MODERN LIVING: The Shoulder Trade

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He was a Yankee, the very character of whom is, that he can "turn his hand," as he says, "to any thing." —John Neal, Brother Jonathan, 1825

In New England modern-day Yankees are indeed turning their hands to anything. But so, too, are the Hoosiers of Indiana, the Sooners of Oklahoma and the Cornhuskers of Nebraska—along with Texans, Californians, New Yorkers and Iowans. North, South, East and West, Americans have joyfully taken up a new hobby: "Do-It-Yourself."

In the postwar decade the do-it-yourself craze has become a national phenomenon. The once indispensable handyman who could fix a chair, hang a door or patch a concrete walk has been replaced by millions of amateur hobbyists who do all his work—and much more—in their spare time and find it wonderful fun. In the process they have turned do-it-yourself into the biggest of all U.S. hobbies and a booming $6 billion-a-year business. The hobbyists, who trudge out of stores with boards balanced on their shoulders, have also added a new phrase to retail jargon: "The shoulder trade."

Cabins & Comics. In Los Angeles last week, the Pan-Pacific Auditorium held its second annual show for the shoulder trade. There were 300 exhibitors displaying everything from a build-it-yourself log cabin ($600) to assemble-it-yourself swimming pools, garage doors, gymnasiums, and gas stoves. In five days 100,000 West Coast fans paid $1.10 apiece to browse through the show and buy $1,000,000 worth of paints, power tools, plywood and plastics for their new hobby.

That was only a drop in the flood of products that goes to the shoulder trade. Last year 11 million amateur carpenters worked on 500 million sq. ft. of plywood with 25 million power tools, burned enough electricity to light a city the size of Jacksonville, Fla. for a year. Amateur decorators slapped on 75% (400 million gals.) of all the paint used in the U.S., pasted up 60% (150 million rolls) of all the wallpaper, laid 50% (500 million sq. ft.) of all the asphalt tile, enough to cover the entire state of Oregon. And while the menfolk labored mightily, 35 million U.S. women made their own clothes (using 750 million yds. of cloth), gave themselves 32 million home permanents, leafed through millions of copies of do-it-yourself magazines and books, looking for still more projects for their husbands and themselves.

In the do-it-yourself cult are such bigwigs as U.S. Steel Vice President David Austin, who has a two-room, $5,000 woodworking workshop packed into his Pittsburgh apartment; former Secretary of State Dean Acheson, who makes his own furniture; TV and Radio Luminaries Desi Arnaz, Edgar Bergen and Fibber McGee, who spend their spare time puttering around with shelves and kitchen cabinets; Movie and Recording Stars George Montgomery, Perry Como, Dan Duryea and Jane Russell, who do their own handiwork, build boats and furniture; the Strategic Air Command's General Curtis LeMay, who is currently helping fellow airmen rebuild a private airplane, and has set up do-it-yourself workshops at SAC bases for everyone from airmen to SAC's vice-commander, Major General Francis H. Griswold, who is reconditioning a sports car. Recently, the hobbyists found themselves in a comic panel called Do It Yourself, now syndicated in 83 newspapers.