![]() The gumball machine is an iconic symbol of 1950s Americana, and while the story chronicles Nelson’s foibles with gumball entrepreneurship, it’s the funny characters he meets along the way that are the true stars of this funny memoir. Savvy modern readers will laugh at Nelson’s charming naiveté while millennial freelancers will identify with his determination to keep on after endless setbacks. ![]() The ad guaranteed quick profits and easy money, but comic frustrations were what he got. When James Nelson decides to move his family out West to California in 1952, he takes the leap into entrepreneurship by buying a slew of gumball machines. This portrait of a gumball entrepreneur’s life in 1950s America is a slice or retail business history and a funny freelance memoir all rolled into one. ![]() DescriptionĪ CLASSIC OF WESTERN NARRATIVE NON-FICTION He and Mary-Armour now live happily ever after in Marin County, California. His first novel, On the Volcano, was published in 2011. One of the original Mad Men of the more relaxed West-coast variety, Nelson spent 23 years on the creative side of a San Francisco advertising agency. Jim freelanced there for five years (code for until the money ran out). James-Jim-was born in Denver, schooled there and in New Haven (code word for Yale), spent four WWII years in the Navy, then six in New York as an editor for Business Week.Īfter marriage and the birth of their first child, the happy couple moved to Sonoma, California. ![]()
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