The Penalty of Leadership

[okccadman]

Does anyone know where I can get a large copy or a good image of the Penalty of Leadership ad to frame and hang in my office?

[Stampie]

The Modified Chapter has an image here:

http://www.modifiedcadillac.org/documents/Multiple_Years/Penalty%20of%20Leadership/Penalty%20Ldrshp.jpg

I don't have the original scan anymore but maybe we can get a new scan if that isn't large enough.

Stampie

[Stampie]

I've been given the original scan again.  Here it is if you want the larger version.

Stampie

[JIM THOMAS]

Does anyone know where I can get a large copy or a good image of the Penalty of Leadership ad to frame and hang in my office?

OKCCADMAN
THERE IS A COPY ON THE INSIDE OF THE BACK COVER,INTERNATIONAL MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY 2010  Jim

[veesixteen]

Could this one be of use ? I have a larger scan if you need it.

[Steve W]

The first time I heard of this was from some Elvis website:

"In 1967 Cadillac mailed out scrolls of “The Penalty of Leadership” to a customer list. Elvis was on that mailing list. This written work by Theodore F. MacManus had been used in some Cadillac ads as far back as the 1920s. Elvis happened to be out in his father’s office behind Graceland after this had come in the mail. He read “The Penalty of Leadership” and said that, even though the piece had been written before he was born, the author could have just as well been writing about him. Elvis said it described his life. He framed the scroll and hung it near the desk in his own office upstairs at the mansion. He periodically referred to it and quoted from it. He even had a friend, Janelle McComb, draw up and frame a version in hand calligraphy, written in colors to match his bedroom so he could hang one in there. The one Elvis hung in his office is on display for Graceland visitors."

Cool!

[Davidinhartford]

Cadillac should reprint that original ad in it's current advertising.  Maybe with a photo of a new CTS under it.

The fickle public needs to be reminded of it from time to time.

[Otto Skorzeny]

Nobody today would read anything that long and wouldn't understand it if they did.

[veesixteen]

Agreed, Otto.  I have just been through a vast collection of older Cadillac-LaSalle sales literature; obviously the copywriters of the 20's and 30's were addressing an educated and cultured fringe of the population. Today, Cadillac couldn't care less if buyers can read or write as long as they buy cars of that make.

[Otto Skorzeny]

One also has to remember that reading was a form of entertainment back then much more so than today. Reading the ads was a way to get your money's worth from a paper or magazine I suppose. I remember my grandfather would read his newspaper cover to cover - including the ads - just because, as mountain climbers say, it was there.

A well written ad such as Cadillac's or those advertising the Jordan Playboy were as good or better than the actual articles.

SOMEWHERE west of Laramie there's a bronco-busting, steer roping girl who knows what I’m talking about. She can tell what a sassy pony, that’s a cross between greased lighting and the place where it hits, can do with eleven hundred pounds of steel and action when he's going high, wide and handsome. The truth is - the Playboy was built for her. Built for the lass whose, face is brown with the sun when the day is done of revel and romp and race. She loves the cross of the wild and the tame. There's a savor of links about that car - of laughter and lilt and light - a hint of old loves - and saddle and quirt. It’s a brawny thing - yet a graceful thing for the sweep o' the Avenue. Step into the Playboy when the hour grows dull with things gone dead and stale. Then start for the land of real living with the spirit of the lass who rides, lean and rangy, into the red horizon of a Wyoming twilight.

Pretty good for 1923.

[veesixteen]

The Jordan "Playboy" copy would suit equally well any of the Cadillac roadsters and convertible coupes of the 20's and 30's !

[Otto Skorzeny]

Or maybe even today's V Series

[jim thomas]

The person that doesn't read , is not much better off then the person WHO CAN NOT READ!   JIM

[ewinter82]

Hello all... Just googled and found this discussion so I thought what better of a place to post and see the interest in this one of a kind find...  or an idea of its estimated value... Send to auction or contact Cadillac...

I have run across an original re-print still in its shipping box from the Merchandising Department of Cadillac Motor Car Division.
I had a relative pass away and she left behind a time capsule for us to go through.

It’s 19.5” tall by 26” wide on thick parchment paper. Mint condition, but I’m not an expert.

It cost a whopping 14 cents to ship this box from Detroit(Lansing, MI) to Chicago according to the postage stamp.
Shipped Dec 5th 1967.

Is there interest in items such as this on here or elsewhere?

I’ll be glad to upload pictures if so...

Best Regards,
Eric Winter

[veesixteen]

Let's have a look, Eric.

Is it an exact (but enlarged) copy of the original ad that first appeared on Jan. 20, 1915 in the Saturday Evening Post?
There have been MANY different iterations of this ad, since it first appeared.

Also attached here is a follow-up ad by Ted MacManus on a similar theme entitled  "The Tribute to Initiative"; it is not as well-known as "The Penalty of Leadership" but - IMHO -  equally worthy of recoginition as an advertising milestone for the Cadillac.

As to the potential value of this and similar reproductios (and I'm not a buyer), I doubt it could make $20 ... unless it's the ONLY one, and is signed by a Cadillac (or advertising) "personality" (e.g. Ted MacManus, one of the Fisher bros, Harley Earl, Dave Holls).

[veesixteen]

This is a cleaned up ad from my collection.

[James Landi]

The pilcrow (¶), also called the paragraph mark, paragraph sign, paraph, alinea (Latin: a lineā, "off the line"), or blind P,[1] is a typographical character for individual paragraphs. It is present in Unicode as U+00B6 ¶ PILCROW SIGN (HTML ¶ · ¶).

The pilcrow can be used as an indent for separate paragraphs or to designate a new paragraph in one long piece of copy, as Eric Gill did in his 1930s book An Essay on Typography. The pilcrow was a type of rubrication used in the Middle Ages to mark a new train of thought, before the convention of visually discrete paragraphs was commonplace.[2]

[Bill Hedge CLC 14424]

It might be of interest to the Cadillac & La Salle club Museum. See:  http://www.cadillaclasallemuseum.org/contactus.html

[ewinter82]

Thanks for the quick replies all! What a great start to good conversation... Thanks for your recommendations as well... Here are some pictures of what I have...
Hope they upload well and good quality from my phone.
Let me know what you think!
Thanks in advance and Best Regards.

[veesixteen]

A day when you learn nothing is a day wasted.
Thanks for the lesson on typography.