History of Ed Marling's Stores

MR. ED MARLING
Ed Marling was more than an astute business man. He was also community oriented and an avid sports enthusiast, although he never took part in athletics.

He was born July 27, 1889, at Wheeling, West Virginia, and came to this area as one of a family of six in 1903. As a boy he worked for Dibble's Grocery, driving a horse-pulled wagon from door-to-door to take and deliver grocery orders.

In 1910, he answered an ad for a job with Harris-Goar, a chain of department stores. At that time, his dad was making about a dollar a day, so that eliminated high school with so many mouths to support. The Harris-Goar job started at nine dollars a week.

A few months later, Harris-Goar opened a store in Topeka and named Ed Marling as the store operator, and assigned him as buyer for a string of other stores in a four state area. He stayed with Harris-Goar until he opened his "Electric" store on Kansas Avenue.

In the 1930's, he owned and operated with his father the Marling Master Service Store at 813-815-817-819 Quincy in Topeka. He also owned and operated with his brother-in-law the Baker Furniture Co. in Kansas City in the late 20's and early 30's.
He married Nellie Baker on June 26, 1913. She died in March, 1965. He later married Chloe Sparks on December 2, 1966. His brother-in-law Harry Baker joined him at the new Ed Marling's Store in 1936.

While his accomplishments were many and varied, Mr. Ed, as he was called, was best known for his interest in sports. Although he never took part in athletics, he was named Topeka Sportsman of the Year in 1965.

At that time, he sponsored seven bowling teams, three Cosmo baseball teams, and the Marling Hornets, a crack fast-pitch softball team that was a regional force and played in many national tournaments. Ed Marling was also Chairman of the Board of Topeka Community Baseball, Inc., sponsors of the Topeka Reds professional team.

Mr. Marling broke his left hip in a street fall on November 7, 1966, and never returned to work after the fall. He died on September 13, 1968.

THE ED MARLING'S STORES
To celebrate the grand opening of the new store in the summer of 1936, Ed Marling's Electric Store at 626 Kansas Avenue, Westinghouse refrigerators were advertised at $10 to $50 savings and prices starting at $89.50 and up, as low as $1 a week. But the big news on that June 12th was that Alf Landon was nominated by a "thunderous vote" to be the Republican candidate for President, defeating Senator Borah of Idaho 984 to 19.

As time went on, the Ed Marling's store outgrew its location and moved four buildings north to 616 Kansas Avenue, and eventually added adjacent buildings at 618 and 620 Kansas, and a warehouse at 109 N. Kansas. In 1950, a second store was added at 901 N. Kansas in North Topeka. A year later, that store had troubles.

In late June, 1951, the Kansas river crested at 27.8 feet in Topeka, but the dikes held. On July 11, the dikes broke and 17,000 were evacuated as a 37 foot crest rolled toward the city. Water in North Topeka businesses was seven to eight feet deep, debris damaged store fronts and most windows were broken.

Ed Marling's answered the crisis by offering lower credit terms, lower prices and big trade allowances to flood victims, plus free cleaning of appliances regardless whether or not they were bought from Ed Marling's. Those who were buying their furniture or appliances from Marling's on the installment plan found their purchases were insured and their loss was not as great as expected.

In 1957, Ed Marling added a third store in the new Holliday Square Shopping Center. And when Sears decided to move from downtown to White Lakes, Ed Marling's took over their two warehouses that were adjacent to the Marling's warehouse at 109 N. Kansas.

Well, times change, and in the early 1960's, Ed Marling decided to retire, but kept his office in the downtown store. His visits to the office grew longer and longer until he was back to running the store again. About this time, Ed was elected Chairman of the Board and his son, Charles Marling, was named President of the family-owned corporation. Ed continued to visit the store almost daily after his retirement until his health no longer allowed it.

MR. CHARLES MARLING
Charles Marling made sure the stores continued to give quality service to the community when he took over after Ed Marling died on September 13, 1968. He made major renovations to the downtown store, including a new, modern looking store front across all three buildings, and added a new look to the Holliday Square store.

He opened the first Ed Marling's store in downtown Lawrence on September 21, 1972, at 823 Massachusetts in a building originally built for Montgomery-Ward. The store moved twice after that, and finally closed it's doors in 2004.

Charles Marling was very active in the community. Even before he took over operations of the Ed Marling's stores, Charles Marling was an active participant in community affairs. He was a member of the Washburn Board of Regents and headed the board from 1966 to 1970. He was a leader of a Citizens Group Hospital Drive, a Chamber of Commerce director and an officer in the Downtown Topeka Association. In 1972, he was named Topeka Boss of the Year. He was also active in many other organizations, including four war boards, and is an accomplished public speaker. Charles retired in 1983. He and his wife, Betty Jo, have two children, Mark Marling and Mary Franzen.

MR. MARK MARLING
Mark Marling now leads the Ed Marling's Store. He became President and Chairman of the Board in 1983 when Charles Marling retired. The next year he decided to consolidate all operations into one Super Store at 2950 McClure Road, just a block south and west of 29th and Fairlawn. When the new store opened in September of 1985, Mark had successfully consolidated an operation spread over 13 buildings into one Super Store.

During the next ten years, Mark was active in civic affairs like the Boy Scouts, the YMCA, Rotary Club and Topeka Red Cross. He is a Past-President of both the Rotary and the Red Cross Topeka Chapter.

Mark is an avid sailor and a world class racer. He has won a race at the National Championships in C-Scow and raced in other world championship events. He was twice selected as a "Blue Chip Sailor", one of the top 25 sailors in the nation.

MRS. MARY FRANZEN
Mark's sister, Mary Franzen, is very important to Marling's. Mary is an integral partner in the Ed Marling's Stores daily operation. Not only are Mark and Mary joint owners, but she is the Executive Vice-President and Secretary-Treasurer of the corporation. Employees depend on her because she's the one who makes out and signs their paychecks!

Mary has been active for many years in the Junior League, the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, and the PEO Sisterhood. She has held office in all these groups.

MEMORIES
Memories pile up in sixty-nine years. Like the time Ed Marling's held a sale where one item in each category, and only one item was on sale at the downtown store. When the front door opened, one lady bolted to the front, tore a handle off a refrigerator as she made a left turn, upset a coffee table and headed for the stairs. When she reached the bedroom department on the third floor she was chagrined to find another customer had already bought the suite. That customer had come in the back door and used the elevator.

The day the Kansas Avenue bridge collapsed, Kenny Allen, an Ed Marling's salesman, was the only person killed. He was on his way home from work.

Vanessa Cook, daughter of Holliday Square manager Bob Cook, won the Miss Topeka Pageant and a trip to the Miss Kansas Pageant in Pratt...just three weeks after Ed Marling's had decided not to sponsor and individual in a beauty or personality contest.

Old time employees remember a Six Hour Sale at the Holliday Square as the biggest single day in Ed Marling's history. The parking lot was full of cars but only thirty-five persons were waiting at the doors. But when they opened, so did car doors all over the lot. Over three hundred persons poured through the doors in the first five minutes. As far as employees were concerned, it was a ten hour sale because they stayed until 2am to process all the sale tickets. Even then, many orders ended up in the next day's sales figures.

Back in the days when the Capital was the morning paper and the Journal the evening paper, the Journal ran a column called "They Named the Baby" every Saturday. Names of babies born in Topeka hospitals during the week were published. Ed Marling's sent a letter to the new baby. It began, "This may be the first letter you receive," and offered a free baby gift if their parents would come in the store to get it. Many parents saved the letter. Ed Marling's had to discontinue the program when the Journal quit publishing the names, and the man who wrote the letters in a fine Spencerian hand retired. Many mothers still came in for a gift, including mothers who had received one when they were the baby.

And then there was the Noon Balloon to Rangoon...or was it Huntoon? Each Downtown Holiday Hullalaloo, Bob Lauck, the Advertising Manager, took a weather balloon to the center of Kansas Avenue and filled it with helium. He then attached a styrofoam gondola with a note offering a free radio to whoever found the balloon and returned the card telling Ed Marling's where it was found. Customers were asked to register a guess as to how far the balloon traveled, and the winner received a television set. The closest estimate was one block (the distance to the nearest tall building), the farthest a million miles. The farthest any balloon got was to Knobnoster, Missouri. This fun program was discontinued when weather balloons could no longer be obtained.

The Noon Balloon was replaced by a live disc jockey. Bob Barber, KTOP, would bring his records and turntable and broadcast live from the sidewalk in front of the store. This worked fine the first year, but the second year it was unbearably hot, even with the sidewalk awning down. About two in the afternoon, when the awning no longer offered protection, it became so hot the old 78 rpm records started to warp. From then on, the live broadcast was done from inside the store, but the fun and excitement for sidewalk shoppers was gone.

At one time, commercials were done "live" at the only TV station in town, and Marling's would send a truckload of items to be advertised. One time the announcer stood beside the appliance and told how great this double door refrigerator was with it's storage in the door. Unfortunately, the announcer, who obviously hadn't done his homework, was standing by a single door freezer.

Finally the station started taping the commercials to prevent mix-ups. Ed Marling's sent a Philco TV set and a Sealy mattress for the two commercials they were going to run in the World Series. Imaging the surprise of the employees at Ed Marling's when they saw the first commercial on TV sets in the store. The TV station had mixed the Philco TV video with the Sealy audio, and viewers were being told how comfortable it was to sleep on this TV with hundreds of innerspring coils.

To celebrate their 25th Anniversary in 1961, the Ed Marling's stores gave each employee $25 of their paycheck in silver dollars. Silver dollars are seldom seen and their circulation throughout the community showed the wide impact Ed Marling's had on the economy of Topeka.

Written by Charles Cutler, long-time employee of Marling's, retired.