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Hallmark History:Hallmark is a world renouned name for cards, gifts, wrapping paper and Christmas ornaments. This Kansas City, MO, multi-billion dollar company, as of March 11, 2014 began, as all great companies do, humbly in 1910 by an 18 year old boy named Joyce Clyde Hall who sold picture postcards from a shoebox. Later, his brother joined him in the business and they name it Hall Brothers. Later in 1915, a fire destroyed their office and inventory.They could have stopped there and given up for they had lost everything except their safe. But despite their circumstances and their $17,000 in debt, they pressed forward with their business. When the brothers noticed a decline in the picture postcards, they knew something had to be done to boost their business. They noticed that people wanted something more personal and private to communicate with so the brothers started the path that made Hallmark what it is today by making high-quality Valentines and Christmas cards mailed in envelopes. The fire in 1915, and I am sure the debt they had accumulated for the printers, was the deciding factor for them to buy printing presses and begin their own production of greeting cards. The greeting cards weren't all they produced. In 1917 they expanded into sold-colored gift wrap which sold out so fast that they had to improvise with selling fancy decorative French envelope linings. This too was a hit and sold out quickly which brought the brothers into their next product of printing their own gift wrap. So what made the two brothers choose Hallmark as their company name. The word hallmark was used by goldsmiths as a mark of quality which J.C. Hall liked the idea of quality and the family name all in one packaged name. So in 1928 the brothers began printing the name "Hallmark" on the back of all their cards, branding their business. Within that same year they became the first greeting card company to advertise nationally. And the beat of innovation kept on with advertising on the radio, signing a license agreement with Walt Disney and pulling out the cards from the shop draws and placing the cards on display racks, invented by Hallmark, for all to see easily. During the 1930's through the 1950's came the next phases of the life of the Hallmark company starting with the branding of the name Hallmark as being caring, quality, and the best; the slogan, "When You Care Enough to Send the Very Best"; and in 1951 the sponsoring of a TV opera show, as a way to thank the people for buying their cards, that set the Hall brothers into yet another faucet of the Hallmark name, the Hallmark Hall of Fame, which in the next 60 years won 80 Emmy Awards. By 1954, Hallmark, Inc. was official and has grown to be the biggest distributor of greeting cards today. But these beginnings did not stop the Hallmark family company from going further with innovation and products. By 1966 the company had grown into a global company with the advent of Hallmark International. Later they developed the Crown Center in Kansas City, Missouri. In the 1970's the Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments were introduced "revolutionizing Christmas decorating and sparking the phenomenon of ornament collecting". During this decade they also launched the Ambassador brand, the Shoebox Greetings greeting cards and the Mahogany cards. Jewish and Hispanic card followed. The Hallmark company did not end there. In 1986 they started the Hallmark Gold Crown program to help independently owned retailers to build the Hallmark brand and products. Today Hallmark has continued its growth with the growth of technology by having their web site Hallmark.com, their Hallmark Channel, their Hallmark Hall of Fame, their Hallmark Movie Channel and their Crayola site. And they have not stopped there. They publish in 30 languages and have 8 International web sites , links to Hallmark owned companies, and other web sites linked to the Hallmark family of businesses web sites. And the piece de resistance, their Hallmark Visitor Center where fans and collectors of Hallmark can visit, for free, their magnificent Hallmark Crown Center with more than 100 years of history filled with many activities for young and old.
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My Estate Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments
Each of these ornaments are in their original boxes. Tho some of the boxes are worn due to aging and the many moves they have gone through, the ornaments are in mint condition and unused.