Robert gave him a job driving an express wagon. But he liked brushes. Applying to the little brushmaking shop where his late brother, Dwight, had been salesman, Alfred was handed a case containing twenty-five assorted samples. His employer wished him luck. The crucial moment, young Fuller learned, was the demonstration.
The sale was made when he showed the housewife what the brush could do for her. Mulling it all over he calculated that he could sell from samples for future delivery, manufacturing only what he had already sold. No capital was needed. At twenty-one Alfred Carl Fuller decided on a career in brushes. With a fresh supply of homemade samples packed into a fiber suitcase, Fuller headed for Roxbury.
A few years later, Fuller moved to Hartford, Connecticut, a city with both spiritual and material attractions for him. Fuller was indeed a father figure to the thousands of salesmen whom he inspired with confidence in what an ordinary man could accomplish —working on straight commission. There was nothing new about brushes. Anybody could make them. And there was nothing new about peddlers ringing doorbells. In , with the handsome sum of two thousand dollars in the bank, Alfred Fuller had proposed marriage to Evelyn Ells, an eligible Nova Scotian girl he had spotted earlier behind the glove counter at Jordan Marsh Co.
They were married on April There was no time for a honeymoon. Evelyn proved to be a substantial addition to the business as stabilizer, adviser, and star salesperson. But she had no friends in Hartford, and a husband who loved her mostly in absentia. Two sons were born to the marriage, Howard in and Avard in To the father, whose own existence merged completely into the life of the company, the outlines of an industrial dynasty were apparent.
In Alfred Fuller married again, more happily. The second Mrs. Meanwhile the Fuller way of doing business developed as a beautifully clean, cash operation, extending no credit, requiring no infusions of outside capital.
The Fuller Brush Man paid for his sample kit, advanced the money for his first order, even paid for the free Handy Brush he gave away. When he delivered the order, he collected the amount of the bill and sent the proceeds to Hartford, less his commission 50 percent in the early days, later scaled down as the company provided more training and supervision, branch warehousing, and other backup services.
The cost of the ad was ten dollars, and the mail poured in. Successful Fuller canvassers came from practically everywhere. One of the greatest in company annals was Albert E.
Teetsel, a former factory foreman from Poughkeepsie, New York. Bursting with energy and team spirit, he had dark, curly hair and was built like a wrestler, with a broad, goldtoothed smile and a booming laugh.
Another big success was a man who drove a laundry wagon in Lowell, Massachusetts. Cheerful, aggressive, he took a chance on delivering brushes instead of shirts and sheets. In three years he was a district manager with a paycheck running into five figures.
And there was a brakeman, and a meat cutter. One man signed on because he needed lots of fresh air. Others were former clerks, ministers, teachers, bricklayers, insurance agents, musicians. The most commonly heard complaints were the long hours, the six miles a day each man was expected to walk, and the strange dogs they met along the way.
The Fuller technique with dogs deserves mention. A Fuller Brush Man was taught never to run from a dog—that only encourages it. It also helped to be philosophical about it: every salesman expected to get bitten about once every four years. The best known, perhaps, was evangelist Billy Graham. The company also employed Frank Stanley Beveridge for many years. Beveridge went on to start Sta nley Home Products now owned by Fuller.
Squires who invented it. Brownie Wise learned the system at Stanley Home Products and took it to Tupperware where she essentially saved the company. The company also had famous customers. Rockefeller at his estate, Kykuit. Roosevelt would want to see him. Eventually the fellow gained access and sold FDR a set of matching brushes.
The housekeeper at the White House already bought Fuller brushes regularly. The DC rep called on her regularly. During the Korean War, it was only natural for Harry Truman to invite a Fuller Brush man to Pennsylvania Avenue to talk to him about the best brushes for cleaning guns. Fuller made brushes for this purpose in World War II as well.
The Fuller Brush Man also has been a part of various cartoons and comic strips. The Fuller Brush Man also has inspired songs. Columbia Records.
By the s, cities and towns began to take a dim view of door-to-door selling. Many passed laws that prohibited the salesmen from approaching a home unless they had been specifically invited by the homeowner. While the Fuller Company identified itself as a manufacturing concern and thereby was protected from lawsuits, the company recognized what this could do to their business.
Fuller had his attorneys fight the ordinance all the way to the Supreme Court. As this issue became more common, the Fuller Company came up with a plan to get their representatives invited into the home. The technique involved creating a catalog that featured Fuller products surrounded by helpful articles as well as a promise of a free gift if the salesmen were invited to call.
When the Second World War began, the brush business had to accommodate. They began making brushes for gun-cleaning during those years. By , Alfred Carl Fuller was ready to become chairman and let his oldest son, Howard, take over the business. As the war ended, Howard Fuller got the factory machinery going on the core products again, and he expanded their product line to include toiletries, vitamins, and household chemicals.
He also gave a try to hiring women, referring to them as Fullerettes. But the men in the sales force were resentful of the women. After a couple of years the effort to employ women folded. Despite this failure, Harold knew how to grow the business.
Unfortunately for the Fuller family, Harold and his wife were both killed in an automobile accident in The report was that Harold was driving at a high rate of speed in Nevada in his Mercedes Benz. The car blew a tire. Though the company has kept staples like mops and detergent, it's also launched a line of hipper home products like bamboo cutting boards and "eco-friendly" cooking utensils.
Some are sold at Williams-Sonoma and Anthropologie. Everything is available online. Sales, Sabin said, are up. The company still has a 10,person sales force but most only sell part time, at house parties or to friends.
It's difficult these days to go door to door. Which he does every week, schlepping his Electrostatic Carpet Sweeper and two tote bags of products.
On a recent morning, he worked Hull's Allerton Hill neighborhood. He'd brought a replacement mop head for one customer and hand soap for an older woman who'd been buying it for years. The day was hot and it was slow going. One of his "best customers of all time" wasn't home. Another woman didn't know what a Fuller Brush man was and didn't care to. Then things got better. Maureen Keiller and Patrick Miehe bought a broom after Cohen assured them it was "laboratory tested to last over a million sweeps.
For that matter, how long will Al Cohen keep at it? Some of them depend on me. Linda Matchan can be reached at linda. Al Cohen took an order from Melissa Zeller in Hull.
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