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• Report on JWT/Europe • A Conversation With Stephen King • Has a Woman Ever Given You a Diamond? rj&7* 1rf*(?fi^t44£ftU U*^rM&^ <Z¥z& 7?&l6/Z7za4*Z- /ZUW'-/GZt4f &&t^O<zifcs<X£^'. (5teJ£Jd^dZf£ news He persuaded his employer to assign Walter Thompson—who now so styled to him two of the leading women's himself not for reasons of affectation, but magazines of the day: Peterson's Ladies' because there were too many James National Magazine and the famous Thompsons doing business at his bank Godey's sLady's Book. and some of them were a little shifty. The experimenr created a national adver­ Raymond says Thompson paid $500 for tising market in the United States for the business and $800 for the office fur­ the very firsr time, and it made James nishings. Some of the money, he says, Walter Thompson's forrune. was earned by Thompson from singing In his memoirs, Charles E. Raymond, engagements at his church in Brooklyn. who founded JWT's Chicago office in He had a fine tenor voice. A year later, Thompson married Distinguished and benign, rhe painted 1891, recalls those days. Margaret Riggs Bogle, the daughter of a presence of J. Walrer Thompson looks "It is difficult to picture the conditions porrrait painter. They had one child, out upon the goings-on in offices that Mr. Thompson faced in his early efforts. Walrer Roosevelt Thompson. bear his name right around the globe. The magazines, few in number, were Raymond found Thompson a very fine- Almosr everyone who works at Thomp­ either rhe house organs of book publish­ looking man, well built and moderarely son knows a little something about the ers or literary venrures, and they looked tall with "the most wonderful blue-gray Commodore, as he is fondly and forever with aversion on any excepr rheir own eyes I have ever seen, kindly, and known, but he has become to many of announcements. humorous or serious, as his mood us more symbol rhan man. "When he made a contract with Mr. chanced to be. They gave to his person­ Harper for 100 pages of advertising to That's too bad, because Jim Thompson ality a characteristic at once charming be used in a year in Harper's Magazine, was an interesting and a likeable man as and impressive." well as a canny and fair one. Mr. George William Curtis, then the editor, threatened ro resign. He was Thompson was, according ro Raymond, He was born, the fourth of eight chil­ highly indignant, and said he did not a splendid companion anywhere—at dren, on October 28, 1847, in Pittsfield, intend to be the editor of a cheap circus dinner, at the theater, in rhe home, or Massachusetts. (He was Theodore Roose­ magazine, which he thought Harper's on a trip. "In fact," says Raymond, "the velt's fourth cousin.) When he was a lit­ would be converred inro by the addition human side of his many-sided narure tle boy, his father won a contract to of advertising." was the most attractive side." Raymond build a bridge over the Sandusky River claims never to have known his equal for in Ohio. The family moved to Fostoria, Thompson was an articulate advocate geniality and good fellowship. Ohio, where James, from rhe age of and published a series of Red and Blue nine, had a boat. He learned to sail and Raymond also says that in 26 years of Books full of characteristic sentiments for the next 70 years spent all the time close associarion, business and personal, about advertising: he could on the water. he never knew Thompson to take unfair "To be prominent anywhere one must advanrage. "Many rimes I heard him During the Civil War most of his boy­ have marked characteristics. So it is with say, 'Is this fair to the other party?'" hood friends were eager to join the cav- an adverrisement...in order to produce Thompson loved Gilberr and Sullivan _ airy, bur James, about 17, enlisted in the the best results, it must be clear, defi- operertas and had two seats in the sec­ 2 U.S. Marine Corps. He spent most of nire, conspicuous and fresh." ond row reserved each Thursday night of his two years as a Marine aboard the the season. He was hard of hearing and U.S.S. Shenandoah. "It does not do in advertising to try to be fiinny, unless it is really funny, or kept his hearing aid on his lap (it was He was 20 when he atrived in New unless the stock of humour with pithy the size of an early box camera). York City, ready, like many anothet points will hold out to the end." likely lad, to make his forrune. Ar least He owned, at various times, a seagoing one prospective employer declined to houseboat, a steam yacht and an assort­ hire him on the ground that he was "too Raymond goes on to describe the advan­ ment of sailing vessels. When he died, easily discouraged" to make a go of tages which, in fact, accrued to publica­ he had been a membet of the New York advertising. But he was taken on by tions, once adverrising became a com­ Yacht Club for 42 years. His seniority William J. Carlton Advertising. monplace in their pages: increased number was 28—in other words, only revenue allowed them to improve the 27 of the then 2,000 members of the Bookkeeper, clerk and general uriliry quality of their producr and exrend their club had been in it longer than he had. man, he also sold space in religious pub­ sales; better paper and type could be lications. Within three weeks, he Gel Hardy, a legendary JWT copywrirer used; more money paid to writers and became convinced that the future of the and an ardent sailor, once calculated artists and better people employed; all business lay in magazines, especially in enviously that Thompson probably saw without extravagant raises in the price of women's magazines. But such magazines every America's Cup defense from 1886 subscriptions. in those days carried little consumer until 1920. advertising. In 1878 Carlton sold the business to J. In the 38 years between the time Continued on page 21 J. Walter Thompson News Our Founder Page Volume 2, No. 5 Seprember 1983 The Jack Cronin Story, or, You Never Know What a Writer's Going to Do Next (especially if he's Irish) Report on JWT/Europe Amsterdam Milan Zurich Brussels Lisbon MRBI Copenhagen Paris Manchester Stockholm The Commodore's Has a Woman Ever Given Portrait You a Diamond? When James Walter Thompson's portrait was removed from its familiar oval frame for A Story About De Beers cleaning, the Commodore's personal launch turned up in the lower left corner, where it had been concealed for the past eighty-three years. A Conversation With Page • ^^ The painter, James Gale Tyler, was in fact Stephen King known for his sailing vessels; this is the only portrait he ever did. His paintings are in many important collections, are the subject of a book in progress and are currently being 2£ O assembled for a retrospective show. J. Walter Response "Page The Tale of Soskin/Thompson The J. Walter Thompson News is published by J. Walter Thompson Company, 466 Lexington Avenue, News Briefs New York, N.Y. 10017 Arnold E. Grisman, executive editor; Ellen Currie, editor; George Takayama, art director; ArnoldE. Grisman, staff photographer; Larry Scaglione, production director. Meet Manuel de Elexpuru Information should be sent to (The Mayor of Madrid Ellen Currie, J. Walter Thompson News, 466 Lexington Avenue, is one of his wrirers) New York, N.Y. 10017 U.S.A. Telephone (212) 210-7863. disrupted by the death of his father. A The Jack Cronin Story, trusred family advisor pointed out that or, You Never Know becoming a lawyer took money, whereas becoming a writer took only a vocation, What a Writer's of which Jack had an abundance. Going to Do Next The newly appointed writer packed his bag and headed back to Ireland where (especially if he's Irish) the Limerick Chronicle (oldest paper in Ireland, one of the oldest in the world) Jack Cronin's progress to the presidency of was willing to train him as an apprentice JWTI Europe was less an exercise in career journalist for 2s fee of one hundred planning than a chancy meander that would pounds a year. Although he eventually have brought joy to the heart of graduated to a salary, these were the Charles Dickens. 1950s and Irish salaries were meager, even when supplemented by Jack's activ­ Ir all started in Charleviile, County ities as Irish correspondent for a number Cork, Ireland, on a small farm that of English newspapers. Jack's father ran during inrervals in an extremely active political life. Since this was Ireland's post-revolutionary decade, St. Catherine's Street an active political life was likely to be Poverty has given birth to more than very acrive indeed; among other things, one adverrising man, and young Jack Jack's father founded the Young Ireland began to pay more and more artenrion Party, made up of former officers in the to the blocks of adverrising copy appear­ Irish Free Srate Army, whose principal ing in rhe Limerick Chronicle. function was to protect political candi­ dates against intervenrion more forceful In 1953 that dawning light bursr into a than the ballot box. brilliant flame, inspiring Jack, by then 21 years old, to set his sights on the Only a Vocation mecca of advertising, Madison Avenue.

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