Encyclopedia Dubuque
"Encyclopedia Dubuque is the online authority for all things Dubuque, written by the people who know the city best.”
Marshall Cohen—researcher and producer, CNN
Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
ERTL, Joseph L.
ERTL, Joseph L. (Dubuque, IA, Oct. 12, 1935- ). King of the scale model toy manufacturers. The Ertl Company was founded by his father, Fred ERTL when Joe Ertl was ten years old. Ertl's father, on strike from a Dubuque foundry, manufactured toys in his basement and sold them to implement dealers who gave them away as promotional items. The business grew in Dyersville from 1945 to 1967 when it was sold to Victor Comptometer Corporation. Three years later, Joe Ertl, tired of the bureaucracy of a large corporation left and started Dyersville Die Casting.
Lean times began to change in 1977 when White Farm Equipment approached him about manufacturing model tractors for their company. Scale Models, one of the great business growth stories of the nation, grew from that contract to handling over one hundred products.In 1981 the models based on the television program Dukes of Hazard took Toy of the Year honors from the Toy Wholesaler's Association of America. Ertl has been a board member of the Western Dubuque Community School Board and served as a board member of Progressive Inc., a sheltered workshop. In 1990 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for Second District congressman.
In 1999 Ertl was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.
