The Journal Times from Racine, Wisconsin • 47

More Than A Storybook Company the Journal Times, Sunday, July 26, 1987 Racine, Wis. 3WP C)Mpanmy tamed bsidl Mck to good ffortaime it 1 '-w I 7 1 1 -M' (Continued from Page 2 Disney studios under which it put puzzles, story books and coloring books featuring the Walt Disney characters, such as Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Minnie Mouse and Uncle Scrooge. The firm continues to have a' relationship with Disney. That 1932 agreement was to be a benchmark for ones to put out products featuring Warner Brothers characters, Sesame Street characters, the Cabbage Patch Kids, the Care Bears, Pound Puppies and movie stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Western recently signed a contract to put out books featuring Garfield the cat.

H. appears to have had a sense before most people did that this would be useful to use the various characters on products," said Ray Butman, the director of licensing and right development. Often Western was able to get exclusive rights to use those characters, "so we've become and are still the publisher who has the most popular and the most valuable charcters." said Butman. "Most of the buyers recognize that we are the major publishers of this kind of product." In 1932 the Big Little Books were introduced. They were sold primarily in variety and dimes tores.

"They were a bulky comic book they weren't a storybook," said Kim McLynn, the company spokeswoman. Today those 3- by 5-inch books, printed in black and white, are collector's items. Ten years later, the company brought out the Little Golden Books. Unlike they Big Little Books, they were story books. They measured 7 inches by inches, just big enough for children's hands.

Before the introduction of the Little Golden Books, books were something parents read to their children then put them on a high shelf, said McLynn. But these books were meant to be owned and used by children. Inside the cover was printed "This book belongs to and the child could fill in his or her name. The Little Golden Books initially sold for 25 cents. "Among the first buyers of the books were Macy's, Gimbels and Marshall Fields," said McLynn.

During World War II, Western had a contract to print 50,000 maps for the U.S. Army Map Service. Some of those maps were printed in fluorescent inks so they could be read at night. "We always knew three weeks ahead of time where battles were going to be because we were CrL in II. iff i Fleet of trucks sits in front of Western's new Mound Avenue plant in 1928.

I 4 A Ar tAk. mmmm II Western helped Dell Publishing Inc. scoop other publishers with its book on President Richard M. Nixon. Western printed the book for Dell, and Dell had two versions of the final chapter written one with Nixon staying in office, one with him resigning.

When Nixon decided to resign, the "resign" chapter was inserted. "We used to print in excess of 50 million books a year for (Dell)," said Kaplan. The two companies did business together for about 20 years. In 1979, Western, which had been purchasing other firms, found itself being purchased by Mattel a toy manufacturer. But the Mattel purchase didn't work out sales fell and production was down.

Mattel sold its interest to a group of New York investors headed by Richard A. Bernstein. The company went public in The firm that began with five employees now has a workforce of about 2,500 and plants or offices in Cambridge, Fayetteville, N.C., Coffeyville, Kansas, O'Fallon, New York City, London, Paris, and Cambridge, Ontario, in addition to Racine. The firm that did $5,000 in sales its first year, did $306 million in 1986. them." That was what happened to five or six textbook companies that passed in and out of Western control.

In other cases, Kaplan said, Western bought companies for a particular product and blended that product into its lines. Watkins-Strathmore was one of those companies Western bought the firm because it made Magic Slate. Magic Slate is now made in Western's Fayetteville, N.C., plant. For a time, Western published Family Circle and Travel and Leisure magazines. Those were among the clients it inherited when it acquired Kable Printing Co.

in 1957. Kable also published Confidential magazine. "Confidential was a really hot thing it's like Penthouse is now," said Kaplan. "We tossed Confidential out because it didn't fit with our other wholesome products," said Kaplan. Western sold Kable a few years ago.

The death of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in November 1963 brought Western a rush order publish a 100-page account of the death for The Associated Press in less than 10 days. printing the topographical maps," said George Kaplan, the retired vice president of manufacturing. Western also made made playing cards for the soldiers. Because of the contract to print maps, the company posted guards at the doors.

Those guards would check any packages that employees were carrying that didn't seem related to their work, said Jondahl. The employees also had to wear identification buttons, she said. E.H. Wadewitz and Roy Spencer died less than two years apart, Wadewitz in January 1955, Spencer in December 1956. Both were civic leaders as well as businessmen.

Wadewitz had been a generous benefactor-of many organizations, including the YMCA and Evangelical United Methodist Church; Spencer had been mayor of Racine, and inaugurated the Fourth of July parades to bring the labor and business factions together. The firm's pattern of diversification and expansion continued in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. "There were two ways that Western would work it," said Kaplan. "Sometimes we bought companies that were stand-alone companies and we thought we could make them grow. If we couldn't make them grow we just sold 1 --a; From 1910 to 1928, Western Publishing Building, just east of the State Street shared or completely occupied the Snoop Bridge.

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