Friday, November 18, 2011

Rite-Rite Threadline: new finds from the Hopalong Cassidy Museum

I mentioned earlier that while Janet and I were communing with nature on our recent getaway at Salt Fork State Park (near Cambridge, Ohio), we saw the insides of antique stores a lot more than we saw the outside at Salt Fork . . . not that I'm complaining at all, mind you.  One afternoon, we ventured into downtown Cambridge to explore the sights, one of which was the combination 10th Street Antique Mall and Hopalong Cassidy Museum.  A Hopalong Cassidy Museum, we thought?  That's something we had to see!

(As an aside:  the museum is not as random as it sounds.  The star of the Hopalong Cassidy TV series from the 1940s and 1950s was William Boyd, who was born in Hendrysville, Ohio, near Cambridge, in 1895.)

NOTE:  This article is now included in the print version of The Leadhead's Pencil Blog, available anywhere you buy books, or also from The Legendary Lead Company.

To order, here's the link:  Volume 1 at Legendary Lead Company



3 comments:

mark_line said...

Jon,
I have RITE-RITE LEADS For All Popular Pencils (label shows the names "Eversharp, Pal, Signet, Sharp-Point") Made and Guaranteed by H. E. GOLBER & COMPANY, Chicago, Ill., undated.

Jon Veley said...

Intereting and thank you for sharing that. I'll have to look into H.E. Golber & Co.

Rite-Rite was made by the Rite-Rite Mfg. Co. which was a standalone company, and at some point (maybe from the beginning, perhaps later) became a subsidiary of the Joseph Dixon Crucible Company, which made wooden pencils such as the "Ticonderoga" line. Golber was probably a lead manufacturer that was supplying lead under the Rite Rite name under contract.

Could you email me a picture of the lead container? My address is jveley@jonathanveley.com

s.h.golber said...

H.E.Golber owned the Rite-Rite Mfg. Co. When my father was a teenager he worked at the pencil factory.

S.H. Golber