As sincere and convincing as vintage ads look, it’s naïve to believe that all companies were honest and all advertising was truthful in the good old days. The advertising industry has always been a somewhat ruthless industry, with advertisers fighting for contracts just as the companies for which they work fight over customers and sales. Perhaps because of this dog-eat-dog mentality, it’s an exciting, day-to-day business, which is why it’s been the subject of many movies over the years.
One of the best films about the advertising business is “The Hucksters” from 1947. This MGM film stars Clark Gable in his second movie after returning from fighting in World War II, Deborah Kerr in her first American film, Sydney Greenstreet in his first movie away from Warner Bros., and Ava Gardner in her first of many overdubbed singing roles for MGM. It’s a really entertaining film which offers a frank look at the corruption in big business and advertising on Madison Avenue, because the key players were based on real people in these industries.
A Peddler’s Story
This movie focuses on Victor Norman (Gable), a clever advertising man who is looking for a job after getting out of the army. He has an interview scheduled with Mr. Kimberly (Adolphe Menjou), who runs one of New York City’s biggest advertising agencies. Vic is determined to land a good job by acting like he doesn’t need or want one, and he’s such a cocky showman that Kimberly almost believes it. Vic casually worms his way into the company by offering suggestions of how Kimberly and his overwrought associate Cooke (Richard Gaines) should be handling their biggest but most difficult client, the Beautee Soap account, which is ruled with an iron fist by Evan Llewellyn Evans (Greenstreet). Vic volunteers to help them carry out Evans’s latest advertising idea, getting society women to endorse Beautee Soap, and Cooke is all too happy to let the newcomer do the job.Vic’s first visit is to Kay Dorrance (Kerr), a British war widow with two small children. The beautiful young woman is surprisingly easy to convince, since she needs the money for her young family. However, at the photographer’s studio the next day, Mrs. Dorrance is dismayed to learn that Mr. Evans’s layout for the photo shoot involves her wearing a transparent negligee. Despite the protestations of his colleagues, Vic insists that Kay will wear an elegant gown instead of the risqué lingerie. Naturally, this provokes Mr. Evans’s anger, and he demands a meeting with the Kimberly Agency. Vic refuses to be intimidated by Evans’s scare tactics, and he boldly tells the soap manufacturer that his original advertisement was not clean like his product. Evans takes his hat off to Vic for his honesty and good ideas, and Vic officially joins the agency.
Peddlers in Hand-Painted Neckties
What is a huckster? When explaining the advertising business to Kay, Vic says, “They hire us to sell their wares, to do their huckstering. ... A huckster is a peddler. We’re professional hucksters.” Whereas Kimberly and other advertising men have delusions of grandeur regarding their profession, Vic is very honest about who he is and what he does. He knows he’s just a peddler in a hand-painted necktie, with little more integrity than a snake oil salesman in a medicine show. That’s why he’s so good at it. He knows all the tricks and the psychology behind them, so he’s able to beat his other wise guys, like Kimberly, at their own game—because he sees right through them. Sometimes his methods are hard to understand, such as when he spends $35 on a hand-painted necktie so that he will look sincere to Kimberly and then tells him this. However, his success with different people from all walks of life throughout the film proves that he knows what he’s doing.
Vic’s archrival is Evan Llewellyn Evans, the soap mogul played by Sydney Greenstreet. This character is extremely believable as a tycoon, because he is just odd enough to be real. He’s a fat slob who derives morbid pleasure from intimidating people. He scares everyone by demanding agreement with him and talking so loudly that no one can get a word in edgewise. He’s never without his four minions, who all seem sinister, morose, and soulless. Evans is an eccentric who always wears a tasteless white hat in business meetings, presumably breaking etiquette merely so he can literally “take his hat off” to Vic when he admires the other man’s idea. Evans is proof that money can’t buy class, and he’s also an example of the kind of bullheaded determination which made men like him build business empires. Vic is the one person who isn’t afraid to stand up to Evans, and he initially proves that talking back doesn’t immediately cost one his head. However, over time, he begins to feel his nature changing under the strain of the fear tactics Evans employs to manipulate people and keep them under his power.
The advertising strategies Beautee Soap uses are shameful, but they’re unfortunately common ones for a top company. In their first meeting, Evans explains to Vic that there is no difference between different soap brands besides color and fragrance. Beautee Soap isn’t the top company because its product is actually superior, as claimed. The only reason it outsells its competitors is that it is advertised more, and on a smaller marketing budget at that. The commercials the company uses before Vic takes over the account are extremely irritating, full of jingles which incessantly spell out and repeat the product’s name. These radio ads are just what Evans ordered. In that same meeting, he explains his marketing strategy, pounding his fist rhythmically on the table to accent his words: “Beautee Soap, Beautee Soap, Beautee Soap! Repeat until it comes out of their ears. Repeat until they say it in their sleep. Irritate them, Mr. Norman. Irritate. Irritate. Irritate them! Never forget: Irritate ‘em! Knock them dead!” How often have you felt like you’ve been subjected to such brainwashing tactics when watching television or listening to the radio?
Truth, Fiction, and the Code
If these characters seem real enough to come from the pages of a history book instead of a movie script, that’s because the 1946 novel “The Hucksters” by Frederic Wakeman was based on real-life people and incidents. The inspiration for the scandalous New York Times bestselling novel was a four-part exposé in The Saturday Evening Post called “The Star Spangled Octopus,” which revealed how the powerful talent agency MCA monopolized most forms of popular entertainment at the time. David Lash, the talent agent from the movie, was based on the MCA’s founder and president, Jules C. Stein, and his assistant, Freddie Callahan (George O’Hanlon), was based on future MCA president Lew Wasserman. In the novel, Vic pulls off a deal by bringing up the agent’s Jewish background, but this was changed to a juvenile delinquent past to eliminate the controversial racial issue.Besides the MCA, the other key group involved with turning this scandalous book into a movie was the PCA, which was Hollywood’s Production Code Administration. The PCA enforced the decency rules of the Motion Picture Production Code throughout production of every American movie. Keeping things clean on the screen was this organization’s job from the 1930s to the 1950s, so the book which Clark Gable called “filthy” needed a lot of revision to become a good movie. Namely, Kay Dorrance was changed from a married woman to a widow to make the romance acceptable, and Vic’s other torrid affairs were changed to subtle implications. With the dirt washed away, moral-minded Americans could root for these characters.
The result is a wonderful movie full of talented actors and a moving, poignant story. It’s a great look into the advertising world of the past and a touching story of a good woman who teaches a smart guy the importance of honesty and ethics. It’s also a reminder that the advertising world will often get away with irritating and brainwashing us with their dirty commercials as long as we, the consumers, let them into our homes.
