The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-05-04
In New York
nv PAUL HARRISON

New York.--Peopie who have something to sell, and want to stage big contest to popularize 1t. usually call on Prof. Lloyd Her rold, who probably Is the worlds only professional contest adminis- trator."
 He isn't a professor of contest administration, but of advertising. at Chicago University. Knowing about advertising, market analysis, and all that, he was called In by a large agency, in 1882, to man age and help judge a contest. Right away he Introduced some new ideas about handling tremendous numbers of replies, filing, checking and judging. After that he was in such demand that he soon had his own office an da stan of 30 peo- pie. By now he employs from 50 to 80. all college graduates.
 One of his biggest recent jobs was a contest for the naming of a certain product. and the manufac- turer in Minneapolis sent fve vanloads of letters to Professor Herrod in Chicago. There were a few more than 1,500,000, and they all had to be filed alphabeti- cally. Then the different suggest ed names had to be recorded along with the number of times each name was duplicated. Thir- ty-six typists worked eleven weeks doing that, and filled 4,000 sheets of legal paper. One of the things they discovered was that one name had been submitted by 57,o00 people.
 Wise Spenders
 The professor next went over all the different names. selected 100 which seemed in some way ap- plicable, and sent that list to the official judges. I recite all this just to give you an idea of what a contest manager Is up against. When I talked to Herroid he had just panted in from winding up a shoe company's contest, the most difficult job he ever had. Reason was that all the entrants had to make a 80 initial purchase; that kept out children and cranks, and brought letters of an unprecedent- ed level of intelligence.
 There are a few things that Her. rold wishes the millions of contest fans all over the United States would understand. One Is that a contest solution that quickly oe- CUTS to one persons probably Will be just as obvious to thousands of others. Another is that tricky presentation of an answer never wins any special attention. Not favorable attention. anyway. Peo- pie have been known to buy 500- yard rolls of wrapping paper, and to write their answers In foot-high letters over its entire length.
 Every big contest is sure to bring embroidered pillows and hooked rugs, with the slogans, names or whatever's wanted worked into them, Some people get huge pieces of paper, big as 24-sheet posters, and cover them with intricate de- signs, or pictures meticulously cut from magazines. Such things have nothing to do with the contests themselves, and are nuisance. Stored Up Answer
 Herrold has seen model light houses, several feet high, which lighted up at the touch of a but ton and revealed the slogan sub- mitted. A last-line limerick con- test sponsored by a baking com pany brought an amazingly in- tricate model of grocery store. It was complete even to the labels of cans on the shelves, and there were figures of customers and countermen. An impossible last line submitted by the man who fashioned all this said something to the effect that "If you eat Gan opposition company's biscuits). you'll drop through the floor" Then. by touching a button on the exhibit, you'd see all the people In the grocery store fall through little trap doors.
 Thousands of people have tried to bribe Herrold. yet their letters have been more suggestive of pathus than of skuIldeegefy. ''l've never done anything dishonest be. fore" they write. ''But [ need this money SO desperately that Iil divide with you # you let mo
 lie doesn't know how many millions of Americans go in for contests. but he knows there are hundreds who make a fnlf living from .them, Professor HerroId never in hal life hos entered any sort e oofiiaef.