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Bradenton Novelty Company Gets Ahead At Halloween

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 11, 2007

Nothing says 'trick or treat' quite like a severed hand and foot roasting on a barbecue grill. And nothing warms the mischievous Halloween heart as much as - Are you sitting down? - a high-tech, remote control whoopee cushion.

That's what Johnson Smith Co. is counting on. The venerable novelties mail-order company, located since 1986 in Bradenton, has come a long way from the joy buzzers and X-ray glasses that made its reputation with generations of pranksters.

While those standards remain good sellers, Johnson Smith has kept up with the times. They cater to a generation raised on graphic video games and movies, and their quirky items - such as a blue-veined 'It's Alive' baby puppet - now can be ordered online.

BayLife, Page 1

•Halloween and Christmas mark the busy season, when workers load 12,000 to 13,000 boxes a day onto trucks.

•The company's first catalog, printed early in the 20th century, featured 64 pages of puzzles, tricks and novelties. It hit 738 pages just before the Great Depression, and now runs about 500.

•About 35 percent of buyers use the Internet to place their orders.

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