Pennant Fever
EXAMINING 20th CENTURY FELT NOVELTY COMPANIES AND THEIR PRODUCTS
This month, ASCO's former Assistant Plant Manager spoke with Pennant Fever about his role developing a felt pennant line for the Winona-based novelty company. In 1961 a small, relatively unknown novelty maker endeavored to begin making felt pennants in Winona, Minnesota. No, I’m not talking about WinCraft; rather, ASCO, Inc. Since the 1940s, ASCO’s product lines had largely consisted of buttons, pom-poms, and sun visors; most of which were intended for high school markets. But, times were changing: professional sports had recently come to Minnesota with the arrival of the Twins (MLB) and the formation of the Vikings (NFL). And with their arrivals, ASCO’s founder, Lars Granberg, saw an opportunity to supply these teams and their fans with felt pennants. He had one problem: nobody in his company knew how to make a pennant! Against this backdrop, a 19 year-old Jim Goke was hired. Goke would spend much of the 1960s assisting the newly hired plant manager with ASCO’s felt pennant production line. Recently, Mr. Goke, now age 78, reached out to Pennant Fever to share some insight on the inner workings of ASCO, a company that eventually merged with WinCraft to become the largest maker of felt pennants today. Here’s how all that business started: Early production methods When Goke first joined ASCO, the company was already operating out of 102 Walnut Street, a property marketed by the company’s founder as the “ASCO BUILDING.” Goke was quick to point out: nobody outside of ASCO referred to the building as such. That’s because the name, “ASCO BUILDING” was entirely Lars Granberg’s idea. For marketing purposes, he named their new building accordingly to project strength and growth. In reality, ASCO was merely one of several tenants in the building, leasing only the first and second floors. The building was actually owned by Boland Mfg. Co., who occupied the third floor. In fact, the property was better known as “The Boland Building” within the town of Winona by the 1960s.
The first professional sports pennants by ASCO were limited to Minnesota teams; namely, the Twins and Vikings. More professional sports teams would be added by the mid-1960s. That’s about when ASCO secured a license to make professional football pennants from the NFL. Of course, prior to Goke’s arrival, ASCO had been making souvenir and high school pennants for local customers.
Goke even experimented with new materials. By the 1940s and 50s, pennant makers had been utilizing new types of felt beyond the traditional 100% wool felt in use since the turn of the century. A new product, called Duvetyne, caught Goke’s eye. Duvetyne is a thinner, woven fabric, known for its opacity. It is made from brushed cotton; and it has a velvety-like feel to the touch. This characteristic made it an ideal substrate for screen printing on as its natural fibers absorbed ink better than those from a synthetic fabric, like polyester. More importantly: Duvetyne was much cheaper than any of the wool blends other makers were using. Pennant artwork Goke described the “art department” within ASCO as “self-taught.” Perhaps that’s being generous. On this topic, I pointed out how early ASCO graphic designs Goke screened on pennants were blatant copies of Trench’s artwork, i.e., their competition. He was not at all surprised. “Knowing Lars [Granberg], that sounds right.” Goke confessed he was never entirely certain whether ASCO’s artists developed original artwork. “I just screened what they gave me,” Goke recalled. He never heard of Trench Mfg. Co.; and he generally did not monitor the products ASCO’s competitors manufactured. What's in a name? A question that has long since stumped me concerns the existence of ASCO pennants with non-ASCO maker’s marks for companies also located in Winona. In the early 1960s, some ASCO pennants bore the ASCO mark; whereas others--virtually identical--bore a mark for "Idea Promotions." Then by the late 1960s, a third mark materialized for a company identified as "The Button House." I hoped that Goke could explain this. According to Goke, Lars Granberg liked to stamp different names on his products to help sell them in new markets. Goke could not recall either Idea Promotions or Button House by name; but, he opined that these brand names were likely just alter-egos for ASCO products. If true, it wasn’t the first time Granberg attempted to deceive people by manipulating a maker’s mark. In the early days, Granberg used an outside vendor to manufacture their buttons: Parisian Novelty Co. of Chicago, IL. Upon receipt of their buttons from the manufacturer, employees would hand cut an “ASCO” label and stamp it on to the buttons. After marking the price up, ASCO would sell the product to retailers as their own. The end consumer was none the wiser. See, for example, this ca. 1961 Green Bay Packers button, purportedly made by ASCO... Even the company name “ASCO” was a bit hollow. According to Goke, ASCO did not stand for anything. It wasn’t an acronym at all. Lars Granberg simply adopted it because it put their name at the beginning of the telephone book! Lars Granberg If you can’t tell by now, Lars Granberg was a bit of a shyster. According to Goke, the high school teacher-turned-entrepreneur routinely made promises he couldn’t keep; and he often engaged in unethical business practices. For example, to entice Carroll Fish to become ASCO’s Plant Manager, Granberg allegedly offered him a minority share of the company. In reliance on this promise, Fish left a good paying job at the Burlington Northern Railroad; bought a lavish home in Winona; then worked his tail off for the company. Despite these efforts, Fish never received the compensation he had been promised. Goke claimed he himself had been promised stock in the company. After nearly a decade of work, however, Granberg hadn’t offered him any stake in the company’s ownership. This betrayal was a big reason he left the company to return to school in the later 1960s. Granberg’s unethical dealings weren’t just limited to company employees. According to Goke, Granberg openly bragged about double billing the Minnesota Twins on a particular order of pennants. On political buttons, he would falsely print “Union made” on the reverse, so that labor unions would buy (and wear) them. Separation from ASCO, sale of company Disillusioned by Lars Granberg, Goke went back to school and began working only part-time at ASCO from 1966-68. In 1968, he left ASCO for good. “It was a good time to leave,” Goke admitted. Around 1970 Lars Granberg sold ASCO to Minneapolis-based Campbell Mithune, an international advertising agency. As part of the transaction, Granberg was obligated to remain as President of the company for the next five years. The new owners fired him after three. Thereafter, Campbell Mithune “cleaned house” of Granberg’s chronies. Don Ender, Vice President of ASCO was next to go. All were replaced by Campbell Mithune-picked executives, like John W. Arnold, who became ASCO’s President by the mid-1970s. Granberg and his wife, Arlene, left Winona never to return. They moved to Springfield, Missouri where they spent the rest of their lives together. Lars passed away on May 20, 2000 at the age of 76. The rise of WinCraft In 1961 a second manufacturer of novelty buttons, pom poms, and pennants came online in the town of Winona: WinCraft. WinCraft was launched by Jack Ortman. Ortman was a former ASCO employee. Emphasis on the word, “was.” According to Goke, Ortman broke away from ASCO to start his own company that would directly compete against ASCO for business. Ortman was, no doubt, disloyal to Lars Granberg. But, based upon what you’ve read thus far about Granberg … could you blame him? Epilogue By the late 1970s it appears ASCO no longer factored into Campbell Mithune’s business plan: the advertising conglomerate divested itself of any interest in the novelty company. This is about when ASCO merged with WinCraft. By 1982, ASCO was fully absorbed as a division within WinCraft; and by the 1990s, the ASCO brand name was entirely replaced by the WinCraft name and logo on all sports novelty products coming out of Winona; including buttons, pennants and a host of new items developed by the company. Today, WinCraft is undeniably the largest manufacturer of felt pennants left in the marketplace. And, they’re still located in Winona where the majority of their products are still manufactured. As for Jim Goke? After leaving ASCO he earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Winona State University. He then became a professor at St. Cloud State University. There, he taught electronics at the school’s Department of Aviation. In 2005 he retired after 32 years in education. Goke, now age 78, still makes his home in Minnesota. He has had plenty of time to look back at the 19 year-old he once was. “ASCO gave me a time to settle down and mature,” he said retrospectively. When he thinks about the growing number of vintage pennant enthusiasts searching for products he helped make a half century ago, he smirked: “People of my generation could never have imagined that anyone would be collecting this stuff today.” For more information on ASCO, click here. Note: All unquoted material on these pages is © 2020 K.R. Biebesheimer & Son. All rights reserved. Short excerpts may be used after written permission obtained and proper credit is given. ♦♦
1 Comment
Matt Wilkinson
11/8/2021 06:34:30 am
I worked for Lars many years in Springfield, MO and yes, he was just as cunning in his new business down there. I learned a lot from this guy. Overall he was fun to work for. I started out as his production manager and later became the director of art.
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About me...I collect vintage pennants and banners. Soon after getting into this hobby, I became curious about the companies responsible for their production. I had to look hard, but eventually found a lot of interesting information on many of them, and their products. This site is my repository for that research. Periodically, I will dedicate a post to one of these featured manufacturers. I hope other collectors will find this information useful. Featured Content:
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