All these comments really bring back memories. So I wasn't alone drooling over their catalogs. I or my dad ordered and used up several big boxes of their plastic shotshell wads and my dad built the first fiberglass canoe I ever saw from a kit of their "Chrome Fiberglass." Of course, it was advertised as the world's strongest material and indestructible. So I dropped a rock of about 20 pounds into it one day while it was floating at the dock. It cracked the bottom (of course) and my dad made me spend my own money to order a repair kit and then fix it. That's when I learned about working with fiberglass.
On a separate note, another firm that faded from its former self is Land's End in Chicago. In the mid-70's, I was rigging out a sailboat for racing. LI was the go-to place for ordering blocks, pulleys, cleats, etc. Their catalog listed just about everything needed. But when they sent me a catalog about 1979 or 1980, it was all clothes. I called to ask where the hardware was and was informed that they didn't carry it anymore.
