BRUCE BARTON - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 08/17/1949 - HFSID 23289

BRUCE BARTON
Bruce Barton writes Mr. Epstein to decline an invitation.
Typed Letter Signed: "Bruce Barton," 1p, 7x10½, New York, 1949 August 17. The head of the advertising agency of Batton, Barton, Durstine & Osborne writes to Mr. Joseph H. Epstein, New Orleans. In part: "I have never forgotten that evening. What an amazing thing that a man who had had such a long and varied experience in public life should so completely have misjudged the occasion and the audience! I wish I could say yes to your invitation, but I just can't do it. I retired from my labors in the public speaking vineyard two or three years ago and now never appear except where some important client makes a point of it...." Barton (1886-1967) was an advertising executive who founded the ad agency Barton, Durstine & Osborn in 1919. After merging with the agency of George Batten, it became Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, which he built into an advertising powerhouse until his departure in 1961. His clients included United States Steel, General Motors and General Mills, for whom Barton created the character Betty Crocker. He was also a successful author of self-help books and articles. His most famous book was 1925's The Man Nobody Knows, which depicted as a successful businessman and publicist and topped bestseller lists for two years. Politically conservative, he served as a United States Congressman from New York from 1937 to 1941 and was an outspoken opponent of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. In public addresses, Roosevelt frequently referred to the trio of his chief Republican critics with the poetic refrain of "Martin, Barton, and Fish" (House Minority Leader Joseph Martin, Barton and Hamilton Fish), which the audience usually joined in saying. Fine condition.