Ferraris, Phil Hill, and Fuller Brush From Fifty Years Ago... by VWLarry

5 minute read

• 
  
  
  
  
  By VwLarry
  
  How this ever came to be, who can guess. Most reading this probably have no memory of the Fuller Brush Company, or of the door-to-door salesmen who peddled their products for decades all across America. My mom, like millions of other "housewives" of their time, welcomed these salesmen into their homes and bought their cleaning, grooming, etc supplies from them. I remember many times that the "Fuller Brush Man" came to the house, as he went door-to-door all over town. Anyway, this is a real novelty, and an unusual one, that I found in my aunt's basement years ago. It is an issue of the company's catalog from 1959, and of all the things to be the "feature" material to go along with the pure catalog pages (every other page in the layout) this issue featured the young American racing driver, Phil Hill, and his relationship with the Ferrari factory. Of course, racing/Ferrari fans know that Hill won the World Driver's Championship of Formula One 2 years later, in 1961, driving for Ferrari. So, these pages are a lot of fun in so many ways. They show Phil in different ways, at home, on the track, etc, and the Ferrari material is a fantastic chronicle of the company right at the point of its emergence as a major player as an automaker. The writer of the copy, Denise McCluggage, will be familiar to many today as the "Grande Dame" of motorsports journalism. There are a lot of images, but if you love this kind of stuff, you'll definitely feel like this is worthwhile. 
  I included one page of catalog merchandise, just as an example of the other content juxtaposed with the "good stuff". I hope you enjoy this...it took a long time to scan!  
  Front cover:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I wonder if these guys were Grand Prix enthusiasts?
  
  
  Back cover: