Sponsor (Nov 1946-Oct 1947)

)#mw/m ^^fc2? FOURTEEN KARAT GOLD THROUGHOUT fyj2$i* VERSHARP presents . . . for the one occasion that demands a truly beautiful and distinguished gift ... a gift to be treasured throughout the years . . . the new Eversharp "ommand Performance" pen and repeater pencil set . . . in fourteen karat gold. May be beautifully engraved with i "TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT" with Phil Baker, CBS. Sun. Night* and Ann Sorhern in "MAISIE" CBS. Friday Nights _ attdum tiure/M //naif/ (7 C/ /■ .-.i— ~» Plush ad jobs join the air shows to sell the $125 solid gold set elevator. It was Hawk who suggested the seven step-ups in money from $1 to S64 and it was Hawk who brought to the show the idea of placing the questions in categories; and it was Hawk who brought the show to a 14 rating within the first year. Take It Or Lean It was sold early in 1940 to Martin Strauss for Eversharp while he was taking it easy in Palm Springs, California. The Mutual Broadcasting System, feeling that it would get the business, cleared a coast-to-coast network, filled the roof studio on top of the New Amsterdam Theater (N. Y.) i typical quiz audience, and piped the show to Strauss. The audition was successful. He bought the show . . . and placed it on a CBS network of 27 stations. With the purchase of the program and the spotting of it directly after the Texaco Star Theater with Fred Allen, the fun began. Martin Strauss and his sales manager Larry Robbins barnstormed the show and although it was aired in only 27 cities, it was promoted, through personal appearances, in .~>8 towns. Strauss is a terrific salesman. He turned every ticket for the show into a pen sale. If a department store wanted an allotment of tickets, it had to agree to take plenty of pens and do plenty ol pen promotion. Bob Hawk was booked for personal appearances in everything from a class jewelry shop to the station two doors from the corner. Five personal appearances in a day was nothing unusual for Strauss to set for Hawk until one day Hawk folded up 1<> minutes before air time and almost didn't Take It Or Leavi I; that Sunday night. In some towns the ticket distribution problem was so hectic that station managers left town for the week. In one spot a department store claimed that it had been promised 1.000 ti d with only 20. It fumed and it fumed 10 and finally "solved" the problem in its own department store way. It printed 1.000 facsimiles. What that did to local studio facilities that week made history on the police blotter of the town. As a matter of fact, the Strauss sales caravan made history in practically every town it visited. Station staffers, warned in advance, filled their pockets with nickels and conducted their businesses from nearby telephone pay stations until Strauss and Taki It Or Leave It left town. It was useless to attempt to use the station phones, everyone wanted ticket-. In Philadelphia the program went on the air only after Hawk had warned the mob that filled the aisles and overflowed onto tin stage, that any coaching would force him to have the coach escorted politely from the broadcast. With the very first question there was a hilarious resounding voice in the first row that insisted on answering despite continued warnings from Hawk that "once more" and the heckler would have to go. j Finally Hawk was about to order the man with the voice escorted out when he happened to take a good look. It was Strauss himself — he sometimes has a quaint sense of humor. While the tour tore up a number of studios and increased the quota of aspirin used at each station, it proved what an intensive promotional campaign tied up with a broadcast program can do. When the razzle-dazzle started there were, as was indicated at the outset of this report, just 400 Eversharp dealers, When it had swept through the 58 cities and returned to New York to rest there were 1.900 dealers. From 4 4.900 took just six months of the blood, sweat, and gut-s of* Strauss. Tom Emerson domestic sales vp>, Larry Robbins. andfl Hawk, and '26 weeks of Take It Or Leave It, in person and on the air. A year after Take It Or Leave It had started selling Eversharp pens, there came the first rift. Neither Bob Hawk nor Biow had signed the two-year contract that had been drawn up bet w ten Hawk and the advertising agency. According to Hawk there were too many "if" clauses and no increase of stipend after a year. So he decided that he was worth more dough and asked for it. Biow tried to sell him on the idea that he wasn't worth Typical capacity-house person" airins was this Bob Hawk ***