Carl Marshall

I saw this 1945 catalog for sale on eBay and it brought back a memory. While working for Lou Wiener at Rutland Tool & Supply in the early 80's, he asked me to take care of this older gentleman who was visiting the offices. All he wanted to do was look through our racks of vendor catalogs that stretched along the wall in a long hallway. He collected them in a large shopping bag with handles. This gentleman was named Carl Marshall. In 1937, he and his brother Mack founded Marshall Tool & Supply in Los Angeles to distribute tooling to the exploding aircraft industry in Los Angeles. On the other side the country around the same time, Sid Jacobson started a company to serve the large aircraft and other markets in New York. Years later he acquired Manhattan Supply Company (now MSC), but the parent company remained named Sid Tool. The connection was that Mr. Weiner started selling tools out of the trunk of his car in the 50's, tools he bought from Mr. Marshall and Mr. Jacobson. For the next few years, I would walk the floor of WESTEC with the retired Mr. Marshall as he collected catalogs in his shopping bag, everyone oblivious to the pioneer in their presence. All three men were hugely successful and were very kind and gracious to me when I was just getting started.