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Just listed vintage Gillette Blue Blades.
Some interesting history about the company from "Company History" websites. This very same company now owns Duracell!
Entrepreneurial Beginnings
One summer morning in 1895, an ambitious traveling salesman found that the edge of his straight razor had dulled.
King Gillette later said that the idea for an entirely new kind of razor, with a disposable blade, flashed into his mind as he looked in irritation at his dull blade. King Gillette had been searching for the right product, one that had to be used--and replaced--regularly, around which to build a business. His innovation in shaving technology was just such a product. Another safety razor, the Star, was already on the market at the time but, like the straight razor it was meant to replace, its blade needed stropping before each use and eventually had to be professionally honed. Gillette envisioned an inexpensive, double-edged blade that could be clamped over a handle, used until it was dull, and then discarded.
Gillette spent the next six years trying to perfect his safety razor. Scientists and toolmakers he consulted were pessimistic, and thought the idea impractical. Gillette, 40 years old at the time and a successful salesman, inventor, and writer, did not give up. In 1901 he joined forces with William Nickerson, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-educated machinist. Nickerson developed production processes to make Gillette's idea a reality, while Gillette formed the American Safety Razor Company to raise the estimated $5,000 they needed to begin manufacturing the razor. Gillette became president of the company and head of a three-man directorate. Production of the razor began early in 1903.
The renamed Gillette Safety Razor Company began advertising its product in October 1903, with the first ad appearing in Systems Magazine. The company sold 51 razor sets at $5 each and an additional 168 blades--originally at 20 for $1--that first year.
In 1904 Gillette received a patent on the safety razor; sales rose to 90,884 razors and 123,648 blades that year. The following year the company bought a six-story building in South Boston. By 1906 the company had paid its first cash dividend. During the years before World War I Gillette steadily increased earnings through print advertisements, emphasizing that with his razor men could shave themselves under any conditions without cutting or irritation.
At the same time, Gillette was expanding abroad. He opened his first foreign office, a London sales branch, in 1905. By 1909 he had established manufacturing plants in Paris, Montreal, Berlin, and Leicester, England, and offices in France and Hamburg, Germany. By 1923, foreign business accounted for about 30 percent of Gillette's sales.
In 1910 King Gillette decided to sell a substantial portion of his controlling share of the company to the company's major investor, John Joyce. Gillette had succeeded in fighting off challenges for control of the company from Joyce in the past, but this time he took approximately $900,000 and bowed out. Gillette retained the title of president and frequently visited foreign branches, but he no longer played an active role in company management. Joyce was made vice-president, a position he used to manage day-to-day operations. When Joyce died in 1916, his longtime friend, Edward Aldred, a New York investment banker, bought out the Gillette shares left to Joyce's estate and took control of the company. Aldred remained on Joyce's management team.
Wartime Production
During World War I the U.S. government ordered 3.5 million razors and 36 million blades to supply all its troops. In order to meet military supply schedules, shifts worked around the clock and Gillette hired over 500 new employees. Gillette thus introduced a huge pool of potential customers to the still-new idea of self-shaving with a safety razor. After the war, ex-servicemen needed blades to fit the razors they had been issued in the service.
Key Dates: 1901: American Safety Razor is founded by King C. Gillette. 1904: King Gillette's safety razor is patented. 1918: Gillette manufacturers razors and blades for soldiers during World War I. 1942: The Cavalcade of Sports program is formed to oversee the company's various advertising and promotional activities in athletics. 1967: Braun AG is acquired. 1971: Company is organized into four domestic divisions: the Safety Razor Division; the Toiletries Division (featuring Right Guard antiperspirant); the Personal Care Division; and the Paper Mate division. 1991: Gillette ranks 20th among the Fortune 500. 1996: The company acquires battery manufacturer Duracell.
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Also just listed is this cool draft dodger pin from The Libertarian Party. This pin-back, laminated paper over metal button was made in 1980 by the Students for Libertarians Party by Jonnie (or Jennie) Gilman, which is noted on the side of the pin and can be read with a magnifying glass. White lettering over a black and red ‘bullseye’. It measures 2.25 in diameter. This is what all the objection was about, I presume: From Wikipedia
Also wondering if any of you have ever watched the
Craig Ferguson Late Late Show OPEN LINK!...my God, he is the funniest man alive...! We record him on our DVR as he is on at 11:30 or some awful hour! Watch any one of the short video clips in the link to see the intelligent and unsinkable man, author, new US citizen, recovered alchoholic and ex-drug abuser, hysterical and sexy man known as Craig Ferguson!
Check him out...I would love to hear if you have...
Toodles!
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