The Stuart Manufacturing Company
[Web version]

The Stuart Manufacturing Company was started by Samuel W. Levinson in 1948 in Cincinnati. The company was making a series of children's night lights at 215 W. Fourth Street when partner Dexter Balterman joined the company. Levinson sold the Stuart Manufacturing Company to Dexter Balterman in 1953 but stayed on to help him run Stuart. Stuart produced miniature western figures from about 1953 to 1969. The Stuart promotional slogan was "Stuart quality is first quality."

C.F. Block and Associates, located in Chicago, created a 1953 Roy Rogers Ranch set premium for Post Cereal. An ad for this premium appears on the back of an old Roy Rogers Dell comic No. 67, July 1953. A total of 23 pieces were included in the premium, offered until January 1,1954. In this offer were 60mm plastic figures: a cream Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Pat Brady, Bullet , palomino rearing horse (Trigger), cream running horse (Buttermilk) and two bridles and saddles. Block also provided the cardboard ranch and gate cutouts and the metal jeep (Nellybelle) for Post. (See the Cereal Premium page).

When the premium was finished the plastic figures were offered to Stuart. Stuart created an additional 60mm Western line to market with the premium character figures acquired from Block: Stuarts new line consisted of a walking horse, pioneer riders with detachable hats [Indian headdress, kepi, cowboy hat], rifles, tomahawks, pack saddle and travois. All were marketed in different combinations and colors. Within a year or two Stuart had a western toy line to take to the New York Toy Fair.

Sam Levinson retired from Stuart when the company relocated to Fifth Street and started a new business at the former Stuart location - The Anchor Buggy and Carriage Company [This company was not a part of The Stuart Manufacturing Company.]. The name was borrowed from the original buggy company that made real carriages at the turn of the century in Cincinnati (see the Anchor Connection page).

The Stuart Manufacturing Company also sold quality science sets, a Wonder Wheel Designer (spirograph toy), bazooka, Spin-a-Plates (circus style), Jr. Gearshift, Changeabout Doll Houses and a Stuart's Prize Animal Farm set. Stuart also made a Stuart Paint-It set with colored pencils and samples of Indian designs to paint on horses included with the set.

The Stuart logo changed in the 1060s from the 1950s diamond shape with a large S in the center to a stylized asterisk with A Stuart Toy inside. By 1965 the popularity of western playset toys declined as western heroes disappeared from television. Stuart moved again to 1455 Dalton Street. Dexter Balterman retired from the company around 1970, selling the Stuart Company to plant manager Phillip D. Gossard. By then the Stuart Manufacturing Company was specializing in customized packaging design.

According to Phillip D. Gossard, the Stuart western molds were destroyed which makes collecting and preserving these toys even more important. Today they are collected and loved again by many who played with them in the 1950s and 60s.

Acknowledgements
I'd like to thank the many people who contributed to this information - especially Andy, Dexter and Alice Balterman, Steve Bluhm - Como Products, Joseph Levinson, Phillip D. and Phillip G. Gossard, Clarence and John Block and the Cincinnati Historical Museum. Without their help research would have been impossible. Many Stuart collectors also added information regarding these toys.