Open an account, get a . . . free wig?

Way back when, it was quite usual for banks to offer some kind of incentive for opening a new account. Premiums like toasters, golf umbrellas, pen and pencil sets were frequently offered. That’s less common now, as the incentives are more likely to be straight up cash or gift cards, but our little local bank still gives away things like umbrellas.

But, I have to say, I have never before seen a bank offering a free wig as an incentive for customers. I ran across this while trying to answer a question about where Mohawk National Bank branches had been. It’s from 1970, and appeared in several local newspapers.

“Now you can have the glamor [sic] (and quick-make-up convenience!) of a luxuriously soft and natural synthetic stretch wig at no cost . . . or a fraction of its retail value.”

Drop $5000 in an account, and you’d get your wig for free. But if you only had $200, another $10.95 would get you that $29.95 value. Put those in today’s terms? $5000 would be about $40,660 in today’s money – and that would get you a wig worth $240. I’m imagining the “wig consultants” who were being brought in to each of the bank’s eight offices, 9 am to 2 pm, waiting to do a fitting.

By the way, men – “We can arrange for your wife to choose the color she desires when you open an account.”

The answer to the original question, though is that the eight branches were:

• Sch’dy: 216 State St.; 7 Clinton St.; Nott & Van Vranken; Albany & Hulett.
• Niskayuna: 1757 Union Street
• Rotterdam: Shoparama, 5 Corners
• Glenville: 466 Ballston Road (near airport)
• Guilderland: 1791 Western Ave.

The bank was chartered by the state in 1807, and for a time occupied the building later known as the Mohawk Club. When it received a national banking charter, it became The Mohawk National Bank of Schenectady, and so it remained until 1982, when the name of the Electric City was removed, probably signaling what would soon come – acquisition by merger into Norstar Bank, which then led to Fleet Bank, which became part of Bank of America. More on that bank’s history next time!