Frederick Law Olmsted – The Intelligent Collector Magazine

Linking Chicago’s 1893 Exposition, Columbus, the U.S. Sanitary Commission and murder

A National French Draft Horse Association gold medal awarded to Ed Hodgson at the 1893 Columbian Exposition sold for $14,400 at an August 2019 Heritage auction.

By Jim O’Neal

In 2003, I got a reliable tip about a new non-fiction book, The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. The author skillfully weaves two complex stories into an entertaining narrative. The story revolves around the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (“The White City”) and the riveting true story of H.H. Holmes (“The Devil”). Holmes is credited with being the first American serial killer after he lured as many as 200 people into his “Murder Castle.” At the same time, Jack the Ripper was plying his trade in London. Several attempts have been unsuccessful in linking these two monsters.

In 2010, Leonardo DiCaprio bought the film rights to the best-selling book and, presumably, his production company, Appian Way Productions, will eventually be turning out a movie. A short list of films by the studio includes The Aviator, Public Enemies, The Wolf of Wall Street and the Oscar-winning The Revenant. The production company has collaborated with Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood on several entertaining films, but it’s not clear if any other organizations will be involved. Larson went on to write several other excellent books that I can safely recommend for your enjoyment.

The 1893 Columbian Exposition was designed to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ voyages to the New World. The Italian explorer and navigator made four voyages in 12 years (1492-1504), primarily searching for a shorter trade route from Europe to Asia. He was unsuccessful and, curiously, despite never setting foot on North America, is honored with a national holiday. Hence, America derives its name from a different Italian explorer, mapmaker Amerigo Vespucci, who also claimed to have made several voyages to our ZIP code.

However, Columbus is credited with opening the Western World, which resulted in significant trade and the European colonization of our neighbors. His trips include contact with Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Cuba, Central and South America and several of the smaller Caribbean Islands. Latter-day historians have been critical of his treatment of the indigenous people. In addition to slavery, the “Columbian Exchange” was responsible for exposing local inhabitants to new diseases that resulted in widespread death due a lack of immunity (sound familiar?). Trade provided Europe with an amazing array of new foodstuffs, like the 200-plus varieties of potatoes from Chile, along with tobacco and dozens of others too numerous to list.

There was vigorous competition to host the 1893 Fair – with St. Louis, Chicago and New York City the leading contenders. NYC had powerful backers, with Cornelius Vanderbilt, William Astor and J.P. Morgan agreeing to provide $15 million in financing. But Chicago had their own heavy-hitters, who matched the $15 million and finally prevailed. They were especially motivated since this kind of visibility would provide an excellent opportunity to demonstrate they had fully recovered from the ashes of the Great Fire of 1871, which was wrongfully blamed on Mrs. O’Leary and her innocent cow. The event was a commercial success, with over 27 million visitors from 46 countries. The “White City” nickname was derived from the color of the facade of the 14 major buildings designed by some of the world’s most prominent architects. Plus, it didn’t hurt that a civil engineer named George Washington Ferris Jr. showed up with his now-famous wheel that could thrill over 2,000 people, fully loaded, at 50 cents per passenger. At over $1,000 per ride, it was the equivalent of having a U.S. Mint without having to buy any silver.

The real factor in the exhibition’s success was the remarkable skill of one man, Frederick Law Olmsted, primarily known for his work as superintendent for Central Park in New York. He had been a mere 35 years old and was soon in charge of thousands of workers. Then, the Civil War started and Olmsted took a short leave of absence since everyone was convinced it would be over very quickly. A carriage accident prevented him from joining the army to fight but, fortunately, he was asked to become the leader of the U.S. Sanitary Commission. When the war started, Northern forces consisted almost exclusively of volunteers that totally lacked the capability to provide medical assistance or even food to wounded soldiers. With Olmsted in charge, the Sanitary Commission raised funding and supplies from ordinary citizens and then devised means to deliver medical attention, food, tents and blankets to wounded soldiers right on the battlefields. This was an early example of Uber, but without an iPhone.

His reputation grew and 30 years later, the CEO of the Columbian Exposition hired him to organize everything in Chicago. Piece of cake.

I hope President Biden can find someone with just 5 percent of Frederick Olmsted’s skill and experience. Otherwise, it’s going to be a long four years.

Intelligent Collector blogger JIM O’NEAL is an avid collector and history buff. He is president and CEO of Frito-Lay International [retired] and earlier served as chair and CEO of PepsiCo Restaurants International [KFC Pizza Hut and Taco Bell].

Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Michael Jackson, Roger Enrico, Central Park and a Texas woman named Rogers

An original 1949 oil-on-canvas illustration by Haddon Hubbard Sundblom (1899-1976) for a Coca-Cola advertisement sold for $11,250 at an April 2020 Heritage auction.

Then We Set His Hair on Fire: Insights and Accidents from a Hall-of-Fame Career in Advertising by Phil Dusenberry, chairman, BBDO

By Jim O’Neal

Phil Dusenberry and I became friends when he was at the top of his game and working for Pepsi-Cola in the 1980s for another close friend, Roger Enrico. Both of these men were creative geniuses and the remarkable advertising they created was both legendary and memorable. However, on a personal level, they were quite different.

Roger was a brilliant strategic leader, inspirational speaker, risk-taker (“Big changes to big things”) and exactly what PepsiCo needed as a CEO. He got a break when Steve Jobs lured John Sculley to Apple and Roger took his place as president of Pepsi-Cola. This would lead almost inevitably to chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, which had gradually became weighed down by too many underperforming restaurant concepts and a bloated corporate structure.

Phil was a quiet, almost elegant perfectionist, right out of central casting, who was obsessed by “The Work.” He literally earned the sobriquet as Phil “Do it Again” Dusenberry by carefully evaluating excellent creative advertising (that others could only wish for) and then tirelessly “working” it into jaw-dropping brilliance. He also dabbled in the film business and co-wrote the screenplay for The Natural (Robert Redford). As part of the “Tuesday Team,” he helped write speeches for President Reagan and created the still memorable “Morning in America,” a 60-second spot in 1984 that many credit with helping him win re-election.

The “fire and ice” combination of Roger and Phil resulted in a symbiotic relationship that resulted in truly world-class work that was unparalleled, at least in soft drinks.

Virtually everyone knows about the Pepsi Challenge and how fiercely loyal Coca-Cola drinkers actually preferred Pepsi in blind taste tests. After lots of research to ensure the claim was legal, Pepsi started making TV commercials using real people taking “The Challenge” and it was soon a national campaign. Having a legitimate claim to a preferred product that can be advertised was a real boost in sales. Roger always believed that the Challenge was the real reason that Coke in 1985 changed their original secret formula. The result was New Coke, which turned out to be a marketing fiasco. All they had to do was add a small amount of regular sugar to the concentrate and the Challenge would have ceased to exist. But, for 99 years, no one was allowed to make changes to the original recipe. Leaders sometimes overlook the obvious.

Meanwhile, Roger decided that the Challenge was getting tired. After various forays into fruit-flavored soft drinks (Slice) and tinkering with all the sweeting systems (cyclamates, fructose, etc.), he decided Diet Pepsi was OK (barely) but the Pepsi brand needed an entire rethink. He, Phil and several others were struggling with imagery – easy to say and much harder to get on film – when a miracle happened. Roger got a call from Jay Coleman pitching a Pepsi-Michael Jackson deal. It would include two Pepsi commercials, a national tour and a slew of press conferences.

The only shocker was that boxing promoter Don King was involved and the price was an unprecedented $5 million! It took a week to hammer out a contractual deal when someone asked if PepsiCo Chairman Don Kendall had been told (he was in Russia). When he returned, they set up a special presentation for Mr. Kendall and held their breath. After watching the MJ video, Kendall purportedly told Roger: “That is the most remarkable performer I’ve ever seen!”

With some trepidation, Roger invited Don King and his entourage to PepsiCo corporate headquarters to meet the PepsiCo family. It was quite a spectacle, but soon migrated over to the Tavern on the Green for a big press conference in Central Park. Some people take parks for granted … just natural landscapes with grass, trees and perhaps some water. But, consider the fortunes of New York’s Central Park.

This 19th century park was the creation of journalist William Cullen Bryant and prominent horticulturist /landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing. The city bought the land and Frederick Law Olmsted provided the plan. Construction started in 1858 and nearly completed by 1873. But the corrupt Tammany Hall politicians who ran the city lost interest, and the funds to maintain the 800 acres disappeared. Trees were unpruned, ponds untended and lawns unseeded. By the early 1900s, the park resembled an abandoned ruin.

However, when Fiorello La Guardia became mayor in 1934, he appointed Robert Moses as parks commissioner and over the next 30 years rebuilt the park. For more on Moses, please read The Power Broker by Robert Caro (Pulitzer Prize-winner and voted one of the top 100 nonfiction books of the 20th century). But, by 1975, NYC was broke again and there went the park budget again. Finally, a woman by the name of Elizabeth Barlow Rogers – from San Antonio – became administrator of Central Park. During her tenure of 16 years, a conservancy fund of $100 million was raised (it’s up to $1 billion now). So Central Park finally looks stable.

Phil Dusenberry died of lung cancer in 2007, Roger had a stroke in 2016, and MJ died in 2009. For several years, they made a powerful trio that helped create a New Generation. Even the venerable Tavern on the Green has been shuttered.

Things change.

Einstein was right: Income taxes are hard to understand

A 1952 Topps trading card for oil industry magnate, industrialist and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller sold for $720 at a February 2019 auction.

By Jim O’Neal

Next year promises to be another year when a major political party has an unusually large number (perhaps 20) of eager aspirants wanting to become president. Republicans had to contend with a similar problem in 2016. Sixteen hopefuls filled out the requisite forms. Most of them withdrew during the primaries and the last two – Ted Cruz and John Kasich – withdrew when Donald Trump won Indiana. On May 2, Trump became the presumptive nominee for Republicans.

There are advantages to having a broad, diverse group of candidates, but almost as many headaches. One that I suspect will become more prominent is “too many hogs at the trough.” Every candidate is challenged to find a unique angle to woo prospective voters, but it is surprising how many are making promises that will be impractical to keep. Free health care, college debt forgiveness, and free college tuition are fundamentally different than promises of lower taxes or new high-paying jobs.

Generally, populist proposals are “paid for” by taxing the rich with a “billionaire tax” or a radical wealth tax on existing assets. Since 70 percent of federal revenues come from the top 20 percent of taxpayers, the math just doesn’t work. This is especially true with 10,000 people retiring every day and existing entitlement projections squeezing out almost all other spending. One fact is certain: We can’t use the same tax dollar to pay for four different expenditures (unless we really crank up the printing presses … which are now just electronic gizmos).

Naturally, opponents are quickly stigmatizing all creative spending proposals as merely different variants of socialism. As “The Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher wisely observed, “The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”

There may have been a time 150 years ago during the Gilded Age when some of these things made sense. America’s industrial success produced an era of financial magnificence when many basked in dynastic wealth of inexhaustible dimensions. John D. Rockefeller made the equivalent of $1 billion and paid no income tax. No one else did either since income tax didn’t exist in the United States at the time. Congress passed a 2 percent tax on earnings over $4,000, but it was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Twenty years later in 1914, a modest income tax was finally approved. Albert Einstein said: “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” I agree.

The wealthy in the 19^th and 20^th centuries found that spending all of their money became a full-time job. After emptying all of Europe’s fine art and artifacts, they built houses on a truly grand scale. The grandest of all were said to be the Vanderbilts. Ten mansions on 5th Avenue (one with 137 rooms). Next was Newport, R.I., where magnificent homes were quaintly called “cottages.” Then came George Washington Vanderbilt II (1862-1914), who, with successful and influential landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted, built the Biltmore House – an estate outside Ashville, N.C. The house is believed to be the largest domestic dwelling in the United States, with 250 rooms nestled on 125,000 acres.

Olmsted and his senior partner, Calvert Vaux, designed America’s most famous park: New York City’s Central Park. The list of Olmsted’s projects is too extensive to list here even by category. The most fitting description of his work comes from the words of Daniel Burnham – the great American architect and urban designer: “An artist, he paints with lakes and wooded slopes, with lawns and banks and forest-covered hills, with mountainsides and ocean views.”

Worthy of a great man’s epitaph!