Business Is Good at Murphy's

The Labor Bulletin, Butte, 1920-11-12, p.3

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Summary

Full-page paid advertisement for **"Murphy's Money Back Store"** at **65 East Park st, Butte**. Includes a portrait photograph (head-and-shoulders, three-quarter pose, clean- shaven young-to-middle-age man in dark suit and tie) of the store's proprietor, who is identified only as "Murphy" in the surrounding ad copy. No first name, middle initial, or biographical detail in the ad. Ad copy: - **"Business Is Good at Murphy's"** — same discount on all tailor-made suits, overcoats, U.S., Stag shirts and mackinaws. - Same discount on all underwear and sox, Wilson Bros. fine underwear and hosiery, gloves, caps, etc. - "BIG SUIT and OVERCOAT SALE" - **"Murphy's Get Acquainted Sale"** — "We wish to call your attention to this one thing — that when we say that Business Is Good at Murphy's we are not telling a lie, for if the boys had not patronized us so loyally we would not be able to put in such a beautiful front and enlarge the store to twice its former size." - EVERYTHING ON SALE - **Hat Sale** — Regular $5/$6/$6.50/$7/$7.50/$8/$8.50/ $9/$10 → Sale $3.85/$4.85/$5.35/$5.85/$6.35/$6.85/$7.35/ $7.85/$8.85. - **Shirt Sale** — Regular $2/$2.50/$3/$3.50/$4/$4.50/$5/ $6/$7/$8 → Sale $1.65/$1.95/$2.35/$2.85/$3.35/$3.65/ $3.85/$4.85/$5.85/$6.85. - "See Windows for the Big Show" - **"Murphy's Money Back Store. 65 E. PARK ST."** - "(Paid Advertisement.)" ARCHIVE SIGNIFICANCE. **(a) DISTINCT BUTTE MURPHY BUSINESS:** "Murphy's Money Back Store" at 65 East Park st is a MEN'S clothing / tailoring / haberdashery store — **distinct from Murphy-Softley's WOMEN'S apparel shop at 22 West Park st** (founded eight months earlier, March 1 1920). Different proprietor, different products, different street (East Park vs West Park), different price point. (b) The ad says the store has been enlarged "to twice its former size" — so Murphy's Money Back Store predates this Nov 1920 ad by some unknown period. (c) The portrait photograph is of the store's namesake Murphy. Ad copy identifies him only as "Murphy" (no first name). **User-supplied attribution** (2026-05-26): the user confirms the portrait + store are **JJM-Centerville-AOH**'s — JJM ran Murphy's Money Back Store as a men's-clothing side venture parallel to Murphy-Softley's women's apparel store (different street: East Park vs West Park; different product line: men's vs women's; different store name). Attribution recorded as USER-SUPPLIED, NOT text-evident from the ad alone. Implication: by November 1920 JJM was operating TWO Butte storefronts — Murphy-Softley women's apparel at 22 West Park st (founded March 1 1920) and Murphy's Money Back Store men's clothing at 65 East Park st. The Money Back Store has been "enlarged to twice its former size" per the ad copy, suggesting it predates the Nov 1920 ad by some unknown period. (d) The Labor Bulletin (= the Butte Labor Bulletin, the Butte trade-union weekly) is a different paper from the Anaconda Standard / Butte Miner / Butte Daily Post that dominates the archive. Advertising in the Labor Bulletin targets working-class male readership — consistent with Murphy's Money Back Store's men's-tailoring / overcoat / workshirt product line.

In its time

Narrative

Murphy's Money Back Store at 65 E. Park Street runs a full-page "Get Acquainted Sale" advertisement, offering discounts on tailor-made suits and overcoats, U. S. and Stag shirts, mackinaws, Wilson Bros. underwear and hosiery, gloves and caps, with itemised price tables for hats ($5.00 down to $3.85, up to $10.00 at $8.85) and shirts ($2.00 at $1.65, up to $8.00 at $6.85). The copy credits the store's expansion to its customers, saying the new front and doubled floor space were possible only because "the boys" patronised it so loyally. A centred, uncaptioned portrait of a clean-shaven man in a dark suit accompanies the text; the store was kept by George E. Murphy.

  • “Business Is Good at Murphy's”
  • “if the boys had not patronized us so loyally we would not be able to put in such a beautiful front and enlarge the store to twice its former size”
  • “See Windows for the Big Show”

AI-generated (claude-opus-5). Verify against the transcription before quoting.

People

  • role: proprietor portrait subject · family confidence: 10 flag

    USER-SUPPLIED ATTRIBUTION (2026-05-26): the user confirms the portrait and store are JJM-Centerville-AOH. The printed source (the ad copy) names only "Murphy" with no first name; the identification rests on user signal / family knowledge that JJM also ran Murphy's Money Back Store (a men's-clothing / tailoring / haberdashery store at 65 East Park st Butte, distinct from Murphy-Softley's women's apparel at 22 West Park st). Per the user directive, attribution is recorded but flagged as user-supplied rather than text-evident.

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Transcription
transcription: complete · confidence high
# Business Is Good at Murphy's *The Labor Bulletin (Butte), Friday, November 12, 1920, p. 3. Full-page paid advertisement.* *[Centered portrait photograph: head-and-shoulders, three-quarter pose left, clean-shaven young-to-middle-age man in dark suit and tie. No caption text identifies him beyond the surrounding ad copy "Murphy's".]* ## Business Is Good at Murphy's **SAME DISCOUNT** on all tailor-made Suits and Overcoats, U. S., Stag Shirts and Mackinaws, etc., on sale. **SAME DISCOUNT** on all Underwear and Sox, Wilson Bros. fine Underwear and Hosiery, Gloves, Caps, etc. Everything on Sale. ## BIG SUIT and OVERCOAT SALE ## Murphy's Get Acquainted Sale We wish to call your attention to this one thing — that when we say that **Business Is Good at Murphy's** we are not telling a lie, for if the boys had not patronized us so loyally we would not be able to put in such a beautiful front and enlarge the store to twice its former size. ## EVERYTHING ON SALE ### HAT SALE | Regular price | Sale price | |---|---| | $5.00 | $3.85 | | $6.00 | $4.85 | | $6.50 | $5.35 | | $7.00 | $5.85 | | $7.50 | $6.35 | | $8.00 | $6.85 | | $8.50 | $7.35 | | $9.00 | $7.85 | | $10.00 | $8.85 | ### SHIRT SALE | Regular price | Sale price | |---|---| | $2.00 | $1.65 | | $2.50 | $1.95 | | $3.00 | $2.35 | | $3.50 | $2.85 | | $4.00 | $3.35 | | $4.50 | $3.65 | | $5.00 | $3.85 | | $6.00 | $4.85 | | $7.00 | $5.85 | | $8.00 | $6.85 | ## See Windows for the Big Show ## Murphy's Money Back Store **65 E. PARK ST.** *(Paid Advertisement.)* ## Correction from the dossier pass (26 Sept 2026, Opus agent clips-c2, read from the image) Murphy's Money Back Store, 65 E. Park, belonged to George E. Murphy: the 1923 Brinck & Malone directory (read from the image) has "MURPHY GEO E Prop Murphy's Money Back Store r 1034 W Plat" (p. 332) and "MURPHY'S MONEY BACK Store men's furnishings 65 E Park" (p. 333); the same page lists "MURPHY J J Mngr Murphy-Softley r 2745 State st". The attribution of the store and of the uncaptioned portrait to James J. Murphy is therefore unsupported; the portrait does not resemble the captioned 1920 portraits of him on a first look (no formal comparison made). The masthead reads The Butte Daily Bulletin. Dossier grade: excluded; portrait uncertain.

Dotted underlines mark key terms on first mention — hover or tab to one for a reference note. The wording is the source’s own.

Open questions

  • Murphy's Money Back Store founding date is open — the "enlarged to twice its former size" phrase by Nov 1920 implies a prior period of operation; need earlier Butte paper ads or city-directory entries to nail down. Could be a pre-Murphy-Softley JJM venture (pre-March 1920) or a parallel-launch.
  • The Money Back Store does not appear in the Murphy- Softley founding article (1920-03-01 Anaconda Standard or Butte Miner), which describes JJM as joining the Brown company to form Murphy-Softley with Softley and Forbis. No mention of an existing Murphy men's-clothing venture at that date. So either Money Back Store launched after March 1920 (and got "enlarged" before Nov 1920), or the founding article omitted it.