Throughout history many legendary gun names--Winchester, Remington, Browning, etc.--lent their names to fishing tackle. Of interest is that some lesser known shooting lights like Charles Daly Inc. also branded a bit of tackle. Today we deal with one such company primarily noted for guns: Davidson's of Greensboro, North Carolina.

Davidson's Supply Company grew into an important Southern importer of guns who also dabbled on the side in fishing tackle. Although its origins are as yet verified, it is believed the firm was founded as an army surplus store in the wake of World War II. By the 1960s, Davidson's Inc., as it became known, was listed in the Standard Directory used by advertising agencies as dealers in "Firearms and Sporting Equipment."


Later trademarked logo from the firm dating to the 1980s and beyond.
By the 1970s the firm became well known in gun circles for their imported guns, often sold under the Davidson's Firearms name. One popular branch of guns were side-by-side double barrel shotguns made in Spain, and these appear fairly often on the secondary market. They appear to be inexpensive but serviceable guns. They also imported (and marked) a large number of other guns, including this Heckler & Koch P7 marked "Davidson's, NC" on the barrel.


It is likely that in the 1950s, to supplement their gun sales, the firm expanded into fishing tackle. The only marked piece of tackle I've seen is the following line spool, marked "Gold Medal, Davidson's, Greensboro, N.C." on both sides. It is a contemporary spool to the Van Camp and Wyeth Hardware spools recently covered in earlier episodes of 52 for 52, and which date to 1959-1960. We can similarly date this Davidson's spool to around the same time.


Nifty Davidson's Gold Medal line spool ca. 1960.
The company was alive and well in 2000, when they were located at 2703 Highpoint Road, Greensboro, NC 27403 and applied for a registered trademark on the term "Gallery of Guns." They were still selling Limited Edition exclusive guns in 2007, but likely due to the economy, apparently closed their doors not long after (perhaps in late 2009). However, their web site appears to be still be live. Perhaps rumors of their demise are premature, and that would be a good thing.


An attractive 1990s poster for Davidson's by graphic artist Emily Henderson.

The country was built on company's like Davidson's, and I love the fact the firm dabbled in fishing tackle, at least for a short while.

-- Dr. Todd

52 Trade Houses Part 11: Henry C. Lytton's The Hub of Chicago

Over the course of the next year, we'll be detailing the history of 52 companies that sold branded fishing tackle. 52 trade houses in 52 weeks -- some obscure, some famous, and all available exclusively here on the Fishing for History Blog! If you have any items from the week's entry you'd like to share with us, please send it my way and I'll make sure it makes it on the blog.

For a discussion of what exactly trade tackle is, Click Here. Enjoy the 52 for 52!

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Trade House Tackle, Part 11:
Henry C. Lytton's "The Hub"
and its Fishing Tackle

This week we get a fun little history of a venerable Chicago iconic institution--Henry C. Lytton's "The Hub" stores and their foray into fishing tackle.


Henry C. Lytton's portrait ca. 1904.
Henry C. Lytton & Sons Company was founded by one of Chicago's most famous businessmen. Henry C. Lytton, born in 1846, opened his first store in Ionia, Michigan in the early 1860s, and although it went out of business, he soon proved his acumen by managing successful clothing stores in Grand Rapids, MI and Indianapolis, In.

Selling out of his Indianapolis store in 1886, he came to Chicago with $12,000 and opened a clothing store in 1887 on Chicago's famous Loop, at the corner of Jackson and State Streets. He called the store "The Hub" and soon after began utilizing cutting edge advertising to attract a growing clientele. While it was always known for men's wear, it made an effort to court ladies as well. By 1910 it was the largest clothing store in the city, and was taking out full or half page ads six days a week in almost all the Chicago daily papers.

In 1913 the company moved across the street to expansive quarters known as the Lytton building. According to the Jazz Age Chicago Encyclopedia, the building "was eighteen stories tall and cost an estimated $2.25 million to build…The Hub occupied the lower eight floors and two basements of the Lytton Building, while the upper floors were used for offices." That year the firm employed 175 women.

It was in 1913 that The Hub began to offer sporting goods. A natural extension from the racks of sporting clothing Lytton sold to the seemingly endless stream of sports who frequented his establishment, fishing tackle formed an important component of this expansion. Below is a photograph of the sporting goods department of the Hub, taken from the March 29, 1913 edition of The Electrical Review, an electrician's trade journal.


Bicycles, canoes, and boats--and a careful eye can make out fishing tackle toward the back of the room.
The firm was always known for its advertising, and in the middle teens filled the pages of the daily papers with notices hawking their wares. The following advertisement from the June 29, 1922 Chicago Tribune was typical. Note that the Hub was selling trade branded Hub fishing line, and that they had discounted their Talbot reels to $9.45! That is the least expensive Talbot Star I have ever seen advertised.


Chicago Tribune advertisement.

Close-up of the tackle offerings.
The only marked fishing tackle I've seen from Lytton are snelled hook packets and one exceptionally neat fishing reel owned by Ron Gast. Ron has kindly consented to allow us to post pics of this great reel, and as you can see, it is a Montague trade reel ca. 1915 and a nice one at that.


Beautiful Hub reel courtesy of Ron Gast.

A close up of the killer logo on this Montague trade reel. Courtesy Ron Gast.
As for Lytton, although he retired in 1917 and turned the firm over to his son George, when George passed away in 1933 Henry return from 16 years of retirement and took over day-to-day operations of the company again. He would preside as president until he passed away at the almost surreal age of 101 in 1947. Both during his life and after his passing, a number of Lytton branches were opened across the greater Chicago area.


Henry C. Lytton poses with the Chicago Tribune in 1947 at the tender age of 101.

1934 saw the opening of the Lytton "Century of Progress" store in concert with the Chicago World's Fair. (Courtesy Garrett & Brooks).

Lytton's stock certificate. (Courtesy Garrett & Brooks).
Lytton was a true Chicago icon and his 100th birthday made front page news in all the Windy City papers. HIs wife was a member of the Daughters of the Revolution and the pair endowed an important Lytton Scholarship at the nearby University of Chicago. Lytton's philanthropy was noted early in his career, as he annually gave out 500 tons of coal to Chicago's needy (and had done so in 1900 for eight straight years).


This later 1937 ad was typical of the art deco style the firm developed in its advertisements.
The company offered a very high end catalog of its wares called The Observer. Such catalogs are in great demand for students of fashion history.


1930 Observer.
The firm survived until 1986, when it fell victim to corporate raiders who forced the shuttering of the firm. It left a great legacy, and its founder Henry C. Lytton was immortalized in this little anecdote he penned about how to succeed in business, which was reprinted numerous times over the years:

"To what extent any business or other enterprise is successful is dependent primarily upon personality, the central figure in any line of activity. To what extent a personality is successful is dependent upon that personality's application of those policies ami methods that serve its ends. A personality is responsible for the success or failure of a business firm largely to the extent by which lie is enabled to organize and to control its forces—to install and apply the personal influence in his systems.

I have never known of a great business success without a personality. I have never Known of a great personality in business without a system."

Lytton left behind some great fishing tackle, too. Just ask Ron Gast!

-- Dr. Todd

For more on Henry C. Lytton, see this neat Time Magazine article from May 14, 1945:

52 Trade Houses Part 3: The Kerr Sport Shop of Beverly Hills

Over the course of the next year, we'll be detailing the history of 52 companies that sold branded fishing tackle. 52 trade houses in 52 weeks -- some obscure, some famous, and all available exclusively here on the Fishing for History Blog! If you have any items from the week's entry you'd like to share with us, please send it my way and I'll make sure it makes it on the blog.

For a discussion of what exactly trade tackle is, Click Here. Enjoy the 52 for 52!

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Trade House Tackle, Part III:
The Kerr Sport Shop of Beverly Hills:
Fishing Tackle to the Stars

Hollywood reached its Golden Age from 1930-1960, when such luminescent stars as Cary Grant, Gary Cooper and Bing Crosby became icons. Many of these Golden Age cinema stars, including Grant, Cooper and Crosby, were noted anglers. But who did they buy their fishing tackle from?


Some famous movie stars frequented Abercrombie & Fitch, of course, but since A&F did not have a West Coast presence (at least not until later, when they opened a branch in San Francisco), and many stars more or less made their homes in Hollywood, there had to be some place for them to frequent that could sate their piscatorial and hunting desires.

This is where the Kerr Sport Shop of 9584 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills stepped in. A fixture among the Hollywood elite anglers and hunters for decades, it was truly the Tackle Shop to the Stars. Founded by transplanted Chicagoan Alexander H. Kerr (b. 1913) in the mid-1930s, this full service tackle shop sold a full line of fishing tackle as well as other sporting goods, including sporting clothes -- an important line in a city so image-conscience. By 1937The Coast magazine was calling it that "super sporting establishment in Beverly Hills."


Kerr Sport Shop as pictured in the 1946 Sporting Goods Dealer.
Alex Kerr was certainly a sport himself, best noted for his shooting skills. In 1941, he won his first World Championship, then spent the war years as a Navy gunnery instructor. In 1946 he won the Sports Afield trophy for All-Gauge skeet shooting champion. A year later he became one of the founders of the National Skeet Shooting Association. He was a 16-time world champion in this sport.


Although the shop was perhaps best known for its custom gunsmithing department, where the rich and famous could have their high-end double barrel shotguns tailored to their needs or purchase Remington-special Kerr Skeet Guns, it did also sell a lot of good fishing tackle, too. Studio executive and film director William R. Lasky recalled in his autobiography Go Tell it on the Mountain about one particular incident where "we drove to Kerr's Sport Shop in Beverly Hills, and he bought us the best of everything: hundred-dollar Canadian quilt-lined fishing jackets, Arctic goose-down sleeping bags, European trout creels, and so many trout flies…"

And there were stars. The Oakland Tribune for 15 January 1942 wrote that Alex Kerr was the "blond expert from Beverly Hills, and instructor to many of the men and women from Hollywood's motion picture colony…" Preview Magazine in 1958 declared that Oscar-winner Gary Cooper often "visits Alex Kerr's sports shop, browses in the gun department, always hefts a pair of matched Purdy's and murmurs, 'Wish I could afford these,' and has coffee with Alex in the coffee shop across the road." Robert Stack was a frequent patron, and an exceptionally good shot with a gun, too. He referred to Kerr often in his own autobiography Shooting Straight.


Kerr was referenced in hundreds of newspaper articles, often accompanied by press photos such as this one.
Kerr spent a lot of his free time collecting and documenting the history of skeet shooting. The Long Beach Press-Telegram could declare on 30 January 1972 that "Kerr has probably assembled probably what is one of the most complete collections of equipment used from the earliest days of shotgun competitions." He was also a conservationist who in 1963 was named by the California Outdoor Writers the "Sportsman of the Year."

There doesn't seem to be a lot of marked Kerr fishing tackle, which is probably because the kind of people who purchased his tackle were not the kind of people who's tackle makes it to the secondary market. The most commonly found items bearing this company's name are trade rods.

Here is a great ca. 1938 Heddon "Bass Master" bamboo casting rod made for Kerr's. A five foot, two piece model, it is marked "KERR'S SPORT SHOP" on the shaft. A nice quality casting rod, it is a great collectable and a nice piece of Kerr history.



It's likely there are also some trade reels marked Kerr out there as well.

Kerr ephemera comes to market on rare occasions. One neat piece of ephemera from the firm's history is this beautiful matchcover dating to about 1945.


This isn't the only piece of Kerr tackle-related items, Kerr Sport Shop letterhead has appeared as well.

I am betting that there is likely a line spool, snelled hook packet, and perhaps even a marked fishing reel out there with the Kerr name.

With its posh Wilshire Boulevard 90212 address, it's unlikely we'll ever see anything like the Kerr Sport Shop ever again.

-- Dr. Todd

52 Trade Houses Part 1: Yellow Front Stores of Arizona

Over the course of the next year, we'll be detailing the history of 52 companies that sold branded fishing tackle. 52 trade houses in 52 weeks -- some obscure, some famous, and all available exclusively here on the Fishing for History Blog! If you have any items from the week's entry you'd like to share with us, please send it my way and I'll make sure it makes it on the blog.

For a discussion of what exactly trade tackle is, Click Here. Enjoy the 52 for 52!

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Trade House Tackle, Part I:
The Yellow Front Stores of Arizona

We don't get very much trade tackle from the American Southwest, so when we do find a piece of tackle branded by a firm in this region, it is extra special.

In this case, the company in question -- Yellow Front Stores -- was quite a fixture in Arizona and the surrounding area from the 1950s through the 1980s. Founded in Phoenix in the early 1950s by Jake Henegar, the first Yellow Front Store was actually an army surplus outlet.

Henegar was an adroit salesman and eventually turned this one military surplus outlet into a series of discount stores that eventually spread all across the Southwest. Yellow Front Stores expanded their stock in the late 1950s to include outdoor gear ranging from camping gear to fishing tackle and began to offer everything from housewares to clothing.


1959 Yellow Front Store ad featuring fishing tackle from the 31 March 1959 Arizona Republic.
By the 1970s, Yellow Front Stores were prominent newspaper, television and radio advertisers, and had become so profitable that eventually there were 109 stores in seven states.


1965 Yellow Front Stores ad from the Arizona Republic. Note that by this time they were offering their own fishing guide.
They sold a lot of fishing tackle, but the vast majority of it was name brand tackle such as Zebco reels and St. Croix rods. However, they did brand some fishing tackle with the Yellow Front Store name. Here's an example of a 1960s Snelled Hook Packet sold under the "Arizona Sportsman" brand. Note that at the time this packet was sold, the firm had fifteen stores in Arizona.


It has not been determined if other kinds of tackle were sold under this name, but it can be assumed that fishing line, hooks, and sinkers were similar branded.

The company became a victim of 1980s corporate greed. Henegar presided over the company until his death in the early 1980s, when the company was sold to Lucky Stores. In 1987, Lucky sold the 104 Yellow Front Stores for $50 million to Kenmare in an effort to avoid a hostile take over by corporate raider Asher B. Eshelman. In 1990, the company went bankrupt and the Yellow Front Stores were closed.

Yellow Front Stores and their Arizona Brand of fishing tackle are neat collectables and rare examples of Southwestern trade tackle.

-- Dr. Todd