Evening star., 1939-10-15


City. Young Bill Benton, year out of Yale,
gets off the train. 1t is just stop-of or
so Bill tells himself He is on his way to
Massachusetts, to enter the Harvard Law
School, at his mothers insistence. Bill comes
from family of missionaries and professors,
for generations back, but he has stoutly
refused to become a missionary or professor.
For year he has been selling cash registers
in Utica. Now he has succumbed, decided to
yield to his mothers urging and become, as
compromise, lawyer.
The tempo of busy, booming New York
breaks his resolution. Something in the at
mosphere stirs his youthful, restless imagina-
ton. The law? He puts the thought of it out
of his mind All around him advertisements
are speaking, from electric signs, from street
car cards. from newspapers, from magazines.
Advertising, he decides, is young mans
field. live field. He begins looking for job.
and finally gets one with the advertising
agency of Lord & Thomas
His salary is S25 week - and this is
time when living costs are at the very peak.
Room rent, $40 week. That leaves SIS
week for food, clothing and incidentas. Bill
eats his breakfasts en- route to work. Break
fast invariably consists Of chocolate bar.
A year passes. Bill Benton has accumulated
experience Now he is ready to move higher.
He applies to the George Batten agency for
lob as copy writer. He is hired.
Bill is now just another young copy writer
in big agency. Nobody pays much attention
to him - until, at one of the weekly meetings
of the copy department, he suddenly rises and
bursts into speech - eager, bubbllng, yeasty
speech A few days later he is invited to make
the same speech to the board of directors.
Shortly after that an executive opening arises
Bill Benton gets it. He is on his way.
Dynamic, engaging, enthusiastic, Bill
Benton keeps on going up. At twenty-elght,
he is a Junior partner in the firm. Salary and
dividends bring him an income of Sl2,5OO
year. He moves back to the Lord & Thomas
agency, going to the Chicago office as part
ner and assistant to the president At the end
of six months he is getting $4,000 year.
Another six months and he is ready to start
his own business He and Chester BoWles,
who used to work with him in the Batten
agency, form the advertising firm of Benton &
Bowles in New York.
That is in the summer of 1929, just three
months before the great stock-market crash.
You know what happened to most businesses
in the years that followed. Their graphs
looked like toboggan slides. But look at the
graph of Benton & Bowles. The first SIX
months they place mere S4O,O worth OF
business. But Bill Benton is still bubbling
with ideas for new advertising campaigns,
with strategy to win new clients. The graph
goes up sharply. By 1886, total business
amounts to S15,OOO,OOO Benton's salary is
$4,000 plus his share of the profits. The
firm has become phenomenal success. And
50 has Bill Benton He is still only thirty
years old.
Whereupon - he resigns. That's where the
sequel comes in.
But why? How come? What's this all about,
anyway? Here was Bill Benton, sitting pretty
at the head of an advertising agency that ne
had nursed along from nothing into really
potent, profitable institution. He had made
good - but he hadn't really begun to reap the
financial rewards. the millions that were his
for the taking He was just at that point