Stephen spotted this unusual ebay Item. I could only find one reference to “The Story of the Magnet and the Tunnel” and rather than it being related to Willys Overland or Willys Motors, it was related to an advertising push to spur the sale and promotion of Lee Hats. The timing of this push was the early 50s and, in the case of the tie-in with the Drew Pearson Show, it was sometime around 1952-1953.
So, how this strategy for Lee hats resulted in the tie-in with Willys is still a bit of a mystery to me. One interesting note is that the image at the bottom of this post is labeled ‘Willys Motors’ and has a rather CJ-5ish/CJ-3bish look to it. The entity ‘Willys Motors’ was the name given to Willys Overland following the April 1953 purchase of W/O by Kaiser/Frazer Industries, so I would assume the brochure was created after that.
According to the brochure’s seller, “We are offering a very unusual and scarce book. It’s about sales figures and advertising. It was apparently sent to the dealers by Cruse W. Moss V.P. in charge of sales, that’s what it shows on the last page. Nine pages of print on both sides.Our photos show the condition of the item up for bid.”
