History

Our History

Samuel P. Bupkis was born in 1836 in Zedsville, Illinois to a Lutheran father and passive-aggressive mother. As a child, Samuel seemed destined for a career in dentistry, as he had given himself 14 fillings by age six. But at nine, Samuel was apprenticed off to a man that made incomprehensible geographic maps out of human body hair. Various jobs followed, including accordion crusher, salmon tamer, credenza, taco colorist and brown-noser, but by his thirties he had saved enough money to start his own business. His first attempt was Moving Tales, a company that made feature-length flip book versions of classic novels, but after the company's headquarters was destroyed in a freak buttermilk accident, he started again with Bupkis House in 1869.

Bupkis House started with five employees, only two of which showed up for work, and no discernable purpose, but with a beautiful logo. After a number of years it was determined that the company would enter the mail-order field, selling babies by mail to those seeking to adopt. At the time, shipping, particularly to the western states, would often take months, and thus this endeavor was not fully successful. But Bupkis was determined. He surveyed the existing mail-order businesses at the time and found that most were offering useful labor-saving items and attractive home decor. Bupkis decided that he could avoid competition by selling only useless, impractical, unappealing wares, and Bupkis House was truly born.

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