Nosco Plastics

Nosco Plastics, Inc. (commonly called NOSCO, the mark used on its molded products) was the plastics molding division of National Organ Supply Company created in 1934 to make plastic parts for electric organs and was located at 1701 Gaskell Avenue, Erie, Pennsylvania, 16503. Beginning in 1948 with the implementation of the newly developed screw injection molding process, NOSCO quickly became a major early producer of tiny plastic toys called "slum" (very cheap prizes that are bought in bulk, sometimes for as little as $1 a gross or less) sold to wholesalers as carnival merchandise, used by the millions as prizes in packages of Cracker Jack popcorn confection, and mail-order flats that were heavily advertised in American comic books as "100 Toy Soldiers for $1" by E. Joseph Cossman & Company. NOSCO also held a number of patents on plastic molded products including mechanical toys, storage containers, pallets, and medical syringes.

History

Early Erie beginnings

Harry Auch and John Hallas, of the Haskell Company, went to Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1920 to join Anton Gottfried, Henry Kugel, and Kugel's son Harry Kugel in the formation of a metal organ pipe manufacturer called National Organ Supply. The NOSCO Division was created to manufacture injection molded plastic parts for electric organs in 1934. But NOSCO would become a major player as a manufacturer of tiny plastic toys used as prizes, mail-order merchandise, and carnival "hooch" with the invention of the screw injection method of molding plastics implemented in 1948.

The Modernistics

In the 1940s, NOSCO produced some of its first non-organ items in the molded plastic figures by New York designer Don Manning. They were stylistic pre-war art deco versions of animals such as camels, deer, dogs, elephants, giraffes, horses, storks, and unicorns. Many are marked "USA" and some are marked "Don Manning".