Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Salesmen of Yesterday!! William Hanlin

Ahh, yes, the Salesmen of Yesterday!! Where are they now? What ARE the Salesmen of Yesterday? They are the young men & women that sent in a coupon on the back of a comic and started selling Grit, American Seeds, and various greeting cards, all for fabulous cash & prizes. BUT! Who WERE they and WHERE ARE THEY NOW!?!?!?!?!

But first, a little about one of the employers; American Seed Company. The current owners purchased American Seed 16 years ago and the lovely lady on the phone couldn't tell me when American stopped using comic book ads, but it is the same company. I never sold seeds for them (I sold Christmas cards) but who could resist this ad?


Look, you could earn a bike or a chemistry set or a girl's travel case or an air rifle. I'm all over that like fertilizer on seed! But what happened to the kids that sold these seeds for this great American company? I decided to find out. Up first:

William Hanlin from Missouri
Bill's testimonial appeared in Our Fighting Forces #99 Sept 1966. It appears that Bill was 10 so he would be about 50 today but where is he? I tracked Bill down and asked him a few questions:

Matching Dragoons: Is this William Hanlin, salesman & spokesman for American Seed?
William Hanlin: Who is this?
MD: This is Dwayne with the website Matching Dragoons. I'm doing a "where are they now?" segment on people that sold American Seeds. Your picture appeared on the back page of Our Fighting Forces in 1966.
WH: Listen, I support the troops, but the war was based on lies and we need to pull out now.
MD: Uhm, well, I'm really interested in your experience with the seeds...
WH: The seeds of global destruction have been sown by this administration for the past 8 years, starting with the theft of both elections and the enacting of the Patriot Act.
MD: I understand that, but I was wanting to talk about your experience selling seeds and your picture on the back of the comic.
WH: Who is this?
MD: I'm with the website Matching Dragoons.
WH: What is that, some sort of pro-gun lobbyist website? I pay taxes to have the police protect me and if everyone was armed, what kind of chaos do you think we would have?
MD: Oh, you misunderstood, the website is a blog about a scarred cowboy...
WH: Like the cowboy diplomacy that Bush has been shoving down our throats? I won't have any more of this. We need to pull out now.
MD: Mr. Hanlin, you were quoted back in 1966 saying "They sell as fast as I can show them." Was that true and were you referring to the seeds?
WH: Seeds? Seeds? Is this about that trumped up marijuana charge? I wasn't selling anything, I was holding those for a friend.
MD: Well it appears that I may have the wrong Bill Hanlin. One last question, what do you currently do for a living?
WH: I run a porn website.
MD: Thank you.
WH: You can run a link to it. It's www.hot......
MD: >hangs up<

1 comment:

SallyP said...

Heehee!