General Bindery Photos

General Bindery was probably the second largest bindery in Philadelphia. I believe Smith Edwards Dunlap would be the largest. When you came into the large factory my impression was always that a jet airplane could fit in there! They said you could see some old trolley rails in the cement floor as it once was a building to repair trolleys.

It was a union shop but I say that loosely. To the contrary of all the union agreements you could find some operators running the machines for years as "helpers." I worked a year and a half learning and running the Muller stitchers as a "helper." When I complained to the Union I didn't run the machines anymore and left.

It was always rumored who owned General Bindery. When they bought Sam Bless Bindery I remember the girls singing the TV commercial at the time "Sooner or later you'll own General." Anyway I had to get that in. The story told for years was that a supermarket chain in England owned General Bindery. Later on someone said that Panasonic owned it.

In the late 70s and early 80s they were a show case on the east coast for MBO folders. They had a Muller model NB2S binder with an Alpine trimmer.

They had chain link fences to divide areas. There were telephones so that the machines never stopped. You would call over the intercom, "I need a relief girl" when a lady helper had to use the bathroom. You also called for more work to be brought to your machine. I can almost still hear Jim Wertz, who worked on the Rapid trimmer, calling over the intercom, "One in, one out, at the Rapid." He'd say that very "rapidly."

General Bindery was located at 300 West Hunting Park Avenue in Philadelphia which was not a nice area. I remember an older lady who I worked with stopping off at the corner gas station store before our shift and being hit over the head with a pipe and having her pocket book stolen. She only had a few years until she was to retire but that took the wind out of her sails and she left to live with her daughter down south soon afterward.

General Bindery later merged with Hartman Bindery in Pennsauken, NJ to form GH Alliance.

From a Harris manufacturing directory- GENERAL BINDERY CO INC Phone 215 457-2515, 300 W Hunting Park Ave Philadelphia. PA (19140) Pres: John Shea V P: D Colgan V P Opers: Ronald Orehowsky

Information from an email-

I found your bindery history and found it quite interesting. I was the controller at General which then became GH Alliance. GH subsequently went out of business while owned by Jack Shea.

To clarify the ownership of General;

It was started by Art Shoyer shortly after WW 2. As legend has it, he liked the name General Electric and used it to name his bindery.

As part of Shoyer's retirement plan he wanted to sell the bindery. A privately held holding company called CAWSL Corp bought General and eventually put Jack Shea in charge.

In the late '90's Rod Rothermel was put in charge and merged General with Hartman bindery creating GH Alliance. Rod was eventually fired and the company was purchased by Jack Shea. It had a good run until Jack and I parted ways in 2002. The next year the company went out of business.

Chuck Sekerke

Information from an email-

Hi - I was searching online for General Bindery and found your web page. My father, Art Shoyer, was the founder of the company and ran it until his retirement in the late 1980's. I laughed when I read that the ownership of the company was a subject of rumors. I can't imagine there being any question about it. I don't think the new owners (CAWSL) were very hands-on so I guess it could have been a matter for speculation.

I had heard the story of the origin of the company's name a little differently. My father and his partner (Harry Cherry) were sitting at his mother's kitchen table, trying to pick a name for their new company. He looked up and saw the name on the refrigerator, General Electric, and thought, "How about General Bindery?"

The company was started in 1946 and was originally located at 825 Arch Street. It moved to a few floors in a building at 1228 Cherry Street, later moving to 300 W Hunting Park Avenue.

I found a loan document listing their equipment in 1947 as:

Dexter Folder Co. Cleveland folder with friction feeder, model WWF
Boston Wire Stitcher Co. Stitcher with motor, model 7
Page Gluing machine with electric heater & motor
Pie foot round cornering machine
Boston Wire Stitcher Co. Stitcher with motor, model 2 (qty 2)
Dexter Folder Co. Cleveland folder, model 00
F.P. Rosback Co. 28" 2 head pony rotary perforator with 110v motor
Lafayette Folding machine, model 77
Harris-Seybold-Potter Co. 44" Seybold precision motor-driven back gauge cutter with right and left hand auxiliary tables, model 10ZC
F.P. Rosback Co. 10 staple automatic 4 station gang stitcher with extra head

I've attached a scanned reprint of an article that must have been from an industry publication around 1986. It describes more about the company's history and growth. I think my dad retired around that time (1986 or 1987) so it probably came out shortly before that was announced.

General Bindery article

My brother and I both worked at the bindery for a few summers in the mid-1970's. We mostly worked on the calendar pad job, bringing the materials to the women working on the line and packing up the finished work. I also spent some time assembling cartons and being sent out for deliveries that called for a helper.

I know my dad was proud of the company he built. He never wanted to offer the lowest cost - he wanted to provide the best quality and customer service. He also felt a responsibility to the 150+ employees who supported their families by working at the bindery.

Here are a couple of photos, one with my dad's first business cards and one with some items sporting the logo from the later years. I think my uncle, who was a commercial artist in the Philadelphia area, developed the logo with the big G.

Thanks for putting up the web page - it was fun to recognize some of the names and faces.

--Steve Shoyer