The Roanoke Times du lieu suivant : Roanoke, Virginia • 78

THE ROANOKE, TIMES, SUNDAY, MARCH -18, 1951. 50 YEARS OF SERVICE. E--Twenty-six TRADE PROMOTION ON VITAL TO MERCHANTS Mill Mountain Star Creates Much Publicity Discussion at a 1910 meeting of the former Retail Merchants Association was agitated by a realization that Roanoke needed two things: hard-surfaced road leading to the City and a crowddrawing event to invigorate sales. Action taken As result of plans made at the meeting launched a program of trade promotion which today ranks as one of the oldest and most important within the Merchants Association. Both the road and the crowddrawing event had been discussed at previous meetings in 1910, but no action had been taken until committee consisting of R.

H. Angell, J. T. Engleby and L. B.

Davis was named to assist in the then current Good Roads Movement and the auto races proposed by the Automobile Club. The races were to be combined with a May Festival, and the proceeds were to go to the improvement of area road surfaces under the joint supervision of the Automobile Association and the Retail Merchants Association. The races were "pulled off" on the Salem Turnpike, then a dirt road. Stores Decorated At the suggestion of E. A.

Thurman, merchants decorated their stores during the May Festival and prepared floats for participation in a parade. Sponsors of the event offered to refund one-way fare to those coming to the City and purchasing as much as $25 worth of goods from Association members, or full fare for $50 in purchases, the fare not to exceed 100 miles. The Association also agreed to offer a prize of $25 to the person making the largest aggregate of purchases from its members, $100 worth to be the minimum. The Norfolk and Western Railway and the Virginian Railroad were asked to run excursions into Roanoke during the Festival. Two publications at the time received formal written endorsement of the merchant group: the "Official Program" for the races and the "May Festival News." In an effort to promote Roanoke even further as a shopping and tourist center, the Mill Mountain Incline Railway asked the merchants to assist in erecting Moun- a huge searchlight atop Mill tain by advertising in the cars of the Incline Railway then in use.

Soon a strong beam was scanning the sky and the Roanoke neighborhood; this was 40 years before the erection of the present neon star. Later a storm destroyed the observation tower and with it the searchlight which it supported. Many of the promotion events sponsored by the Association have been the result of an evolutionary process. One such idea was Dollar Day. It was brought before the membership in 1910 by local newspaper representatives and turned down.

But in 1921 the merchants were having a Dollar Day on the Tuesday after the third Sunday in February and August. Interest grew and in 1922 a Dollar Day song contest was arranged. Official Dollar Day was discontinued in 1926 when one of the merchants on the committee stated that he found it necessary to go into the market to purchase special merchandise for the occasion. Today Dollar Day is gaining favor and has been used for the past several years. 'Roanoke Day' As another type of trade promotion "Roanoke Day" became a merchandising event in May 1932 and 1933.

The endeavor was to encourage the neighbors to Roanoke and Roanoke residents to come downtown. Billboards, newspapers and radio stations within 100 miles Many of the Association's requests for credit information involve the contacting of Bureaus in other parts of the country or world. This is done easily in a relatively short time by employes of the foreign reporting department. Working on credit reports either eriginating out of town or to be sent out of town are (left to right) Miss Lou Elva Shay, Miss Myrtle Glasgow and Mrs. Dorothy Spencer.

MEMBER and Jones Barter CLEANING and DYEING, INC. 002 110 ST, W. FOR PROMPT DELIVERY SERVICE DIAL 3-2465 of Roanoke told the story. Emphasis was on styles, quality and values, but the turning of Roanoke Day into another Dollar Day was discouraged. The counterpart to "Roanoke Day" is the present "Spring and Fall Futurama." First held in the fall of 1948.

The largest was held in the spring, 1949, with the Sunday newspaper carrying two sections of news, pictures and advertisements of the event. Nearly all store windows were especially decorated, and some stores held merchandise demonstrations and style shows. Prior to 1924 the only decoration in downtown Roanoke at the Christmas Season was the display of flags. By 1930 Christmas lighting in Roanoke was a reality. Both of Associations then operating voted the next year to turn on the decorative street lights on Thanksgiving Eve.

The purpose behind the lighting has not been the making of sales, but the advertising of Roanoke as a progressive City to its visitors during the busiest season of the year. A Christmas present was given to Roanoke and Vicinity Dec. 5, 1933, in the form of a Santa Claus Parade and Christmas Street Pageant. Drawing card for the spectacle was the announcement that Roanoke was the only City in the State where Santa Claus and one of his live reindeer would appear. Official "Santa Claus Day" attracted thousands as the City and its people paused to revel in the spirit of Christmas.

Trade Blacks Out A blackout on trade promotion descended in 1940 and continued until 1946 during the years of World War II. "Retailers for Defense Week" was held in September, 1941 when several hundred stores in Roanoke, Vinton and Salem pressed the sale of defense stamps and bonds. The Roanoke Merchants Association raised $1,000 which was presented the Red Cross for British war relief. Scarehead and special sale advertising was discouraged by the Association during the war. The Roanoke Merchants Association did its part in educating the buying public to the curtailment of COD Delivery, Special De- livery and wrapped package services.

Cooperation with the war effort was the theme for several years, despite a loss in revenue, memberships and credit calls to the Association. The Association lost temporarily its secretary and treasurer to the U. S. Navy. The merchants also did their part in welcoming the former Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morganthau to Roanoke and making the War Bond Rally at Victory Stadium a great occasion in August, 1942.

The period of the last war was one of the most difficult for the Association, second only to the depression. When the curtain went up again on trade promotion in 1946 the Roanoke Merchants Association again brought on the state Christmas Street Lights and added mile-long giant balloon parade for the children. The parade attracted crowd of 50,000 persons, the largest known in the recent history of Roanoke despite cold, damp weather. Children Delighted Small fry gazed for 45 minutes during the parade at the 500 floats, 10 bands and many clowns which traveled 27 blocks through the City to delight them. The Association the following year erected the most elaborate day and night display of Christmas street decorations to be seen in (Continued on Page 32) leadership such as Fink's and the ROANOKE MERCHANT'S ASSOCIATION just doesn't happen.

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