Last week we ran a series of posts featuring the tackle of 1945 through a series of ads placed in Sports Afield. Those posts received a lot of traffic, and we’re thankful you all enjoyed them. So today, we have Missed Tackle Ads 1945, ads that either got lost in the shuffle or were missed the first time I went through the magazines.
Fred Arbogast
The first ad we’re going to touch on is a Fred Arbogast ad featuring the No. 3 Hawaiian Wiggler. This ad, like the Jitterbug ad from last week, was mostly in black and white, except for the lure, which was in color. It’s a striking ad, one that would have easily caught my attention back in the 1940s.
In typical Fred Arbogast fashion, the ad features two anglers holding a nice string of largemouths and a letter telling where and with what they caught the fish on. The only thing that relates to the company is the lure and the address in which to get a catalog from. Also, there’s the price of the No. 3 Wiggler. $1.10 or in today’s money that would be $18.75.
Gephart MFG
The next ad I wanted to share is another Gephart MFG. rod ad. If you remember the first ad, it highlighted a woman hooked to a bass, that she’d lost control of, and an older man in the front of the boat smoking a pipe with a smile on his face. Well, in this ad, the ladies get to laugh at the situation.
The lady, rowing the boat, is all smiles as her fishing partner has a look of fear on his face. The ad is pointed towards musky anglers and evidently the man that’s hooked up has a big one tied on. The fish makes a splash next to the boat and it appears the angler uses his arm to keep from getting wet. It’s quite comical.
Shakespeare
The next two ads I have are from Shakespeare and feature their Marhoff and Wondereel. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the name Marhoff, he was a man who originally worked for Shakespeare in the late 1800s. After William Shakespeare Jr. invented the levelwind, Walter Marhoff left the company and started his own reel manufacturing company around 1907.
Marhoff didn’t just start building his own reels, he actually improved on Shakespeare’s levelwind system. It’s the same worm-gear system found in every baitcasting reel today.
Shakespeare, knowing a good thing when he saw it, licensed the worm gear and the reel and began manufacturing the Shakespeare Marhoff Patent reel from 1909 through the 1960s. It was stamped with the model number 1964 for all those years and is the reel presented in this ad.
Marhoff, on the other hand, only made reels for a year before he sold the company to Shakespeare in 1908. There were only two original Walter Marhoff reels made. For a really good historical writeup on Marhoff and Shakespeare, check out the Old Reel Collectors Association (ORCA).
The next ad is about the Wondereel and shows a father teaching his son how to cast a baitcasting reel. The text of the ad is all about a dad teaching his kids to fish. But not just any type of fishing. Fishing with baitcasting gear. The Wondereel claimed to be backlash free and easy for the entire family to learn on. I’d like to see that and experience it for myself. For I can’t think of any casting reel from that time that was easy to control without a lot of experience.
Horrocks – Ibbotson
In the Fly Fishing 1945 piece we posted last week, I mentioned that H-I was one of the biggest tackle manufacturing companies in the U.S. at the time and that they concentrated on fly rods. Well, in this ad, they’re touting their bamboo casting rods for use in catching bass, musky, and pike. Looking into the ORCA website, it appears that H-I did offer reels, but it’s hard to say whether the reel in this ad was one of theirs.
Looking deeper into the ad, it looks as if the angler has a Heddon Tadpolly tied on the end of the line.
Pflueger
Last week we posted three Pflueger ads from 1945 and today we bring you one more. In this ad, Pflueger touts how well made their reels are and what a joy they are to fish and maintain. They took pride in their engineering and the fact that their reels were easy to take down, lube and replace parts if needed.
Pachner & Koller
Last week in Fly Fishing 1945 we introduced Pachner & Koller. This week we have two more ads from them, one a lure and the other a wartime ad that described the emergency and recreation kits they were providing to the soldiers overseas.
The Wartime ad wanted readers to know that P&K was still out there, they just weren’t making fishing tackle for the U.S. market. In the ad they said:
“Uncounted thousands of our boys fighting in foxholes, in tanks, planes, or PT Boats, and on many fronts, are dreaming of their former life, and their families and friends back home. We must all do everything we possibly can, to aid the war effort, and to help make those dreams come true as soon as possible.”
P&K, like many companies at the time, was dedicated to the war effort.
The second ad I mentioned was a pretty cool little mouse lure called the P&K Mouse. From the images, it appears this was a topwater lure with no bill. It had a single hook coming off the bottom of the bait with two wire weedguards covering the hook.
The text of the ad has an angler talking to the nice bass he just hooked. He’s carrying on a conversation, much like angler today do, coaxing the fish to the shore so he can release him into 370-degree oil. It’s a comical read, if you have the time.
Electrol
The final ad I have to share was in each magazine I scanned and didn’t fit in any of the previous posts. Thankfully I missed the above ads and I can share it with you now. The ad, of course, is of an early trolling motor, the LeJay Electrol.
There isn’t much information in the ad to tell us how much thrust or power the motor had. Instead, the ad was pushing the fact that their motor made no put-put noise, no splash like oars, and gave you both hands to fish. The LeJay motor was variable speed and had radius adjustment for steering.
I’ve seen these motors at garage sales as well as on ebay and they’re quite a sight to see compared to today’s trolling motors.
Well, that finishes all the ads I have from the 1945 issues of Sports Afield. Please drop us a comment below and let us know if you’re interested in reading more old ads like this from the 1940 through the 1950s. I have a good number of old magazines and would be more than happy to publish more.
Not sure what you meant by, “There were only two original Marhoff reels made”. He made quite a few. He got TB and sold out his company to his friend Wm Shakespeare before he died in 1908. They were such good friends that Wm Shakespeare honored him yearly at a dinner and refused to take the Marhoff reel out of the Shakespeare line.
Bill, according to the ORCA site and piece written on Marhoff Reel Company (https://www.orcaonline.org/marhoff-reels/) he only made two models. Did I read that wrong?