The Johnson Smith Novelty Company started in Australia somewhere around 1906. Its founder, Alfred Johnson Smith, decided to move his catalog company to the United States in 1914 because he wanted to compete with the giants, Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck. He also realized the United States offered a much more fertile ground for a mail order business than Australia -- having a population twenty times as large. He quickly discovered, though, that he couldn’t compete directly with the Big Houses so he reverted back to his niche of selling novelties, focusing on boys and young men. Novelties like disguises, magic tricks, practical jokes, how-to-do-it books, jewelry, and the like were his mainstay. This proved to be immensely successful. By the early 1920’s he had 1,000,000 customers and by the 1970’s he had received 50,000,000 orders. With many, Johnson Smith had become an icon; many customers have fond memories of the 500+ page catalog from their childhood.

It wasn’t easy for Alfred to be successful in the novelty business. He was constantly seeking out new customers. His customers got older and soon they weren’t interested in the products he sold. Fortunately, Mr. Smith was a marketing genius and he had a knack for putting together ads that got his customers to buy again and again. He was a true believer in advertising and unlike many of his competitors he increased his advertising, rather than decrease, during the Depression. He was a major ad customer of Popular Mechanics and other magazines, and he wisely switched to the comic books in the mid-1930’s when they became immensely popular.

There have been dozens of novelty catalogs over the years and, to our knowledge, Johnson Smith is the only one to have survived, and thrived, for so many years. With a lot of vision, and heavy doses of endurance and tenacity Johnson Smith has been able survive. The catalog is still being printed today selling many of the same products, all in color, but never more than ninety-six pages. The company presently operates out of Bradenton, Florida.