The great Marx Toy Company

Today I think that I am going to write about who was responsible for producing the earlier Hess trucks and about the amazing detail that was put into them from this great toy company. What company am I talking about you ask? Why only the greatest toy company ever, The Marx Toy Company. Louis Marx founded the company in 1919. During the height of the Great Depression in the 1930’s, when most people saw the worst in the economy Mr. Marx saw only opportunity. He opened factories in Erie and Girard, PA, along with the largest facility in Glen Dale, West Virginia. During the 1950’s, Louis Marx & Co. became the largest toy manufacturer in the world with over one-third of all toys in the U.S. being Marx toys.  He was once described as “The Toy King,” and was admired by everyone so much so that he was featured on the cover of Time Magazine in 1955. From 1964 to 1971, Marx produced the promotional vehicles for the Hess Oil Company. The photo above show the 1964/5 B-Mack tanker truck (the first truck), the 1967 "Red Velvet" Hess truck, and the 1970/1 Hess Fire Truck. They also produced a line of service stations (see picture above) that were a ton of fun for the kids and a lot of them used the Hess trucks in some of their displays. Marx was also responsible for many metal toy trucks (pictured above) that were all from daily life such as dump trucks, tow trucks, fire trucks, army vehicles as well as box delivery trucks. In 1972 Louis Marx was 76 years old and finally had to sell the company. The company went on but was never as successful as when Louis Marx was running it and so the company started to decline and finally went out of business. Despite the closing Louis Marx and his company are a big part of history. I'm sure the joy that they brought children, young & old, still live on for generations and the children growing up take up this great hobby of collecting toys as I have. My favorite saying is that "toys are great fun for all kids and the kid in all of us".