Business and Industry | Page 29

Stadium Checkers

Stadium Checkers, Schaper Manufacturing Company Game, 1953–1960.

Squares game

Squares game manufactured by W.H. Schaper Manufacturing Company, Inc. of Minneapolis, Minnesota, ca. 1950–1963.

Skunk dice game

Skunk dice game made by W. H. Schaper Manufacturing Company, Incorporated of Minneapolis, ca. 1950–1960.

Put and Take game

Put and Take game. Manufactured by Schaper Manufacturing Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1956.

Filming a TV commercial for Stadium Checkers and the Cootie game

Television advertising for Stadium Checkers and the Cootie game, WMIN TV, Minneapolis, 1954.

Gold-painted Cootie figure

Completed Cootie game figure painted gold from early 1950s vintage 'COOTIE' game, manufactured by Schaper Manufacturing Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1950–1954.

W. H. Schaper Manufacturing Company/Highlander Sales Company, 1800 Olson Memorial Highway, Minneapolis. Original building that housed the office, warehouse, and assembly departments of the company, 1952.

Cootie game

Cootie game, 1949.

Schaper Manufacturing Company

In 1948, Herbert W. Schaper was a mailman in Minneapolis and a fisherman who made his own lures. One day, he added six legs to a lure that he had whittled and called it a “Cootie.” Starting out with a basement factory in his home and $1200 in 1949, he transformed the fishing lure into the Cootie game that reached $1.5 million in sales by 1953.

Groundswell farmer's rally, January 1985

Groundswell Rally for Family Farms, January 1985

A crowd of an estimated 10,000 people attended a Groundswell rally for family farm support at the state capitol on January 21,1985. Photo by Paul Battaglia.

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