Hall of Hallmark
'Tis the season to be jolly . . .
But not always for "those couriers on their swift [or not so swift] appointed rounds," who this month will carry literally billions of Christmas cards from home to home and office to office across this tinsel-bedecked land.
Of the astronomical total, a goodly share will bear the crown of Hallmark, the world's largest manufacturer of greeting cards. Presiding over this vast operation is DONALD J. HALL '50, son of the founder and current chairman of the board, Joyce Hall, who started the business in 1910 with a shoebox of postcard and a will to produce "the very best."
Donald Hall joined the company in 1953 following a tour of duty with the Army. He became administrative vice president in 1958 and president in 1966, when his father stepped down from active leadership of the firm. He has since carried on and expanded that concern for quality which is guiding principle as well as slogan for the company's diverse operations, manifested in sponsorship of the widely acclaimed Hallmark Hall of Fame and the masterminding of Crown Center, a unique urban redevelopment project in his native Kansas City—as it is in the manufacture of America's favorite greeting cards and allied items of "social expression," such as mini-books and party supplies.
Although Christmas greetings are uppermost now in the minds of those who have—or have not—chosen, addressed, or mailed them, they are only part of the more than two billion cards produced annually at Hallmark's four production centers. At the two-block Kansas City headquarters, more than 350 artists and a small army of photographers, engravers, engineers, salesmen, production and market-research specialists, with computer as ally, mesh their individual skills toward a common goal: getting the right card, expressing the right sentiment, to the right customer at the right time.
The cards that find their way from Hallmark's distribution centers in Missouri and Connecticut to bookstores, stationery shops, newsstands, drug and department stores represent a spectrum of every conceivable taste and attitude—from the sentimental to the sophisticated, the nostalgic to the sardonic, the fussy to the stark. Contemporary cards are very big nowadays; one can insult as well as flatter, put down as well as cheer up.
And they are designed for every imaginable occasion—or non-occasion. Traditional salutes to "Mother on her day," exhortations to speed a recovery, petitions to "be my Valentine," condolences on misfortune, and reverent celebrations of holy days have been joined by miscellaneous good wishes and casual reminders that "I'm thinking of you."
Since Christmas Eve, 1951, when Hallmark sponsored the premiere performance of Menotti's Amahl and the NightVisitors, it has cared enough to present the very best in television viewing. While lesser programs compete for the occasional award, the Hall of Fame routinely reaps the highest accolades critics and viewers can dispense. At a luncheon last month to mark the commissioning of its 100th telecast, Donald Hall announced plans to spend $60 million over the next decade to continue the series. "Rather than phasing out or cutting back," he said, "we're increasing our commitment to quality television drama."
In addition to brightening what some skeptics have labeled "the wasteland of TV" with consistently superior drama, classical and modern, Hallmark has earned a warm spot in the public heart with its restrained commercial messages in an era when the operational hypothesis sometimes seems to be "he who bludgeons hardest sells most." Understated seasonal reminders of their products are welcome substitutes for strident commands to buy, buy, BUY or face ostracism or worse.
A new dimension to Hall's enterprise has been added with the development of Crown Center. This $200-million urban redevelopment project (shown in the background of the accompanying picture) will by 1983 have transformed 25 blocks near downtown Kansas City from a melange of decaying parking lots, warehouses, and used-car lots into a model city-within-a-city. At the cost of only 19 dwelling units razed, Crown Center, when completed, will draw an estimated 8000 people back to live in the city, a trend-defying movement in itself.
Spearheaded by Donald Hall and financed entirely by private capital, Crown Center has emerged from the ingenuity and imaginations of a distinguished group of architects and master planners. More than half of the 85 acres have been designated for parks, malls, a ten-acre central square, and other public places. The first stage is almost finished; the completed 50 structures will include a large hotel, office buildings, 60 clustered shops, apartments and condominiums, concealed parking for 7000 cars, a planetarium, cultural and recreational facilities.
Ready consumer identification of Donald Hall's Hallmark with caring enough to send the very best is the pride of his colleagues and the envy of his competitors, especially when Americans exchange "Season's Greetings."
