[78-L] more exciting Grey Gull ads

[David Sanderson]

Donna Halper wrote:
>> David S. wrote--
>>
>> I guess the question is how far his reach with these ads extended.  Was
>> he ambitious (and optimistic) enough to go national?
> 
> Great question.  The sense I get is that in the early years, he 
> mainly focused on the eastern US, but by the late 20s when the 
> company was in some financial difficulties, I found a few ads about 
> GG records you could by for incredibly cheap, like 10 cents, at 
> department stores-- and those ads ran in midwestern cities (Madision 
> WI for example). They could have been placed by the dept. stores 
> rather than by Mr Shaw, however...
> 
> But I was surprised that he put so much focus on Philly-- I knew that 
> in the same time period of 1922-early 1923, he placed a lot of ads in 
> New England newspapers (the Boston Post was a big one for him) and a 
> few in NY/NJ newspapers, an even a couple of tiny ads in the Chicago 
> Tribune, but I had never seen the ads for Philadelphia before, and 
> they were fairly good sized display ads, the sort he was placing in 
> the Boston Post.   

So he stayed out of the New York market, it sounds like - makes sense 
because of competition and ad rates.  I'm now wondering if the 
Philadelphia connection had something to do with department stores.  My 
vague memory of Shaw includes a department store, I think, and if that 
is coupled with advertising interests then Philadelphia might perhaps 
make sense - Wanamaker's would have been the famous store at that time. 
   I'm not sure about early radio broadcasting from Philadelphia, 
although 1922 seems awfully early for Shaw to be factoring that into his 
plans.

-- 




      David Sanderson
      East Waterford, Maine

      dwsanderson685 at roadrunner.com
      http://www.dwsanderson.com