RELATED: Dayton products play big part in Ohio manufacturing growth
The show explores and highlights age-old craftsmanship that too often is becoming something of a “lost art,” said Susan Hellman, a publicist for the program.
“What the show does is highlight that old-school craftsmanship that lasts,” Hellman said.
In an interview with this news outlet last summer, Jack Campbell, the late owner of Gerstner & Sons, said the company in years past had to address the relatively inexpensive imports of competing products coming from overseas. As a result, Campbell had since 2003 an “international” line of products made in a Chinese factory.
But the value of Campbell’s American-made catalog — products still made in Dayton — had not diminished, Campbell also said.
“It’s becoming more important to people, it seems, to be (have products) made in America,” he said.
Jack Campbell was the grandson of the man who started the company in 1906, Harry Gerstner, who himself was a Barney and Smith Car Co. pattern maker in Dayton.
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