On an unseasonably warm August afternoon in 1975, I went through the day’s mail and found a large envelope with a Temple University return address. It was my diploma. That was the good news. The not-so-good news was, though I had been working as a professional musician for the prior 15 years, the diploma meant it was time to get a real job.
This is not to say that music wasn’t a real job, but in 1975 I was reasonably certain as to where the music business was going, and I was also aware that there wasn’t a lot of room in the marketplace for a young jazz drummer whose style was firmly rooted in the 1940s and 1950s
I had learned the rudiments of journalism and radio/television/film production in Temple’s communications and theater department, so I felt reasonably prepared to seek employment in an area other than playing drums in the Glenn Miller ghost band.
Several of my film projects at Temple received some acclaim. I wrote and produced a documentary on iconic comedian Lenny Bruce a year before the feature film on Lenny was released. I also came up with the prototype for “Entertainment Tonight” six years before that TV program hit the airwaves. Still, there were no takers in terms of employment locally, regionally, or nationally in the areas of radio, television, or film. I guess they all had their reasons. Fortunately, in those days, newspapers had plenty of want ads for employment. One of them caught my eye.
Spencer Gifts, located then as now in Egg Harbor Township, just outside of Atlantic City, was looking for a copywriter for its mail-order catalog. I instantly knew this was the job for me.
I loved the junk that Spencer Gifts sold, which included everything from fake throw-up and X-ray specs, to the infamous black soap. And then as now, I loved Atlantic City and a job with Spencer Gifts would be the perfect excuse to move full-time to my favorite place on Earth.
I got an interview. I recall the interviewer telling me that I would have to live in the Atlantic City area, but that I should be aware that the city could be pretty bleak in the cold-weather months.
Though I stressed that I loved the town no matter what the weather or the season, I didn’t get the job. This meant that my immediate career plans did not include writing about fake dog doo for the Spencer Gifts mail-order catalog. It was probably for the best.
I ended up getting hired to be managing editor of a motion picture industry magazine called Film BULLETIN. Low-paying? You bet. But it was the best training for a future in the newspaper and magazine business that anyone could hope for.
Given the recent issues with the former Ocean One mall in Atlantic City, to say nothing of the problems with malls in general all over the country (most, at one time or another, had Spencer Gifts as a tenant) I began thinking about the state of Spencer Gifts today. Does it still exist? Is it still near Atlantic City? Are they still selling black soap? And is there still a Spencer Gifts catalog?
Spencer Gifts not only still exists, but its headquarters remain at 6826 Black Horse Pike in Egg Harbor Township, where the 78-year-old company has been since 1960. Though the mail-order catalog was discontinued in 1990, the company still has 670 stores in the United States and Canada and it still specializes in novelties, gag gifts, jewelry and the like.
The company has gone through a number of permutations when it comes to ownership. In 1967 it was sold to MCA and in 1995, when Seagram bought MCA, the whole shebang operated under the name of Universal Studios. Spencer Gifts was then pegged to operate the popular Universal Studios stores in addition to its regular retail outlets.
In 1999 the company, known simply as “Spencer’s,” acquired the seasonal Spirit Halloween stores. Though those outlets are only open two months of the year, the more than 1,000 Halloween stores have accounted for half of Spencer’s profits. There was more buying, selling and rebranding through the years, but in 2015, ownership reverted to the original Spencer’s management team.
Though the mall business is not what it was, Spencer’s annual gross revenue is reported in the billions, helped along in good measure by income from the Spirit Halloween stores. In fact, by 2023, the business was thriving to a point where an addition was built at its Egg Harbor Township headquarters.
Though the retail business has changed substantially over the years, it’s gratifying to know that there is still a big market out there for fake throw-up, X-ray specs, Halloween masks and black soap. I know. I bought them all at Spencer Gifts.
Bruce Klauber is the author of four books, an award-winning music journalist, concert and record producer and publicist, producer of the Warner Brothers and Hudson Music “Jazz Legends” film series, and performs both as a drummer and vocalist.
