Go back to Making a Go of Opera.
Even though I never myself was smitten with the ad business, I did grow up in a family with numerous connections to my father’s world. I now know that it had actually started with my grandfather, Henry Sulcer, in the years after leaving the University of Chicago in 1905.
In 1916, his fraternity brother Herbert Vanderhoof, also a publicity agent working for several newspapers, decided to launch a firm dedicated to advertising. This was the time of the emergence of the modern “advertising agency”. Vanderhoof, Condict, and Comrie opened its doors in the now-historic Marquette Building and Henry joined them as an early employee.
The agency was known for thoughtful, idea-driven campaigns that seem ahead of their time. For example, they presented themselves to prospective clients as experts in how to follow market and commercial trends to create an elegant appeal for their products. To get a flavor of the level of sophistication and gentle wit, look at some of the copy used to tout their approach in an advertising trade magazine of the time.
Even selling brooms could be used as an example of modern advertising techniques.
The next one is from the “New Business” ad citing jewelry Association ‘Gifts that Last’ Campaign. This account may have been connected to Henry’s father in law, F.G. Thearle, who was very involved in the jewelry business and its national council.
Even cough drops could benefit from the Vanderhoof agency touch.
We don’t know for sure that Henry personally wrote these pitches, but to me they seem to have that “Sulcer touch” that my Dad seemed to have inherited. If not, this may be where he learned about smart ad campaigns.
In 1917, America finally entered the Great War (WWI) in Europe, but at 36 Henry was too old for military service. Always the ad-man and orator, boasting the rich tones of a dramatic operatic tenor, and comfortable performing in front of a crowd, he volunteered with George Creel’s “Committee on Public Information”. This was one of the first known uses of modern advertising techniques for political purposes. As a so-called “four minute man”, Henry was trained to stand up in pub lic spaces, such as a movie theater, and give a short speech to certain talking points to support the war effort – mostly about getting people to “step up” to buy War Bonds. The speeches were to be original, heartfelt, and practiced so thoroughly that they seemed completely spontaneous – more “sprezzatura” right up Henry’s alley.
The firm acquired many clients and moved to its own building on Ontario street. When Herbert Vanderhoof suddenly died in the fall of 1921, just five years after launching the company, Henry took over as President. He began to grow in prominence in the industry as the firm prospered.
Like both his father Abraham, and son Sandy , he became a prolific public speaker, stretching his subjects into other public policy spheres, including a lecture warning of the dangers of U.S. reliance on foreign food sources in 1924 that was re- ported in newspapers across America. He also played the “captain of industry” part by joining the most prestigious clubs in Chicago, and in recognition of his stature he was named chairman of the Western Council of the American Association of Advertising Agencies in 1925.
Luckily he did find some overlap between the advertising world and the music business. For example, he ran a campaign for a player piano company that included a contest for the public to come up with the name and slogan for an innovative new model. Ready as ever to perform at a moment’s notice, as a guest at the client’s Christmas party he “obliged with a few well rendered solos”, accompanied by the pianist who had recorded all their player piano rolls.
It was years later, while helping his Dad organize the old files from Vanderhoof & Co, that my father Sandy developed his passion for the ad business. He had inherited the passion for music and theater as well.
Go on to read about the Sulcers’ life in Hyde Park during the ‘roaring twenties’.
Sources
- “Advertising and Selling – The National Journal of Modern Merchandising”, 26 November 1921 Available at Google Books on 8 June 2013
- Printer’s Ink: A Journal for Advertisers. New York City, 7 July 1921
- Cornbise, Alfred, “War as Advertised: The Four Minute Men and America’s Crusade: 1917-1918”, Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society, 1984. Available at http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4970/ on 3 March 2013
- “Thinks Nation May Import Most Food”, San Diego Evening Tribune, 27 June 1924 Evansville Courier and Press, 29 June 1924
- “H.D. Sulcer to Head Western Council of Advertising Agencies”, 1925 (clipping does not show full date)
- “Gulbransen Co. Holds Annual Sales Meeting”, Music Trade Review 7 January 1928:16. Available at http://mtr.arcade-museum.com/MTR-1928-86- 1/index.php?page_no=20&frame=MTR-1928-86-1-20.pdf on 30 August 2012
