Penn Catalogs - comments, questions, anomalies, etc.

[Gfish]

I love these old catalogs. Especially compared to the one's from the 70's on up till now. All kinds of text and cool information in these.

[Gfish]

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[Gfish]

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[Gfish]

Sorry, only allowed to post 1-picture at a time.

[Gfish]

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[Gfish]

Last one, shoulda photo'ed the knots section, too.
Just didn't seem to be a thing back in the day: not tucking in your shirt and not pulling your pants up over your hips.

[Penn Chronology]

Seems like Penn was sending out many of those #16 catalog by addressing the front cover. Here is mine:

[Gfish]

Ah-haaa. Penn seemed to have real good 1950's marketing plan. The catalog is saturated with advice articles having an underlying message of: "and we have just the reel for this".

[Cuttyhunker]

Mike,
The Lynn stamp wasn't, I think, for the US Mail but repeatedly stamped on the catalog stack by a Lynn employee to show whoever handled the catalog in the future who the local dealer was.  I remember seeing cats with a special blank box with a "Your Local Dealer" header to receive that dealer stamp.  I've done it years ago with Blackfin boat brochures at the old NY Boat Show on Columbus Circle.
Looking back to the original thought in the thread about nefarious or bored artists making changes in the catalogs, as a guy who produced ad copy and catalogs for my business, please be aware that what returns from the printer or appears in ad copy is often not exactly what goes out of the office, just good old fashioned FUBAR

[Maxed Out]

 Hi Mike, I don't see an address or even a city or state on the "Lynn" stamp on the catalog cover. Just an observation

-Ted

[Penn Chronology]

Yea, that makes sense. All those catalogs that were sent to people directly were probably in addressed envelopes. Shops were getting an allotted amount. Having someone stamp the business name on the catalog is the likely way they wound up that way.

[Brewcrafter]

I'm probably preaching to the choir here; or "try to teach my elders to suck eggs".  But, as a certified self proclaimed geezer, I have to say it would not be unusual to not have extensive location information on a catalog because: 1 - The catalogs (probably expensive) were produced in a generic form for the whole country. 2 - The thought of not ""buying local" would be totally alien to folks at that time - you purchased local or you did not purchase.  Simply having the telephone number on the catalog (actually the "exchange") pretty much told you the location of the store.  And odds of someone getting a catalog that was "out of area" were probably not a big concern.  The other thing that "may" have took place back then, is that manufacturers were sensitive to their retailers, and to a certain extent (ostensibly for the betterment of all) would limit who "authorized" retailers were.  Hence, if you wanted a Penn and you lived in Anywhere, USA you knew you needed to go to Brewcrafter Hardware on Main Street.  On the surface - not a bad plan - the manufacturer (Penn or whoever) wanted to have a good representative, that did enough business in their local market to make it worth carrying their product, and did not want to alienate a potential retailer by having a "competitor" (Hardy Boy Hardware) sell the same goods, for close to the same price.  The fear of the manufacturer being that the two competing retailers would fight a price war, to the point where it became unprofitable for either one to sell the product, and now the manufacturer did not have a outlet in the local community.  I realize I have totally oversimplified micro and macro economics, but I also still remember the telephone number at my house growing up began with "Turner". - john