The Morse Sewing Machine, a question of popularity?

Today while I was updating my "about me" section, it made me think about the relatively unknown Morse brand sewing machine. Who has ever heard of Morse? Who hasn't heard the name of Singer? I found this great ad  for the Morse machine from 1963:

As a way of rating popularity, I looked up the words "Morse Sewing Machine" in the google key word tool. There were only 2900 monthly searches as compared to 368,000 searches for "Singer Sewing Machine".  Though it's not a true comparison of popularity- modern sewing machines still use the name of Singer, and Morse is no more- it saddens me to see such a fine machine lost in obscurity.

I wonder about the history. How did this happen? Did they advertise to the right crowd? Was the machine too expensive? Made in Japan- were people hanging on to WWII prejudice? Was the quality in question? Was it bought out by some larger company and then shut down? In those days, purchases were not made lightly, and products were meant to last. The Morse company went to the bother of qualifying for a Good Housekeeping seal of approval which meant something to the housewife. What more could someone do to get noticed by the public?

My mother bought this now unknown used machine for something like $35 around 35 years ago (As compared to a new $800 machine I bought that lasted for only 8 years!). She bought a New Home sometime after, but hung on to the old Mr. Morse intending to give it to my little sister who is now a beginning sewist. My sister took it for a short while, but wanted a modern machine with all the standard stitches. It took me a while but I convinced mom to let me have it, and I love it. It will sew any kind of fabric from fine to thick with perfect tension and feed. The machine sews quickly (which I need!), has no problems with winding a bobbin or using different kinds of thread. Though it won't do an automatic button hole, I'm not bothered by that because I learned long ago how to set my zig zag length and width to make a button hole manually.  If this were my only machine, I admit that I would miss having a blind hem stitch, but 99% of my sewing is with a straight stitch anyway. This machine gets much use.

My mom came over not too long ago and again mentioned giving the Morse machine to my sister. Sorry mom, but she had her chance. Mr. Morse doesn't want to sit under her table waiting and waiting for a little love while my sister stitches away on her modern plastic model. Mr. Morse and I have a love affair with each other, and he belongs to me.

Thank you Ron Anderson of  A1 Sewing Machine Specialists at www.a1sewingmachine.com
for providing a copy of this letter found inside of a manual telling us more about the origination of the Morse Sewing Machine:

Sorry folks! I can't help you find parts, nor do I own a manual. Good luck with your search!