Leisure is America's fastest growing occupation. The trend is toward more active types of sports and other pastimes. Fastest growing sports include golfing, hunting, archery, fishing, skiing and, of course, boating and bowling.

Americans spent a total of $43 billion for pastimes in 1960 against $41 billion in 1959. By the end of the 1960's, leisure spending is expected to reach $50 billion. No wonder experts call the current boom in leisure-time activities a "leisure revolution."

Dollarwise, boating and bowling along with photography represent the top groups in leisure spending. Spending on boating alone ran to $2 5 billion in 1959. The number of boats in use for fun jumped from 2.4 million in 1947 to 4.3 million in 1952 and to 7.8 million in 1960.

The boating boom springs from a desire to get away from growing crowds on the highways and at land-based recreational centers, in addition to the more generalized cause of increased leisure time.

Of relatively recent origin, the boating market had until World War II been limited almost entirely to luxury yachts for millionaires or racing boats for sportsmen. Now, boat ownership has come within such easy reach of most Americans that it will probably not take long to make an outboard motor almost as common as an automobile.

Contributing to this boat boom was the revolution in the industry's production methods which made volume production possible. Here fiberglass played a key role. While a wooden boat must be hand-crafted by skilled workers, a fiberglass boat is made in a mold. Fiberglass boats are not only cheaper to buy, but are also more durable and require less maintenance. So we have seen the growing popularity of fiberglass boats which jumped from only 2.2 per cent in 1953 of the industry total in the smaller boat category to 40 per cent in 1959.

The plastic boat market is expected to further increase its share of total boat sales. This belief is based on the superior qualities of plastic boats over competing (not only wood, but also aluminum) models.

Entering the pleasure boat field in a grand way was Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, now known as Brunswick Corporation which successively acquired Owens Yacht Company (a producer of large wood boats and luxury yachts) and Larson Boat Works (a manufacturer of fiberglass pleasure craft). Brunswick had been mainly known as a bowling equipment maker.

Another important factor in boating is NAFI Corporation whose stock went as high as 66d in 1960 compared with only l5½ in early February of that year before its acquisition of Chris-Craft. Chris-Craft is one of the biggest factors in pleasure boats. NAFI hit a 1961 low of 25¾.

Though still very young, the boating industry has already shown some signs of tiring as evidenced by the decline, in the boat segment of the outboard industry, of more than 5 per cent in 1960 from the record year of 1959. The downturn, coming at a time of continued heavy production by most major boat and motor makers, touched off a price-cutting spree.
 
Span-American Boat Company, for example, in late 1960 slashed the price to dealers on one line of fifteen-foot fiberglass boats from $768 to $549. The boat carried a suggested list price of $1,098, equipped. This price-chopping was attributed largely to an imbalance between sales and production, with a resultant heavy inventory.

Much of the price-cutting was centered in plastic and fiberglass boats. "Some of the glamor seems to have disappeared from fiberglass and plastic boats," said Gus Linell, sales manager of Parson Corporation's Lake and Sea Division. "There's been a realization on the part of the public that these boats are not entirely maintenance free."

As a participation sport, bowling probably ranks right behind boating in the number of participants. The bowling population is expected to increase more than 50 per cent from 1960's 26.5 million to 39 million over a five-year period, which would require a minimum of 50,000 to 60,000 new bowling lanes in addition to the 90,000 currently in operation.

Bowling has grown and developed with the suburbs, where relatively cheap space is available for establishments. About 50 per cent of all suburban shopping centers now have bowling centers. These are different from the old, dingy, dimly lit alleys and have done much in adding respectability to the sport. This newly acquired respectability is instrumental in making bowling as much a sport for women as for men. It was not so many years ago, you know, when a woman bowler was a rarity.

The explosive growth in the number of bowlers has naturally created a burgeoning market for equipment makers. Until recently, the pin-placing-machine field has been pretty much dominated by Brunswick and AMF (American Machine & Foundry). Originally Otis Elevator made, installed and serviced the machines for Brunswick, but then, the latter decided to manufacture itself.

Now AMF and Brunswick face new competition from Bowl-Mor for which Otis Elevators contracted to make new automatic machines for use in tenpin bowling. Tenpins, which involves balls weighing twelve to sixteen pounds, is more widely played in the United States than any other form of bowling. Until its agreement with Otis, Bowl-Mor had made only machines for use with ducks and candlepins, which are only popular in the New England and Canadian areas.

The entry of Bowl-Mor into the tenpin field probably will not affect AMF and Brunswick too much. For one thing, most of Bowl-Mor's new business comes from new alleys. For another, the "newcomer" should be at a disadvantage competing with established companies like Brunswick and AMF, which not only offer the machines, but also sell the accessories. Moreover, Otis is not a cheap producer. Bowl-Mor should be burdened with heavier initial cost against the self-manufacturing Brunswick and AMF.

In the bowling-alley field, Fair Lanes, Inc., is the largest U.S. chain operator. A smaller but faster growing factor is American International Bowling which, instead of expanding in saturated bowling areas, is concentrating its operation in densely populated areas of the country where bowling has only begun to penetrate. Another interesting situation is Sports Arenas, Inc., which is a chain operator of about twenty bowling centers. All bowling stocks have experienced sharp declines. Both Brunswick and AMF are near their all-time lows.

As is the case with boating, bowling is approaching saturation in certain areas of the country. If the present rate of construction should hold up, bowling alleys would be almost as common on the American scene as filling stations. There are already thirty major cities in the United States where overbuilding of bowling centers is said to have reached a critical stage. That's why industry leaders are casting their eyes on foreign markets, especially the booming European Common Market. The domestic bowling boom should have a longer duration, if it could be extended to foreign lands. The European market appears to have a huge potential despite the fact that the number of people there who can afford bowling regularly is much smaller than that o£ the United States "Suppose only one tenth as many people in the Common Market take up the game," Brunswick's Vice President Lester Swanlund said, "that still means an outlet for 15,000 to 20,000 lanes."

Though Brunswick has not moved as fast as AMF into the foreign markets, the former has no intention of allowing its arch rival to conquer the world. In the words of Mr. Swanlund, "We went through the experience of catching up in this country and we don't want to repeat it."

The swimming-pool industry is another young industry expanding at a rapid rate. Swimming Pool Age, the leading trade publication, predicted that the number of permanent pools would grow from 254,200 in 1959 to 2 million in 1970. Although most of the pools are in sunny California and Florida, their popularity is also growing in less-favored climates.

Another important, though far less-favored sport, marketwise, is hunting, which seems to have been largely neglected by investors at a time when other leisure-time stocks have been booming.

It seems to have occurred to few people, said Capital Gains Research Bureau, Inc., "that hunting as a sport has also been increasing rapidly in recent years, being participated in by an estimated 15,000,000 men and women (14,500,000 men-500,000 women) . . . fully 50 per cent more than at the end of the war." That securities-research organization singled out Remington Arms Co., Inc., as a good investment on a long-term basis.

Remington Arms is one of America's two largest producers of sporting rifles, shotguns, ammunition, etc., and was seen by Capital Gains Research to have the following main merits as an investment: (1) strong backing from duPont which held 60.17 percent o£ Remington common and 99.57 per cent of Remington preferred; (2) top-grade management with a strong financial position; and (3) outstanding new product development, including its "revolutionary new nylon '66' rifle" and a new premium-grade shotgun shell guaranteed to perform under the roughest hunting conditions.

The leisure-time boom has also brought on a musical boom. In 1959, music-happy Americans spent a record $550 million for musical instruments. That more than doubled the 1949 sales of $220 million and represented a growth rate of 78 per cent faster than the rise in personal consumption spending during the same period.

Participating in this boom are children as well as adults, the latter group obviously lured by quick-learning instruments and techniques to acquire what they missed at an early age when learning was a far more difficult process.

Simplified musical courses are helped by simplified, easy-to-play instruments, some of which are push-button, electrified, automated, etc. With some of the electronic organs, for instance, you can now learn to play a tune in hours. "The modern way of teaching violin is to have the student playing a tune within three months," said Reuben Olson, president of violin distributor William Lewis & Sons. He told The Wall Street Journal, "In the former days, you played nothing but the scales for a year."

Typical of the prosperous musical instrument makers is the "recently-gone-public" Chicago Musical Instrument whose stock just about tripled within a few months after its offering in 1960. Chicago Musical manufactures a broad line of musical instruments, including Lowery electronic organs.

America is indeed "the affluent society" of Dr. John Kenneth Galbraith, with people spending much money on hair restorers, thigh reducers, back-yard swimming pools, fintailed automobiles, "lodges," foreign travels. Americans are earning far much more money than is needed to provide the daily necessities. This "excess" money is what economists call "discretionary income." It is the income that remains after taxes and necessary daily expenditures.

In the old days most men worked as much as ten or even twelve hours a day just to feed, clothe and shelter their families. Today, a staggering f 104 billion or over one third of disposable income can be spent on nonessentials.

An investor's job is to locate this "discretionary income" and invest his money accordingly.

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