Oral History Interview with William B. Ross - California Secretary of ...

38
[Begin Tape 1, Side B]
DOUGLASS:
We were trying to figure who your competition
was.
Or trying to get some insight into the
early consulting business, if not in California
but really in the country.
You started to name
Hazel Junkins.
ROSS: Hazel Junkins. She handled local political
campaigns. More or less a one-man office, as I
recall it. Then there two others. One was
three men together, Smalley, Levit & Smith.
These people had as their account the Downtown
Businessmen's Association and various downtown
things. They had one man, Charles Levit, who
was fairly good at pUblicity and press agentry.
They handled campaigns.
In other words, they
were set up more or less the way we were,
in
advertising and pUblicity.
They would take on
political campaigns now and then.
DOUGLASS:
Did you find yourself in competition for working
on ballot issues and candidates?
ROSS:
Yes. We were. The third, the Steve Wells
Agency, got quite bitter about us. It didn't do
them much good.
DOUGLASS:
Why did they feel they were preemptive?
they started sooner than you?
Had