Sunday, August 7, 2016

1970s summer comics nostalgia with Thing and Vision, Episode VII


One thing you could find in comic books of the late 1970s, almost without fail, was an advertisement touting to kids the financial benefits of delivering Grit, a weekly newspaper that was still based in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, at that point. It had three editions — national, Pennsylvania-wide and the official Sunday newspaper for Williamsport/Lycoming County — so, clearly, a lot of carriers were needed.

The May 1978 issue of "Marvel Two-in-One" contains one of the many different types of ads by Grit. This comic-style ad — you can click on it to see a bigger version and read everything — touts the weekly earnings and special prizes for "Gritboys." (I guess the idea of girls delivering newspapers didn't have much momentum until the 1980s. The tiny coupon with the advertisement, does ask, though, for prospective Gritboys to indicate their gender. Were any of you readers early, trend-setting newspaper delivery girls?)

In the advertisment, we read about Blake, who earns $10.50 a week — the equivalent of a cool $38 a week today — and won a rubber raft after 1¾ years.

And then there's the big prize earned by Gritboy Chris...


According to the advertising pitch, Gritboys kept 12 cents from each 35-cent newspaper they sold and delivered. So that TV Magic Set was just the cherry on top for Chris.

Other posts featuring Grit

1 comment:

  1. I wonder if that's the Marshall Brodien TV Magic set he won. http://garagesalin.blogspot.com/2012/02/tricked.html

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