The year was 1947. Harry S. Truman was president, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, and on October 17, 1947, the Manufacturers’ Agents National Association joined the community of not-for-profit trade associations.
To celebrate our 70th MANAversary year, each Agency Sales magazine through October will include a “blast from the past” article from the early issues of The AGENT and Representative magazine, which eventually became Agency Sales.
These nostalgic looks back at how our counterparts from seven decades ago conducted their businesses and their lives are really eye-opening, in some cases because they conducted their business so differently from a modern manufacturers’ representative, and in some cases because it seems that nothing has changed in all that time. Enjoy!
An Invitation — To All Manufacturers and Suppliers
(Reprinted from October 1949 The AGENT and Representative magazine)
Gentlemen:
The members of this National Association extend to you a sincere invitation to help make this Agent and Representative magazine the “Common Meeting Place,” in the interests of “Economical Distribution” of the products of those who specialize in production but who, by size of circumstance, are not equipped, or prefer not to equip, to handle the selling function in all of its many ramifications and extenuations.
Manufacturers’ Agents, as “independent contractors and free agents,” are free from many of the restrictions applicable to private salesmen, in interstate and intrastate commerce, and their employment as a satisfactory sales outlet is every day being recognized by more and more producers and suppliers in every part of the country and in every industry.
P. Edwin Thomas
Manufacturers are finding the classified page, “Agents and Representative Wanted,” most satisfactory, and the cost, comparatively, so very small. If you have something in which you hope agents will be interested, why not tell them about it … in their own magazine?
Cordially yours,
P. Edwin Thomas
Manufacturers’ Agents National Association
