[Missouri-l] Tonight's books And Beyond

[Nancy Lynn]

Do you enjoy talking  about toys? What wonderful memories they evoke from 
childhood! On Tonight's Books And Beyond, we will talk with Francis Turner, 
owner  and proprietor of Marx Toy Museum located in Moundsville, West 
Virginia. Francis became fascinated with the toys made by the Marx Toy 
company and began    collecting them. Several years later,this terrific 
museum was born.     On a recent tour he demonstrated some of the toys  and 
told us the history of  the original Marx Company. Many things we enjoy just 
disappear, favorite toys among them, but through the dedication of 
individuals like Francis turner, they live on in great collections for us to 
see and touch. A machinist by trade, now a salesman for several companies, 
Francis speaks with enthusiasm about a man and a company that were a large 
part of toy manufacturing and history in both the United States, Europe, and 
Japan. For a nostalgic journey to a simpler time, come join us  on Tonight's 
Books And Beyond at 8pm eastern time. You can do that by calling:

218-844-3388 and then putting in the pin code 26657 and you will be there. 
We ask that you arrive a few minutes early to get acquainted and  ask that 
you mute your phone during the interview portion of the show.

Below is further information about the Marx Toy Company and an article 
written by Rick Sebak of Pittsburgh Magazine with more description of the 
museum itself. Hope to see you tonight.   Louis Marx and Company
was the largest toy company in the world in the 1950s. Marx was described as 
an intense, hard-driving, and energetic man, who "[talks, walks, and 
gestures
tirelessly, like one of his own wound-up toys."

Marx was known by numerous nicknames, including "Tycoon," "the
Henry Ford
of the toy industry," "the hawk of the toy industry," and "the toy king of 
America."
Born in
Brooklyn, New York
to
German
parents, Marx graduated high school at age 15 and started his career working 
for
Ferdinand Strauss,
a manufacturer of mechanical toys. By 1916, Marx was managing Strauss'
East Rutherford, New Jersey
plant. But within a year, Marx was fired by Strauss' board of directors over 
a disagreement about sales practices.

Marx then entered the
United States Army
as a private and attained the rank of sergeant before returning to civilian 
life in 1918. Marx's passion for the Army was reflected throughout his life;
most of Marx's military toys represented Army equipment, and Marx would make 
a practice of befriending generals and naming his sons after them.

Following military service, Marx then went to work for a manufacturer of
wood
toys, redesigned the product line, and increased the company's sales 
tenfold.

In 1919 Marx and his brother David incorporated, founding the company that 
bore his name. Initially working as a middle man, Marx was soon able to 
purchase
tooling to manufacture toys himself. When Strauss fell on hard financial 
times, Marx was able to buy the dies for two Strauss toys and turn them into 
best-sellers.
By age 26, three years after founding his company, Marx was a millionaire.

By utilizing techniques of
mass production
and reusing old designs as much as possible - Marx utilized some of his
toy train
tooling developed in the early 1930s until 1972 - Marx was able to sell a 
broad line of inexpensive toys.

By 1951, Marx's company had 12 factories worldwide and for much of the 1950s 
it was the largest toy manufacturer in the world adding most of the success
to
Sears, Roebuck
catalog sales and the many themed playsets available. As
World War II
drew to a close, Marx had toured
Europe
and acted as a consultant on how toy manufacturing could aid reconstruction 
efforts. Marx used the contacts he made in this manner to forge partnerships
and open factories in Europe and
Japan.
Marx was featured on the cover of the December 12, 1955 issue of
Time Magazine,
his likeness surrounded by examples of his toys.
Below, an article by Rick Sebak written for Pittsburgh Magazine about the 
Marx Toy Museum.

The Joys of Toys

The Marx Museum in Moundsville is Rock'Em Sock'Em Magnificent

Marx Merrymakers I was a kid, I never cared about what company made my toys. 
They could be Mattel or Milton Bradley, Wham-OF or whatever. I just wanted
them to be fun and cool and not too tedious to put away.

Then a month or so ago, I went to Moundsville, WE.Va., and someone told me 
to be sure to check out the Official Marx Toy Museum. It's located in a 
bright
yellow-and-green storefront, a former grocery story right in downtown 
Moundsville, and it's simply a world-class collection of toys all made by 
Louis Marx
& Co. I am impressed. It's the Smithsonian of plastic army men and mighty 
metal trucks! It's the Guggenheim of goofy old wind-ups and vintage 
dollhouses.
It's the Carnegie of Big Wheels and plastic dinosaurs.

A friendly and unassuming guy named Francis Turner and his son Jason are the 
owners, the curators, the masterminds behind the place. A salesman for a 
machine
shop, Francis started collecting mint-condition toys around 1989 after he 
bought a few from a friend. By 1992, he had so many Marx products that the 
Stifel
Fine Arts Center at Oglebay Institute in Wheeling asked him to put together 
a show. Soon he started plotting and planning for his own museum, and by 
then
his son was old enough to help rehab the old building and help figure out 
the layout of the display cases. They opened the museum in 2001.

"We have no toys that have been repaired," Francis points out. "No toys that 
have been repainted. Everything is original. We try to have the original 
box."
Of course. Marx started making toys in 1919, and the first cases feature 
some early, wacky wind-ups, including butter-and-egg salesmen and a jaunty 
mouse and  jazz band.

Early Marx wind-ups like the Merry Makers were metal. Later, toys like the 
Robots and Flintstones were plastic.

Jason says most visitors are amazed. That's because "they're seeing a 
timeline of toys from the 1920s up to the 1970s." Adds Francis, "About 80 
percent
of them were made one mile from here in the Glen Dale factory."

That's a nice local connection. In 1934, Louis Marx took over the old Fokker 
airplane factory beside the Ohio River in the nearby town of Glen Dale, 
WE.Va.,
and converted it into his largest factory. By the 1950s, he was the most 
productive toy manufacturer in the world. Time magazine put him on the cover 
in
1955 and dubbed him "The Toy King." At the height of the post-World War II 
baby boom, Louis Marx was making many of the best-known toys in the world 
and
creating huge demand for them via TV commercials. He eventually sold the 
company in 1972, and by 1980, it was out of business. "Now there's nowhere 
in
the world you can go and see this many Marx toys under one roof," Francis 
tells me.

There's a gift store and 1950s-style café with refreshments and small treats 
at the front of the place, but most of the space is full of beautiful 
creations:
tiny figures, trains, planes and even a great green-and-gold robot named Big 
Loo. There is one room full of original prototypes and original art from 
designers
who worked at Glen Dale. There's another room called Dodge City, which is 
full of cowboys and Wild West playthings, and there are several displays 
where
Johnny West stands proudly as one of the first action figures for boys.

Flintstones playset

The Marx Co. also specialized in "playsets," collections of tiny figures in 
various settings from Fort Apache to Cape Canaveral, from medieval castles 
to
the Civil War. I am happy to see a Flintstones set just like the one my Aunt 
Mary bought for me in the early '60s: Fred and Barney figurines, Wilma and
Betty, Dino and a number of little Stone Age houses. Oh, woe, who knows 
whatever happened to mine?

But seeing those little characters, their cars, their plastic palm trees and 
their Bedrock world makes me realize what fine works of art they really 
were,
what a terrific toymaker this guy Marx must have been.
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