Stuart History

Stuart and Samuel W. Levinson, was listed in an old city 1948 directory at 9 E. Third Street in Cincinnati.* Stuart was producting a series of 12 children's night lights at 215 W. Fourth Street when the company was sold to Dexter L. Balterman in 1952-53. Levinson stayed on to help. Stuart's slogan was "Stuart Quality is First Quality".

A Post Cereals premium, advertised as a Roy Rogers Ranch Set, was offered on the back of the July 1953 Roy Rogers Dell Comic. It contained 3 polyethylene figures with two horses, two bridle styles, two saddles, a metal jeep, and lithographed cardboard ranch and animals that could be assembled to stand. It also included an instruction sheet with reorder form. (See the Post Premium page.) The molding company, that molded the plastic items, was called Columbus Molded Plastics Corporation in 1946, but shortened their name in 1951.* In The Evening Republican newspaper comment column, dated August 20, 1953, it stated that the molding company was currently manufacturing and mailing the Post Cereals Roy Rogers Ranch Sets.

James L. Russell, one of three founders of the molding company, salesman and president, offered the premium plastic items to Stuart when the premium ended. In 2000, I contacted this company, which no longer made toys. The company name had been altered again and was specializing in plastic household and other products. Employee, Steve Bluhm, found an old handwritten work order sheet listing "Roy Rogers – Characters – Horses, Bridle & Saddle," and the person who ordered them.* Listed on a later sheet, were these items for Stuart: Travois (Indian sled), Pack saddle, luggage, Halter. (Also, on another sheet, was listed a "Horse" for Sam Levinson.)

Stuart added the premium plastic horses, figures and tack to their new line of western toys in different colors and sets. The Stuart walking horse is four inches tall, The Stuart rider figure is two and one sixteenth inches tall. Stuart also made accesories, a pack saddle, pack bundles, and a travois. (See the Post Premium page and the Stuart Sets page.)


Dexter Balterman, left, and salesman, Murray
Richards, right, at the N.Y. Toy Fair with the 1960 toys.

Stuart also made quality science sets in a variety of sizes and prices. Dexter Balterman was a chemist before he acquired Stuart. I was told that he was proud of the quality, affordable Stuart science sets, which ranged from small blister packs to large boxed sets. Additional Stuart products during the western toy era included a Wonder Wheel Designer (spirograph), Bazooka, Spin-a-Plates (circus style), Jr. Gearshift, Changeabout Doll Houses and a Stuart's Prize Animal Farm (with a hard plastic horse, dog, sheep, cow and bull. (See the Other Products page.)

Increased Western toy sales in 1958 prompted a move to larger quarters at 337 Fifth Street. Balterman hired Phillip D. Gossard as plant manager, to help him run Stuart. Levinson retired from Stuart at that time and stayed at the 215 Fourth Street address to start another company – The Anchor Buggy and Carriage Company. Levinson had acquired permission to use the name in 1935, to make exact miniature Anchor model carriages and horses. These models were made from approximately 1958 to 1963. Samuel Levinson passed away in 1964. (See the Anchor History page.)

According to Andrew Balterman, the western toy sales declined in the 1960s and Stuart found it increasingly hard to compete with larger toy companies. Stuart changed direction again to industrial packaging. When Stuart relocated to 1455 Dalton Street, the company was already in packaging production. The Stuart company was sold to plant manager, Phillip D. Gossard, a few years before Dexter Balterman retired in 1969. Stuart is still making industrial packaging on Patterson Street and is owned by Gossard's son, Phillip G. Gossard.

In 2000, Phillip D. Gossard said that he thought the western toy molds were not passed on to anyone else, but were destroyed. His son, Phillip G. Gossard, looked inside the old Stuart building but did not find molds, nor the walking horse sculpture. Steve Bluhm (of the Indiana products molding company) told me that molds are either sent back to the owner, passed on to another company or scraped, and he had no way of knowing what happened to them from what remained of the old records. He also told me that things were very busy at the plastics molding company as the staff had been downsized. I later learned that the molding company closed it's doors in 2001.

I was fortunate to have been in contact with the Baltermans before Dexter Balterman passed in 2003. They were pleasantly surprised to hear how the western toys are still loved and collected, and that there was a website called "Those Elusive Stuarts".



Dexter Balterman in 2000, with
a 1960 Cavalry Patrol set.

*Please note: I've had to omit or alter some of my original research at this website due to a 2019 publishing copyright.
--------
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Andrew Balterman saved Stuart information and photos from being thrown away, provided me with materials, photographs, files, digital images, newspaper clippings, and pointed me in some other directions during Stuart research. Without information from Dexter and Alice Balterman, Joseph Levinson, Phillip D. Gossard, Phillip G. Gossard, Clarence F. Block and John Block, Mrs. Elsie Russell, Steve Bluhm, and Catherine Wilson (who saved moulding company materials), more details of this history would have been lost. Thanks to the Cincinnati Historical Museum for their help; Stuart, plus Anchor Buggy and Post Premium collectors and vintage toy dealers who filled in more pieces of the puzzle. My gratitude to Tom Terry – Plastic Figure and Playset Collector Magazine (Sept.-Oct. 2000, no. 68 issue and June 2001, No. 72 issue), and Rusty and Kathy Kern – Playset Magazine (Oct. 2009, no. 47 issue), who helped me get Stuart information to the public.

I was given permission by the original Stuart connected families, and others, to use this material. Please do not use this material or photos without permission, and give credit to Lizabeth West, vintagestuart7.com.
---------