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Show Calendars Have Grown to a 820,000,000 Business in 55 Years The American public has been "pin-up-minded" for many years since shortly after the close of another an-other war, the conflict of 1861-65, when some unknown but enterprising genius had the idea of combining a calendar and a sales message. It wasn't until 18S8, however, that E. B. Osborne, "the daddy of the modern advertising calendar," not only brought advertising to the cal-i cal-i endar on a nation-wide scale but also 1 brought profits into the picture as well. Osborne was smart enough to see the pictorial possibilities in the new and beautiful county court house built in Montgomery, Iowa. He drew a picture of it, attached a calendar to it and then went out and sold the idea of printing their names on the calendar to 22 advertisers. adver-tisers. This calendar was sold widely wide-ly throughout the Hawkeye state and that started the modern calendar industry in-dustry which has now grown into a $20,000,000 a year business. Calendars are made in every conceivable con-ceivable size and shape from the smallest which will fit into the vest pocket to the "jumboes," 29 by 42 inches in size, which will cover cov-er a large blank "wall These "jumboes" "jum-boes" go well in rural areas where wall space isn't at such a premium pre-mium as it is in small apartments and small business offices in the congested con-gested metropolitan areas. Here the average size calendar is only 1G by 33 inches in size. |
