Andy's Hardware Dutch Boy ad – June 9, 1960

Here's a newspaper advertisement for the much remembered Andy's Hardware, which used to be located at Ninth and Oberlin Avenue in Lorain. The Dutch Boy Paints ad ran in the Lorain Journal on June 9, 1960 – 54 years ago today.

Outside of Andy's Hardware
(Courtesy "Our Town (Lorain, Ohio) YouTube video by stewati1)

Everyone stopped in at Andy's Hardware for hard-to-find items at some point or another. It was pretty sad when the iconic store closed – as well as when the building was torn down and replaced by a new house.

Courtesy 4 Color Cowboy's flickr site
(www.flickr.com/photos/scrubbles)

Anyway, the ad above was interesting to me because it reminded me that the Dutch Boy used to be a true advertising mascot that evolved through the years. The 1960s modernized version was popular enough to be made into the free hand puppet shown in the ad.

Eventually, Sherwin Williams (who acquired the brand in 1980) decided to return the Dutch Boy to his roots and regressed him back to his original 1907 appearance, which is based on a painting by Lawrence Carmichael Earle.

The Dutch Boy hand puppet is pretty easy to find on Ebay. In fact, there are several for sale right now (shown below) in various degrees of wear.

This one's is pretty good shape.

So is this one.

This one looks like he went 12 rounds with the Pittsburgh Paint peacock.

By George, this one's still mint-in-bag!