Bill-Poster Suit Up

1916

Washington, Sept. 23. — The government's suit to dissolve the so-called bill-posters' trust reached the supreme court yesterday on an appeal by the defendants, convicted in Chicago, several months ago, of combination in violation of the Sherman law. The appeal asks review of the trial and sets forth that the defendant organization, the Associated Bill Posters and Distributors of the United States and Canada, since the conviction, has been reorganized into the Poster Advertising company and the Associated Bill Posters and Distributors' Protective association.

Writing An Ad

1901

Did you ever stop to think, you who read the advertisement in the newspapers, just what it means to get up the "ad." every day for a big department store? The man in charge usually has a staff of assistants, who are assigned to certain departments of the store each day. They must familiarize themselves with the stock of these departments, while the manager of the advertising department himself is supposed to keep thoroughly in touch with the entire stock of the store. He writes the general introduction to the advertisement each day and edits the copy turned in to him by his assistants, just as an editor handles the copy of his reporters.

"Just as much care is taken with this matter as though it were so much imperishable literature," said the advertising manager of a big department store. "You sometimes hear of a famous author spending hours over one paragraph, writing it and rewriting it to get the best and strongest effect. You wouldn't think that would be necessary in writing an advertisement, but it is. My assistants sometimes spend an hour over one sentence. There is more science in writing an advertisement that will bring results than perhaps in any other form of composition." — Philadelphia Record.

Few Old Signs Left

1920

Many of the familiar trade signs used to advertise business enterprises have been discarded entirely in the onward sweep of advertising progress or displaced by more or less artistic displays of paint and electric lights.

One of the most common of the oldtimers that has vanished, says the New York Sun, was the wooden Indian, which kept its silent, stolid vigil beside the door of the tobacconist. The significant boot that once was suspended over the shop of the repairer of boots and shoes is also only a memory. So are the anvil hanging above the entrance to the blacksmith's shop and the horse's heads over livery-men's doorways.

The origin of the cigar store Indian dates back to Sir Walter Raleigh and his English settlers in our sunny South. These fortune seekers, visiting the unseen New World in the seventeenth century, and for the first time in the history of the white race learning the use of the tobacco weed from the North American Indian, symbolized this industry by the red man's imposing figure.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 6.

"Specialties" at Beehive Store

1899

All retailers like to have and announce their specialties ; and sometimes, it seems, such commercial specialties may take on a very general character. A travelling man tells the Washington Star that, while visiting lately a small but enterprising town in West Virginia, he came upon the following sign:

"THE BEEHIVE STORE,
"Ronceverte, W. Va.

"Dealers in General Merchandise and Country Produce of Every Kind.

SPECIALTIES: Coffins, Caskets and Burial Supplies; Salt, Bacon and Lard; Hides, Furs and Live Foxes."

In addition to these somewhat diverse specialties, the proprietor of the store carried on the business of a fire insurance agent. — Youth's Companion.

Now That We Have Caught Your Eye

Advertisement, 1913

NOW
that we have caught your eye

We want to tell you about that new
Electric Iron

Just the thing for hot weather,
no red hot stove on a red hot
day — no walking, no lifting,
easy to regulate. Try one.

ADA ELECTRIC AND GAS COMPANY
Phone No. 78 — 209 W. Main

—The Evening News, Ada, Oklahoma, July 17, 1913, p. 3.

Sign Painter's Work – Advertisements on Fences, Billboards

1887

The Sign Painter's Work

Interesting Information About the Advertisements We See on Fences

"That man is a sign painter by trade," remarked a contractor, pointing to a man who was erecting a fence before a building that was to be torn down, "but he finds it pays better to put up fences where building is going on and let out the spaces to advertisers. The big profits in the business have brought about a healthy competition, and everything is now reduced to a fine art. I remember a few years ago this sign painter came to me and offered to put up a new fence free of charge in front of a building I was erecting providing he could use the boards for advertising purposes. I jumped at the offer and thought the man was a fool for making it. The shoe was on the other foot, however, for I should have received several hundred dollars to boot for the privilege.

"This man has brought the business down to a science. He has scores of agents scouring the city for eligible sites, as well as canvassers to drum up advertisements. His fences, which are very neat and attractive, are built in uniform sections and join together on the groove principle. An advertiser can thus have his announcement changed to different localities at will without going to the expense of having a new sign painted. The old method of building a new fence every time made this mode of advertising very expensive, and the lessees often lost money by being unable to let out all the spaces; but the cost is now reduced to a minimum by making the sections to slide in and out like the lid of a box.

"The rates, of course," he continued, "depend upon the location. A sign on Broadway costs the most, but many of the cross streets are nearly as desirable. The big advertisers make contracts by the year. Some of their signs are very elaborate. As soon as one building is finished they are put up elsewhere. The lessee who has a number of these contracts runs no risk in leasing a privilege, because he has his advertisers beforehand, and their signs are ready to slide into position. The first charge is made for the painting of the sign, and then so much per day for its use as an advertisement. The artistic appearance of the signs has improved very much since the introduction of the movable section, for enterprising houses no longer look upon it as extravagant to have trademarks or pictures of specialties correctly painted on a fence. These signs don't remain long in the same place. A building is soon put up in New York." — New York Evening Sun.

Advertising in Olden Times

1878

Macademized roads, in all save the name, were known in the Roman dominions 200 years before the Christian era, were not merely limited to the vicinity of the capital, but were laid down in every province that succumbed to the valor of the Republican arms.

At an equally early age, the Roman Senate, among various other decrees relating to the order and discipline to be observed in the city, enacted that men should give place to women in the streets, and leave them the unmolested use of the smooth line of pavement, which every house-owner had to maintain in good condition in front of his own residence.

Colossal sign-boards announced to the passers-by the business followed in the houses; while in time of Plautus, notices of lost and found objects were displayed on placards written in letters a cubit long; and gladiatorial games, races, shows and theatrical exhibitions, were made public by huge boards displaying colored representations of some of the most striking scenes or sights to be exhibited. The walls, doors, and palings were covered with these rude advertisements, which seemed generally to have been drawn in some bright color on a black red ground.

Although the Romans, like other ancient nations, were ignorant of printing as applied to the multiplication of books, they were familiar with the use of printing type, which their porters used for stamping names on their vases; and we are told that the Emperor Justinian, when he wished to append his signature to a public document, had recourse to a small wooden tablet, on which the letters of his name were cut, which he traced on the paper by following with the point of his style pen the various contours of the carving.

But perhaps the strangest indication of the fact that most of our assumed discoveries and innovations are mere "rehabilitations," to use a French word, of pre-existing things, is supplied by the suggestion which is ascribed to Plato for the establishment of agencies for marriage, by means of which the qualities of each candidate for matrimony might be made known, and men thus have a better chance of procuring wives suited to their various characters.

The idea seems to have been lost for ages, but not wholly, for it revived in great force about a century ago, when some ingenious German, either from the depths of his own consciousness, or from careful study of Plato's writings, established at Hamburg an office for the transaction of matrimonial affairs, in which advertisements for husbands and wives were always to be seen. There was not the slightest mystery or reserve assumed; and there was great frankness displayed both by the ladies and gentlemen who took part in these negotiations, for we are informed by one advertiser that "she is fifty-nine years of age, and having buried her fourth husband within the previous three weeks, is anxious to meet with a good-looking, healthy young man of twenty-six, as successor to her lamented partners. He need be under no trouble or care about money matters, as she has plenty of both, and will leave him her universal legatee."

The Early Day of Modeling: Pretty Girls in Demand

1903

Pretty Girls in Demand

They Can Make Good Money Posing For Advertisements

"Pretty girls were never in such demand as they are today," said an advertising agent, "We need them to pose for photographs for almost every article that we advertise.

"We have found, you see, that nothing catches and holds the eye of the public like a good, clear photograph of a pretty girl. Hence, in I don't know how many thousands of advertisements you behold a charming young woman smiling at you.

"Are you advertising a camera? Then you must have a pretty girl taking pictures. Are you advertising a shoe? You photograph a pretty girl tripping daintily across a muddy street on a rainy day. Are you advertising a corset? Then you must have a pretty girl to wear it, and you are careful here to see that her arms and neck are beautiful. In fine, whatever you are advertising, the picture of a pretty girl will help more than anything else to bring you trade.

"Do you know that there is a firm in the West whose sole business is the photographing of young women, for advertising purposes? In this firm's stock are young women riding bicycles, playing pianos, skating, driving, combing their hair, bathing, doing a thousand things. Whatever you desire in their line they will send you almost immediately on receipt of your order.

"I tell you, in these days a pretty girl has no need to be short of money. If doesn't mind exhibiting her face and figure in advertising photographs she can get all the work at posing that she wants to do." — Philadelphia Record.

Don't Wear Pads, Enlarge Busts with The National

Advertisement, 1920

Don't Wear Pads Use The NATIONAL and enlarge your busts to their natural size and beauty.

The National is the special Developer Dr. C. S. Carr formerly recommended in the Physical Culture Magazine, as the only safe, reliable Method known for enlarging the bust in a natural way. Of this method Dr. Carr said: "Indeed, it will bring about a development of the busts quite astonishing."

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, May 22, 1920, page 4. The graphic is an antique advertisement, the offer is no longer valid. Pretty girl, though, isn't she? The little circle on her cheek is not part of the original artwork. That is a place where the lead on the printing cut wasn't routed out completely. Same thing around the hair.

Bill Posters Shock Bridgewater, Pa., Citizens

Council of Borough to Attend to the Matter.

The poster of a young lady thinly draped that is being used by a manufacturing firm to illustrate their product on the billboards of the county evidently met with the hearty disapproval of some of the more moral of the West Bridgewater, Pa., (Beaver Co.) residents and they have defaced the bills.

In different parts of the borough the glaring semi-nude poster was displayed on large billboards and wherever found they have been so defaced that only the head of the young lady remains to tell the nature of the advertisement.

The poster is a remarkable specimen of the printers art and bears all the good points of the craft, but it has evidently shocked the person responsible for its disappearance.

The poster is but one of the many evils that arise when a borough permits large sign boards to be erected within its boundaries and has no ordinance to stipulate the nature of the posters that shall be placed on it. The borough of Rochester recently adopted an ordinance prohibiting the posting of immoral or semi-nude pictures and the passing of handbills, samples of medicine, etc., and it is thought that the same matter will be given consideration at the next meeting of the West Bridgewater council.

--Warren Evening Mirror, Warren, Pennsylvania, May 10, 1909, page 1.