An idea that saved a business

In Short

Published in 1918 by Leonard Dreyfuss for the United Advertising Corporation, this concise corporate parable chronicles the sudden turnaround of a large department store. Facing a four-million-dollar sales volume on an infrastructure requiring seven million to survive, a newly appointed general manager seeks guidance from a circus director. By adopting the circus's reliance on high-impact outdoor billboards and painted posters, the manager transforms the retail operation into a twelve-million-dollar powerhouse. The work endures as a crisp historical snapshot of early twentieth-century American marketing, celebrating visual repetition and mass-market reach.

The Story

The narrative opens with the General Manager of a prominent department store sitting in his study late at night, smoking a black cigar while pondering a dire financial crisis. Appointed only two months earlier, he realizes he is losing the fight to keep the business afloat. The store operates with an administrative overhead and physical capacity designed for a seven-million-dollar annual volume, yet it generates only four million. After exhausting his thoughts on internal restructuring, local competition, and expense reductions, he frames his problem around a single objective: finding the fastest way to attract the largest amount of money.

This line of thought leads him to consider who succeeds most rapidly at mass monetization, and he identifies the traveling circus. Determined to learn their methods directly, he boards a train to a city one hundred miles away where a major circus is performing. In a private conference, the circus manager reveals their underlying philosophy: while newspapers reach many readers and streetcars reach some, outdoor space reaches every single prospective customer. The circus allocates eighty percent of its promotional budget to outdoor displays, relying on massive size, striking color, and compelling visual copy that captures even the hurried passerby.

Convinced the principle applies to general retail, the General Manager returns to his city and immediately launches an ambitious outdoor campaign. Meeting with his advertising manager and a local poster firm, he authorises a twenty-thousand-dollar budget to establish omnipresent signage along every major thoroughfare. He insists on reviewing all copy and mandates monthly changes to both color schemes and messaging, aiming to make his store synonymous with shopping while simultaneously improving indoor service.

The narrative shifts seven years into the future to reveal total success. The General Manager has risen to President, and the store now generates twelve million dollars annually. While acknowledging that his broader leadership and institutional reforms contributed to this eight-million-dollar growth, the narrative notes that the company maintains an eighteen-thousand-dollar annual outdoor advertising budget. The executive reflects that outdoor displays effectively capture diverse audiences missed by print—including illiterates, foreign speakers, children, and motorists—while concluding that the ideal retail strategy balances bold outdoor coverage with consistent newspaper advertising.

How It Unfolds

The executive's dilemma A newly appointed department store leader sits late at night contemplating his store's imminent financial ruin. He realizes that a four-million-dollar annual revenue cannot sustain an infrastructure built for seven million.

Consulting the circus Seeking the secret to rapid mass appeal, the executive travels one hundred miles to interview a circus manager. The showman explains that eighty percent of their budget goes to colorful outdoor displays because public roads reach all people.

Executing the plan Returning home, the executive commits twenty thousand dollars to establish dominant billboards across every major avenue. He demands fresh monthly copy and vibrant visual designs to embed his store into the public consciousness.

The long-term triumph Seven years later, the executive serves as President of a booming twelve-million-dollar enterprise. He attributes the store's initial breakthrough to outdoor publicity, which he continues to combine with traditional newspaper ads.

The People

• The General Manager (later President)

He wants to save a failing department store by driving rapid revenue growth to cover a massive overhead. Frustrated by standard accounting fixes, he acts on impulse, learns from an unexpected industry, and commits twenty thousand dollars to a sweeping outdoor promotional strategy. His decisive leadership ultimately elevates him to President of a twelve-million-dollar business.

• The Circus General Manager

He seeks to maximize ticket sales within extremely short local stay windows. Unbothered by traditional retail boundaries, he freely shares his marketing philosophy, explaining that visual, large-scale outdoor media dominates human attention across all demographic lines.

• The Advertising Manager

Tasked with implementing the ambitious new direction, he receives strict orders to secure high-visibility outdoor placements throughout the city and ensure the visual media changes monthly.

• The Outdoor Advertising Representative

He collaborates directly with the store's executive team to design and position high-impact citywide billboard displays.

In Its Own Voice

“boiled down to a single sentence the problem seems to be this--how am I going to get the greatest amount of money in the shortest possible time?”

— The General Manager sits alone in his study, trying to distill his store's crisis down to its core commercial challenge.

“We have found that some people read the newspapers, a great number; and some ride in Street Cars, quite a few; but that ALL PEOPLE who can come to our Circus use the great outdoors.”

— The Circus Manager explains why his company invests eighty percent of its promotional budget in public billboard space.

“I believe in our Outdoor Advertising because I have proven its value. It tells my message to all the people...”

— Looking back years later, the store President confirms that universal visual reach was the original catalyst for his company's turnaround.

What It's Really About

At its core, the text argues that commercial survival depends on broad public reach rather than conservative expense trimming. It contrasts internal corporate restructuring with external, aggressive market capture, placing total faith in visual repetition. The narrative highlights the democratization of message delivery, claiming that large, colorful imagery transcends literacy barriers, language gaps, and class divisions. By comparing a stationary department store to an itinerant circus, the text asserts that fundamental psychological principles of attention remain universal across all business models. Ultimately, it serves as an early case study defending non-print media as an essential component of a balanced modern promotion strategy.

Why Read It Today

This short piece offers an authentic artifact from the dawn of modern American brand-building. Readers interested in retail history, corporate storytelling, or early twentieth-century trade literature will appreciate its lean, focused narrative. Rather than relying on dense economic theory, the text presents a straightforward business parable that reads quickly and clearly.

The work does reflect its period setting and purpose. Published in 1918 as promotional literature for the United Advertising Corporation, it carries an underlying self-serving agenda aimed at selling billboard space. Its view of the purchasing public is unabashedly broad, explicitly grouping together motorists, foreign workers, and illiterates as passive targets for visual manipulation. These period assumptions give the text its historical character without slowing down the story. What stays with the reader is the simplicity of its core lesson: unexpected answers often come from looking outside one's own industry.