Donald’s self-made man image becomes a bit less
genuine when you realize just who his father was and how successful and just
how this family managed to step into the post-world war concept of the American
dream.
At a
time when Jews -- rich or poor -- were fleeing urban centers such as Newark,
Paterson and Bayonne, Irv was far ahead of them -- a 1940's Madman success
story as an economic executive for Vitamin Corp of America (VCA.)
The
son of George and Fannie, Irv grew up in Newark. His parents who came from then
Russia controlled area that would later become Poland. They ran in a grocery
store in Newark.
Irv
apparently learned the benefit of a good education and completed high school at
a time when many of his contemporaries had not
VCA
was already famous with roots out of both pharmaceutical and patent medicines slightly
more legitimate then Humphries of Rutherford where I later work for a short
time in 1990.
Although
the company suffered a scathing attack by the mayor of New York City in 1945,
it rapidly became one of the post war successes and this had a lot to do with
Irv who served as the company's advertising strategist learning early to use
media to get his message out.
Advertising,
he claimed, was the secret to the success advertising carried through to the
point of sale merchandising.
“The
merchandising,” he claimed, “clinches the sale.”
VCA
he said used radio and TV to educate the public about the need for vitamins.
One
of its most popular products at the time was called Robutol, a vitamin product
geared toward adults.
The
company, in order to expand its advertising budget, borrowed heavily – but it
paid off in big profits later.
The
company sold every sort of drug from patent drugs and aspirin to things such as
Cal-o-Metric for weight control, and a variety of skin creams and lotions.
One
of its most significant accomplishments and what allowed the company to expand
even more was when VCA got the contract to sell to Rexall Drug Company in 1952.
Irv’s
advertising strategy for various consumer drug products had a number of factors:
such as seeking mass appeal programs or agencies to sponsor on the air media in
emotional and highly-charged commercials and special offers.
“But
it is the druggist who actually puts Robutol in the customer's hands,” Irv told
one consumer publication in the early 50s after he helped boost sales from two
or three million in 1952 more than 10 million 3 years later.
“But
it works both ways,” he added. “The druggist is more likely to push a product
that is backed by national advertising.”
This
relationship between producer and drugstore would not be lost on Donald, who
would form close associations with drug stores throughout the area in a network
of sources for cosmetics.
Donald
briefly delved into and had a supply of vitamins when I worked with him, but
his business model clearly wanted to serve as a middleman for cosmetics
especially the high-end products corporations were reluctant to sell on the
mass market.
Clearly,
he learned relationships and business strategies from a father who helped
develop them three decades earlier.
VCA
through Irv’s help learned how to use Madison Avenue and increased its
advertising budget in TV radio and newspapers.
“We
spend for promotion when we feel their time is right,” Irv said. “Our campaign
is geared for national market.”
VCA
had a target audience mostly women in their mid-30s or older – mostly housewives
although the drugs were not developed exclusively for them.
“Women
are the main buyers of drug products,” Irv said.
For
this reason, many of the ads appeared on shows that appeal to women or were
then considered family-oriented.
The
company also begin a new approach to spot TV buying, one that stressed
identifying their product both with strong local personality and with a program.
One
of the programs they bought spots in was Best Movie of the Week, a 90-minute
feature film usually shown after 10 or 10:30 p.m.
Their
ads appeared and markets that included New York, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago,
Minneapolis, Dallas, San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland.
One
of their favorite announcers was a guy named John Reed King who hosted the show
live in New York or on WABC TV.
He
was a hefty vigorous looking man in his forties and has convincing salesman for
their products. Irv figured the audience would assume King benefited from VCA’s
products.
Under
Irv’s direction the company sponsored a number of other shows as well, which
included game shows on ABCs such as “On Your Way” quiz show.
When
the company came out with a juvenile product for kids it held a Junior Follies
based out of WATV in Newark.
More
importantly, Irv was instrumental in the development of one of the first
shopping TV shows called Let's Go Shopping, decades ahead of those on cable in
the 1970s and 1980s.
Under
his watch, VCA became the principal sponsor of the long-established and
extremely popular radio show The Goldbergs after one of the principal actors
was blacklisted for being alleged communist the previous sponsor dumped the
show – not much different from black lists today that targeted people like
Roseanne.
His
success allowed Irv to relocate the family from Newark to Livingston and West
Orange where he apparently took an active role in the local Jewish Center. He
even planned a forum for Beth Torah Hebrew School PTA and The Parents Council
of the Jewish Education Association of Essex County where panelist disgusted
the problem of Jewish Education in relationship to his non-Jewish environment.
I
must have met at some point while I was working for Donald, but I don't
remember it -- possibly at the point where Donald moved into the new warehouse
in 1977 and brought his family on a tour of his new place.
Donald
of course was trying to sell the same $400 myth he had sold to me this concept
that he was enough of an entrepreneur to make a massive success of himself and
possibly equal his father's accomplishments.
In
some ways he did.
In
the 1980s, Donald managed to relaunch a retail chain that had floundered when
he first launched one in 1968.
But
perhaps his greatest accomplishment was fostering his son Joshua who would go
on to become Counsellor for President Bill Clinton and a presidential speech
writer and later a congressman and maybe in the future the first Jewish
president of the United States.
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