The billboard (July-Dec 1897)

TW1 BILLBOARD The Billboard. PCBUSHED MONTHUT AT 127 Kast, -Kightlr Street, Cincinnati 0. r \j~S. A. A.d<trea* ait c&>ntnisH*ctttiot*s For the editorial or business departments to THE BILLBOARD PUBLISHING CO. Subscription, $1.00 I*er Year, In Advance. ADVKRTISINC RATHS: Advertisements will be published at the uni- form rate of ten cents per agate line; copy for advertisements must reach us on or before the twenty-fifth of the month. Our terms arecash. BillBaarcLAdvertising is sold in London at L.ozv*s Exchange, S7 Charing Cross, and at American Advertising N"ra*sfta?er Agency* Trafalgar Build- ings, Northumberland Are.. tr'„ C. In Pa*is, at Bretanc?s r 17 Avenue ttel Opera. The trade sup- plied by the American News Co. and its branches. Remittance should be made by cheque, post-office or express money orders or registered letter- addressed and made payable to The Bil board Fub. Co. The editor-cannot undertake to return unsolicited manuscript: correspondents should keep copy. IVhen it ts necessary to m^re us the- instructions and copy for advertisements, great sa?>ing in the matter of telegraph tolls may be had by recourse to the Donaldson Cipher Code, Eiteted a* S cwi-Ctass Ma'.Ur at Post QJfice at C ncinnati % O'tio. NOVEMBER 1st. With this issne The Billboard enters upon the fourth year of its existence. It hardly seems possible that a twelve-month has rolled around since last we directed attention to the paper's birthday, but such is the case, so the calendar says. Time flies, especially when one is busy, and the year just past has been such a busy year —and such a happy year. It has been crowded with contention, which has sev- eral times culminated in good, healthy, hearty scraps. We have enjoyed them and our adversaries have, too—at least we hope so. At any rate, the paper has thriven, and continues to grow larger and stronger wi h each succeeding month. Our circulation is especially healthy. We can truthfully state that there is not a bill poster, distributor, fair manager or poster printer of any consequence in America but reads it regularly, and we are fast finding favor among sign painters, adver- tisers and advertising agents. *' ■ -* * This, of course, is something to be thankful for, and as this is our Thanks- giving issue, we may be pardoned, per- haps, if we dwell at length upon other blessings which we have to be grateful for. \ One of them is an increased advertising patronage. Another, better advertising rates. But, far and away, the most im- portant of all is the appreciation, confi- dence and esteem of a large and ever growing constituency. Among bill posters, in particular, is this noticeable. While it is due, in a large measure,- to the fair and impartial manner in which we have meted out com- mendation and criticism, it is owing no less to the fact that the craft is beginning to realize that we are honest and entirely disinterested in all measures that we ad- vocate. Of course, no paper wholly es- cape? disapproval. We have known instances ourselves. But, after all, a pa- per that has no enemies scarce merits real friends. -. ■■■■■»*• ' Many bill posters are awakening to the fact that the fight we are making for the open association is a lorg step in the right direction. Several gentlemen who control large cities and were formerly arrayed against us on this issue, have conceded that ulti- mately we will achieve a victory. One of them recently said : "You're right on that question, and so are English bill posters. I don't believe you would ever have had an argument if you had led up to the issue gradually. The trouble was, you were a little ahead of the times, and you sprung it so abruptly that most of us were arrayed against you before we had time to think the matter" over carefully. You will win in time, though, and when you do you will win a whole lot of friends." We feel confident ourselves of victory. Of course, we do not expect it in the im- mediate future, but we are altogether confident of the final outcome. When such discerning, careful thinkers as R. C. Campbell, C. C. Donnelly, Col. Burr Robbins and Mr. Sam Pratt concede the soundness of our theories, we are sure the number of our supporters will increase rapidly. '■.*■■.■ . * * WE recently heard the issue put rather graphically by a well known advertising ageut. Said he: "The advertiser is much like the proverbial horse that you can lead to water but you cannot make him drink." "Billposters," he'eontinued, "can boy- cott, browbeat and bulldoze to their heart's content, but they cannot curb the dominant desire of the American busi- ness man to buy whe:e he can buy the most-for his money. All their attempts will result in failure, and worse than that they may give rise to opposition. For . instance, a short time since J. Ballard Carroll had Albany to himself. He was a good fellow, affable, jovial and counted his friends by the score. He owned his ■ town, and no one ever dreamed that any one would attempt to enter the lists against him. No one would have, either, but Bailie, loyal to the policy of the as- sociation, refused this contract, and that until Mclntyre determined that he could make a good thing-out of the work that Bailie refused, if he never got anything else. And now Bailie has got .bitter, costly opposition on his hands which otherwise he would never have known." * ■.'■' * * The whole scheme of-the "close" as- sociation is fundamentally wrong, and ' under the special dispensation code it is worse than ever. Any member of the A. B. Pi A. who has opposition can now be relieved of all obligations to maintain prices, etc., while the members who enjoy immunity from opposition are expected to invite it by refusing work at the dicta- tion of these members who are free to do as they like. When you look at the mat- ter carefully, it is absurd on its face. The open association would rectify these matters largely. We do not claim . that it would do away with opposition entirely, but we do stoutly maintain that those cities that are now free from it would be ten times more secure under it than they are under the close organiza- tion. We go further, and affirm that in cities where opposition has already ob- tained a foothold it will eliminate it four out of five times, and in the fifth case it will turn opposition into competition, to the incalculable benefit of everybody con- cerned. This it will do, too, within two years if given a trial. WHAT IS THE BEST SIZE FOR A POSTER? BY |A3I W. HOKE. A great deal depends upon the point of view. I know many bill posters who preach one-sheets, or at least a part one- sheets, but there is a strong suspicion that one of their reasons for wanting one- sheets is to a certain extent due to the ease with which one-sheets are available for filling up all sorts and sizes and shapes of dead space. I think that the one-sheet has its uses, but recently some advertisers have gone to the other extreme, and are striving to see how large a poster can be made. A 48-sheet (4x12) is, I believe, about as big as they have yet got; and I have been in numerous cities where these mammoth signs bad to take a back seat around tbe corner because there was not sufficient room on the prominent boards to accom- modate the size. The 24 sheet is a good, convenient size, and can be got onto most any billboard, being only about twenty feet in length. A 24-sheet takes up just the same amount of space as three 8-sheets, and if the ad- vertisers sends out 8-sheets he is very apt to find a large majority of them bunched into stands of at least 24-sheets, and fre- quently I have seen as many as six or eight or ten 8-sheets bunched together. If there were any way under the sun to prevent bill posters from bunching 8- sheets I would be inclined to favor this size as among the most valuable, all things considered. The 8-sheet is large enough to hold an ordinary amount of reading matter, to be easily readable from across the street, and its economical size renders it possible for an advertiser to cover' ithe entire town or city, and still have money left to spend in the next town. Of course, the advertiser who has so much money that he needs not to count the cost, may take the 24-sheets, or the 32-shee'.s. and a dozen other sues if he , likes; and there is no escaping the fact that a large sign is, to a certain extent, more impressive than a smaller one. At the same time, repetition is a strong point of advertising, and with the 8-sheet well scattered the reader is running against the same thing all over town, and is bound to lake notice and remember. Another good thing about the S sheet is the fact that it is nearly as easily fitted into dead space as the 1-sheet, and, there- fore, is good for the bill poster, too. TOLEDO. Mayor Jones will not approve the bill posting ordinance if council passes it. In giving out this decision he said he hoped "that council would not pass the ordi- nance." On being pressed for his. reasons, the mayor intimated that the purpose of the ordinance, in his mind, was to create a monopoly for the bill posters, who are pushing the ordinance, notwithstanding the fact that the price would be reduced by the ordinance. "Bryan & Co. has snapped up all the desirable pieces of property in the city, and will have a practical monopoly of the business should the ordinance pass,'" said the mayor "The other bill posters will, of course, have the same chance as this firm to compete for contracts, but any business man would give Bryan three times as much money for advertising his business than he would any other firm, simply because of the increased facilities offered by this company. It is not fair to the other bill posters. Of course they could secure bill boards if they saw fit, but they will find that all the best places have been leased by the other company. "The best illustration of this spirit I. have seen for some time was when a wo- man called on me the other day to obtain my influence for an ordinance raising the license fee of the drivers of baggage wag- ons in the city. She said there was not enough in business now to give all a decent living, and if a license fee of large pro- portion was placed on the busines, it would drive some of them out. I asked her what they could do when their busi- ness had been taken away, but she could not answer. I then asked her if she wanted a few to live decently while th: others starved indecently, and this side of the question had never entered her mind. That is the spirit that animates many of the ordinances, and it crops out in the bill posting ordinance." Bellefontaine, O , is badly in need of a bill poster. Commercial paper sent there is returned by the present incumbent with tbe excuse that the theatre monopo- lizes all his space. The $4 delinquency of the Ohio Bill Posters' Association was for blank certifi- cates. The amount was tendered at At- lantic City, but refused because the Sec- retary had no blank receipts with him. The amount was paid promptly as soon as it was brought to the attentton of the Secretary of the State Association. fHE BiLLBOARfc The Selection of Colors in Sign Painting. i Geo. Knox, of Meadville, Pa., sends us catalogue of a recent poster exhibition held in Meadville. It is. a marvel of lith- ographic excellence. Contrast is the first and principal ele- ment that enters into the composition of any sign, although the philosophy of har- monious coloring in certain parts should not be ignored, for both are necessary in any work of color. Instead of calling it by|the term of "harmonious contrast," we will call it "harmony in temperature," and "contrast in temperature," by using the primary blue as the cold color and yellow and red as the warm colors. There are only three primary colors. We think, in this wise, the theory of coloring can be best understood. Contrast is confined to light and shadow and the disposition of lines, and the proper balancing of con- trasts is what gives the charm to painting, and not the chromatic scale, as some writers would have us believe. To avoid dullness and a hazy appearance, we must strive to obtain the opposite. If there is an error made, let it be on the bright and clear side. This rule will invariably hold good in sign painting. If the ground is of a warm tint, such as a yellow or red in any shade, there should be blues and pur- ples in contrast, or some other of the cool tints; then we have a contrast of temperature, a most desirable character- istic of a sign, for by this method we give force to it. Force does not consist so much in strong or gay colois as it does in the proper balancing of contrasting tones. If the ground be of a cool hue, such as blue or any of its hues, reds aud yellows are the contrasting tones. The three principal contrasts are blue opposite to orange, red to green and yellow to pur- ple. By carrying out this principle, you will have an endless variety of contrasts. It is somewhat curious, but nevertheless a fact, that white letters in opposition to black will not attract the eye as quickly as a blue or an orange, a red or a green or a yellow or a purple. The fact is at- tributed to the following reason : A color and its opposite naturally increases as it approaches, but when once they mingle they neutralize each other. Take a blue and yellow, for instance; their admixture produces a green, which does not resem- ble either of the colors. Summarizing the foregoing statements gives this rule : Never place a color made from two pri- maries on either of the primaries. If you want a good contrast, always take a hue of the third color. When shadowing let- ters, I would caution you against using a darker or lighter shade of the letter or ground. It always results in a dull ef- fect. The shadow is supposed to represent a certain modification of atmospheric effect, and will, with but few exceptions, partake of a natural tone. The rule for determining what tbe color of this shadow should be is to'take a block of wood and paint it all around with the color the let- ters are intended to be; set this on the sign so that a shadow will fall either to the right or left when the sun shines 011 it, and observe the tint of the shadow thus cast. You will observe a compound effect, partaking both of the color of the block and also of the ground. This may be successfully imitated by using a trans- parent color of the block, when placed over the ground it neutralizes and gives a natural effect. As & general thing, you will find that reds require a shade of a purple or dull brown. In some cases;"where the ground admits of it, almost black. In yellows of the umber shade, you will require a gra- dation of golden hues for the first shade, ranging down to nearly black. Light pink on a white ground should be shadowed -with a warm brown. For light grays and drab grays, shadow with rich brown; for greens, reddish brown shadow; white to flesh color, rich purple shadows. As a standard rule, warm shad- ows to cool, light colors, and cool shad- ows to colors of a warm tint. Avoid the use of greenish blues and greenish yel- lows, they always present a sickly ap- pearance. Now, if it be wished to tone the harsh- ness of two contrasting; tones without their losing any of their force by reason of the contrast, do so by placing a neu- tralizing color between them. Harmoniz- ing colors consists of uniting a warm and cool color by the introduction of in- termediate tones or half tints. W. C. TIRRILL, E. H. CARWITHEN. On this page we preseut an excellent portrait of Mr. E. H. Carwithen, the gen- tlemanly and efficient bill poster of Charleston. W. Va. Mr. Carwithen owns all the boards in his city, and enjoys a monopoly of the commercial and circus bill posting. He embarked in the busi- ness February 15, 1SS2, and has built up a plant in the meantime that is equal to any in the state of West Virginia. NONE SO LEWD AS A PROWLING PRUDE. The Minneapolis Improvement League has determined to wage war upon the billboard poster.-;, especially the pictures of-girls and women smoking cigarettes. Mrs. H. F. Brown llas> been chosen presi- dent of the league and Prof. Maria Sen- ford vice-president. Mrs. F. H Barnard will represent the league on the woman's council. For the past two years Profitable Ad- vertising has been published from No. 13 School street, Boston, Mass. On Novem- ber I the office of publication was re- 1110 ed to the Niles Building, No. 27 School street, that city. Mr. W. C. Tirrill, whose portrait this month adorns our first page, owns the bid boards of Lima, Ohio, and enjoys the confidence and esteem of a large and growing clientel of advertisers, both local and foreign. Although just turned thirty years of age, he has built up a business which many _an older man might envy. Mr Tirrell was born at Lima August 25, 1S67. At the age of twelve years his father died, and at fo irteen he left school and, much against his mother's wishes, accepted a position as property mau and assistant bill poster of the opera house- He remained in tbe employ of the theater in various capacities until he attained his majority, when he accepted an engage- ment with the Rogers Comedy Co., sea- son i8S7-'8S. The following season he went in advance of the Holden Comedy Co., and in 1891 put out his own company. He married Miss Clara B. Cuff, of Van Wert, Ohio, in 1892, and the same year started the business which has been so successful. Mr. Tirrell deserves his prosperity. OUR VOT ING CONTEST. Private advices received from England warrant us in stating that the chances are very slim for a meeting of the association next summer. Mr. Youde has about got every plant of any consequence in the kingdom, and our correspondents think thai this will put an end to the existence of the association. Under the circumstances, it has seemed best for us to discontinue the contest, as there is little likelihood of a meeting. The Christmas Billboard will be mailed to' prominent advertisers all over the world. NEW YORK. Herman Stiefel, representing the bill- posting firm of Van Beuren & Co., made an application, October 23, to Magistrate Kudlich, in the Yorkville Police Court, for the arrest of Robert Miller, Richard H. Derby and Frederick Culver, candi- dates on the Citizens' Union ticket for Councilmen in the Second Council Dis- trict, on the charge of having caused their lithographs to be placed on a fence leased by Van Beuren & Co , without the con- sent of that firm. The application was a sequel to the ar- rest on October 22, of two bill posters, Frank Hassard, of No. 310 West Twenty- sixth street, and Allen, luckes, of No. 601 Evergreen avenue, Brooklyn, under Sec- tion 643 of the Penal Code, which, de- clares that no person shall place or cause to be placed on any fence, house wall or other structure, bills, pictures, advertise- ments or anything else without the con- sent of the owner or lessee. Section 644, following, states that those persons whose advertisements are thus placed are equal- ly guilty with those placing them. The object in this case was a fence at Fifty- sixth street and Eighth avenue, for which Van Beuren & Co. pay } 1.200 a year, and the section provides that the placing of the lithographs on a fence is presumably evidence of guilt. When the case of Hassard and Juckes was called, Samuel Hess, an employe of the bill-posting firm, testified to having seen the two men walk away from the fence at Fifiy-sixth street and Eighth -avenue, with posters! brushes and paste. He had followed them for a time and had seen them paste other lithographs on a fence at Fifty-third street and Eighth avenue, and in a window of a vacant store. ' He had not, however, actual- ly seen the men paste lithographs on the Fifty-sixth street fence. Mr. Stiefel asked the men if they had posted the bills on the Fifty-third street fence and in the windows, but their cousel, C. J, Pitcher, representing the Citizens' Union, object- ed to the question, and Magistrate Kud- lich sustained the objection. He also said that he would have to discharge the men, as they had not actually been seen placing the posters on the Fifty-sixth street fence, and as they had denied hav- ing done so. Mr. Siiefel's application for summonses for the three candidates, Miller, Derby and Culver, was granted, and Mr. Pitcher was instructed to have them appear in court on Tuesday. There is some little opinion among pol- iticians'that the bill-posting firm of Van" Beuren & Co. is not as intensely inter- ested in the arrest of the candidates as it appeared. Some men mentioned politics as having something to do with the at. tempt to have more arrests. Note the unholy glee with which the Times (all the news that's fit to print) recounts the following: War on the advertising signs has been opened on Long Island, which has been hung, plastered, benailed, festooned, covered and bewildered with those evidences of misguided enterprise. Whenever a new liver pill has appeared on the market, Long Island has broken out in a hilions rash of green and yellow. Kacli original brand of cigarette has caused the territory to resemble a huge case of scarlatina, with flaring red and pink, and usually a unpulchritudinous and partly denuded female grinning a ghastly giin above the wreck of color. The homes and front fences of eminent Pre*- hibitiouists have brazenly blazed forth whiskies portrayed in many hues. Health resorts and summer homes have appeared suddenly eloquent with suggestions of malaria and malaria cures. The residences of people who ride and believe in one make of bicycle have been made to glori/y other makes to the scandal of the occu_ pants. The trees have been made to blossom with proclamations of the virtues of face, pow- ders, cures for the liquor habit, corsets and three-dollar trousers. Every man in New YorK who had a sign to nail up or paint cameover and nailed or painted it somewhere on Long Island scenery. Former County - Superintendent Pearsall of Roslyn. L. I., caught a new man nailiug a new and brilliant cigarette abomination on his barn. The advertising agents seem to have acquired the idea that Long Island was created for adver- tising purposes, and this one promptly resented the interference. Mr. Pearsall secured a warrant and the in- vader, who was found up a pine tiee carefully placing his hasheen dream so that it would best mar the effect of the autumn foliage, was pulled down and arrested. He was much astonished and more infuriated, but when he was led to the village lock-up, he looked in it ami began to beg for his life. Finally lie compromised by paying S5.20 costs antJJwalk- ing seven miles, attended by the constable, and pulling down all the signs that he had put up. He also acknowledged publicly and penitently that the pictures on his signs were not high art, and that his cigarettes were no better and would kill a man no quicker than any other cigarettes. Tnen he was led to the station and put on a New York train. A general tearing down and tffacementof un- authorized signs and posters has begun on Long Island, and the authorities are supporting the movement. There is good reason for believing that "the shot for liberty from artistic desecra- tions and undesirable suggestions fired at Mr. FearsalVs barn will be echoed all over the island.