Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
Series Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Series Citation:
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Barbering, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Sponsor:
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
Original artwork produced under Mr. Szalay's supervision as Art Department Manager at Ted Bates & Co., 1965-1967.
Series 1 consists of 36 comprehensives or "ad comps", circa 1965. Original artwork and mechanicals created for the Blue Bonnet margarine account make up the largest part of the collection, which also includes original artwork and mechanicals for Black & White scotch, Schmidt's beer, Palmolive soap, Viceroy cigarettes, Colgate toothpaste, and Colgate Kitchen's prepared foods, a new brand exploratory.
Series 2 includes 32 art director's rough layouts or "roughs" for clients including Breeze cigarettes (a Brown & Williamson new brand exploratory with menthol and clove flavorings), Blue Bonnet margarine, and RCA televisions, all circa 1966-67.
Arrangement:
Divided into 2 series.
Series 1: Advertising Comprehensives, circa 1965
Series 2; Art Directors' Rough Layouts, 1966-1967
Biographical / Historical:
Trained as an artist, Mr. Szalay began his career in 1931 as an assistant art director at J. Walter Thompson, a Philadelphia-based advertising agency. In 1958 he moved to Ted Bates and Company on Fifth Avenue, New York, where he worked as Studio Manager (or Bull Pen Manager). In the early 1960s he was promoted to Manager of the Art Department, where he was responsible for the Art Directors, the Art Department staff and the Studio. At that time the Bull Pen consisted of about 25 illustrators, letterers, and mechanical men who pieced together the work of the illustrators and letterers. Painted in tempera or water color, with handlettered copy, the resulting comprehensives are nearly as fine in their execution as the final printed ads, and were used to pitch the account to the client. Those ultimately used can be identified by the comment, criticism, and authorization notations in the margins. By 1967, management at Ted Bates & Co. had determined that the ad comps system was too costly, and switched to the use of art director's roughs -- rough conceptual sketches executed in magic marker. At the same time, the account management system was restructured, with creatives and artists assigned to individual accounts instead of receiving their assignments through the Art Department Manager. Mr. Szalay retired from Ted Bates & Co. in 1968.
