Miss Springmaid

Advertisers have never been shy about using sex to get their product, any product, noticed.

From lingerie and perfume to clothing, soft drinks, beer, cigarettes, cars, and cell phones, everything in advertising seems to sell better with sex.

In 1946, Springs Mills in South Carolina began sending seductive messages about its sheets and pillowcases in advertisements placed in popular national magazines.

The mastermind of this operation was Colonel Elliott White Springs.

And the messenger was "Miss Springmaid."

>> Narrator: In 1931, Elliott White Springs, World War I flying ace and jazz age author, inherited six cotton mills in the South Carolina Piedmont from his father Leroy.

>> Female speaker: I think what the war, the flying in the war-- I don't think anybody who went through that was ever the same.

The other thing that everyone knows, he and his father didn't get along at all and nothing he ever did would please his father.

I don't know if he wanted to please his father or prove to his father that he could be successful but I think that that was part of what drove him.

>> He was probably one of the most intelligent men around.

He also had a very creative mind and a very mechanical mind.

He had more energy than I can imagine.

And he was also a very stubborn man.

>> Colonel Springs, dramatized: The way to make money is to stay at home, do it yourself, and work like hell.

>> Narrator: By the time he died in 1959, Springs was making more money each year than the year before and receiving thousands of letters a week complaining about the company's risqu magazine advertisements!

>> Male speaker: This is such a cluttered, such a competitive ad environment, that the most important thing is, if you don't get noticed, then your ad doesn't get noticed.

So do something to break through the clutter.

>> He's the type of person.

that can change advertising because he's a maverick.

He really was daring, courageous.

I mean, he lived on the edge during the war.

But he really did have that masculine confidence, which allowed him to put these images in his ad.

So he's gonna come in, break the rules, make a lot of people angry, especially in the advertising community, but he's gonna be successful.

>> Springs, dramatized: Why can't we combine the ridiculous with the sublime?

Take a typical sexy ad and revise it into a cartoon.

Or take a cartoon and revise it into a sexy ad.

That should please everybody.

>> Female speaker: He thought, in his view, advertising of that era was staid, dull, mindless, unintelligent.

It insulted the intelligence of readers.

And he wanted to engage them not only with a little bit of sexual titillation, but he also wanted to engage their intelligence.

>> I believe that he did want to thumb his nose at the advertising industry, but I think part of his motivation was that he really thought he could do it better.

>> Reichert: The female form has been used forever, and it's very pleasing, and it's certainly something that's gonna attract people's attention.

And so he just used a trope that's always been there.

>> Kornegay: Kind of a sunny sexuality, I think some of the similar appeal that Marilyn Monroe had, all-American girl, peaches-and-cream complexion, those kind of things.

So I would describe them as wholesome, girl next door, but voluptuous as well.

>> Narrator: One particular Springmaid was a throwback.

There were Springmaid drawings made during World War Two by James Montgomery Flagg, the artist who painted the famous Uncle Sam posters during the previous war.

After a few revisions by socialist artist Rockwell Kent and others, Miss Springmaid became the familiar lady in the apron and tricornered bonnet seen in all Springmaid ads.

A whirlwind of ideas came forth from the imagination of Colonel Springs.

>> Springs, dramatized: Ad Number One will be a picture of a girl with the wind blowing her skirts.

The copy will read, "During the war, the Springs Cotton Mills developed a special cotton fabric which was woven to be water-repellant and wind-resistant.

This fabric is now available to the front support and rear guard business, and if you want protection from a sudden draft on a windy corner, look for the Springmaid label on the bottom of your trademark."

Number Two will be a picture of a girl warming the seat of her pants.

"During the war, the Springs Cotton Mills was called upon to develop a light cotton fabric to be impregnated and made flame-resistant.

It is now known as Springmaid KERPYR and is available to the false bottom and bust bucket business."

Number Three will show our young lady at a party, and she is being pinched surreptitiously by a gentleman behind her.

>> Narrator: You get the idea!

Selling sheets was purely incidental to these ads.

The Colonel's real purpose seemed to be lampooning traditional ads for the women's undergarment industry.

At first, magazines were reluctant to place the ads.

But mail poured in and confirmed the ads were a hit.

Colonel Springs seemed to take more pleasure in publicizing the negative opinions than the positive.

>> Female speaker: "It seems to me if your product is as good as you claim, you could sell it without printing such pictures along with your advertisements.

It may appeal to the male sex but not we females.

So please couldn't we soon have something advertised with decent pictures?

We women are sick and tired of seeing ourselves put on display."

>> Narrator: For his first ads, Colonel Springs bought images that had already appeared in other magazines.

"How to Kill Two Birds" was originally an "Esquire" cover by E. Simms Campbell, a prominent African-American artist.

In the ad's context, having a "callipygian camisole" made of a cloth called PERKER would help avoid odors such as "dancer's diaphoresis, ballerina's bouquet, and skater's steam."

This rather bizarre offering by Russell Patterson represents a product called STICKER, employed by Springs to make adhesive products for the medical corps.

Using it would apparently help keep your pants from falling down.

"Watch the Butter Fly," created by Spartanburg native Wales Turner, was another version of the same message.

Fritz Willis was a popular contemporary artist who contributed the "jumping rope girl."

The Colonel sounds this note of warning to young females.

>> Springs, dramatized: Any person subject to bruises should wear at least two thicknesses of girdles before venturing on Capitol Hill.

A chest protector would also be valuable in a pinch.

>> Narrator: "Beware the Goose," with a similar message, went through a torturous creative process.

>> Springs, dramatized: "I received the sixth revision of the picture of the girl with the duck.

I'm ready to give it up.

It still looks like a goose to me.

The girl is facing the wrong way, she hasn't got on a bra, and she's knock-kneed.

I want her bowlegged."

>> Narrator: The Colonel apparently had a penchant for bowlegged women.

The joke here was about a bride who is revealed to be bowlegged, the payoff line being that "A bride must have a chest full of sheets and a soul full of hope."

Colonel Springs took advantage of the liberal education he had received at Princeton.

working snippets of history, mythology, opera, and art into his ads.

Arthur William Brown created two ads for Springs based on the quaint colonial custom of bundling.

Classic Kewpies drawn by Grace Drayton, an artist who had been a friend of the Colonel, were used for comic relief.

Drayton was famous for creating the Campbell Soup Kids in the early part of the century and had done parodies of the old masters.

During this time, Colonel Springs published the first of many editions of "Clothes Make the Man: Or How to Put the Broad in Broadcloth," a compendium of short stories, company history, and assorted correspondence pro and con.

It was rumored that he wrote some of the negative letters himself.

>> Female speaker: "Your ads would appeal to sex-frustrated individuals or to those who are backward mentally.

It is the worst display of poor taste.

Couldn't you just show a clothesline of nice, clean pillowcases?"

>> Narrator: But some liberated women liked the ads.

>> Female speaker: "It's a shame that the average American housewife apparently has no sense of humor and is a prude.

Your advertisements are delightful and diverting.

It's such a pleasant change to see the advertising business being frivolous instead of being so filled with its own importance."

>> It's unclear from the historical record how many women did enjoy the advertisements.

It is clear from the historical record that many women did not like the advertisements and found them vulgar and tasteless and offensive and worried about them being in the home.

>> Reichert: You have a female who's very attractive who's gonna attract male attention.

But I'm 90% sure that the people buying these products day in and day out were females.

>> We can make some surmises that women consumers, just like men consumers, might have enjoyed Springs' ads.

We know from the Kinsey reports, which came out first on men in 1948 and then on women in 1953, that the stereotype of America as a sexually straight-laced country didn't match the reality at all.

>> I really think that Springs was so successful in his advertising campaign because the people were not just ready to buy sheets and pillowcases and the other products that he sold, but because they were ready to look at themselves in a different way.

He caught exactly the tone of the times to which they were likely to respond.

>> Narrator: It can't be said that Colonel Springs broke every rule in the book, because the structure of his ads was very traditional.

>> Glickman: What he wanted to do was to have ads that were visually seemingly simple, but then complicate them with the text.

>> There was so much wordplay, so much punning.

In some cases, the advertisements rhymed throughout the copy, long copy!

And there were narrative stories being told that the readers had to work actually to decode and make sense of.

The reward for them was either to be shocked and to believe that the advertisement was tasteless, or it was to feel as if they were in on the joke.

>> Narrator: There was sex in the images, but along with it came an unexpected dose of subtlety.

>> I think sex is an effective tool, but as Springs realized, it had to be used in moderation.

And so apparently he was in consultation with his artists all the time about where to draw the underwear, where to draw the slip, and asking him to cover things up repeatedly, because I think Springs believed that if sex was too overt, it wouldn't work.

>> He believed that readers would be much more interested if there were just a hint of undergarment, panties, or garter exposed to the reader, a hint of cleavage rather than full blown nudity.

>> Reichert: I would consider him the prince of peek-a-boo advertising.

He's the one that really invented this type of appeal in which you'd see a shoulder strap that's falling down or a low-cut blouse or maybe just the wind might pick up and blow up a woman's skirt just a little bit, that you would see a peek-a-boo shot.

He was the master of that.

>> Narrator: A company lawyer for Springs, A.Z.F.

Wood found he had a talent for verse and wrote this.

>> Male speaker: "We love to give the gals a treat and catch them on a Springmaid sheet.

We make them, sir, and that's no jest.

The sheets, we mean.

They'll pass the test."

>> Narrator: In 1950, Colonel Springs' friend, Dr. Robert McKay of Charlotte, suggested this idea for possibly the most famous Springmaid ad of all.

>> McKay, dramatized: "An Indian is lying in a hammock made of a Springmaid sheet, looking very relaxed and satisfied.

Stepping out of the hammock is a comely Indian squaw, looking at him with an admiring smile.

And the caption reads, 'A buck well spent on a Springmaid sheet.'"

>> Narrator: Public response to the "Buck Well Spent" was tumultuous and largely favorable, except for one unfortunate mother.

>> Female speaker: "This is a letter of raging protest against the ad you put out about the Indian and the girl in the hammock.

I had not even read the script but had seen the picture, so when my son in the second grade wanted a picture of Indians to take his teacher on the day they were having an Indian program, my husband cut that one out and sent it with a smart aleck message to the teacher.

I will see that my family and my many close friends refrain from purchasing anything which bears the Springmaid name.

I have never been so humiliated in my life."

>> Narrator: The Colonel knew he had struck gold and launched a series which lasted for years.

The "Buck Well Spent," "We Love to Catch Them on a Springmaid Sheet," and "Watch the Butter Fly" were subjects of three animations performed at the Springs employee recreation park in the summer of 1950.

>> Female speaker: Chamber of Commerce in Chester asked us to animate these drawings that Wales Turner had drawn, and we said, "Yeah, sure," not knowing how risqu or caring how risqu they were.

>> I think I was 19.

>> Older.

>> Or 20, maybe 20.

>> 20 or 21, yeah.

>> I guess we were maybe 21.

>> Narrator: The Colonel might have been enjoying the event a little more than the husband of one of the young ladies liked.

>> Frazer: After I had jumped into the sheets, the Colonel said, "Keep throwing your legs up higher!"

And Sam says, "I think it's time we went home."

[laughing] >> Narrator: A Miss Springmaid pageant was held each year, starting in 1946.

Girls from all the mills competed, and the winner won a trip to New York City.

>> Female speaker: I was the first Springmaid.

I was chosen in 1946 to reign through 1947.

We stayed a week at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York.

We went to a Yankees baseball game.

We went to the Ice Capades on Broadway.

We went to see "Annie, Get Your Gun."

>> Narrator: And what would a trip to New York City be without shopping at Tiffany's?

>> He bought me this 14 carat gold pin, orchid pin, and this bracelet, which I'm really proud of.

>> Narrator: Miss Springmaid was good for employee morale, but she was also brilliant national publicity and served to reinforce the brand.

>> Narrator: A parade of songs and poems followed.

"Who Threw the Sheets in Mistress Murphy's Chowder?"

emphasized the low starch content of Springmaid sheets.

"She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" told the story of a girl from the hills and her adventures in high society.

"Who Put the Broad in Broadcloth?"

took place in ancient Rome.

Fear of controversy was no consideration.

Little people were featured with the caption, "You can't stretch a good thing too far."

Africans appeared in this spinoff from the "buck" series, "How to make a buck for a banquet," which led to the cartoonish "Hold everything!

The chief wants breakfast in bed!"

Some ads had an exotic Arabian flavor.

The Colonel designed his own print, which he called "Persian" or "Harem," and used it for shirts, dresses, hats, coats, and capes.

Science, inventions, and America's postwar fascination with gadgetry were also objects of satire.

The "Acousticot" bed was designed as a joke, with all sorts of pseudo high-tech features.

The Colonel examined, in his own way, fluoroscopy, which was an early use of X-ray.

In the '50s, when chlorophyll was being hailed as the latest panacea for everything, Colonel Springs put a trace amount of it in a run of sheets and asked, "Who put the filly in chlorophyll?"

"Tragomaschalos" was a made-up Greek term meaning "smelly armpits," or literally "armpits that smell like a goat."

Of course, this could be alleviated by sleeping on Springmaid sheets.

And this suggestive image started the Colonel's "anti-antihistamine" campaign.

Apparently, to combat the narcotic effect of taking this new cold and allergy medication, you needed scratchy sheets!

Colonel Springs was involved in a famous lawsuit over the image shown here.

He bought the ad originally for a bookstore, but it seems that, according to the brief, the model did not want her likeness used by any company that... >> Female speaker: "...resorts to or has a reputation for resorting to bad taste, indelicacy, inelegancy, immodesty, vulgarity, ribaldry, bawdry, fescenninity, impudicity, grossness, licentiousness, gaucherie, unchastity, obscenity, double entendre, and similar techniques in his advertising and other appeals for public interest and attention.

The use of such techniques is abhorrent and repulsive to plaintiff, personally and professionally."

>> Narrator: The judge ruled in favor of Colonel Springs.

Bottom line: the model had signed a release.

Colonel Springs was not above using testimonials from famous people, such as tennis player Gussie Moran, but always in a satirical light.

Gussie "dreamed she went shopping without her slip," which was a spoof of the famed Maidenform ad campaign which had begun a few years earlier.

Other celebrities were stage and screen star Vivian Blaine and singer Connie Russell.

But the mother of all Springmaids, as far as testimonial ads go, was his appointed "queen of bogus society," Gypsy Rose Lee.

The Colonel loved everything about trains and, in fact, owned the 29-mile-long Lancaster & Chester Railroad.

He read somewhere that Gypsy Rose Lee, the famous striptease artist, was also a train aficionado.

So in 1951, when he was dedicating a new railroad station, he invited Gypsy to Lancaster and appointed her to be his "Vice President in charge of Unveiling."

Gypsy's first ad for Springs was "How to Spike a Roomer."

This was followed by "My Favorite Nightspot Is a Springmaid Sheet."

"I Love to Navigate on a Springmaid Sheet" featured Polly Adullah, a character based on a notorious New York City madam.

Gypsy, as Mrs. Julio de Diego, and some of her friends, who were actually other striptease artists, are shown in this ad as a committee of society matrons, pouring tea while discussing their latest project: a fund-raiser for the restoration of George Washington's distillery!

Gypsy Rose Lee continued as spokesperson for Springmaid sheets throughout the '50s.

This led to many more testimonials.

Mrs. Martin McMartin St. Martin III was a bastion of high society.

>> Female speaker: "A woman should be married four times--once for love, once for money, once for social position, and once for novelty."

>> Narrator: This got the usual response.

>> Female speaker: "I have never met Mrs. St. Martin and express no desire to do so, but I can't for the life of me see what all of her husbands have to do with your sheets.

What are you trying to sell, sheets or husbands?"

>> Narrator: Next, Springs himself appeared in a ludicrous series of ads, often as Mr. Martin McMartin St. Martin.

Sometimes he was a big game hunter, sometimes a sport fisherman, or maybe just standing in front of one of his classic cars.

One ad that didn't feature women or controversy was the "House that Jack Built," which zeroed in on Springs' new headquarters building in Fort Mill, an incredible architectural gem inspired by the Hindenburg.

He wanted Frank Lloyd Wright to design it, but they couldn't come to terms.

Nevertheless, the building is unique.

>> Male speaker: The walls are cantilevered at 45 degrees, and each level is farther out than the level below it.

And the outside walls are suspended from the roof.

>> Those windows that are slanted the way they are, he got that idea from the Hindenburg because you get all the light without the glare.

>> Narrator: The inside of the building was as contemporary as the outside.

>> This was his office.

He had an office in Lancaster, also, which was not nearly as pretentious as this one is.

But he loved to have this with all those bells and whistles.

>> Ford: I think when he sat down at his desk and all those controls, he felt like he was in the cockpit.

You know, everybody told him you can't do this.

But you don't tell the Colonel that!

He's gonna figure out a way and show you how.

>> Narrator: Madison Avenue never fully appreciated the Colonel and his methods, but finally acknowledged his achievements.

>> I think that advertising was a big part of the reason that Springs Mills grew as much as it did.

So he might have been having fun.

But in the process, he was able to do something tremendously successful.

>> The number one principle of any ad is does it sell?

And if the ad violates every rule in the book and sells the product, then the ad worked.

>> Madison Avenue eventually came around to seeing that it wasn't just a matter of putting sex in advertising.

It was a matter of finding exactly the way to address an audience of consumers.

>> Narrator: In October 1959, Elliott White Springs died.

Bill Close, who took the reins of the company from his father-in-law, said the provocative advertising approach would not be continued.

There was only one Colonel Springs, and he would be a tough act to follow.

The British novelist Norman Douglas once said, "You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements."

The ideals of postwar America were profoundly optimistic.

Americans were reaching for a positive future and a better way of life.

Colonel Elliott White Springs was reaching too, reaching towards his vision of a beautiful, mysterious Springmaid, who, if she didn't have all the answers, at least made your life a little more pleasant.

Captioned by: CompuScripts Captioning www.compuscripts.com