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Book Project
For the Love of Murphy’s:
The Behind-the-Counter Story of a Great American Retailer
By Jason Togyer
256 pages, 71 illustrations, 8.5 x 11 inches
ISBN
978-0-271-03370-9
MSRP: $29.95
Penn State Press
Keystone Book ® Series
820 N. University Dr. USB1, Suite C
University Park, PA 16802
Five-and-ten stores were immensely
popular during the middle fifty years of the twentieth century, selling
cheap, dependable goods to people from all walks of life. Now the
product of a bygone era, these stores were revolutionary in their time,
but few today appreciate how important they were in creating our
present-day consumer culture. In this caring but honest look at one of
the best-known chains of five-and-tens, Jason Togyer traces the history
of the G. C. Murphy Company, headquartered in McKeesport, Pennsylvania.
 Though not the
largest chain, nor the first, Murphy’s is remembered today as a
commercial trailblazer, a corporation run with honesty and integrity,
and, at its peak, a retailer whose more than 500 stores managed to
outsell those of the giant F. W. Woolworth Company by a factor of three
to one.
Making extensive use of both the
company archives and anecdotes from former employees and customers,
McKeesport native Togyer recreates with outstanding detail the world in
which the G. C. Murphy Company emerged; its survival and growth during
the Great Depression; its response to a strained economy during World
War II; its fight against rapidly expanding competitors such as K-Mart;
its struggle and recovery in the 1970s; and its unsuccessful battle to
stave off Wall Street raiders in the 1980s.
Though modern-day shoppers may not know
the Murphy name, they know the legacy it left behind. From its
adventurous selling tactics to its strict code of corporate ethics, the
G. C. Murphy Company should be remembered not as a dusty relic, but as
a pioneer in the American business world.
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Trucks line up at the G.C. Murphy
Co. Indianapolis distribution center, 1972 |
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We are very pleased that Penn State has
expressed an interest in preserving the history of the G.C. Murphy Co.
and making it available to a wider audience. Murphy’s and Murphy people
have had a long relationship with Penn State; in the 1940s, former
Murphy Corporate Secretary and Vice President Bill Thomson was
instrumental in bringing a Penn State regional campus to McKeesport.
The G.C. Murphy Company Foundation
still sponsors a scholarship
at Penn State for the descendants of Murphy employees.
IMPORTANT: The book
is not on sale yet, and the G.C. Murphy Company Foundation is
not selling the book, nor does it hold the copyright or receive any
profit from the sale of the book. It does not control the retail price
or the distribution.
You are welcome to email or write to
us and get onto a mailing list. As soon as the book is ready, we will
announce it on this website and in local newspapers wherever Murphy’s
had stores.
Thanks for your interest and for all of
your help and contributions!
Information Still Wanted!
We are still accepting stories and
other items from G.C. Murphy Co. employees and customers. Even if they
don’t make it into the book, your stories and memories will be
preserved at the McKeesport Heritage Center, which is the official
repository for G.C. Murphy corporate records and many official
documents from other organizations.
To find out how you can include your
memories of the G.C. Murphy Co., Morgan & Lindsey, Murphy’s Marts,
Terry Farris, or Cobbs and Bruners in the book, please click here.
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