Together we are embarking on our 100th year anniversary journey starting with the Roaring 20’s. We are celebrating that journey with you, our customers, dedicated employees, partners & suppliers. From a small lettershop in downtown Cleveland in 1922, we’ve grown with your business & support to become one of the premier marketing solutions companies in the country.

Over the next few months, we’ll be sharing some of the milestones the team has achieved together — along with what was happening in Cleveland and the country including advancements in the marketing/printing/advertising industry …starting with the Roaring 20’s.

HKM Beginnings
HKM’s humble beginnings can be traced to a small lettershop named Hauser-King Letter/Mailing Service owned by Charlie Hauser located in downtown Cleveland in The Caxton Building. Interestingly, the Caxton was originally designed to house artist, printers, binders, and other graphic arts firms. It was named after William Caxton the 1st person to introduce the printing press into England. It was built to hold 300 lbs./sq ft. due to the weight of the presses and was one of the earliest reinforced concrete floor slab buildings in the world. It was a beehive of activity with jobs moving from floor-to-floor by elevator — as projects changed processes and companies –until the project was finished. Hauser-King used manual typewriters to personalize letters and the Addressograph was introduced to provide mass addressing of envelopes.

Cleveland Milestones
Cleveland’s population exploded between the 20’s -40’s with Cleveland becoming a booming metropolis — the 5th largest city in the country. Due to that growth, the Cleveland Airport opened in ’25 and NACA; the forerunner to NASA was born. Cleveland was named an All-American City for the 1st time, eventually being named 5 times!

During that time, Cleveland earned the nickname “The City of Champions.” Cleveland’s own Jesse Owens surprised the world winning 4 gold medals at the 1935 Berlin Summer Olympics. The Cleveland Ram’s, the city’s 1st professional football team, won the NFL Championship and thanked the city by moving immediately to LA (’45). The Cleveland Browns were started (for the 1st time) to fill the void and played in the AAFL. The Indians won the World Series!!! (‘48), The Barons, the city’s 1st professional hockey team won the AHL Championship (‘48).

Happenings in the World
Advertising exploded on the scene with the 1st full page Print Ad placed by Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and sales exploded, up 480%. Radio started selling time slots and the 1st Billboard had already made its debut in Times Square. The telephone was introduced dramatically changing the speed of communication and postcards were 1st used for advertising –mailed to everyone in the phone directory. The television arrived, followed by the 1st TV commercial (Yeah!) …and the electronic computer was invented. Art Deco was all the rage and waterskiing and skywriting entered the lexicon. It was a whirlwind rollercoaster time, with the country going through The Roaring 20’s, The Great Depression and World War 1 & World War 2.