Word: barker
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Petree Up, Barker's Down. The strategist behind Barker Brothers is a square-faced, well-nosed Scotch-Irishman named Neil Petree, 46, who collects $65,000 a year for his ideas. Born in Missouri, Neil entered Stanford University in 1915, took nearly two years out to go to war, came back and crammed hard enough to graduate with his class in 1919. By the time he was 28, Petree was managing San Francisco's big Hale Brothers department store, at 33 was president of James McCreery & Co. in New York...
While Petree was going up, Barker's was going down. From 1932 to 1934 it lost $1,347,000. It was still shaky when Petree went west in 1937 to see the Rose Bowl game, stayed on as the new president of Barker's. Petree saw the company's ills as characteristic of the furniture business-too little originality in designing and selling furniture...
Petree thought it a mistake to wait for customers to come in. So he set up a force of "public relations" men who checked daily on new building permits. They interviewed home builders before the ground was broken, often got them to let Barker's supply everything from paring knives to bedroom suites, at prices for every pocket. Tables cost as little as $10, as much...
...Radios, In Bars. When war shortages came, Petree moved fast. As Barker's sold its last radio, Petree asked his employes for suggestions on how to use the empty floor space. One suggested selling small portable bars made of non-strategic materials. Now, in the flashy Red Elephant Room, bar sales are grossing the company nearly $250,000 a year. The markup is 50%-far greater than on radios. When pianos disappeared, Petree scoured the East for antiques, fixed them up, sold them at handsome profits...
Bored with high school, truck driving and college, Peck discovered in University of California's Little Theater what he really liked to do. Journeying swiftly to Manhattan, he worked as a World's Fair barker to earn money for dramatic school, later got a job guiding tourists through Rockefeller Center, snared a couple of dramatic scholarships. Then Guthrie McClintic spotted him, gave him a few small parts and finally a big one (in Emlyn Williams' Morning Star) that led to Hollywood...