Warren Commission (15 of 26): Hearings Vol. XV (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (15 of 26): Hearings Vol. XV (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. When Roosevelt died he was the first one with a plaster
of Paris bust, and he sold them all over the country. I don’t know, it
wasn’t much. He probably paid them $1 apiece for them and sold them for
$2.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Do you know who manufactured them?
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. No; but somebody in Chicago done Jack a favor, they
made him a mold and kept on making these things for him and he either
shipped them or took them and sold them by himself, always something,
anything that is hot, he is right there out with it.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Any others; can you think of any others?
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. Punchboard deals. He would pick up items that the
average person couldn’t afford to buy. Let’s say a small radio,
probably would retail for about $18 or $19 he would arrange on a
punchboard card that from 1 to 39 cents the winner would get the radio
and the guy selling the board would get a radio, that the radios would
probably cost him about $5 apiece because they would buy lots of them,
small radios, little ones, cheaply constructed. Well, you walk into a
plant and get hold of a foreman and say, “Would you like one of these
for yourself?” “Sure.” “Well, sell out the punchcard on their lunch
hour, mail me the money, give the winner this radio and I will mail you
a radio.” Perfect. Good gimmick.
Mr. GRIFFIN. As I understand it then, part of the punchboard gimmick
was that he would give some merchandise away with it, is that right?
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. That is right. Incentive. Otherwise, why should the
foreman take the board? The foreman wants one exactly like he is going
to give to the winner, and there was always enough profit left over for
Jack to sufficiently cover his expenses, and make a little profit on
the side, and that was one of his other promotion deals.
What else did he do? During the football seasons when he was a kid,
you know, these little footballs with the school colors. He would go
out to the games, Wisconsin, Ohio, Champaign, Mich., he would leave on
the Friday morning with some fellow who had a car and they would load
up the car with these emblems and these different school things and he
would sell them.
That is another one of the things he did when he was--after he got out
of high school--I forgot to tell you that. That was a good deal for him.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Can you think of anything else? While he was in Dallas,
did he call you with anything else beside the twistboard, any other
promotions he had? How about entertainers?
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. Yes. He had more trouble--this is a guy in charge of
the union down there was giving Jack a headache.
Mr. GRIFFIN. I am not asking you for his problems now, did he promote
any entertainers?
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. Yes.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Tell us about that.
Mr. RUBENSTEIN. He came up to Chicago on one time with a little colored
boy by the name of Sugar Daddy, was about 10 years old.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Would this have been Little Daddy Nelson?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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