The greatest publicity push that stamp collecting ever received was in 1933. Ivory soap promoted a radio show that featured stamp collecting. Called “The Ivory Stamp Club with Captain Tim” the show was a radio stamp club where kids followed along as Captain Tim, for fifteen minutes at a time, three times a week, regaled his listeners with stories about stamp collectors. This was the perfect year for philately. A new President, an avid stamp collector, was in the White House. And there was a prime time radio show devoted to promoting our hobby.Ivory Soap created a show where kids could buy low priced albums specially prepared by the H E Harris company. The albums were cheap- available for 10c and two Ivory soap wrappers. It was a great marketing tool for Ivory soap. Kids don’t like to wash, but here, by using a certain kind of soap they could get a cool stamp album. Any plan that appeals to both kids and moms is a sure winner. It was a winner for philately too. By 1936 over a million albums had been distributed and by the time Captain Tim retired his club had had over 21 million members (and this in a population of only 106 million) and distributed over 400 million stamps. I’ve always been told that Captain Tim albums are more of a curiosity than of value but the one illustrated above is the first I’ve ever come across personally in pristine quality. It supposedly is worth only a few dollars but I think I’ll put it in my collection.