Trannie Annie & her dog Allison

In the mid-1980's the transmission industry trade publications ran ads from virtually every heavy equipment dealer in the U.S. along with a few parts dealers and wholesalers. Back then you could flip from page to page without noticing a single difference between them. It wasn't until USA Parts, Inc. decided that these publications could use a change of pace that things began to change.

Trannie Annie and her dog Allison are believed to be the first cartoon ads these publications had ever seen. The ads typically featured a diverse group of machinery mechanics and/or rebuilders having trouble locating transmissions and difficult to find transmission parts. Trannie Annie would rush in to save the day! She would refer these people to USA Parts, Inc. for the "hard to find" parts, or solve their problems by offering USA Parts as an alternative for high quality, used transmission parts and rebuilds. Most final scenes would reveal the smiling faces of these people on the phone with USA Parts with Trannie Annie and Allison in the fore-front of the ad telling everyone that USA Parts is the best supplier in the country.

The ads obviously worked because many customers stated that they couldn't wait until the next issue of their trade publication just so they could see what Trannie Annie was up to next. The biggest question was whether or not Trannie Annie really existed. Well, the answer is unfortunately, no. However, it may be of some interest that Annie's dog Allison does exist! Our shop dog has been around for 12 years and is named Allison. She's a shepard mix, catches frisbees, balls bearings, sticks, transmission plates or just about anything you can throw, gets the paper in the morning and plans on retiring with her family at the Lake of the Ozarks.

We should also mention, however, our owner's wife, Karen, does share a slight resemblance to Annie...

Copyright © 2005 USA Parts, Inc.