Working 9-5
Before becoming president, this American worked as a lifeguard, sports broadcaster, and Hollywood actor.
Ronald Reagan
Before modern bowling alleys had automatic machinery, young workers performed this job by manually resetting pins and returning bowling balls to players.
Pinsetter or Pinboy
Tennessee Ernie Ford had a huge 1955 hit about a worker who gets another day older and deeper in debt while performing this dangerous underground job.
Coal miner
In Barney Miller, the detectives worked out of the 12th Precinct in this New York City borough.
Manhattan
This Ohio company began selling a household product in 1872 that was originally marketed as an inexpensive substitute for butter and lard before becoming famous for a different kitchen staple.
Procter and Gamble
Before finding fame as a comedian and television host, this future Tonight Show host reportedly worked as a door-to-door salesman selling vacuum cleaners.
Johnny Carson
This skilled tradesman made wooden wheels for wagons and carriages, including their hubs, spokes and rims.
Wheelwright
In Glen Campbell’s 1968 hit, the title character works high above the ground maintaining electrical lines in this Kansas city.
Wichita (Wichita Lineman)
On The Bob Newhart Show, Bob Hartley’s profession was this, and much of the series centered on his Chicago office.
Psychologist
In 1911, two companies founded by George Westinghouse’s former employees merged to create this American appliance and electrical manufacturer, whose initials became a household name.
General Electric
In 1938, this landmark federal law established a national minimum wage, overtime rules, and restrictions on child labor.
Fair Labor Standards Act
In textile mills, workers with this job repaired broken threads and kept spinning machinery operating—a dangerous occupation frequently performed by children because they could move easily around the machines.
Doffer
Sam Cooke’s 1960 hit about working hard to afford nice things for his girlfriend takes its title from the repeated sound of this kind of labor.
Chain Gang
On The Love Boat, Captain Stubing commanded this cruise ship, which became almost as famous as the cast.
The Pacific Princess
This American manufacturer began in 1906 as the Haloid Photographic Company. Decades later, it adopted the name of the technology that made it famous in offices around the world.
xerox
This company introduced the five-day, 40-hour workweek for many of its factory employees in 1926, helping popularize the Monday-through-Friday schedule.
Ford Motor Company
Before alarm clocks were affordable, people in Britain and Ireland hired these workers to tap on bedroom windows with long poles to wake them for work.
knocker-upper
This 1974 Bachman-Turner Overdrive hit celebrating the working life features the memorable stuttered title phrase about caring for business.
Takin Care of Business
On The Andy Griffith Show, Floyd Lawson made his living in Mayberry doing this job.
A barber
This Massachusetts company began in 1916 making equipment for the growing automobile industry. Its founder's name would eventually appear on everything from electric drills to coffeemakers.
Black and Decker
This 1894 strike against a railroad-car manufacturer became a major national labor dispute and involved union leader Eugene V. Debs.
The Pullman Strike
Once common in drugstores and five-and-dimes, this worker needed to know the difference between a phosphate, an egg cream, a malted, and an ice-cream soda.
Soda jerk
In 1961, Jimmy Dean reached No. 1 with a spoken-word country hit about a miner who stood “six foot six” and weighed 245 pounds.
Big Bad John
On The Lucy Show, Lucy Carmichael eventually worked for Theodore J. Mooney at this type of business.
A Bank
Founded in 1900 in Eastman, New Hampshire, this company became famous for a household cleaning product originally sold door-to-door; its distinctive metal container and applicator became fixtures in American homes for decades.
Fuller Brush