Just over fifty years ago, I was carefully perusing the letter addressed to my dad from Publisher’s Clearing House. The head honcho of that firm was Robert H. Treller, and he always took a personal interest in our family, since the letters were always full of personal handwritten notes directed to us.
Robert H. Treller was always eager to make sure we qualified for the big prize drawing, although we never got picked. I remember that one of the letters had testimonials from previous winners, one of whom happened to be in our local calling area. I still remember that they were in St. Paul Park, Minnesota. Just to make sure that Robert H. Treller was on the level, I actually called them to inquire whether they had really won the prize. Sure enough, the woman who answered the phone cheerfully assured me that Publishers Clearing House was legit.
Of course, Robert H. Treller wasn’t in the business of just handing out money, although that was a big part of it. He had magazines that had to be cleared out of the house at steep discounts. The envelope contained a sheet of stickers for the magazines, and you returned the ones you wanted to subscribe to. No money changed hands–they cheerfully billed you later.
Among the magazines with a sticker was one with the intriguing title of “Electronics Illustrated.” I don’t remember the price for a year’s subscription, but I’m sure it was close to zero. I affixed the sticker to the entry form and sent it in. And four to six weeks later, I received the issue shown above.
None of the projects in that issue jumped out at me as something that I wanted, but I do remember reading about DX’ing the Indian Ocean and the Phillipines. Also, I remember the Lafayette CB radios looked very intriguing, although way out of my price range. The stereo pictured on the cover was the Toshiba KS-1810H. But since I never did win a prize from the Publishers Clearing House, it was also well out of my price range at $99.95.