Blain Henshaw - The Peddlers: The Fuller Brush Man, the Lords of Liniment, and Door-to-door Heroes in Nova Scotia and Beyond

The Peddlers is the story of the leading roles some Nova Scotians played in the North American door-to-door sales profession in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It starts with the life of Nova Scotia-born Alfred C. Fuller, the Fuller Brush Man, whose humble upbringing in the Annapolis Valley laid the foundation for what became one of the biggest businesses of its type in the world.

It also follows the career of Yarmouth Countys Frank Stanley Beveridge, who co-founded the highly successful Stanley Home Products company. From the tough times of the 1920s and 1930s, the story showcases the Lebanese immigrant backpack peddler Herman Rofihe who established a quality mens wear store that served three generations.

The Peddlers takes you on a door-to-door tour of the origins of household brands like Minards and Sloans Liniment, JR Watkins and Rawleigh Products, Frasers Liniment, Gates Little Gem Pills, Buckley Cough Syrups, Muskol, and other medicinal enterprises founded by peddlers, many of them Nova Scotians. It also chronicles a century-old Hants County murder case involving two young peddlers -- one the victim, the other the perpetrator.

Filled with these fascinating stories of Nova Scotias history in the door-to-door trade, The Peddlers is a tribute to the men and women of a bygone era in merchandising, the likes of which will never be seen again.