PM History/2 - Legacy Tobacco Documents Library

PM history/7
L&M, next in line, has 20+% . . .but tron comeback from three s
M:s//GOOD BACKGROUND ON AL LYQN, his s i ls a se zng Melachrinos
back in '13, stopping by a shop at 7 :30 am to help dealer open up,
g sweeping the floors, trimming his windows, helping him take inventory,
buying dresses Tor twin girls on their third birthday, or sending them
a graduation present/a great kidder, great salesman, great guy, using
chalk on a dignified gent in a frock coat . . .rose to $124,000 CEO,
his reward for the thousand-odd first-name friends he has in tob . in-
dustry . .,PM occupies hq in five floorsO.f 8-storv vintage 1899 bld'
at 119 Fifth Ave~ surprisingly smalltime, unore-possessine & casu
slow & infrequent elevator service second-hand leather chai
rece n rm . . . you ave o do to lure out e oss 3.s light up a
rival bran & soon there will be "A TRIM, DEBONAIR, ELECTRIC EXTROVERT,
wearing the ageless countenance of a purposeful Puck on the slightly
stooped shoulders of a man of 63" loping along on the balls of his resilient
feet/he'll try to sample you, see b113L as to how "the stranger
is somehow charmed into believing he is doing a favor to two old friends,
AL & himself, by exchanging his Chesterfields Tor couple of packs of
PM, giving the latter "a fair try" . . .LvON KEY TO UNDERSTANDING ru'F'_
NOMENAL GROETH, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT & RENEWED ADVANCE 1W
u4~0 ;LfT: DME OL HE
no a scient st . . .his compulsion to sell w/o letup, a kind of s es £or
s~ es s sake, par£ly in r6 prtIy resZt o-f Fis bein ber o
gret t_riumvirat~o£ P~.Lfounders in~.ts presebt incarnatio all great
salesmen . . .AL's perf . in early '30s on the West 'C-oa were more than
the small Richmond factory could handle/the simple selling cliche he
learned at MeKitterick's £eet & practiced for 30-odd yrs sidewalkpounding
on three continents & now drums into his own boyss "Rememhe,-_
pe~o~le don't buy yr roduc~t= thev buy vou & will sell yr produ" . .
iu, xnown or ~~ging Tre & dressing up stories re app i psyc o ogy of
salesmanship . . . .one of his charms is "this ability to put across apoccrypha
on which he has first sold himsel£"###a''*'L113, e .g., how he connest
the nightclu_b eig girls to sell PMs not matter what requested~ eea
few men w2 rejec a pretty girl's mistake##'a'*'#'a'use . . .also : never ask
an bod £or an~ hia until you have £irs o e him a se v , like
check ng tobaccon st s s oc or us ing his shelves even as PM CEO he
drops by now///BIO, begins L114, most o£ father's family in showbiz,
identifies father's occupation as "antiquarian" unless it's his character
he meant, migrated to Montreal at 20, worked as home-furnishin s
salesman till becoming clerk at hotel cigar counter (Windsor Hotel)/
little more than this revealed, feels his real bio begins on reachi
NYC as_2F,v,-oid in '12 & lands $15wk job as salesman or new y£ormed
Tob Products Corp, selling Melachrinos, see R114 Tor career course,
his ~~_ as fro '19 toi '31 working abroad, Europe & India-China, adding
to his e t erce t on o t~3.versaY ' custome & learned
inYluence peop e in five Langu ages Inc u ing Industan3. 1is 8c Mc
brin nome Tor ,OOO a yr, check him out to see if he can get back
into faster Amer . swing o£ things, dispatch him to West Coast, starting
w/two salesmen, office boy & bookkeeper, in two s built bi u to 40
salesmen as the PM comes on st , even w o adv push Tor the new brand/
rec 1ed to N in as vn-sales . . .AL 2nd in command to McK's successor,
tall rese~-ve _irgi-'n~.an__atwas Hebron Chalkl~y . . .pushing the
medical story re PM's mildness & Johnny as L~.I~1putian into status of
an^international earache", always hammered away at preserving PM's
bac og o e er r en ship/rate of sales gain strong in '30s as Big 3
£alter, PM a firm #4 in the pack as WWII begins//POSTWARs sales peak at
32 billion in FY March '45 w/PM at 9 .5% o£ mkt, caof vo u
o arme forces + Marlboros so co . sales veakdt 35 .5.billion, extreme
nrn
D-stOB . TRUSY_MERlBLRS HAVE-HAD SINCE THE TRUST
AS BUSTED IN • 11*#*###~use AL as everybo y s s esman, an ar is ,
limit o co . s o-shift canacitv//strain on co . to ee we l-aged tob .
aue zo rationing oasea on mxt percentage & purcnases in prewar yrs,
all co .s dipped heavily into inventories, HOW LYON GOES AFTER AX .TON-
FISHER CO . for .its inventories & plant capacity, old but workable, t~i42
paying top dollar Tor equivalent of twice price of '45 crops the age
A-F tob . saved PM's day . . .PM had had no need of outside capital till ~
'38 when had to add to lea£ nven ories as s es marc e p ar , so ~
added s ueeze £rom hi her lea£ costs, A-F purchase etc . & frozen sales V
e w s m de on bv en 0
arch oo . wi help of its bankers, Lehman Bros ., went to financial 0%
mkt, deta" combo of preferred stock + 2Oyr debentures to ~'
raise Y $30 million, almost all nearl subscribed when word circulates~
of precipitous drop in earnings//LYON'S VERSION bL144s we were c t~
undressins w/the shades up -- but at's not quite right SALESMAN'S
MbNT ITY OVERCAME PROPER CAUTION as jobbers' orders piled up at end
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