Saturday, March 1, 2014

1964 (Nov. 12) Olympic Athletes Visit the Nissen Corporation

Lots of excitement at the Nissen Corporation this month following the recent
1964 Summer Olympic Games that were held in Tokyo, Japan.

     V.I.P. visitors to the Nissen Corporation this month included Muriel Grossfeld, member of the U.S.A. Women's Gymnastics Olympic Team, and her husband Abie Grossfeld. He represented the U.S.A. in both the 1956, and 1960 Olympics, and at this year's Games, Abie went as assistant coach for the men's gymnastics team.

     My father George Nissen, always felt that his brand should meet the standards and wishlists of our country's top athletes. So it is no surprise that he invited champion gymnast and now Coach Don Tonry, to spend some time in Cedar Rapids to share his expertise with the company's research team. 

The film clip below is a 1960's televised public service announcement 
featuring Don Tonry on the pommel horse


My father traveled to Tokyo to attend the 1964 Olympics and true to his style of "doing-two-things-at-once," he managed to make an appearance as well to the Tokyo Trade Show
 in order to demonstrate Spaceball!

A 1959 negotiation with the Senoh Gymnastics Equipment Company in Japan resulted in the selection of
Nissen-Senoh equipment for use by the athletes in the 1964 Olympic Games.

"Nissen's - - it's a great place to work!"
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2 comments:

  1. hello, I recently purchased a very old nissen medart nickel plated pommel horse and wanted to see if there was any information about it...how can I send you a photo?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll do what I can Chris. Contact me via Facebook.

      Delete

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