CALL FOR PHILLIP MORRIS!!!

Click Here to Hear His call (mp3 audio)

I am delighted to dedicate this brief account of his career to "Johnny" who has earned the rare distinction of becoming an American Legend in his own lifetime.  if Johnny had his wish, this booklet no doubt would be dedicated to the public, or as he would say, "all the people I have worked with and met, and helped to smile."  We hope you will join with us in expressing appreciation to this man who has meant so much to so many.  It is our sincere wish that this account of his life and career will bring pleasure to him and his many friends.


 
A thumbnail view of Cullman's Introduction Page in the bookx



Joseph F Cullman 3rd

 Joseph F Cullman is the Man located on the Left

        If Alfred E. Lyon, then Philip Morris' Vice President for Sales, and Milton Biow, the famous advertising agency president who handled the Philip Morris inc account, hadn't been in the Hotel New Yorker lobby that April evening in 1933, Johnny Roventini might have remained "the smallest bellboy in the world." That is how the Hotel New Yorker had been featuring the Brooklyn born, 48-inch youngster on its souvenir post cards.
        But Alfred Lyon and Milton Biow were there, and if fate had any notion of keeping Johnny Roventini in the hotel business, it hadn't reckoned with the sales genius of these two gentlemen. Ahead of them lay a formidable task. They were to take a little-known cigarette brand and move it to the number four position in national sales in five short years.
         The late Mr. Lyon, who was destined to become Executive Vice President, President, Chairman of the Board, and finally Honorary Chairman of Philip Morris, firmly believed in personal selling, and this philosophy is what brought the two businessmen to the hotel that night. The company's trademark, established a number of years earlier, depicted a snappy-looking bellboy performing his "call." Mr. Lyon and Mr. Biow had set out on a deliberate search to find a "living" trademark.
They had a hunch that maybe this bellboy could help the Philip Morris brand eventually move to a major brand position. The two men had heard of Johnny and the clear, choir-like tone in which he paged hotel guests. As one historian recalls, "Johnny wasn't large enough to see over a good-sized trunk, but when he called you across the lobby, he had a way of making you feel like the most important person in the world." The two executives saw Johnny for the first time that evening and, after listening to him page a number of guests, they decided to conduct what has been called "the most unusual radio audition ever performed." Mr. Biow gave Johnny a dollar bill and asked him to locate "Mr. Philip Morris." As Johnny later told the story, "I had no idea that Philip Morris was a cigarette. I just went around the lobby yelling my head off, but 'Philip Morris' didn't answer my call."

Both Mr. Biow and Mr. Lyon disagreed with Johnny on one point. He wasn't yelling. That call was beautiful. It came across in a perfect B-flat that had an unforgettable ring. He cupped his hands to his mouth and with great enthusiasm gave a resounding "Call for Phil-lip Mor-rees." When Johnny returned to report that he had been unable to locate "Mr. Morris," Mr. Biow and Mr. Lyon asked him if he would be interested in working on radio. All he would have to do, they said, would be to "Call for Philip Morris." That was 1933 and radio advertising was beginning to open new vistas for promotion and selling. Still, Johnny had some reservation about the offer. He had a pretty good arrangement at the hotel - a salary of $15.00 a week plus about $10.00 additional in tips. He wanted to think it over and reportedly said, "I'll have to ask my mother." He remembers having considerable doubt about his future as a radio personality for, while he accepted the offer, he continued to work as a page boy during the first few months. When show time would approach, a Philip Morris representative would take him to the NBC studios, then at 711 Fifth Avenue, and then return him to the New Yorker where he continued as a page. It wasn't until December 16, 1933, that Johnny resigned from the hotel and signed a lifetime contract with Philip Morris. This is one of the few important lifetime contracts in advertising history, and it will remain in effect for as long as he lives. More than a million calls for "Phil-lip Mor-rees" would be made in the years following his discovery, but the first that April evening in 1933 at the Hotel New Yorker established a vocal technique that would make Johnny as familiar to Americans as any prominent figure across the land. That was the evening when Johnny Philip Morris was born. Johnny was first heard on the air April 17, 1933 on The Ferde Grofe Show, an evening program built around the composer's orchestra and billed in the Philip Morris trade announcements as "The finest orchestra that ever struck Broadway." For the first time that day the entertainment page advertisements for the program were signed "Call for Philip Morris." It was an unforgettable first evening. Johnny, who had never before been in a radio studio, stepped to the microphone and his B-flat call blended so nicely with the dominant E-flat of Ferde Grofe's "Grand Canyon Suite" ("On the Trail") that Mr. Biow and Mr. Lyon must have sensed that a new, unique sound had entered the folklore of American advertising. Stardom came to Johnny almost overnight, and the sales success of the Philip Morris brand followed as both skyrocketed to fame. Johnny has been calling for Philip Morris ever since. He has seen the company grow from a single brand manufacturer to a multi-brand, highly diversified corporation. Among its major brands are Marlboro, Benson and Hedges and Parliament. Its non-tobacco products include chewing gum, shaving products, packaging, paper, adhesives, specialty textile chemicals, and hospital supplies. To protect Johnny and the Philip Morris Company, his contract forbade him from appearing in public without a bodyguard. Riding the subway during rush hours also was forbidden. And for fear of kidnappers, his home address was kept secret. The company was taking no chances. Johnny was indeed a top salesman and a most valuable property. His Cinderella rise to fame led him to other Philip Morris radio programs with other outstanding orchestras. Among these were orchestras led by Leo Reisman, Russ Morgan, Ray Bloch, Harry James, Johnny Green, Dave Rose, and Jerry Gray (with Margaret Whiting as vocalist). Johnny also was to play a key role in many great Philip Morris radio shows. There were Horace Heidt's Youth Opportunity Hour, It Pays To Be Ignorant, Ladies Be Seated (later to become Johnny Olson's Luncheon Club), Walter Kiernan's popular One Man's Opinion, Crime Photographer, Music You'll Remember, The Kate Smith Show, Johnny Mercer's Call for Music, Break the Bank, Ralph Ed- ward's This is Your Life, The Mel Torme Show, The Rudy Vallee Show, Candid Microphone (forerunner of television's Candid Camera), Name Three, and Guess Who. Johnny also appeared on Crime Doctor for ten years and was with Milton Berle on radio long before Mr. Berle was to become "Mr. TV." Each Philip Morris program opened with "Johnny presents . . .," and he presented celebrated shows such as Great Moments from Great Plays, The Philip Morris Frolics, and that great dramatic show of the radio era, The Philip Morris Playhouse. Every Philip Morris show featuring Johnny became just as famous for its closing as the opening: "This is Johnny again, returning now to the thousands of store windows and counters all over America. Look for me. I'll be waiting for you. Come in and Call for Phil-lip Mor-rees." It was on The Philip Morris Playhouse that Johnny met most of the great and talented stars of the American stage and screen. "There were so many, I simply can't remember all of them," Johnny says "But then," he adds, "who could forget Barbara Stanwyck, Tallulah Bankhead, Rosalind Russell, Deborah Kerr, Paulette Goddard, Constance Bennett, Dorothy Lamour, and the two incomparable great stars, Madeleine Carroll and Marlene Dietrich?" Johnny gallantly declines to single out which of these great beauties he most enjoyed meeting and working with, but he does confess that he "was very thrilled to have met Miss Dietrich." Perhaps this extra vote of confidence for Miss Dietrich stems from the occasion when the great star picked up Johnny, placed him on her lap, and permitted him to kiss her. "Now, who could ever forget that?" he exclaims. "Still," he recalls, "I also remember the warmth of Madeleine Carroll, the beauty of Paulette Goddard, and the excitement of working with great singers like Dinah Shore and Ginny Simms." There are many stories which have circulated about Johnny over the years. One of the most persistent concerns an alleged crash of glass one night at the opening of a Philip Morris broadcast. The announcer supposedly explained: "That was Johnny, stepping out of thousands of store windows all over the country." This story became so widely spread, that there were people who actually thought they heard the incident over their radios. At the special twenty-fifth anniversary show broadcast for Johnny in 1959, he set the record straight in an interview with commentator Ben Grauer. The story grew from a comment Groucho Marx made during an appearance at the Coconut Grove. A waiter dropped a tray and Groucho ad-libbed the line, which instantly became a part of the Johnny folklore. "It's a great story," he told Mr. Grauer, "but I wasn't there." Johnny recalls his most embarrassing broad- cast. After delivering his first opening call on Horace Heidt's Youth Opportunity Hour, he stepped forward as was customary, tripped over an electrical wire, and gave the second and third call for Philip Morris from the prone position. On another night, a snowstorm delayed Johnny on the way to the studio and he sat out the broadcast - the only one he ever missed - on the Brooklyn Bridge. Listening to the radio, he heard an alert announcer ask the audience to stand and deliver Johnny's traditional opening calls so that the show could go on. "They were beautiful," Johnny said, "and right on key!" During World War 11, Johnny made a valiant effort to enlist in the Coast Guard Auxiliary, but his diminutive size made this impossible. He was singularly honored for this genuine effort, and he was given a "1/2 A" draft classification by the Auxiliary, the only person in the United States to receive such an honor. At the height of his radio career, Johnny became so much in demand for major public events such as fairs, conventions, trade shows, club meetings, festivals, military parades and the like that he found it impossible to attend all these events. It was during this period that four assistants known as "Johnny juniors" were employed to represent Johnny at some of these functions. Johnny and his "Juniors" all became close friends, and he was greatly saddened some years later to learn of the death of one of his "Johnny" associates. The report of the man's passing did create some confusion for Johnny. A number of newspapers, including The New York Times, reported that "Johnny Philip Morris" had passed away. While the nation's press corrected the report in later editions, there is no doubt some people who are unaware that the report of the death of the original Johnny Philip Morris was false. After the war, the great radio shows began to give way to television, and for a time Johnny introduced early Philip Morris video shows such as My Little Margie starring Gale Storm and Tex and jinx with Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenburg. Other early television shows that Johnny appeared on and which are well remembered today are Candid Camera with Allen Funt and I Love Lucy starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. "Lucy is my real love," Johnny maintains. "Our friendship has been a lasting one and the memories of our having worked together are among my fondest. She not only is a great comedienne, but a great lady as well." Johnny moved effectively from the role of radio and television performer to that of a roving ambassador of good will for Philip Morris. In his coast-to-coast travels over the subsequent years, he has participated in hundreds of trade conventions, auto races, plant openings, festivals, and hand shaking tours along city streets. Always, he greets people with that familiar smile, that outstretched hand and that sincere warmth that have become his own personal trademark. He truly became the world's most durable living trademark during these years and he looks upon them as the happiest times of his long career. No matter where he appears, Johnny is invariably asked to give his famous call. To please his audiences, Johnny learned through the Berlitz School of Languages how to deliver his "Call for Philip Morris" in French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Italian, and Chinese. "You know, I have never been out of the United States," he joked recently, "but I did get some practical use of my 'language training' when I toured the New York World's Fair." Johnny came back to television for Philip Morris Inc., in 1965, to participate in what at that time was the heaviest advertising schedule in the company's long history of television programming. Among the shows Johnny was heard on that year were The Red Skelton Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, Hazel, Hogan's Heroes, Thursday Night at the Movies, Slattery's People, Candid Camera, The Loner, and CBS News with Walter Cronkite. Johnny says his biggest thrill in what has become one of the most unique careers in all of show business and advertising has been the people, all of the people, meeting them, working with them, and helping them to smile. His friends, the great and the lesser-known, are legion. "To share a banquet table with General and Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower, to sit at ringside with Jack Dempsey, to be welcomed as a celebrity by Toots Shor, to be led in song by Mitch Miller, to discuss the issues with Richard Nixon, to clown with Red Skelton and Emmett Kelly, or to walk down the street with Jackie Gleason and a bevy of beautiful girls ... how many men could have done these things?" Johnny asks. Perhaps he summed up his feelings on his anniversary radio show in 1959 when he told Ben Grauer that the tribute being paid should come from "Johnny to the people, not the people to Johnny." He said, "For 25 years I have had the privilege of working with thousands of well-known people; I have been honored by meeting millions of lesser knowns, and I have been blessed by bringing smiles to the faces of millions of others. What more could any man ask?" Then Eddie Cantor, who appeared on the show to honor Johnny, summed up in these words why the tribute was for Johnny and not for the people as Johnny would have it. Mr. Cantor said: "What is the magic of this little man? Wherever he goes, head high, chest out, resplendent in his red and black uniform, he brings smiles and joy. People crowd to see him. You see him and your heart beats just a little faster. It isn't his size, or the lack of it. But, rather, I think that you feel the goodness and greatness, the warmth and gentleness that is the little man himself. He was created as a trademark for the Philip Morris Company and has become an American legend. For twenty-five years he has walked among us and we are richer for it. A little man in a red and black uniform. That is why we honor him."