Coming up Who: Apollo Area Historical Society What: "Marketing the Presidency: A Visual Tour of 125 Years of Presidential Memorabilia," presented by Steve Mihaly When: 6:30 p.m. Sunday Where: WCTU Building, N. Second St., Apollo Details: Free. Donations accepted. Refreshments served after the presentation.

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If you are looking for a Richard Nixon shower head or a baby-shaped bar of William McKinley soap, Steve Mihaly has you covered.

The Pine Township resident will present “Marketing the Presidency: A Visual Tour of 125 Years of Presidential Memorabilia” at 6:30 p.m. Sunday for the Apollo Area Historical Society at the WCTU Building in Apollo.

The event is free to the public, but donations are welcomed. Refreshments will follow the program.

Mihaly, 68, who is retired from H.J. Heinz Co. and a collector of presidential campaign memorabilia, has held more than 100 presentations in the region about his political campaign artifacts and their history.

“Given it’s an election year and it has been divisive, this program is actually fun,” said Sue Ott, vice president of the Apollo Area Historical Society. “It’s political, but it is a light-hearted and enjoyable program. I get a kick out of seeing his display — it’s hilarious.”

Mihaly will show the audience more than 300 items from his collection of presidential candidate promotional items spanning more than 125 years.

The items are unusual and seldom seen, such as the Richard Nixon showerhead where water sprays from his mouth and a Teddy Roosevelt beer tray, Mihaly said.

Although Mihaly’s collection has campaign artifacts from presidential candidates, his presentation is not politically themed.

“It’s light and fun and focuses on the odd, the weird and unusual,” he said.

While most people are familiar with campaign buttons, Mihaly’s treasure trove contains other campaign promotional items that are useful in everyday life such as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s stove-top covers.

“Back then, stoves had burners, and when you turned them off they would stay very hot,” Mihaly said. “So you can put an FDR campaign cover on top of the burner, and FDR’s face glows back at you,” Mihaly said.

Potholders, combs, pencils and pen pocket holders were items used for promotion with campaign slogans and candidate names imprinted on them.

Soap also was a useful household item. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s campaign produced bars of soap engraved with “Cleanup with Ike.”

Eisenhower’s campaign offered interesting items such as a ruler with the slogan, “We like Ike every inch of the way,” and sugar cubes formed in the shape of the letters of Ike’s name.

Mihaly has collected presidential campaign memorabilia for more than a half-century. His collection, which he stores in a mini-museum in his home, consists of more than 20,000 items.

Most of those items are buttons, ribbons and posters. He has a 6-foot-tall John F. Kennedy poster he got from Kennedy’s campaign headquarters in Downtown Pittsburgh.

The quirky campaign promotions were one of the few ways a candidate could reach the public, Mihaly noted. Before widespread television advertising took off in the 1950s and 1960s, candidates had to find ways to grow name recognition with the public, he said.

“I don’t think today’s campaigns produce as many of these clever items as they did in the past,” Mihaly said.

Although, he added, Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” red baseball caps and Joe Biden’s aviator sunglasses are successful, recognizable campaign items.

Mary Ann Thomas is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Mary by email at mthomas@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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Coming up Who: Apollo Area Historical Society What: "Marketing the Presidency: A Visual Tour of 125 Years of Presidential Memorabilia," presented by Steve Mihaly When: 6:30 p.m. Sunday Where: WCTU Building, N. Second St., Apollo Details: Free. Donations accepted. Refreshments served after the presentation.

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