Success Story was a 1950’s era, black and white TV show that focused on companies in California. It was sponsored by Richfield, makers of Richfield 1030 motor oil and gasoline, with reporter Ken Peters as host, narrated by John Kennedy, and directed by Bob Hiestand. This episode aired in July, 1955 and profiles the Coast Envelope Company, a huge industrial printing company which was apparently located at 2930 Vail Ave. in Commerce, California — but also had operations in San Francisco and elsewhere in the Golden State. The program was highly innovative for its time, featuring a mobile camera (probably an Auricon) that followed the host through the company’s factory. John Davidson, the vice president of Coast, appears in the episode as well as Alex Kenzie, the “dean of the envelope business” (Kenzie may in fact have been Coast’s president but it’s not clear as the episode is missing the start). Coast’s operations are interesting in that the company recycled a lot of its scrap (4:20 -7:00) to use as shipping batten. A new, German printing press that features aniline inks, as well as an envelope sorting machine (16:00) are shown in the episode. Also of interest, Coast Envelope seems to employ a large number of women — as many businesses did in the post WWII period.

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