Once several years ago when the commercial field was in one of its periodic slumps, I found my way to a desk at the Norcross greeting card company where instead of animating for television I was designing funny messages that said Happy Birthday. The experience was enlightening in the way many unexpected events in our lives are. I met some very fine artists and found that I had enough versatility to perform in an area that I had never worked in before. Best of all I learned a few things about what novelties the American public was willing to plunk down hard earned cash for.
Though the company was quite aware of its formidable competition, it was at that time the third largest greeting card producer after Hallmark and American Greetings, the powers that controlled the creative output did not always admit to the superiority of much of the competitions' line of greetings. One day while browsing through a card shop, I came across a beautifully designed calendar created by the Hallmark people. Though it was only September, I plunked down a big $1.85 for it. Today when large, oversized illustrated calendars are commonplace and sell for $5.00 and more, the calendar that I selected that day was an early attempt at exploring the market.
When I arrived back at the Norcross studios I happily showed the calendar around. "Who would spend $1.85 for a calendar?" asked the head of the department. "I did," I said. The calendar was whisked away to be shown to several writers and art directors with the promise that it would be returned shortly. The next day came and my calendar was not only still unreturned, it was unable to be found. The company offered to pay for a new one.
I quickly raced back to the store where the day before the calendar had made its debut. There were none left, and it was only September. Back at Norcross, people were still walking around saying, "Who would spend $1.85 for a calendar?" "Everybody," I replied, calendarless.
I was reminded of this incident this past week upon reading of the death of Joyce Hall, founder of Hallmark Cards, the company that had made my calendar.
In the years since I worked at Norcross, their competitor had diversified not only into calendars but into many other adventurous areas of the publishing and card related business. Norcross on the other hand was acquired by another company and eventually moved from its sprawling Madison Avenue offices to a small town in Pennsylvania, and after some struggles with a changing field, this long established company reduced its production earlier this year.
The obituary for Hallmark's founder and guiding hand, in the New York Times, mentioned Joyce Halls, attitude toward the television program that his company sponsored for many years. The Hallmark Hall of Fame was a prestigious show bringing solid dramatic productions to the television screens as every important holiday took its turn in the year. In comparison with much of what appears on the tube, these shows were tasteful and thoughtfully produced. "I'm not a philanthropist in the matter of culture," the Times said in a quote from Hall, "but I feel that good television is good business."
There has to be some food for thought in a statement about our field made by someone as successful as Hall who used television to sell his wares while enriching the medium that made it possible. I use the comparison between the two companies not to show that one is more successful than the other, certainly Norcross, served the public well for several decades, but it is interesting to observe that without taking risks and playing it safe can lead to stagnation, a condition that oftentimes occurs in our own industry.
Advertisers assume that if a program is popular it will lead to greater sales of the sponsored product which I'm sure is easy to check. One of the humorous sidelights of The Hallmark Hall of Fame is that their competitor, Norcross would receive glowing letters complementing them on their fine program from little old ladies who assumed that Hallmark and Norcross were all one big happy company. While product identification is always a problem for an advertisers, producing a quality show that helps a whole industry image is still a worthwhile result.
One of the areas where Joyce Hall's attitude toward quality programming to encourage sales should be considered, is certainly animation for television. Animated films are a form of popular culture and in our society all culture, low or high has to compete in the marketplace. Creating programs that have value, not only in the commercial sense, but in the idea that they will enrich peoples lives, could bring dividends that goes beyond the original intent. Not only did the Hallmark people find this out, but so did Walt Disney who managed to build a library of movies and programs that are still ringing cash registers, while they entertain ad enlighten audiences year after year. Thinking of the long haul in the creation of television programming, especially for the young, makes sense.
The fabulous success of the Hallmark company in its own area as well as the television medium should be enough of art incentive for us to heed Joyce Hall's words. "Good television is good business."
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