Messmore & Damon

The company was founded in New York City in 1914 by George Harold Messmore and Joseph Damon.^[1] Messmore had experience with building animal automata for advertising use; Damon, an artist, built clay figures for their creations.^[2]

The firm's business included the manufacture of parade floats and department store displays.^[3] Their most famous work was their 1924 mechanical brontosaurus, the "Amphibious Dinosaurus Brontosaurus".^[3][4] Their display at the Chicago World's Fair included thirty-seven different mechanical creatures.^[5]

Starting with a Coney Island display in 1935, the company branched out into torture shows,^[2] inciting public criticism.^[6] In the 1950s, Messmore & Damon designed the game board for the game show Concentration.^[7]