Almost no one in Rensselaer recognizes the name James Ellis (1893-1978) but few people from Rensselaer had a bigger impact on the nation during the first half of the twentieth century. We know about his impact from his professional biography, originally titled From Billboards to Buicks and reissued as The Jumping Frog from Jasper County. The book discusses his personal life only when it affects his professional life. The only information we get of his first marriage is on page 131: "I had been a widower for two years."
The book begins with a few details about the author's early life in Rensselaer. His mother died when he was seven and after her death the family ate its meals at a local hotel. (It was the Makeever House.) His father ran the Ellis Opera House, which hosted the many entertainers who traveled from city to city in the days before movies. His father was mayor of Rensselaer for eight years, but the book makes no mention of that. When his father died in 1915, Ellis returned to Rensselaer to take over the family business. Part of the business was a small billboard company. Ellis discovered that he could claim billboard franchise rights to 31 communities around Rensselaer, which he did, erecting new billboards. After finishing the expansion, he left the running of the business to an employee and returned to school at the University of Chicago. While there he heard that advertising copywriters could earn large salaries and decided to enter that field.
His first job in his quest to become a copywriter had no pay but he took it to gain experience and credibility. Jobs with several small agencies followed as he learned his craft. At the end of 1928 he joined Erwin Wasey in Chicago, his first large agency. In 1935 the partners of Erwin Wasey had a falling out and one of them, Art Kudner, split off to form his own agency. Ellis followed Kudner and spent the rest of his career with the Kudner agency, eventually heading it. Over the years the Kudner agency handled many accounts. For most of them the agency not only wrote ads but also planned the ad campaign. Early in the book Ellis wrote that the challenge was to find in your client's product something that would get the public to want to buy it and then tell the story in a way that intrigued the largest number of people. The plan would set the theme that the individual ads would follow.
During the Ellis years the largest account of the Kudner agency was the Buick account. Before the agency got the account, Buick was selling poorly and GM was considering dropping the line. Ellis believed that he and Kudner, both of whom worked closely with Buick management, were partially responsible for the subsequent revival and success of Buick. By the late 1930s Buick was the fourth most popular automobile in the United State, surpassed only by Chevrolet, Ford, and Plymouth, the cheapest and least prestigious brands of the big three automakers.
Although the Buick account gets far more pages than any other account, Ellis did not believe the Buick advertising was his most significant professional accomplishment. Rather, discussing the advertising for the Association of American Railroads, he stated, "I wrote the plan and practically all the advertisements—and I felt that this was the greatest single accomplishment of my advertising career." (p 164). The reason for this opinion is explained later on page 202: "I felt that, in the case of the railroads, I may have headed off nationalization of American industry during World War II." He convinced the railroads to tout their accomplishments and improvements rather than complain about their problems, and he believed that this public relations campaign significantly changed the public's perception of railroads.
Another case in which Ellis strayed from product marketing was the 1952 presidential election. Ellis presented a marketing plan to the Republican National Committee that he believed was largely adopted by the Eisenhower campaign, though that campaign did not use the Kudner agency. The traditional plan, the one used in the Dewey campaign in 1948, was to maintain the base and appeal to the independent voters between the parties. Ellis suggested that instead of trying to win the independents, the campaign reach out to the almost 50% of the electorate that had not voted in the 1948 election. Voter participation increased in 1952 and although Stevenson received more votes than Truman had in 1948, Eisenhower won in a landslide.
Ellis was contemplating retirement in 1944 when the unexpected death of Art Kudner changed everything. Ellis stepped up to take control of the agency. He reorganized the company and instituted a profit sharing plan. In the late 1950s, worried about who would take over when he retired or died, he hired a man who he thought would be an able successor. He misjudged. His planned successor led a rebellion when new management and problems at Buick led Buick to switch advertising agencies in late 1957. Ellis was put into a position where resignation was his best option. With some satisfaction he noted that after his resignation in January of 1958, the agency floundered and a few years later was absorbed by another agency.
Ellis eventually came to the conclusion that his ouster from the agency was not the curse that he initially thought but was rather a blessing in disguise. He was diagnosed with ulcers and heart problems and if he had continued his workaholic way of life, he might have missed the warning signs and suffered the early death that a number of his colleagues suffered.
James Ellis wrote millions of words that were read by millions of people, but only a few insiders recognized his accomplishments. In the 1950s he helped launch several television shows by connecting advertisers to program ideas but again his role was behind the scenes and received almost no recognition. (His obituary mentions “The Milton Berle Show,” “Your Show of Shows” with Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, and the “Jackie Gleason Show” as shows he and his agency brought to television.) There are many others who have had a profound impact on the nation that we do not recognize, and for most of them their stories are lost because they did not write a book as Jim Ellis did.
The book offers insight not only into the world of advertising but also to the history of the automobile industry during the first half of the twentieth century. However, it is not an easy read. Focused on his professional life, it jumps around chronologically as it discusses various clients Ellis served. It is filled with names of people who were important to Ellis but mean nothing to the reader. Ellis comes across as a workaholic. He constantly mentioned how many pages he wrote for various plans and how he often worked long into the night and on weekends to finish work.
James Ellis retired to Reno, Nevada and Hot Springs, Virginia. He died on June 12, 1978 in Virginia and is buried with his brother John and his parents in Weston Cemetery in Rensselaer, Indiana.
Below is his draft registration card for WWI.
James Ellis will not be featured on this year's Weston Cemetery Walk that is scheduled for September 21 at 3:00 pm. He is not buried in the area that this year's walk will be touring. He certainly has a story interesting enough to make him a candidate for some future walk.
Tickets for this year's walk are now available at Brown Garden and Floral Shoppe, Willow Switch, and Jordan's Floral. The price for adults is $10 and for children under 12 $5. If there are any tickets available the day of the event (space is limited), the prices will be $12 and $6. Last year there were four golf carts available for those who have difficulty walking. This year there will be eight.
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