Kup's Chicago - Irv Kupcinet [17]
And it may be why Chicago businessmen are so prominent in government and public service. And why Chicago television sponsors are noted for their excellent programming – Charles Percy, the “boy wonder” chief executive of Bell & Howell, for his documentaries and “think” shows; Bill Gage, of Magikist Services and Products, with Bishop Fulton J. Sheen; and Charles Lubin of the Kitchens of Sara Lee, for classical music and adult drama. Or why Hart Schaffncr & Marx, under the late Meyer Kestnbaum, set an outstanding record for good labor-management relations in a fast-changing industry – more than fifty years without a strike. And it is why such men as Brooks (International Harvester) McCormick, of the blue-blood McCormicks, willingly take time to head demanding civic projects. In 1961, thanks to McCormick’s talent and hard work, Chicago’s annual Crusade of Mercy campaign exceeded its record goal of fifteen million dollars.
You will seldom find Chicagoans making their fortunes in gold, uranium, or wildcat oil wells. It’s the better mousetrap and the better way of manufacturing and marketing it that is their specialty.
Nathaniel Leverone, for example, missed an El train once and discovered there were no dependable vending machines on the platform. So he started the Automatic Canteen Company.
General Robert E. Wood, fired from Montgomery Ward & Company for pushing the “radical” idea of operating a chain of retail stores, in addition to the established mail-order trade, sold Sears, Roebuck’s board of directors on his idea. Today, Sears, Roebuck is number one in its field. Being number one was nothing new to General Wood. As a young officer, he had played a leading role in construction of the Panama Canal. In World War I, he served as acting chief of the Army Quartermaster Corps – during that time he handled more underwear than did Sears, Roebuck and Montgomery Ward combined. Today he still is number one in his devotion to the Boys Clubs of America, of which he is a chief supporter.
The mail-order business, incidentally, has provided more than its share of colorful Chicagoans. The late Sewell Avery of Montgomery Ward was one of the best known and most controversial. For years, Avery’s business philosophy of retrenchment was tested against General Wood’s policy of expansion. It was Ward against Sears, providing a battle of giants – fascinating to us on the sidelines. In the end, the results were conclusive: Wood was right, and Sears outdistanced its rival. A rugged individualist of the old school, Avery will long be remembered for the famous World War II newspaper photograph which showed him being carried bodily from his plant by soldiers after he refused to obey a government order to relinquish wartime control of his business. The caption for the photo was equally famous – “This Is the Army, Mr. Avery.”
William Wood Prince, heir of Union Stock Yards’ Frederick Prince, foresaw changes in the meat industry in time to make his Armour & Company a leader in diversifying into soaps and other products.
And Adolph Kroch, a great bibliophile, together with his able son, Carl, applied supermarket and modern business principles to hard-cover and paperback book-retailing and became America’s number one bookseller.
But it is probably the late Albert Lasker, the father of modern advertising, who has had the most conspicuous effect on the American economy. Lasker, who headed the Lord & Thomas advertising agency, was the first to introduce highly focused description and “sell” into advertising copy.
Through his efforts, dozens of trade names became household words overnight – including “Lucky Strike,” “Pepsodent,” Kleenex,” “Palmolive,” “Sunkist,” and “Frigidaire.