Word: pinkhams
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Anyone who can navigate a pair of skis, in other words any old hacker, is urged to join in the annual Harvard ski-race on the Sherburne trail in Pinkham Notch, beginning at 10 o'clock Sunday morning...
...middle '20s, Arthur was president and Aroline had passed on Gove leadership to her daughter Lydia, a tall (6 ft. 2 in.), big-boned, scrappy spinster who became the Scarlett O'Hara of patent medicines. Lydia was impatient with Pinkham advertising. She wanted to pay out over 50% of gross sales for old-fashioned testimonial advertising. Arthur and his brothers (Vice President Daniel, Secretary Charles) wanted a more sophisticated modern campaign with expenditures not over 30%. With the board of directors deadlocked (three Pinkhams, three Goves), Lydia locked company securities in a safe deposit box, ran off with...
Since all advertisements advised readers to write "Mrs. Pinkham," since his mother was the only Mrs. Pinkham then living, Arthur had the post office send the mail to his home. He and his mother concocted a new vegetable compound, began selling it in competition with Lydia's. The Goves took him into the business...
...sales fell and advertising appropriations became a trickle, the Pinkham brothers got an injunction restraining the distaff side from "interfering in the conduct of the business." But Lydia was not to be restrained. She pursued a petition for receivership, charged Arthur with mismanagement. Far richer than the Pinkhams, Lydia knew full well she could outbid them should the corporation be placed on the block...
Meanwhile the Pinkhams went back to work. With current assets over $1,000,00, liabilities under $100,000, the company had recovered the ground lost in unadvertised 1935-36, leaped ahead 50% over 1939 in the past six months. This was done in spite of the fact that during the past 40 years the pure food & drug laws, the Federal Trade Commission, the American Medical Association have forced the company to water down its once extravagant claims to a pompous nothingness. Current label: "Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound is Recommended as a Vegetable Tonic in Conditions for which...