OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums The History Forum Curios and Stories HARRY & RAY TIJOU - Victa Toecutter to Victa Treecutter

Hello ODK members,

This story is definitely left-of-field.
R. Tijou would have been one of the first appointed Victa Dealers in Victoria.
His store operated from 440 Burwood Road, Hawthorne, Melbourne.

He did advertise heavily but his advertisements were rarely illustrated, nor elaborate.
The store appears to have sold Victas from about late 1955 to the early 1960s. Then R. Tijou disappears...

I do not know what the 'R' stood for in R. Tijou, but I cannot believe that a 'Harry Tijou', who
makes an appearance in the Melbourne papers in October, 1956, was not related. Both came from Hawthorne.
[I have since discovered that the 'R' stood for 'Ray' - ed.]

In the news of 24 October, 1956, Harry was reported as being a "lawnmower engineer" and then a "consulting engineer."
It is what Harry did, though, that made the headlines. He cut down a tree with a Victa Rotomo! Why?

Harry said, "I cut down the tree to demonstrate to clients that the mower was really tough."
I reproduce that article below. It shows a Rotomo chopping down a tree. Victa was not just a toe cutter -
it was a tree cutter!




Assessment:-
They say that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Mervyn was a marketing genius but this was
FREE publicity, arguably contributing to Victa's reputation for ruggedness and dependability.

Did Victa approve of this stunt? We're not likely to ever know.
It's one thing to claim in advertising that a Victa will cut any height of grass (as Victa did say),
but it's another thing to present ruggedness via Harry's extreme demonstration, particularly
when Victa were offering a 'lifetime warranty'.

The rest is history.
------------------------------------
JACK

Since I wrote this story back in 2014, I have done
considerable research on Tijou’s Burwood Road
mower shop.

The result of that was a Company History article [see Related Links].

What has become clear is that this is a story about
Harry Tijou [father] and his son, Ray Tijou.

Harry owned a successful Hardware store and
Ray owned the mower shop on Burwood Road.

I now know this ‘tree cutter’ stunt involved both
father and son. Maybe it was Dad’s idea…?

The below image, held by the MAAS Collection,
shows a later mode - a Victa Model 3 – meaning that the
publicity stunt was conducted over two or more seasons.



This stunt, and Ray’s distinctive premises, combined
with new information – that Ray was the first appointed
Victorian Victa dealer – justify that the Tijous are
well worth remembering.

The rest is history.