On this date in 1962, John’s Men Shop ran the following ad ran in the Long Beach Independent.
John’s Mens Shop was a long-running Long Beach business that opened in 1959 in the Los Altos Shopping Center and lasted into the 1980s with a location in the Marina Pacifica Mall. For a brief time in the early 1960s, John’s Men Shop had a store in Seal Beach at 322 Main Street. It had nothing to do with John’s Food King.
Also, props to the unknown copywriter and artist for finding a way to connect cablegrams with cable sweaters. That’s precisely the sort of whimsical wordplay one would expect from the “home of Tailoring by Umberto.”
ADDENDUM: Thanks to commenter Merle Asper, we know that Umberto is Umberto Autore, who opened Umberto’s Mens Wear across the street from the Los Altos Shopping Center in 1972. The Umberto’s web site leaves John’s Mens Shop out of Autore’s bio, but we’re too obsessive over trivial details about local history to not mention it.)
– Michael Dobkins
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I am. Retain this store is related to umberto’s on bellflower in LB. thanks! I enjoy your Articles tremendously!!!
Merle Asper
On Tue, Nov 14, 2017 at 12:39 AM This Date in Seal Beach History wrote:
> Michael Dobkins posted: “On this date in 1962, John’s Men Shop ran the > following ad ran in the Long Beach Independent. John’s Mens Shop was a > long-running Long Beach business that opened in 1959 in the Los Altos > Shopping Center and lasted into the 1980s with a location in the M” >
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The unique . . . use of ellipsis is . . . also something . . . unique and . . . frankly . . . magical in copy- . . . writing.
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Oh, look, I said “unique” twice. Using that many ellipsis kind of breaks your mind.
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I’m going to imagine… your comments… as if… they were read… aloud… by… William Shatner!
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