The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-03
AO,OOO,OOO ON
 ADVERTISING IS
 WRIGLEY RECORD
Chewing Gum King Has Now Bought Entire
 Catalina Island

CHICAGO, Aug. 2.-He harnessed the jaw-power of the nation.
 He has fell designs on the wagging jaws of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and South America.
 He squeezed $50, 900, 900, more or less out of nickels.
 He is William Wrigley, IT,, chewing gum magnate of Chicago and Califor- mia. He is one of the country's wealth. jest men. He is probably it's largest advertiser, having spent some $40,OO0,- 900 for that purpose in less than 15 years. Also, he is one of the most progressive of republicans and was for a long time the financial "anger' of Hi ram Johnsons
 : This account no doubt would be far more entertaining if it might be said that Mir. Wrigley, seated in subway or trolley had noted the tremendous jaw motion employed in chewing gum. null tiplied it by the country's population employed actuaRies to ascertain the probable ratio of gum chewers to total population and then proceeded to ruin much perfectly good scenery with color ful, but scarcely pretty signboards.
 As a matter of fact, he did none of those things except the latter. It ap- pears that he began his commercial ca- reer, not including q few side lines like running away from home and selling papers in Park Row, as a salesman of soap. His first contribution to. com mercial science was the dissemination of the premium idea, that it,. "buy so much soap and get with it stick of gum" From that he drifted into the manufacture of gum, and To and behold, it was only short time until the chew ing gum tail wagged the whole soap dog. So much so, that the erstwhile tail is today the worlds greatest manufacturer of chewing gum, having far surpassed all rivals, many of them in business far longer time. Mir. Wrigley's entry into the chewing gum field was not spec tacular. His subsequent methods were very much so.
 After Foreign Trade
 Having conquered the United States, he is moving upon foreign soil. His selling agencies are scattered over most of the known world and the explorer of 3024 A. D., digging about the bush in Australia, or excavating in Central Mongolia, is pretty sure to find one of the bizarre arrOw-man figures bearing a strange legend, testifying to the virile advertising methods of a rough but energetic past. It was reported not so long ago that he is making an intensive drive in Asia for chewing gum trade, and if the habit spreads there, the p0ssi- bilities are without limit.
 No doubt, in that event. Mir. Wrigley will find some way not only of harnass- ing the nickels that are spent for gum,' but also the motion. Some simple little machine, attached to small storage battery, perhaps, with a jigger to catch the jaw-strokes, to be given away as premium to the buyers of a gross of gum, so that, the qhewer can keep him- self in light during the cold winters that prevail in Mongolia.
 Is Striking Man
 Personally, MT. -TTrigley is a striking man. He is big, broad, expansive .phy- sically and mentally. He is of the breezy western type, not especially modified by his huge financial success. The reason for that is perhaps, that in the last ten years or so he has acquired a hobby that is as compelling as was product of the humble chicle in his earl fer days. He is California enthusiast. He is one of the best ads that that much advertised all-year-rOund resort can pos sibly get. He is goOd-natured, even tempered, athletic. EGolf, horses, swim ming and various other sports claimed him for years until the years began to put on the brakes bit. But he is still most active and doesn't look his sixty three years by good many summers and does his. golf and swimming and whatnot on equal terms with men who are many years his junior.
 It is said he was an unruly boy and that he ran away from home. His father was soap manufacturer in Philadelphia, where young Wrigley made his initial bow in 1861. The con- ventional newspaper selling career lost it's appeal very shortly, however, and back he went to Philadelphia, where he proceeded with his schooling, then took a job selling soap in his fathers estab- lishment and finally joined him in busi- ness about 1882. Nine years later, as the result of the chewing gum premiums with soap idea referred to above, he embarked in the chewing gum business for himself and soon began to grow. He was, however, very much better known in the South and West than in New York, where the old established companies were strongly intrenched. He tried to break into New York early this century but without success. Five years later he tried again, with what was then an almost unparalleled adver- tising program, contemplating the ex- penditure of $1, 100000. This time also he was only moderately successful, but his persistence was beginning to bear fruit. Most any boy of pre-war days remembers those catchy ads of the youngster kept in forever because teacher told him to stay in school until the flavor was gone. Then he in- creased his advertising appropria tions, so that in the years between 1910 and 1923, his total bill was about $37, ,O00,- 900, or an average of nearly $3,000,000 a year. The public couldn't resist that onslaught and after a while, stopped trying.
 Buys Whole Island
 As remarked above, when the public was literally eating chewing gum out of his hands and clamOring for more, he acquired new hobby-Californ He established one of that states show places at Pasadena some years ago, and then bought Santa Catalina Island. Then came more advertising. Every visitor to California knows Santa Cata- lima and it's beauties. Nature was generous, but Wrigley helped marvel ously. Incidentally, it has not proved unprofitable. He thinks Los Angeles is destined to be the second city in the country, or at the very least, the third He has put millions into developing his property; he has established line of I