David J. Mahoney papers Ms. Coll. 763 Finding aid prepared by Meredith McCusker. Last updated on April 08, 2020. University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts 2010 David J. Mahoney papers Table of Contents Summary Information....................................................................................................................................3 Biography/History..........................................................................................................................................4 Scope and Contents..................................................................................................................................... 10 Administrative Information......................................................................................................................... 11 Controlled Access Headings........................................................................................................................12 Bibliography.................................................................................................................................................12 Collection Inventory.................................................................................................................................... 13 Correspondence......................................................................................................................................13 Writings..................................................................................................................................................33 Events.....................................................................................................................................................43 Publicity and Clippings......................................................................................................................... 49 Business Records................................................................................................................................... 65 Photographs............................................................................................................................................67 Ephemera................................................................................................................................................69 Audio and Video....................................................................................................................................70 - Page 2 - David J. Mahoney papers Summary Information Repository University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Creator Mahoney, David J. Title David J. Mahoney papers Call number Ms. Coll. 763 Date [bulk] 1975-1998 Date [inclusive] 1923-2000 Extent 73 boxes Language English Abstract Personal papers of business executive and philanthropist David J. Mahoney. The bulk of the materials comprise correspondence from 1951 to 2000, including letters from Richard Nixon, Norton Simon, William Safire, and Vernon Jordan; writings from 1965 to 1999, including two books written by Mahoney: Confessions of a Street Smart Manager (1988) with Richard Conarroe and The Longevity Strategy: How to Live to 100 Using the Brain-Body Connection (1998) with Richard Restak, M.D.; and events covering the years 1968 to 1998, such as the Horatio Alger Award, which Mahoney won in 1977, and the Bilderburg Conference in both 1981 and 1982. Also available are newspaper clippings and publicity materials focusing on Mahoney as a society figure and businessman, media such as VHS tapes and DVD’s, books, photographs, and award plaques and medals. - Page 3 - David J. Mahoney papers Cite as: David J. Mahoney papers, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Biography/History Early Life A child of the Great Depression, David Joseph Mahoney, Jr., was born in 1923 of first generation Irish- American parents in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx, New York. His father, David Mahoney, Sr., was a construction crane operator, but when the construction industry collapsed during the Great Depression, he was unable to find steady work for six years. David Mahoney’s mother, Loretta Cahill, was a telephone operator for 22 years with New York Bell. In interviews later in his life, David J. Mahoney recalled that growing up in such financially difficult times meant having a strong work ethic drummed into him from a very young age. As part of this time, he remembered joining his parents and younger brother Robert for “kitchen talks.” These conversations were fueled by the family’s financial crises and generally centered around “whether you were going to eat or not, whether you’re going to be thrown out into the street, or whether the furniture goes out.” Mahoney said that his “father was facing the unemployment line every day, his spirit all but destroyed. My mother kept telling me that somehow I could pull myself out of this mess.” Finding a way out became Mahoney’s overriding concern, and eventually he did through his athletic ability. Mahoney won a $10-a-month scholarship to the first-rate Cathedral High School in the Bronx, from which he graduated in 1940. He then spent the next year attending LaSalle Military Academy, an all-boys college preparatory school in Oakdale, Long Island, from which he graduated from in 1941. In the fall of the same year, he began attending the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania. At the University of Pennsylvania, Mahoney had won a basketball scholarship and played on the varsity team and was a member of the ROTC. Mahoney’s studies at Wharton were interrupted by World War II. Early in 1943 he entered the Army as a private and, three years later, emerged as a captain in the infantry. He was stationed in Okinawa, Japan after the end of WWII from 1945 to 1946. When Mahoney returned home, he found he would not be able to re-enter Wharton until September of 1946 and so decided to look for work. Career Beginnings Mahoney recalled in his book, Confessions of a Street Smart Manager, that when he was twenty-three, “just back from the army service in the Pacific during World War II, jobs were tough to come by… One - Page 4 - David J. Mahoney papers afternoon, while sitting in a bar, brooding about my future and trying to figure out what to do, I came up with an idea to start a shuffleboard tournament.” Mahoney thought it would be “smart business” for the bar if he could get a beer company to sponsor it. He took his idea to Ruthraff and Ryan Ad Agency. He was told by the agency that the sponsored tournament was illegal but were impressed enough to offer the young Mahoney a job in the mailroom for $25 a week. For the next two years, Mahoney worked at Ruthraff and Ryan’s Manhattan office during the day and commuted to attend evening classes at Wharton in Philadelphia. At $58 per month, his commuter ticket took a huge chunk out of his take home pay, but proved to be worthwhile. In 1949, Mahoney received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania. When later asked what drove him so hard, Mahoney said: “you set your ambitions, and then you run at them.” In the meantime, Mahoney was made account executive at Ruthraff and Ryan, first for Virginia Dare wine, and then for Motorola. Two years after college, he was a senior account executive, and by age 25, he was the youngest vice president on Madison Avenue. In 1951, when he was 28, Mahoney resigned his $25,000-per-year position at Ruthraff and Ryan. Selling his car and furniture, Mahoney went into business for himself, beginning David J. Mahoney, Inc., his own advertising agency. Eventually, he had a staff of twenty-five and was handling eight accounts, including Noxema and White Rock. Another account was Good Humor Corporation, about which he gained such remarkable knowledge that he was offered the job of president in 1956. Mahoney sold his own agency for $500,000 and became president of Good Humor, the ice cream on a stick company, at a salary of $75,000 per year. At Good Humor, after donning a white coat and going where the action was to learn consumer preferences, he introduced a barrage of successful new specials. Five years later, with Good Humor sales and profits up, Mahoney accepted an offer to become Executive Vice President of a billion-dollar company, Colgate-Palmolive. He stayed at Colgate-Palmolive until 1961, having launched a series of bold marketing moves and expanding the company’s operations considerably. Career at Norton Simon, Inc. In 1966 industrialist Norton-Simon, who wished to retire from the business world, was searching for a new chief executive to install at Canada Dry, the soft drink and liquor company in which Mr. Simon’s Hunt Foods and Industries had a large stake. Simon was attracted to Mahoney because of his varied experience. Norton Simon later recalled that Mahoney “had been successful in business for himself, providing that he could stand alone. He had done an excellent job running a small company. And he had worked for a large company, mastering the complex institutional problems involved… He had a great deal of feeling about family, young people, the future of the country, and social problems.” Norton Simon’s support helped Mahoney become president of Canada Dry Corporation in 1966. Nineteen months later, in 1967, Norton Simon Inc. came into being with the consolidation of Canada Dry, Hunt Foods and Industries, and