C. F. Hathaway Company was a private manufacturer of shirts for men and boys, located in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1837 and made uniform shirts for Union soldiers during the American Civil War. It is most famous for its "man with an eye patch" advertising campaign, which was created by Ogilvy & Mather in 1951. The man who appeared in the ad was Baron George Wrangell, who was a Russian aristocrat with 20/20 vision, but the advertisement's creator, David Ogilvy, was inspired by a picture of Lewis Douglas, who had lost an eye in a fishing accident.
The company closed its Maine factory in 2002, making it the last major American shirt company to produce shirts in the United States.
C.F. Hathaway shirts were selling just three years ago at Marshalls and T.J. Maxx, at a price of $12.99 or less. The once prestigious, 162-year-old label was on is way to becoming merchandised out of existence by Fortune 500 company Warnaco Inc., owner of the historic Waterville, ME-based shirt maker since 1960.
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