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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1961-11-23, Page 6Haw They Get Tour Name On Their Lists r Across the country last month, young housewives who hadn't even started to knit the booties ound their mailboxes filled with • birculars advertising bassinets and strained carrots, diaper ser- vices and baby books, New vice presidents who hadn't yet gotten their carpets wall to wall began to hear by mail about bigger and better insurance policies and the delights of corona -style cigars. The mail may have been un- expected but it certainly wasn't mysterious. The new mothers -to - be and the new vice presidents had landed on another round of mailing lists—keystone to the burgeoning $2 -billion -a -year di rest -mail advertising business. It's so big and so busy in fact, that one of every three letters in the average American family's daily mail turns out to be an advertising circular. A lot of direct mail is buck- shot advertising addressed simply to "Occupant." But as the cost of processing and mailing solicita- tions increases, companies aim more and more carefully at their potential customers, And this has spawned an amazing, some- times weird, assortment of mail- ing lists which makes Gilbert and S u 11 i v a n's Lord Executioner seem like a sluggard, His list may have included society of- fenders and people who eat pep- permint and puff it in your face. But he never had a list of Phi Beta Kappa members, peanut packers, music appreciators, ca- reer girls, people interested in metaphysics, or "top" families. The 200 -odd companies that com- pile lists, and gross more than $100 million for their efforts, of- fer these and many, many more. Creative Mailing Service of Freeport, N.Y., for instance, of- fers a list of newly appointed executives, another of business- men who attend a lot of conven- tions. W. S. Ponton of Engle- wood, N.J., offers 12,000 classi- fications from Abattoir Equip- ment Manufacturers (301 for $16) to Zoological Gardens (34 for $5), Ponton can supply an advertiser with the names of eight manufacturers of bone but- tons for $5, or a list of 175,432 attorneys at $18.50 per 1,000. It also offers 51,719 "prominent" attorneys at $20 per 1,000, Griz- zard Advertising of Atlanta maintains a list of Georgia's males who are more than 6 feet tall and weigh 215 pounds or more. It was for a king-size men's clothing store, and the list was compiled by going through files of Georgia drivers' licenses, which carry such information, to pluck out 1,600 potential custom- ers. For the ordinary 'American, unless he lives in the wilderness —and possibly but even then— there is no escape from mailing lists. Every time he joins a club or mails in a coupon, rents a house or buys a car, gets married or promoted, his name goes on someone's mailing list. The lis- ing starts before he is born, goes on through the tombstone list after he is dead. Lists have grown so profusely that a new fraternity of business entrepreneurs has risen. They are the list brokers, the middle- men between the owners and compilers of lists and the busi- nessmen who want to use them. Lewis Kleid of New 'York claims to be the nation's biggest list broker, and he very well may be. Kleid handles about 125 million names a year, has access to some 5,000 mailing lists ranging in size from the Phi Beta Kappa asso- ciation's 5,400 to the Diners' Club List, which counts more than 1 million names. The names rent for about $20 per 1,000, of which Kleid gets 20 per cent, Do Phi 9etes complain when they find their names are being rented out? "Infrequently," says Kleid, DRIVE WITH CARE ! "The association can earn a good bit of money by renting Its mails ling liet several times a yeaz', If it didn't," he adds, "the dues might go up and that would be sure., to cause complaints." The Diners' Club earns about $200,000 alists, year for the use of its. mailing There was a time when com- panies guarded their customers lists as closely as TIffany does its jewels, Many still do, but an increasing number are turning their customer lists into major revenue producers by renting them to non-cempetitve firms for one-shot mailings. A simple safe- guard discourages .piracy—miss spelling the names of employes and company friends who are ins eluded on the list, If they get second letters with the misspell- ing, the list owner can haul the Offender into court, Soap companies (with their coupons) and record and book clubs (Doubleday mails about 110 million promotion pieces a year) are the big users of direct mail, but it can be used to sell almost anything. A Midwestern maker of auto- matic controls recently picked up $2 million in orders as a result of a single mailing to 115 key executives. A warehouse full of slow-moving black raincoats was cleared out in a month when a smart merchandiser rented a mailing list of ministers and un- dertakers, When Ford edged ahead of Chevrolet in sales in 1959, the triumph was due at least in part to a massive $4 mil- lion mailing that went to 20 mil- lion U.S. homes. Ford is back in second place again, but then Chevrolet now matches it, mail- ing piece for mailing piece, There are even sociological conclusions to draw from mailing lists—if anyone cares to draw them. From his daily assortment of mail, a man can pretty well tell what people think of his bankroll and of him as a person. If his mail describes $5,000 in surance policies, $100 loans, and the wisdom of joining a club that offers balcony seats at the thea- ter, the list makers figure he may not be very well off finan- ciaily, but he probably is cul- tured. If announcements come from fashionable hotels, never from symphonic societies, the man probably earns plenty of money but isn't much of a music lover. People who think they keep well up on current affairs can test themselves this week. New York's General Fulfillment Servies, which handles many of the major direct mailings, is sending out 200,000 subscription solicitations for a renowned Eng- lish newspaper, The Guardian, While it's simple enough to figure out how most of the lists are compiled, how does one come up with a list of widows who have recently received in- surance money and the names of stock -market investors? insur- ance companies, stock brokers, and banks aren't supposed to tell. Maybe it is, as Chicago compiler Walter Drey explains, "the fine art of serendipity"—a word he translates as "the knack of mak- ing profitable and unexpected discoveries by accident" An ex- planation from a Los Angeles compiler sounds more likely, however: "Some we buy under the right places to go." Sunk mail—a term that can turn an otherwise placid list broker or compiler into a fight- ing man—comes in for plenty of abuse, both from the man who delivers it and from the man who gets it. But neither may be as serious as he often sounds. When the National Association of Letter Carriers was asked about the mailman's supposedly classic antipathy toward third- class mail, a vice presient of the union pointed out: "There wasn't any j>ank mail during the depres„- sum. We sure wished there was!” —From NEWSWEEK Don't complain because you are growing old. Many are denied the privilege. LEADING A SHELTERED LIFE—Kelly B. McRight, left, and Don R. Sistrunk spent three days inside this fallout shelter in an experiment by McNeese State College and Civil De- fense officials. EAST GOES WEST — Miss Fawzah Essequira demonstrates that although Moroccan women cling to the veil and the coverall djellaba, they do adopt some western ways. Here, she commutes to Casablanca on her new motor scooter, TABLET Jam AnctDeA,vs. When we go to community suppersin the towns near our home, cakes are often the high point in the meal. And they are not just cakes—they're creations! More often than not, it's choco- late cake which most .hande reach for eagerly. I've yet to see a chocolate cake which 'can .sur- pass that made from a recipe given me years ago by a friend. It makes a large, moist, light - chocolate cake. We usually make it as a layer cake, combin- ing the layers with a creamy butter frosting, but it is equally delicious and perhaps less rich if the layers are combined with a boiled frosting. Sometimes, for aur family of two, I cut the recipe in half. One layer can be split, to make a smaller layer cake, or it can be used to form a dozen or more cupcakes. ° , As a little girl at home I was always allowed to cut—and eat —warm cake, unless it was being saved for some special company. This taught me at an early age that there's just nothing so fine as warm cake: in fact it bears little resemblance to a cooled cake or one which is a day or two old, And so, whenever it is possible, I make cake at a time when- the first pieces can be served warm or nearly so. Once I made the recipe I am about to give you for a family gathering. It was served only an hour or so after its removal from the oven —and the family still talks about it, .writes Gertrude P. Lancaster in the' Christian Science Monitor, 5 * 5 Now for the recipe. Cream together '/x eup butter and 2 cups sugar. Now you can use other shortenings if you want to, but for real flavor, butter is the thing. To this mixture add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 4 boatels egg yolks and 4 squares of chocolate melted. Mix thoroughly. Sift and measure 13A cups flour, and add to it 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/i teaspoon salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter mix- ture alternately with 1 cup milk. Last acid 4 beaten egg whites— fold them in gently but thor- oughly, Bake at 350° F. for about 35 minutes. You'll need 9 -inch layer pens for this, -tor it is a large cake, * * 5 There's another dessert con- coction which is far from new but every now and then I find people who have never served it but would like to. Preferably it should be served heaped up on a smooth, cold, soft custard, but if you wish, you can serve it alone, it's called apple foam, and this is an ideal time of year to make it. Use apples which are not too bland, but which have a distinct apple flavor. 5 5 5 Boat 2 egg whites until stiff, Add 1 cup granulated sugar and 2 grated, medium-sized apples. Beat this mixture very thorough- ly until the sugar has become entirely blended into it and no longer is gritty, It 'will increase in quantity as you beat and be- come velvety and handsome. Jf you have some lent over from a mcal, it will keep well, but when you are about to serve it again, beat it once mare to re- store its fluffiness. r 5 w "Here are two very old recipes which I think some readers may enjoy," writes Mrs. Ti, J`,Met- lhews, BANANA NUT IiltEAL) 1 eup sugar i%i cup shortening x eggs 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3) 2 cups flour 1 teaspoon soda (scant) 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 5 tablespoons nsilk / eup nuts, chopped Sift flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and sugar together; add nuts. Add unbeaten egg, mashed bananas, and shortening, Stir the milk in lightly but quickly. Pour into a greased, floured loaf pan and bake at 328° F, about 50 minutes, * 5 * DATE BREAD 1 cup dates, cut up 1 teaspoon soda i cup boiling water 1 tablespoon butter, melted s/,r eup brown sugar 1 egg 11/2 cups flour 1/ teaspoon salt 1 cup nut meats Combine dates and soda; pour boiling water over them. Cook over low heat until thick (if It .becomes too thick, add a little more water). Add butter and let cool. Combine brown sugar and egg and add to date mixture. Sift together the flour and salt and add to first mixture; add nuts. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake at 325° F. for 50 minutes. • w r "Do not open oven door until this bread is done," writes Carrie Bulkeley LeGeyt, of her cran- berry bread. Here is her recipe. CRANBERRY BREAD 1 cup raw cranberries, chopped 3. cup English walnuts 1 cup sugar 2 cups flour 2 tablespoons shortening Grated rind of 1 orange Juice of 1 orange plus boiling water to make 1 Cup 1 egg, beaten 11/2 teaspoons baking powder Y2 teaspoon soda Sift together the dry ingredi- ents; add the egg, shortening, and orange juice and rind; add cranberries and nuts. Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake 1 hour at 375° F, (Bake at 350° F, if you use a glass loaf pan.) 5 * 5 This lemon bread—the recipe was sent in by Mrs, Gwendolyn S. Holley should have a sauce poured over it while it is still warm and in the pan. Here are the recipes for both bread and sauce. LEMON BREAD 6 tablespoons butter 1 cup sugar 2 unbeaten eggs 34 cap milk 11/ cups flour r/ teaspoon Salt Pk teaspoons baking powder Grated rind of 1 lemon Cream butter and sugar to- gether and add eggs; mix. Add milk. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder and add to first mixture, then add grated lemon rind, Pour into greased loaf pan and bake 1 hour, et 350' F. SAUCE Juice of 1 lemon Grated rind of Vs lemon t4 to !/ cup sugar Combine these ingredients and. pour over loaf after you've taken it out of the oven, but before you've removed it from the nen, ✓ aying your income tax re- minds you that you don't have t, exis a Civil Service exam 10 work for the government. looltlii '10 1001 Imagined Insults So She Killed It was 0,3.0 Ona hot, humid New York afternoon in Central Park. The children were getting hungry. It was time for supper, time for baths, Mrs. Peale La,. Verne, dark haired, attractive, got up from her bench, said a pleasant good -by to the other mothers there, untied her Great Dane, Floosey, collected ' her three children, Peter, 6, William, 4, and Susan, 2, and headed for home two blocks away. Anis Kiernan, 26, sat waiting on a bench in the lobby of the LaVernes' Fifth Avenue apart - went house. It was a bad time for Ann. Shethought people were making fun of her. She couldn't get any dates. She lust knew she was too fat and un- attractive and she had this nerv- ous habit of scratching hex face, She felt sure a psychiatrist, :Dr, Albert LaVerne, kept telling everybody how she scratched, and people kept mocking her about it by imitating her, even people on television, She had thought )Jr, LaVerne was quite a good teacher three years ago, when she was taking a sociology course from hint at Fordham — a course which put the emphasis on neurotic psychotic, and psy- chopathic personalities, As a matter of fact she had consulted him professionally once, and he had recommended that she go to a sanitarium. Maybe, if she talked to Mrs. LaVerne, she could get her husband to stop telling people about her scratch- ing. But maybe Mrs. LaVerne was telling people, too. Dr. LaVerne, a senior psychi- atrist at Bellevue Hospital, had been warned by telephone that Ann Kiernan was waiting in the lobby. He had told the apart- ment superintendent to call the police if Ann gave any trouble. When the doctor's wife arrived home, the elevator operator told Ann: "Here comes Mrs. LaVerne now." The two women talked quietly for a while as the three children and Floosey waited by the ele- vator door, Ann told Mrs. La - Verne her husband was spread- ing lies about her and she pleaded with her to make him stop. Finally Mrs. LaVerne mov- ed to join her children. Ann pulled a revolver out of her parse and fired three shots. Two bit Mrs, LaVerne, the third chipped the marble wall of the lobby. Half an hour later Mrs. La - Verne, 28, a physician in her own right, died. At almost the same moment, Ann drove up to a nearby station house and ask- ed a policeman whether it was all right to park there. When he said "yes," she parked, walk- ed inside, and gave herself up. She told them: "When she shrugged her shoulders and started to walk away, I knew no one was going to do any- thing for me. So, I shot her." She gave a policeman bet handbag with the gun in it,. a gun. which she had acquired in her home town of Mountain Lakes, NJ. Magistrate Reuben Levy of New York's Felony Court later .deplored the ease with which slie was able to ob- tain a gun permit, despite her record of mental instability. "Mitzi" Kiernan -- that was her nickname in college — is s not fat, isnot unattractive, end certainly wasn't when she en- tered St. Lawrence Unive:.ity in Canton, N.Y,, in 1952, "In her freshman year she was one of the most sought-after girls in the school. She was always to school activities," said one of her old college friends. Her only deviation from the normal seemed to be that' she cha'n- smoked, But chain-smoking is no indication that a person; rs homicidal.. Neither is scratching • oneself. "There is no special tip-off to these delusions," said e pro- minent New York psychic, ist. "But I know that there ere many, many psychotics wal1,ng around the streets who mcght do murder if the right thing — the shrug of the shoulders — set them off." Though laymen rarely encounter people tike this, they are an occupatsunal hazard for psychiatrists. One doctor keeps a revolver hidden in his chair. Another has a gist of his potentially homicidal pa- tients handy for the police in any emergency, "When I have treated dangerous psychotics in' the past," said another doctor, "I have arranged my consulting room so that I wouldn't be trapped. But, more importi.nt than seeing that I am not at- tacked is to help ^ nzy patient. By understanding what's trou- bling a patient, by helping him to see his problem, I can then help him both to surrender his weapon and his murderous im- pulse and still feel satisfied with himself. But that's 'quite an ordeal to go through. Ya.i're really sweating when it's over." REALLY SUPERIOR WHITE MEN The sign on the bank of the Zambesi River, just 1 mile above the roaring, misty Victoria Falls, is clear and to the point: "Bath- ing is suicidal because of croco- diles." More than 100 white resi- dents of nearby 'Livingstone, a town_ in Northern Rhodesia, last month plunged into the Zambezi rather than swim in their muni- cipal pool. Their reason: Living - stone's swimming pool had lust been desegregated, Instead of swimming with Africans, as one of the white men put it: "We would rather take our chance on the crocs." Q. When in a crowded restaur- ant, and a stranger wants to sit in a chair at your table and asks, "Do you mind," what should your response be? A. The best answer, of course, is, "Not at all." Today's baby sitter, if she's worth her fee, brings know-how, TLC (tender, loving care) and a sense of responsibility to her job; ,To aid teen-agers to be better sitters, Camp Fire Girls has issued a booklet, "Child Care Course," brimming with cogent facts, Entertains , Play games or on t tell outsiders where reed and tell some stories, ou are doing your sitting, Keep check on the children when asleep; use flashlight. Be honest; don't "raid" the ice box unless you're invited. Gp�o, y Know where to reach tie parents or other adult help. iree Don't tie up the telephone; keep mum on being alone, Lock a doors; dra'•I drapes; Don't be irritable; DO give beep +e eoich light on. TLC (tender, iovino care),