PRINT ADS (MAGAZINE AND NEWSPAPER)

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

At least 600 magazine ads ran during the years 1945-1955 for Kaiser-Frazer or Willys-Overland/Willys Motors products.  Many were in color, some in Black & White.  If you count individual dealer placement, perhaps tens of thousands of newspaper ads ran in hundreds (if not thousands) of newspapers across the country during the same period for the same vehicles.  Check out the section in the KFOCI HANDBOOK CD for more information on collection and ways to best preserve the print ads.  Here are some samples:

First item:  full page color ad from the Argentine version of a READERS DIGEST sized magazine, placed by Kaiser-Frazer Export

Second Item:  Newspaper ad from a 1951 issue of CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER.  Many of the factory placed newspaper ads also listed dealers in the sales territory the newspaper was listed in.

Third Item:    1953 Dealer recruiting ad for Willys-Overland.  These pieces ran in trade publications like CHILTON MOTOR AGE, MoToR (the American garage/service magazine) and AUTOMOTIVE NEWS.

Fourth Item:  1953 Kaiser-Frazer magazine ad stressing the features that were part of "The Worlds First Safety-First Car"

Fifth item:  From time to time dealers would get advance copies (ad proofs) of an ad that would be run in various publications.  The magazines and their issue dates would be listed on the proof.  Dealers could put them up on the wall or otherwise display them.

My collection is extensive but by no means complete.

[pnw_oldmags]

Great stuff.

[Gordie]

Kaiser-Frazer ads ran in newspapers all over the world and there must be many thousands of them but they are seldom collected because of the fragile paper that they were printed on and the unwieldy size of a full page ad at 16 1/2" wide and  22 1/2 " tall.   There is not an easy way to safely store them and I have only saved two full page ads.  One is from October 10, 1945 where K-F was announcing the purchase of Willow Run and on Jan. 26 1946 for the announcement of the Worlds Premier showing of the new front wheel drive Kaiser and the new Graham-Paige Frazer at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.  How they survived all these years without damage is amazing and I found an expensive holder at Hobby Lobby that will hold them without their being folded so hopefully they will survive many more years.  The most interesting thing about the newspaper ads is that the factory paid for most of them and they frequently have all of the dealers names and addresses listed on the bottom of the ad in the area where it was published.   We have been able to add many listings for our dealer list from this information.  Newspaper ads seem to be mostly different from or variations of the popular magazine ads.  Just trying to get most of the magazine ads is a lifetime job and you will end up with several hundred different ones from several countries.  They make a great and informative collection that when mounted in albums will make a stack about two feet high.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

The Itoya Profolio books I use for factory photos, magazine ads and other things has a book large enough to hold a full newspaper page and my odd size big stuff (including newspaper ads that won't fit the magazine sized books) goes in there.  The materials used to make the books are acid-free and seems to do a good job.

[Gordie]

The Profolio books are very nice but expensive.  I use them to store the larger magazine ads.  For anything smaller than 8 1/2 x 11" like road tests, factory photos and smaller magazine ads I  go to an office supply store and buy a box of plastic sleeves that are notebook size and I find that notebooks are an inexpensive way to store and display the smaller paper collectibles.  Some of the pages are compartmentalized so that you can display smaller items like business cards.  Matchbook sellers offer specialized pages just for displaying the different sizes of matchbook covers or matchbooks.  Small flat collectibles are easily displayed in flat glass topped boxes called Riker mounts.  They are the kind of display boxes that are used to display butterflies and bugs.  They work great for flat collectibles like licence plate toppers , key fobs, buttons and pins and most small collectibles. Larger collectibles like ash trays, desk sets, toys etc. just need lots of shelf space hopefully with sliding glass front doors and lights behind the frosted back panels.  This collecting can get pretty serious but it is sure a lot of fun.

[Bulletin Editor]

The Profolio books are very nice but expensive.

We use coupons from the Sunday papers for Michael's and JoAnn's ~ usually 40% to 60% off a "regular priced item" ... I also signed up to get emailed coupons.