Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S5E23 - When Madison Avenue Met Broadway: The World of Industrial Musicals

Episode Date: June 10, 2016

This time, we explore the little known and surprising world of Industrial Musicals. In an unexpected collision of Madison Avenue and Broadway, companies in the '50s began staging full-fledged musicals in an effort to inspire their employees, parade new product lines and boost morale. We'll look at one company that tripled the production costs of My Fair Lady to inspire its sales team, another that unknowingly funded one of the most iconic novels of our time, and the handful of companies that still practice the art of Industrial Musicals today. Nothing inspires a marketing department quite like choreographed tap dancing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan. You just have to love storytelling. Subscribe now and don't miss a single beat. new year new me season is here and honestly we're already over it enter felix the health care company helping canadians take a different approach to weight loss this year weight loss is more than just diet and exercise it can be about tackling genetics hormones metabolism felix

gets it they connect you with licensed healthcare practitioners online who'll create a personalized treatment plan that pairs your healthy lifestyle with a little help and a little extra support. Start your visit today at felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X.ca. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are.

So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. From the Under the Influence digital box set, this episode is from Season 5, 2016. You're so king in it. Your teeth look whiter than noon, noon, noon. You're not you when you're hungry. You're a good hands with all things.

You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. That Diddy is from an elaborate JCPenney sales conference in the early 1960s. It's an important little piece of marketing history. Because without that JCPenney tune, the iconic novel To Kill a Mockingbird might not exist. Composer Michael Brown met James Cash Penny in the early 50s. James Cash Penny, also known as J.C. Penny, established the J.C. Penny chain in 1902. Penny hired Brown to write industrial musicals for his company beginning in 1952. In the post-war days, corporations like J.C. Penney would stage elaborate musicals to motivate their sales force.

These were big song and dance shows penned by the top Broadway composers, performed by top Broadway talent on big stages. They were on par with the biggest Broadway musicals of the day, with one exception. Industrial musicals were written to sing the praises of companies. And that's how Michael Brown came to meet J.C. Penney. Meanwhile, Brown and his wife Joy had met a new neighbor of theirs in New York. She was an aspiring writer from Alabama

who worked the ticket counter at Eastern Airlines. Her name was Harper Lee. The Browns liked her a lot. One Christmas, Michael and Joy Brown took some of the money from one of Michael's lucrative JCPenney industrial musicals and gave Harper Lee a gift. It was a check worth a year's salary tucked inside a card that said, you are free to take one year off to write whatever you like.

With that incredible gift, Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. The era of industrial musicals is an interesting chapter in the world of marketing. From the early 50s to the late 80s, corporations staged elaborate full-scale musicals that often cost more than the biggest Broadway shows. They had all the same ingredients, singers, dancers, sets, costumes, and orchestras, except for one thing. It was less guys and dolls and more guys and plumbing conferences. You're under the influence. Thomas Watson Sr. was a man with a future. Recently fired from the National Cash Register Company in 1914,

he knocked on the door of the Computing Tabulating Recording Company in Endicott, New York, and was hired as general manager. Eleven months later, Watson was promoted to president. One of the first things he did was change the name of the company. He didn't like the hyphenated Computing Tabulating Recording moniker and changed it to International Business Machines, which he took from the name of a Canadian subsidiary. International Business Machines eventually became known as IBM, and in Watson's first four years, revenues doubled to over $9 million.

He not only implemented systems, sales conferences, and customer service standards, he was evangelical in his belief of instilling company pride. One of the ways he did this was through company anthems. Watson called them fellowship songs.

The melodies were stirring and the lyrics inspired loyalty and high ideals. In 1927, he began collecting them in a company songbook with the odd title Songs of the IBM.

Eventually, the book would grow to include over 80 ditties. One of the most popular was the 1931 IBM rally song, Ever Onward, sung at company conferences and workplace gatherings. We'll do one verse and two choruses of Ever Onward

on page five of the songbook. Two. There's a thrill and start for all, but we're about to toast The corporations that's in every land We're here to cheer each pioneer and also proudly boast Of that man of men, our friend and guiding hand The name of T.J. Watson means the courage not condemned And we feel honored to be here to toast the first chorus Trainees were required to sing March On with IBM every morning while attending the IBM Salesmanship School. You may think it odd that a workforce would sing earnest anthems

to the man who hired them and the company that paid them. But you have to put this practice in context. These were the Depression years, and one quarter of the U.S. workforce was unemployed. Company employees embraced the singing because they were simply grateful to have a job. When Thomas Watson Jr.

took over IBM after his father died in the mid-50s, he started to eliminate the anthems. He believed their time had passed and even felt his father had taken them too far, citing an IBM classical symphony Watson Sr. had commissioned in 1936

as an example. But Thomas Watson Jr. quickly realized that many employees loved the joie de vivre the songs inspired. And getting rid of the anthems wasn't easy. People loved musical get-togethers. During the 1940s, the war-weary public flocked to theaters to see glamorous Hollywood musicals for fun and diversion.

When the war ended in 1945, six of the top ten movies were musicals. When television arrived in the 50s, Hollywood started to feel the pinch at the box office. But musical theater was alive and well on Broadway. Crowds were drawn to the uplifting energy, emotion, and spectacle of big musicals. Like Thomas J. Watson Sr. before them, that phenomenon didn't escape the attention of corporate America. And companies wondered if tailor-made musicals could work the same magic on their workforces.

In their terrific book titled Everything's Coming Up Profits, Steve Young and Sport Murphy chronicle the emergence of industrial musicals. According to the authors, three trends converged to create business-themed musical theater. First, post-war America was booming, churning out two-thirds of the world's manufactured goods by 1955. Second, companies started to turn to new psychological methods to motivate employees. And third, musicals were now mainstream entertainment, and the soundtrack could be enjoyed at home due to the advent of long-playing 33 RPM records. Corporations were looking for ways to spice up their annual sales conferences,

and they were flush with money. That meant they could afford to hire the top Broadway composers, singers, and dancers. Many of these talented artists were happy to take the industrial gigs because it allowed them to hone their skills and make good money between Broadway shows. As authors Young and Murphy say, industrial musicals were amazingly well done, but sound somewhat ridiculous when viewed from the outside. Instead of singing about

love and romance and the human spirit, they were singing about diesel engines, floor product divisions, and electric utility executive conferences. Take one of the earliest industrial musicals on record, created for Oldsmobile in 1953.

The show was titled The Mighty O. My name is Johnny and I feel Sort of lost at sea without Lucille My name's Lucille and I must stay. A picture in his locker unto one fine day. It was the first all-musical announcement in Oldsmobile's history. And it would set the stage for splashy new automobile launches for decades to come. The Mighty O was introducing the 1954 models

and had a big orchestra, sets, costumes, dance numbers, and a cast that starred a very young Bob Fosse, who would go on to become one of Broadway's foremost choreographers. One of the big showstopper numbers was the demonstration blues,

sung by the supposed girlfriends of Oldsmobile salesmen who keep canceling dates because they have a chance to sell an Olds 88. He calls me up at half past eight To tell me, baby, I'm gonna be late Cause he's got a date to demonstrate An 88, there goes our date

The Mighty O had a cast of 24, elaborate sets and a big orchestra. It played to Oldsmobile dealers, managers, and salesmen in five cities. The following year, Oldsmobile staged another big musical theater show for its Olds 88 model. The show cost $250,000 to tour around the country, and the cast of 17 included Chita Rivera and a future Riddler named Frank Gorshin. In 1957, Olds unleashed the musical This Is Olds Mobility with songs belted out by a young Florence Henderson who would one day become Mrs. Brady on the Brady Bunch.

What is the basic rule of quality salesmanship? Yeah, what is the basic rule of quality salesmanship? Yeah, what is the basic rule of quality salesmanship? Well, if you want to buy, and I'm here to sell... You gotta magnify product, and then minimize price. You gotta make you feel it's specially nice, then make an honest deal at an honest price. That's right, that's right, make an honest price. You gotta make you feel he's got the very best buy of the lot. You gotta magnify product, then minimize price.

On the back of the soundtrack album, which was handed out to old dealers, was the line, Use this record again and again as the rousing start to your sales meetings! You gotta love the optimism. And the budgets. Chevrolet staged a 1957 musical with a cast of 36 performers that cost $3 million to mount. Six times what it cost to bring My Fair Lady to the stage that same year. In 1959, Ford rallied the troops with a big industrial musical titled

Fordify Your Future. The musical was composed by the Broadway songwriting team of Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bach. A few years later, this same team would have a slightly bigger Broadway success with Fiddler on the Roof. But before that Broadway smash, Harnick and Bach were fiddling with a musical for the Ford Tractor and Implement Division.

The first number was a showstopper that celebrated the brand and was titled The Answer is Ford. The next number was about the relentless workload of a typical farmer that only a Ford tractor could lighten. The work of the world is never done. It never lessens, shrinks, or diminishes. There's always mowing, towing, baling, nailing. Then comes the answer, Ford tractors. I'm a tractor-driving man. If I'm bragging, don't mind me. the answer for tractors. set behind me driving, driving, driving Can't you just see him

standing beside his tractor, hands on hips, farmer's hat tilted rakishly to one side, looking out over his furrows? Because a tractor-driving man finds the richest reward when the tractor that he's driving is a four. Just when you thought industrial musicals were merely entertainment,

they also snuck some marketing lessons in there. We'll be right back to our show. New year, new me. Season is here and honestly, we're already over it. Enter Felix, the healthcare company helping Canadians take a different approach to weight loss this year. Weight loss is more than just diet and exercise. It can be about tackling genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix gets it. They connect you with licensed healthcare practitioners online who'll create a personalized treatment plan that pairs your healthy lifestyle with a little help and a little extra support. Start your visit today at Felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X.ca. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era,

dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your push. Find your power.

Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. In 1961, Coca-Cola staged a huge musical called The Grip of Leadership to celebrate its 75th anniversary. As you can hear, the shows weren't just mounted for entertainment, but also to reinforce some Coke marketing strategies. I know that the right combination of packaging and pricing is one of the best ways to play it cool in today's marketplace. It's like this. Packaging and pricing interrelated. A simple fact, simply stated. And yet some folks are losing out because they don't know what it's all about. Now, I look at packaging and pricing as a great big pair of pliers.

Especially designed with us in mind and that means you and me. Packaging and pricing with a pair of pliers. Simple as ABC. Pliers to get a grip on profit. Profit from the business. Yes sirree. Five years later in 1966, the General Electric Utilities Executives Conference is a standout musical because it was written by John Kander and Fred Ebb. This was no run-of-the-mill songwriting team. Kander and Ebb would write the smash hit Cabaret while writing the General Electric show.

Cabaret would go on to win eight Tonys that year, including Best Musical and Best Original Score. Kander and Ebb would also go on to write the Broadway smash Chicago and A Little Number Called theme from New York, New York. But for General Electric, Kander and Ebb wrote a musical called Go Fly a Kite. As silly as this next tune may seem, you get an appreciation for how skillful

these superstar composers were at putting very difficult lyrics into musical numbers. EDM is great when you're underground Where the trouble is hard to be fixed and found Very difficult lyrics into musical numbers. You have to remember you're not listening to a jingle. You're listening to a stage show with singers and dancers and sets. That same lyrical skill was on display with the slightly suggestive Be Direct With Me. Two straight parallel wires bearing current in the same direction Attract each other If you know what I mean

But when it comes to the best industrial musical of all, most ad historians are unanimous. It was a 1969 show for plumbing giant American Standard called The Bathrooms Are Coming! It was staged in Las Vegas at American Standard's distributor conference. My bathroom, my bathroom Is a private kind of place Very special kind of place. Very special kind of place.

The only place where I can stay. Making faces at my face. The purpose of the show was to dazzle distributors with the new line of American Standard fixtures and toilets. On your drywall, a utility shelf. It's used as good as gold. For books and kits, martinis too. A safety bar to hold. For cigarettes, a storage shelf.

With lots of room to spare. A bathroom storage cabinet for martinis and cigarettes. Hmm, gotta love the 60s. When industrial musicals moved into the 70s, the subject matter changed somewhat. The Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation did an entire show about birth control, for example, as the pill was one of its leading products. Here's a song that was adapted from the musical South Pacific, titled There's Nothing Like a Dame, with slightly altered lyrics.

Women turn to us for reliable contraceptive action, not to mention healthy female sexual satisfaction. Not to mention healthy female sexual satisfaction There is nothing like a dame In the ortho world And there's nothing you can name Ortho doesn't make for a dame Over 20 million dames use the products that we sell Whether Delphin foam or diaphragms with ortho cream or gel. From our intrauterine device to tiny little pill.

One thing for sure, the risk is nil. Though a married female's problems may be myriad. Thanks to us, at least she can usually expect her period Hello! There is nothing like a day Note the lyrics only referred to a married female, as it was still politically incorrect for single women to use birth control in the early 70s. When disco hit in the late 70s,

industrial musicals slipped into their platform shoes and used musical numbers to introduce sales managers just before they gave speeches. Oh, those poor music writers. In case nobody's told you, weight loss goes beyond the old just eat less and move more narrative, and that's where Felix comes in. Felix is redefining weight loss for Canadians with a smarter, more personalized approach to help you crush your health goals is here. Losing weight is about more than diet and exercise. It can also be about our genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix connects you with

online licensed healthcare practitioners who understand that everybody is different and can pair your healthy lifestyle with the right support to reach your goals. Start your visit today at felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X dot C-A. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not.

Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push, find your power. Peloton, visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Good morning, dance fans, and welcome again to 79 Fever, the world's first sales meeting with a disco beat. There's not one other office furniture manufacturer that hustled through 1978 the way we did.

No wonder we've got 79 Fever. And here to start it all off, wearing the shiniest dancing shoes in San Diego, our national sales manager, Don Sullivan. Here's Don to tell ya what's going down here. He'll lead the band now. He'll wear the crown here.

All good things have to end, and the curtain started to fall on industrial musicals in the late 1980s. The cost of mounting big stage shows was becoming prohibitive. Recessions and cyclical layoffs made workforces too cynical to sing along with company musicals. Coincidentally, the commercial jingle business had its last gasp at the same time, too. It seemed in an age of David Letterman irony,

belting out a tune about dog food or a show-stopping dance number about industrial flooring would induce more eye-rolling than sales. But just when you thought corporate tunes were dead, I recently discovered this ditty. It wasn't a big stage musical, but a corporate anthem for the accounting firm Ernst & Young. Oh, happy day.

Oh, happy day. Oh, happy day. Oh, happy day. When Ern happy day. Oh, happy day. When Ernst & Young. When Ernst & Young. When Ernst & Young. When Ernst & Young. When Ernst & Young.

When Ernst & Young. Showed me a better way. Oh, happy day. Oh, happy day. Oh, happy day. Oh, happy day. Oh, happy day. When you think about it, Ernst & Young's Oh, Happy Day was a slightly funkier version of IBM's Ever Onward.

Put down the plate. Oh, oh, oh. Look out. Break it down. Happy. Happy. Happy day. Happy day. Ernst & Young, Ernst & Young Better way, better way

From Thomas Watson's fellowship songs to industrial musicals to corporate anthems, what's old is new again. Oh, yes, it was a happy, happy Ernst & Young day Oh yes, it was a happy, happy, Earth's then young day. Back in 2014, a Dallas travel agent decided he wanted to celebrate travel companies in this world of plan-your-own-trip internet sites. So he mounted an off-Broadway show called Craving for Travel. He hired a

Tony Award-winning producer, a playwright, and found backing for the $300,000 production. The 85-minute show got a lot of attention for its novelty. But what the press didn't realize was that it was a throwback to the era of industrial musicals. When Madison Avenue met Broadway, it was an odd collision because the resulting musicals were never meant to be seen by

the public. That's why a song titled My Bathroom Is My Special Place can be sung irony free. It was a way to celebrate the company, parade titled My Bathroom Is My Special Place, can be sung irony-free. It was a way to celebrate the company, parade new product lines, and boost morale. Author Steve Young says those shows were a kind of pressure valve for the workforce, a way to kick back and have some fun.

But I can't help feeling those shows were more of a hot poker, because the underlying message to every show, from Ford tractors to Coca-Cola, was to sell, sell, sell. Music has the potential to rouse, and storytelling set in spectacle has a hypnotizing effect.

Maybe that's why corporate anthems haven't completely gone away. Walmart employees sing a chant song every morning before the doors open, and the folks at Ernst & Young can still break it down. But that's the power of industrial musicals. They can fuel loyalty, enthusiastic salesmanship, and every once in a while, even a Harper Lee.

When you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode brought to you by... Playtex 18-hour girdle. Think outside the bun. Under the Influence was recorded at Pirate Toronto. Series producer, Debbie O'Reilly. Sound engineer, Keith Ullman.

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