Anyway, the Victor B. Mason you'll find on the InterTubes is a guy who makes guitar amplifiers who is maybe fifty years old. That's not our man. The guy in the ad was already ruggedly handsome in '61. So, the amp-making guy is just a red herring thrown at us by history. We're not so easy to fool.
I know who he is. Victor B. Mason is former Air Force Colonel, astronaut, Gentleman Man of Mystery, part time marionette and patriarch of International Rescue Jeff Tracy! Dun Dun DUNNNNNNNN!!!!
Of course he has to be cagey in advertising for personnel. International Rescue is a secret organization that rescues people internationally, and their existence is unofficial. "Victor B. Mason" is an anagram for "Smobov N. Traci", which is still not "Jeff Tracy". The perfect cover identity! Very clever, Smobov!
Thunderbirds didn't air until 1964, and this ad ran in '61. Tracy's looking for someone with mechanical aptitude, which means he wants to build something. We can only assume that "something" means "a fleet of super-technological rescue vehicles effective in all forms of terrain and environments". That means he's looking to recruit the engineer who would come, in later years, to be known as "Brains". I'm sure Brains read Pop Sci.
In even LATER years, Brains would achieve international fame as Elton John. Why? Because he actually is Rocket Man. See? The Thunderbird ships. Think about it. Uh huh. You see now.
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Ad ran much earlier than 1961 ... I've seen it in 1957 magazines.
The ad was also run in the August 1969 Science & Mechanics...so we know it ran for at least 12 years!!..what the hell was it?? lol.
Somebody must've taken the bait, so what was it?
Oh that's great. Ad also appears in Mechanix Illustrated "How to Build 20 Boats" from 1966. I wonder how the bait and switch worked. Thunderbirds away!
Do you really want to know what Victor B. Mason was selling? Might not you be better off, my friend, awed by the mysteries of the Oracle, never having had ones dreams crash upon the shoals of dull, ordinary reality? Because when I was a kid reading Pop Sci in the early '60s, my brother and I did in fact write to one Mr. Victor B. Mason for the secret to financial independence. So read on only if you wish to have the veil of secrecy lifted, and the cold splash of reality upon your face.
SPOILER ALERT
He was selling rubber stamp machines. Which you would put in the trunk of your car and dutifully drive around to every small business in town hawking your wares at $1 or $2 per stamp. Even at the tender age of 11, I smelled a rat and laughed out loud at the preposterousness of it all. But then, perhaps I was not that sort of man, the man of vision and courage with the ability to see what other men could not -- the riches that await he who takes his manifest destiny into his own hands (well, with a little mechanical ability required two hours a day), seizing the fish of the day from the sea of life. If only I had listened, really listened, for I, too, have felt the sting of poverty and the sideways glances from my fellow man at my tattered clothes and shattered dreams, living as I do in a van, down by the river.
Fun thread, but seriously... thanks to whomever revealed VBM's secret! This ad also ran contemporaneously in "Popular Mechanics". I have for at least 50 years wondered what was Victor's secret. Now I can at least enjoy a solid night's sleep, safe in the knowledge that the key to a fulfilled life is a rubber stamp machine.
This ad also ran in the November 1960 Popular Science...
Just wanted to add that in some of the ads it said that the picture of Mr. Mason was actually a professional model.
The ad was for selling Mason's shoes from home.
Actually, the ad had nothing to do with Mason Shoes.
Googling the Jarvis Avenue address in the ad reveals two things:
1. The address is now occupied by a Public Storage self-storage facility.
2. An ad with the same address appeared in the October 1979 issue of Popular Science. By then, the enigmatic Victor B. Mason had been retired, and the ad copy was much more forthright, albeit less memorable. The company name in the ad is "Rubber Stamp Div" and it is indeed a pitch for a tabletop rubber stamp machine, which is pictured in the ad. Beginners are urged to "cash in on the lucrative Rubber Stamp business" and make "up to" $16.50 an hour or as much as $33.00 an hour "at full capacity". And all this is offered without even the $15.00 that Victor was going to "allow you to invest", but completely "free". Maybe the ad was not so forthright after all.
Anyway, the ad appears directly above another frequently-seen ad in PS/PM back then: the "Original Basement Toilet" of genuine porcelain that "flushes up to sewer or septic tank", with a mailing address in Tampa, Florida.
Where they don't have basements.
The ads from the “Rubber Stamp Div” actually predate the Victor B. Mason ads and were also run in the same time period (but not in the same issues, I am guessing).
Additionally, there were ads using the same address for home busines opportunities with engraving machines and plastic laminating machines under the name “Warner Electric Co.”. There is a Warner Electric Company existing in Chicago currently, but I can’t tell if it is the same company.
So, I think we are left with the possibility that 1512 Jarvis Ave. was a mail drop serving multiple companies, or that there was a company, possibly Warner Electric, advertising multiple home business opportunities, sometimes using radically different ads for the same product.
Thanks for a thought provoking blog :) I too ran across the ad while cleaning out some old magazines of my late father in law's. It was in a Popular Science from Oct. 1971. He must have made some money at this scheme as even back then I'm sure a full page ad would cost. Thanks for a great read!
I always wondered about this ad. I went to an estate sale in Galveston Texas in about 2000, the guy died and his basement was full of mechanical stuff and in the corner was a box with Victor Mason's name on it. I got it for $20. It was a machine to make rubber stamps- the kind you use with an ink pad for addresses, advertising, and such- It had several different fonts, a plug in machine that melted the rubber into the stamp- and blocks of raw rubber. In the box also were letters to and from Victor B Mason trying to get his money back- along with some other complaint letters supplied by the Attorney General of Chicago.
The stock photo of "Victor B. Mason" used in the ad appears in the March 1940 issue of National Geographic. In this ad he is a dentist selling Polident. I guess old Victor must have really gotten around.
Hahaha I really enjoyed you comment. I was given a q961 science and mechanics and was scaning through it and came accross victors add and decided to look him up and saw all this .and it being a stamp scam send me your money so I have riches look at me .Haha Haha
This ad also appeared in the April 1969 issue of Railroad Magazine.
Thanks goodness for old blogs. I dug up a copy of the 1940-07 National Geographic, and indeed Mr Mason makes an appearance in a Polident ad (with his eyes crudely painted to make the whites visible). The same year, he also appears in at least two "American Legion" magazines (April and May). These are available to view online at the Internet Archive. He appears (as a dentist) in even more magazines in 1939, including "American Legion", "Pathfinder" and "Ladies Home Journal".
The company that did the Victor B. Mason ads also advertised under several other names, mostly Warner Electric. The earliest ad I can find (also on the Internet Archive) is an ad for a bug zapper in the June, 1938 Popular Mechanics.
They operated from a few different mail drops for about 8 years before settling at Jarvis Ave. The final ad I've found is a small classified in 1983-04 issue of Saleman's Opportunity (a publication they advertised in pretty frequently in the 80s). The following a year, a different company, Sediment Testing Supply appears at the Jarvis address. I can provide more details at jbum at jbum dot com.
This ad also appears in the May 1959 edition of "True Men Stories." Be warned this is a graphically violent pro-fascist smut mag appealing to soldiers and men who didn't see combat, as most all "men's adventure magazines" were.
So we know why the ad didn't mention it was just a stamp machine... they got some real miles out of this ad, as posters above mention.
On the continuation page for the Canyon Torrey article, 226, of the Popular Mechanics - April 1969 - there is an ad which, top left of page, also features the address, 1512 Jarvis, Chicago.
The Ad reads: "MAGIC MAIL PLAN that comes with this Little Machine CAN MAKE YOU $12.00 AN HOUR. [The machine is turning out a job that will bring operator $2.58, by mail. Material cost, only 11c] Write today for free facts about the newest and most fascinating of all new home operated businesses. For the first time, a simplified machine brings the fabulous profits of Plastic Sealing and Plastic Laminating within reach of the small operator. Anyone can learn to operate it with a few minutes practice. Then--- with our MAGIC MAIL PLAN--- can get mail orders pouring in daily with cash in every envelope. NO CANVASSING or SELLING. Fill Orders at home in spare time to start. Then expand to full time business. We even supply circulars to bring back cash and orders. Rush name for all the facts you need to start. A postcard will do. No Charge. Warner Electric Co. Dept. L-2-DS. 1512 Jarvis, Chicago, Ill 60625"
Am left wondering as I got here though a google - what else may have been going on at 1512 Jarvis...
Wow, what a fascinating thread! It's incredible how this ad seemed to have such a long and varied run, popping up in magazines over several decades. With all the speculation and detective work here, I'm really curious: Does anyone know what was actually sent out as a follow-up to the ad? The mystery surrounding Victor B. Mason and the products he was promoting is quite intriguing. It seems like there was a lot of speculation, but I wonder if anyone ever received any tangible follow-up material or products from those ads. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!
I find the same ad in a copy of Family Handyman from June 1975. Reading the comments here, this seems to be the most recent date mentioned so far.
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