The Hotel LaSalle History and the 1946 Fire, Chicago, Illinois.

The Hotel LaSalle opened on September 9, 1908, on the northwest corner of LaSalle and Madison Streets in Chicago's Loop.

The New Fire-Proof Hotel LaSalle, Chicago, Illinois. (1910)

The new hotel contains 1,172 rooms, of which 1,048 are guest rooms, nearly 1,000 have baths and all the modern conveniences, and each room has hot and cold running water. The hotel has 178 feet of frontage on La Salle and 162 feet of frontage on Madison Street, covering a ground dimension of 29,100 square feet.

It is the most conspicuous hotel structure in Chicago, twenty-two stories high, twenty above ground. It is the tallest hotel in the world. Everything in it is of the finest and best. From the sidewalk to the copper cheneau (a cresting above a cornice or at the ends of eaves), crowning the roof, the building measures 260 feet and towers above all other skyscrapers, the most conspicuous object in the downtown district. From the lake and surrounding country, its shining top can be seen from a long distance. It is fire-proof, and the steel frame rests on 105 concrete caissons, extending to bedrock 110 feet below street level.

The building is designed in the style of the French Renaissance, with a mansard roof, which gives the great structure a striking appearance. Large windows and balconies relieve what would otherwise be a plain front and provide an artistic and unique effect.

Hotel LaSalle Main Dining Room, October 30, 1909.

Here is the table seating capacity of the Hotel LaSalle dining rooms:

Main Dining Hall—500

Palm Room—350

Henry II—500

German Room—350

Cafe—175

Banquet Hall (Large)—1,000

Banquet Hall (Medium)—600

Banquet Hall (Small)—200

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Total Seating Capacity—3,675

In addition, several smaller private dining halls seat from 50 to 100 each that may be called into use.

Per hotel advertising, the famous Pabst Blue Ribbon beer was served in the buffets and restaurants of the new Hotel LaSalle. "Edelweiss" beer from the Peter Schoenhofen Brewing Company of Chicago was also served.

FIRE AT THE HOTEL LASALLE
Chicago Tribune, June 5, 1946. 

The Hotel LaSalle in Chicago was booked solid on June 5, 1946, and its guests were mostly asleep, when a sprinkling of night owls in the Silver Grill Cocktail Lounge noticed the smell of burning wood. A patron and several employees squirted seltzer water and poured sand on the flames that emerged from beneath the bar's wood paneling, but it was in vain.

Arriving in the lobby about 12:30 a.m., night manager W.H. Bradfield saw fire shooting out of the bar and asked if the Fire Department had been called. "'We called them,' they told me, 'but we'll call them again,'" Bradfield recalled afterward to a Tribune reporter from a bed in Illinois Masonic Hospital.

Sixty-one died with approximately 60 injured, needing assistance out of the building, with another 150 patrons that reported a variety of injuries, but made it out of the hotel on their own in the disaster that was thought to be impossible. All the other guests, in the fully booked hotel, escaped without incident. 

When it opened in 1909, the 22-story building at LaSalle and Madison streets was touted as "the most comfortable, modern and safest hotel west of New York City."

In fact, it was a tragedy waiting to happen, and made of chance and dereliction, compounded by mendacity.

Whatever Bradfield was told, the Fire Department got its first phone call at 12:35 a.m., about 15 minutes after the fire started — a delay that firefighters dread, knowing it can be deadly. A guest from Des Moines, Iowa, William Poorman, returned to the hotel a few minutes before that phone call and heard what sounded "like a gas explosion" as the lobby ceiling "lighted up almost immediately."

Arriving a few minutes later, Battalion Chief Eugene Freemon saw a wall of flames in the hotel lobby and knew he needed reinforcements. Today a firefighter would call in an extra alarm, but in 1946 radios were almost nonexistent in the Chicago Fire Department. Freemon's driver had to run to the nearest fire-alarm box and tap out 2-11 on the telegraph key inside.

Freemon led firefighters from Engine 40, Squad 1 and Hook and Ladder 6 on a search for victims. As they passed through the lobby, part of a mezzanine collapsed on them. They were rescued by arriving firefighters — eventually there would be 300 on the scene — but Freemon died of smoke inhalation.

By now the inferno, having fed on the two-story lobby's highly varnished woodwork, was moving up through the hotel's two staircases. Doors planned for each floor had never been installed, turning the stairwells from escape routes into chimneys, sucking smoke up into the corridors.

Subsequent investigations raised, but didn't answer, the question of how the hotel got away with such elementary safety violations. A police order had interrupted a 1935 remodeling of the Silver Lounge because combustible materials were being used. But the record showed the work had been resumed "by agreement."

As the inferno grew, Bradfield, the night manager, came across the hotel's operator at the switchboard, alerting guests. He urged her to get out. "No. I'm going to stay at my station," replied Julia C. Berry. There she died, having saved hundreds of lives, officials later said.

With the staircases unusable, firefighters saved guests by raising ladders to the windows of lower-floor windows. Those on upper floors had to be brought down via fire escapes, which luckily were in working order.

Tribune war correspondent Joseph Hearst and his wife had just returned from China and were in a room on the 19th floor. "Someone in the hall yelled for everyone to get out," he said. "We wrapped wet towels around our faces, felt our way down the corridor to the fire escape and descended safely." 

A number of newly discharged servicemen staying at the hotel joined the rescue effort.

Hotel LaSalle's Exterior Fire Escape

Seaman 1st Class Joseph O'Keefe, aided by three civilians, dragged 27 guests from fifth-floor rooms after discovering the hotel's fire hose was useless. "It just went drip, drip," he said. His buddy, Seaman 1st Class Robert Might, helped people down a fire escape before being overcome by smoke and taken to Henrotin Hospital. Two more sailors, Bernard Traska and Robert Higdon, dragged hose lines into the hotel and helped raise ladders. 

Fawn, a seeing-eye dog, guided her owner down a fire escape. "I can't see and I can't smell, but I tasted the smoke and nudged Fawn," said Anita Blair of El Paso, Texas. "We followed the crowd around a corner, and then a man helped me and my dog over the windowsill and onto a fire escape landing."
The Anti-Cruelty Society gave Fawn and Blair an award: "For exceptional kindness done by a human being to an animal, and the other way around," the Tribune reported. 

The Chicago Telephone Traffic Union established a college fund for John Joseph Berry, the 16-year-old son of the operator who died while alerting others.

Merritt Penticoff and his wife spent an agonizing 45 minutes in their 18th-floor room before a knock on the door suggested it was safe to leave. "We got dressed after that pounding," Mrs. Penticoff said, as the Tribune reported, without using the woman's full name. "Then my husband laughed for the first time — I had automatically put on lip rouge, despite my haste, acting absolutely subconsciously."

Not everyone maintained his dignity or acted heroically. A fire marshal saw a firefighter looting rooms. A judge dismissed charges brought against him — a denouement that seemed fishy as he was a stepbrother of a Democratic ward committeewoman. Nonetheless, he resigned upon the discovery that he had lied about his age on his application to join the Fire Department.

Still, even thieves can have a guilty conscience. Jewelry worth $1,500 ($19,500 today) was taken during the fire from the 10th-floor room of Gertrude Cummings. Eleven days later, the jewelry was mailed to the hotel with a note saying: "Please return to owner."

Shortly, seven separate investigations were launched, some in hopes of preventing future disasters. Other inquiries were inspired, a Tribune editorial observed, by "the natural desire of politicians to get their names in the paper."

Blue-ribbon panels recommended reforms varying from stricter building codes to equipping all emergency vehicles with radios. But even the experts had to be reminded of perhaps the number-one rule of fire safety. During one hearing, the coroner agreed with the Hotel LaSalle's president that it wasn't necessary to call the Fire Department for every whiff of smoke or a few flames.

That was too much for Capt. Frank Thielman, a fire prevention investigator, who jumped up. "Delayed alarms cause loss of life," he shouted. "We have been preaching this for years and have fought a losing battle."

People stick their heads out of the windows at the Hotel LaSalle during a June 5, 1946 fire. The Tribune wrote, "As flames shot as high as the seventh-floor level from the street, the loop echoed to the screams and cries of men and women standing at open windows."

Firefighters are on the scene.

Firefighters help a man in his bed during a fire at the Hotel LaSalle on June 5, 1946.

Policemen carry a victim out of the Hotel LaSalle on June 5, 1946, after a fire broke out at the Loop Hotel.

Crowds gather outside the Hotel LaSalle at Madison and LaSalle streets on the morning of June 5, 1946, after a significant fire at the hotel the night before.

The inside of the Hotel LaSalle on June 14, 1946, after a significant fire. The Tribune wrote, "Firemen rushed into the smoke-filled lobby and braved fierce flames that made the mezzanine, in the words of one witness, 'a hellish ball of fire.' Soon, firemen were carrying out unconscious guests, picked up in the smoke-filled corridors." 

The lobby of the Hotel LaSalle on June 14, 1946, after the central fire. The Tribune wrote, "The conflagration left the ornate, walnut paneled lobby, and the mezzanine floor a charred and blackened wreck. Fire damage was severe as high as the fifth floor, particularly in corridors and areas adjacent to the stairways, which served as pathways for the flames and smoke."

The interior of the Hotel LaSalle after the central fire.

The interior of the Hotel LaSalle after the major fire.

The interior of the Hotel LaSalle after the major fire.

FIRE DEPT. STATISTICS OF THE HOTEL LASALLE FIRE
Some Interesting Figures Presented In Chicago Fire Department's Consolidated Report.

When Fire Engineering's July account of the fatal Hotel LaSalle fire in Chicago on June 5, 1946, was written, many details of the fire department's operation needed to be included.

In as much as the actual working data of the Chicago Fire Department are, to the advanced firefighter, the most interesting, the editors secured the permission of Chief Fire Marshal Anthony Mullaney of the Chicago Fire Department to bring its readers that statistical story which was not available when the July account was prepared.

The fire was in the Hotel LaSalle, owned by Roanoke Realty Co. (LaSalle Madison Hotel Co.). The building was twenty-two stories in height with two basements. It was constructed of reinforced concrete and occupied an area of 178 x 162 feet.

The duration of the fire (fire department operations) was three hours and thirty-two minutes.

The number of persons killed (at the time of the report) was 61, with approximately 60 injured and 150 rescued.

The total number of alarms was seven.

The first notification of the fire department was a still alarm at 12:35 AM on June 5, 1946. This was followed by a box alarm from street firebox 1028. From that time on, the warnings and assignments were as follows:

• 1st Alarm 12:38 A.M. (15 40 responded on the still alarm)
• 2nd Alarm 12:40 A.M. 
• 3rd Alarm 12:45 A.M.
• 4th Alarm 12:45 A.M.
• 5th Alarm 12:45 A.M.
• SPECIAL CALLS
• (Special Duty) 1:08 A.M.
• (1st Special) 1:16 A.M.
• (2nd Special) 1:18 A.M.
• (Special Duty) 1:45 A.M.
• (Special Duty) 2:10 A.M.

Commissioner Corrigan was in charge of all operations. In command at the start of the fire: Division Marshal Gibbons. Upon his arrival, he ordered the 5-11 alarm struck and put companies to work on the Madison Street side of the hotel. He supervised companies' work until the arrival of 2nd Deputy Chief Haherkorn. Afterward, he went inside and proceeded up the stairs, overseeing the operations of various companies on various floors.

The Chief officers present were 2nd Deputy Chief Haherkorn, 2nd Deputy Chief Dahl, Drillmaster Sheehan, 1st Deputy Chief Cody and Marshal Fenn, head of the Fire Prevention Bureau.

Operations of the four battalion chiefs at the fire are briefed as follows: Chief Freemon, 1st Battalion. (who died later in the hospital). Ordered a box, and 2-11 struck. Put companies to work on the east side of the building. Went inside on 4th, 5th, and 6th floors to evacuate occupants. 

Chief Walsh, 25th Battalion: Supervised the working of hose streams on the LaSalle Street side. Also, the removal of bodies from various floors.

Chief Powers: Supervised the working of hose streams inside the 1st and 2nd floors. Also checked all the floors. Removed bodies from the 3rd floor.

Chief Bieze: Supervised the working of hose streams on the 2nd floor. Madison Street side; later directed streams on elevator shaft on all floors; led removal of bodies on all floors.

Forty Lines Stretched
The report indicated that 38 hose lines were stretched and charged during the period of operations, while two more were laid in but not charged. Four lines were Siamese. Five pumpers operated two lines; one worked three, and one (F 40) operated four. Approximately 4100 ft. of 3-in. hose and 15,700 ft. of 2 1/2-in Hose was stretched. Lengths of stretches varied from 100-ft. to 950 ft. The hydrants used were all the "Chicago" type. The distance of pumpers from the fire varied from 50 ft. (E 40 and 13) to 950 ft. (E 114),

The report indicates that first-in companies immediately hooked up to standpipes and stretched into the lobby. Hand lines were taken into the building over the hotel canopies and up ladders, including the department's most extended all-metal types. Other companies operated lines into elevator shafts, some using the building standpipes.

Running throughout the account of company operations is the phrase "Assisted in the removal of bodies" and "applied artificial respiration." After stretching in and hitting the fire, many engine company personnel applied artificial respiration to victims whom they encountered.

A few companies operated streams briefly, then worked to revive victims. Two engine companies stretched but did not charge lines.

With the ladder companies, as might be expected, the objectives were to save lives—to get the victims and the uninjured guests out of the building.

The structure was laddered on every side except the north, and some ladders were raised to corners. Every type and length of ladder in the department was used.

The accounts relate how companies rescued persons on floors up to and including the seventh and how firemen assisted guests down the fire escapes, opened up and searched rooms, located casualties and applied artificial respiration where a possible spark of life remained.

Likewise, the squads and special service forces' work primarily concerns rescue and resuscitation. Such terse company reports abound: "Evacuated Floors 4-5-6; Laddered North East Corner building."

"Rescued 6. Removed dead. Laddered West side of the building."

"Hand-line to the 3rd floor, and H & H on victims."

"Used body bags and stretchers to remove victims."

"Inhalator on the 3rd floor."

"E & J—H & H on victims 6th and 7th floors."

"Removed bodies from floors 3 to 11." "Inhalator on victims floors 5-7-8-21" (Indicating height to which people were overcome).

"Inhalator on victims floors 9-10-11." 

One tragic item in the report catches the eye: "Used resuscitator on Chief Freemon—Removed to hospital."

The records indicate that most companies performed more than three hours of duty at the scene. One engine company operated for 4 hours, while a ladder company put in 28 hours and 40 minutes of work. A unique service unit (searchlight) reported 12 hours and 20 minutes worked.

The total period of operation by the fire department personnel reaches an impressive total of over 270 company hours.

The report attributes the discovery of the fire to an employee and indicates there was a delay in reporting the fire.

The fire communicated throughout part of the hotel using stairways and elevator shafts.

Weather data shows that the wind was "mild," the temperature was 60 deg., and it was a clear night.

Reporting on the condition of the building after the fire, the record says: "safe on upper floors. Lobby and stairways from 1st to 3rd full of debris and broken stair treads and frames."

Under the subject "lessons suggested by the fire," the report emphasizes that "open stairways cause the fire to spread." And it recommends: "enclosure of all stairways in this building occupancy."

The total number of fire department equipment of all types employed at the fire is given as follows: 33 engines (pumpers); 8 trucks (ladder units); 10 squads; 2 pressure wagons (Hand Pump. trucks); 2 water towers; 2 ambulances and 2 light wagons (searchlights).

Hotel Urged to Inspect
Discussing fire preventive measures in hotels notably, Fire Commissioner Frank B. Quayle of New York, speaking before the Eastern Association of Fire Chiefs, advocated cooperation between hotel management and fire departments and prompt transmitting of alarms when a fire is discovered. Smoke and panic were the most general causes of loss of life at such fires, he said, and he recommended the organization of hotel staff for systematic inspection of possible fire hazards and for the supervision of guests in case of an alarm for fire.

Following the fatal Hotel LaSalle fire in Chicago, Mayor O'Dwyer instructed Commissioner Quayle and heads of other responsible city agencies to intensify inspections of hotels and multiple dwellings in all city communities. Commissioner Quayle went on the air to urge closer cooperation between hotel management and the fire department to ensure excellent fire safety.

The hotel was refurbished after the fire and was demolished in July 1976 to be occupied by the Two North LaSalle office building. This 26-story skyscraper was completed using the hotel's foundation in 1978.

Two North LaSalle Street, Chicago, Illinois.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Robert Hall Department Stores and Clothier, Chicago and Illinois Stores.

Robert Hall Clothier, Inc., popularly known simply as Robert Hall, was an American retailer that flourished from about 1937 to 1977. Although based in Connecticut, its warehouse-like stores were mostly concentrated in the New York and Los Angeles basins.

This store is identical to the 2900 West Devon Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, location.

According to a Time magazine story of 1949, the corporate name was a complete invention; the actual founder was a garment merchant, Jacob Schwab, who "plucked the name out of the air."

Public Domain Photograph.

Robert Hall pioneered the low-overhead, large-facility ("big-box") merchandising technique and combined inexpensively made goods with extensive radio and television advertising. Many Americans who grew up in the 1950s and 60s recall the commercial jingles of those times.

The company also operated outlets called Robert Hall Village. Robert Hall's clothing was sold alongside other merchandise in stores of approximately 120,000 square-foot in what's considered one of the forerunners of the discount superstore concept. Non-clothing retail areas were leased to other companies.

Robert Hall Clothes Ghost Sign is located at 1185 South State Street, Chicago, Illinois.

They were known for their inexpensive men's suits... about $50.00 in its heyday, with no charge for alterations. A joke made the rounds that the suits would fall apart at the seams in short order after being tailored. So truthful was that comment that eventually comical skits about the suits' quality became common.

In July 1977, Robert Hall's parent company, United Merchants and Manufacturers, filed for bankruptcy, citing losses from the Robert Hall chain as the reason for filing. All Robert Hall stores were closed, and inventory was auctioned off.

After the Bankruptcy, Lyons Office Supply Company took over Chicago's Devon Avenue location.

STAND-UP COMEDY SKIT

A Comical Skit about Robert Hall Suits Quality.

Turn up the volume.

RADIO COMMERCIALS

1960s Radio Jingle

Les Paul & Mary Ford- Robert Hall Radio Spots.

PAMS Jingles: Robert Hall GO-GO! Radio Commercial

TV COMMERCIALS

1950s TV Commercial

1950s TV Commercial

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

A powerful statement attributed to Abraham Lincoln during his 1860 presidential campaign.

Photograph by William Marsh, May 20, 1860, Springfield, Illinois. One of five photographs taken by William Marsh for Marcus Lawrence Ward. Although many in the East had read Lincoln's impassioned speeches, few had actually seen the Representative from Illinois. Colorized photograph prior to Lincoln growing a beard in November of that year.

"That central idea in our political system at the beginning was, and until recently continued to be, the equality of men. And although it was always submitted patiently to, whatever inequality there seemed to be, as a matter of actual necessity, its constant working has been a steady progress toward the practical equality of all men. In what I have done I cannot claim to have acted from any peculiar consideration of the colored people as a separate and distinct class in the community, but from the simple conviction that all the individuals of that class are members of the community, and in virtue of their manhood entitled to every original right enjoyed by any other member. We feel, therefore, that all legal distinction between individuals of the same community, founded in any such circumstances as color, origin and the like, are hostile to the genius of our institutions, and incompatible with the true history of American liberty. Slavery and oppression must cease, or American liberty must perish.

In Massachusetts, and in most, if not all, the New-England States, the colored man and the white are absolutely equal before the law.

In New-York the colored man is restricted as to the right of suffrage by a property qualification. In other respects the same equality prevails.

I embrace with pleasure this opportunity of declaring my disapprobation of that clause of the Constitution [of Illinois], which, denies to a portion of the colored people the right of suffrage.

True Democracy makes no inquiry about the color of the skin or place of nativity, or any other similar circumstance of condition. I regard, therefore, the exclusion of the colored people as a body from the elective franchise as incompatible with the true Democratic principle."

December 26, 1860 - Atlas & Argus, Albany, New York, (weekly: 1856-1865)

The above Lincoln quote paints the picture of a politician who firmly believed in the social equality of Colored and White people in the United States. In reality, Lincoln NEVER said these words and he vehemently denied that he ever did!

There has been a lot of fabricated stories, comments, and quotes attributed to Abraham Lincoln. Every claim of what Lincoln said MUST be verified.

A Listing of Unfounded Quotes Attributed to Abraham Lincoln.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Drake Fountain (Christopher Columbus) in Chicago, Illinois. (1892)

Believed to be the first statue in Chicago to commemorate Christopher Columbus, this monument was dedicated in December 1892, marking the 400th anniversary of the explorers’ voyage to the Americas. 

Walking past the Drake Fountain on LaSalle Street outside City Hall, Chicago. (1906)

The 7½ foot bronze figure is of Columbus as a young man with a globe in hand. The fountain is inspired by Gothic architecture and small granite columns and curving buttresses rise up 33 feet to the pointed spire on top.

Now located in Richard Henry Park, 92nd Street, and Exchange Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.

Originally located downtown on the Washington Street side of City Hall in 1892 to provide chilled drinking water to those in the Loop, the fountain was moved to the LaSalle side in 1906. The fountain dispensed into four granite basins that is still listed on the monument: ice water. A surviving example of Victorian-era public drinking fountains, it was hoped at the time that it would be an alternative to nearby saloons. The fountain was moved twice as the city razed buildings and redirected the flow of traffic.

Now located in Richard Henry Park,
92nd Street and Exchange Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.

In 1909, Southeast Chicago residents complained about the lack of public art in their part of town and were able to get the fountain move to the location where it still stands in Richard Henry Park on 92nd Street and Exchange Ave. 

The Drake Fountain was designated a Chicago Landmark in 2004.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Oscar Mayer Enterprise was founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1883.

Oscar Ferdinand Mayer was the founder of the Oscar Mayer meat products company. Mayer was born in Bavaria on March 29, 1859, and emigrated to Detroit, Michigan in 1873 at the age of 14 to work as a butcher's apprentice.

      

                           Founder                          Son                      Grandson

Mayer moved to Chicago in 1876 when he was 17 to work for Kohlhammer's Market and then worked six years for the Philip Armour & Company meatpackers at the Chicago Union Stock Yards. By 1883, his brother Gottfried Mayer had moved to Chicago from Nurnberg, Germany, where he had established himself as a "wurstmacher" or sausage-maker and ham curer. 

Oscar Mayer had saved enough money to lease a failing business, the Kolling Meat Market at 1241 North Sedgwick Street, in a German neighborhood on the near north side and leased the building from the former owner.

From their first week in operation, the business was very popular due to Gottfried's skill in producing the products that Germans in Chicago loved, reminding them of the quality sausages from back home. Within a year, the shop was turning a profit. Five years later, its continuing success prompted the envious former owner of Kolling's to refuse to renew the Mayers' lease on the building in 1888. Instead, he announced that he would resume control of the firm himself. But without the Mayer brothers, his store failed in a year.

What he had not counted on, however, was Oscar Mayer's determination. Having worked very hard to establish his business, the young entrepreneur was not about to let anyone take it away without a fight. Mayer borrowed $10,000 and purchased a piece of property only two blocks away, close enough to continue serving his faithful clientele. He then built his own building and set up shop again in 1888.

The building and shop Oscar F. Mayer built. The exact location is unknown.

A third Mayer brother, Max, came over from Germany about 1888 to join the company as a bookkeeper when they built a new two-story building two blocks from the first location and lived in apartments over the store.

Mayer products were very popular with Chicago's growing German-American immigrant community in the 1890s. They sold "Old World" sausages, Westphalian hams, bockwurst, liverwurst, bacon, and wieners─later called hot dogs by Americans, not of German heritage.

The company was first called Oscar Mayer and Brother and then Oscar Mayer & Company. In 1893, they were sponsors of the German display at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. They also sponsored German polka bands. The German market in Chicago was important. According to the census of 1900, one in four residents of Chicago, about 470,000 people, were either born in Germany or had at least one parent who was born there. The next largest immigrant group was the Irish, and they also liked the Mayer products.

At the start of the twentieth century, Oscar Mayer had a workforce of 43 people, including eight wagon drivers who made deliveries to 280 stores all over Chicago and its suburbs, as well as in Wisconsin. The standard practice for meat sellers in 1904 was to rely on salespeople and remain anonymous as to the packer or retailer. The idea of retail brand names in food and consumer advertising was still fairly new in the early 1900s. As in the case of Charles R. Walgreen, who started branding his drug stores 100 years ago, Oscar Mayer put his brand name on retail meat products in 1904.

The Mayers were very concerned with quality control. In 1906, they became one of the first companies to volunteer to participate in a new federal meat inspection program to certify the purity and quality of products. Naturally, the company advertised that they were government-inspected as a distinctive selling point. Just after World War I, Oscar Mayer & Company made its first large expansion with the purchase of a processing plant in Madison, Wisconsin.

In 1909, Oscar's only son, Oscar Gottfried Mayer, graduated from Harvard University and joined the family business. One year at a time, Mayer launched many innovations to set his brand name apart from the competition. By 1912, a Ford Model T motorcar had replaced the horse-drawn wagon on one of the company's 20 sales routes.

By 1917, sales at Oscar Mayer had grown to $11 million. About a third of that total represented government purchases for troops fighting in World War I. That same year, the Edelweiss brand name was discontinued and replaced by Oscar Mayer's "Approved Meat Products," which the company used in its newspaper display ads.

In 1924, Mayer introduced sliced bacon in a special "see-through" plastic packaging that was patented. In 1928, Oscar F. Mayer became Chairman of the Board, and his son Oscar G. Mayer was made president. 

In 1929, the company introduced "yellow band weiners." A yellow paper band was a great gimmick because most hot dogs at that time were sold in bulk with no packaging other than a display box. Mayer employees applied individual yellow paper bands, by hand, on every fourth hot dog produced that carried the company name and the U.S. government inspection stamp.

Oscar F. Mayer was interested in politics but was usually too busy running his own business to take too much time for campaigns. He was an Illinois delegate to the Democratic National Conventions of 1920 and 1928.

Oscar Mayer delivery truck parked outside an Oscar Mayer & Co. building in Chicago. The truck is an International Harvester AW-2. (1931)

In addition to his business interests, Oscar Mayer served for many years as treasurer of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Illinois, which was responsible for acquiring and maintaining natural wooded areas for recreational uses.

His son Oscar G. Mayer was born in Chicago in 1888 and lived in Evanston. Oscar G. Mayer also was elected as a trustee of the University of Illinois from 1935 to 1941.

In 1936, Oscar F. Mayer came up with another classic advertising gimmick at the suggestion of his nephew. It was a custom-made vehicle that looked like a giant wiener on a truck body with wheels, and it was and is today called the Wienermobile. It became a rolling billboard for Oscar Mayer to be driven in parades and around Chicago and its suburbs.

In 1969, new Wienermobiles were built on a Chevrolet motor home chassis and featured Ford Thunderbird taillights. It was the first Wienermobile to travel to foreign countries. In 1976, Plastic Products, Inc. built a fiberglass and styrofoam model, again on a Chevrolet motor home chassis. In 1988, Oscar Mayer launched its Hotdogger program, where recent college graduates were hired to drive the Wienermobile through various parts of the nation and abroad. Using a converted Chevrolet van chassis, Stevens Automotive Corporation and noted industrial designer Brooks Stevens built a fleet of six Wienermobiles for the new team of Hotdoggers.

With the 1995 version, the Wienermobile grew in size to 27 feet long and 11 feet high. The 2004 version of the Wienermobile includes a voice-activated GPS navigation device, an audio center with a wireless microphone, a horn that plays the Wiener Jingle in 21 different genres from Cajun to Rap to Bossa Nova, and sports fourth-generation Pontiac Firebird taillights.

In 1969, new Wienermobiles were built on a Chevrolet motor home chassis and featured Ford Thunderbird taillights. It was the first Wienermobile to travel to foreign countries. In 1976, Plastic Products, Inc. built a fiberglass and styrofoam model, again on a Chevrolet motor home chassis. In 1988, Oscar Mayer launched its Hotdogger program, where recent college graduates were hired to drive the Wienermobile through various parts of the nation and abroad. Using a converted Chevrolet van chassis, Stevens Automotive Corporation and noted industrial designer Brooks Stevens built a fleet of six Wienermobiles for the new team of Hotdoggers.

With the 1995 version, the Wienermobile grew in size to 27 feet long and 11 feet high. The 2004 version of the Wienermobile includes a voice-activated GPS navigation device, an audio center with a wireless microphone, a horn that plays the Wiener Jingle in 21 different genres from Cajun to Rap to Bossa Nova, and sports fourth-generation Pontiac Firebird taillights.

A 2008 Prototype Mini Cooper S Hatchback "Cocktail" Wienermobile.

Due to TV commercials over more than fifty years that featured the vehicle, the Weinermobile is one of the most recognized custom vehicles in the country and an icon of American pop culture. It has been worth millions of dollars in brand name awareness advertising to the company, far in excess of its cost to operate and maintain.

For about 36 years between 1940 and 1976, a little person dressed as a chef by the name of "Little Oscar" was the goodwill ambassador for the company who traveled with the Wienermobile.

He was played by George Molchan, who had auditioned on the recommendation of one of his friends who played a "Munchkin" in the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz.

Vintage Wiener Whistle, prior to the Wienermobile Whistle.

George would pass out plastic "wiener whistles" to kids at each stop the Wienermobile made. In 2005, Mr. Molchan died at age 82 in Merriville, Indiana.

Throughout the rest of the 1940s and into the early 1950s, the company launched a series of technological improvements in the areas of packaging and distribution. The first of these debuted in 1944. Known as the Kartridg-Pak, it automatically banded hot dogs together in bunches. Five years later, a tube machine was invented that encased liverwurst in "chub-sized" plastic tubes. The year 1950 marked the development of the Slice-Pak, which vacuum-packed sliced meat in plastic packages. A stripping machine created in 1953 removed the cooking cases from sausages and made possible the sale of skinless links. Oscar Mayer leased the rights to all of these innovations to competing meatpackers, which is one reason the company has consistently been among the most profitable firms in the meat-packing industry.

Oscar F. Mayer died on March 11, 1955, just a few weeks before his 96th birthday. He is buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.

After his death, his son and grandson remained active with the company, and the corporate headquarters moved from Chicago to Madison, Wisconsin, to be closer to the main plants.

Under both Oscar Gottfried Mayer and his son, Oscar Gustave Mayer, Jr., the company continued to innovate with special vacuum-sealed packaging in the 1950s and other ways to guarantee freshness. In 1971, the Oscar Mayer packaged meats were the first to print "use by" dates on products.

Starting in 1963, Oscar Mayer & Company used a jingle that many generations of children have memorized. "I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Wiener" is the longest continuously used commercial jingle in the history of American advertising.

Oscar Mayer TV Commercial - 1965

Another famous jingle taught children how to spell "baloney" as "bologna" with a first name of O-S-C-A-R and a last name of M-A-Y-E-R.

Oscar Mayer TV Commercial - 1973

Hot Wheels 1st Wienermobile. 

The One-of-a-Kind Wiener Cycle.

In 1981, Oscar Mayer was bought by General Foods Corporation, a company founded in the 1920s by Marjorie Merriweather Post of Springfield, Illinois, and its name was changed to Oscar Mayer Foods Corporation. As an increasingly health-conscious public began to shun fatty meat products containing preservatives, the company countered by introducing a variety of low-fat and low-sodium products. Thus, a large share of the meat that finds its way into America's lunch-boxes still carries the name of Oscar Mayer.

In 1989, Mayer was again merged with the company founded by Chicagoan James L. Kraft, Kraft Foods.

Oscar Mayer’s popular hot dogs were reformulated in May 2017 by removing all artificial preservatives, nitrates, and nitrites. Kraft-Heinz has proclaimed it is the first national hot dog maker to make the switch.

Oscar Mayer Meat Products, Post Cereals, and Kraft Foods all have deep founder and family roots in Illinois with Oscar F. Mayer, Charles W. Post, and James L. Kraft.

Today, there are many things in Illinois named for Oscar F. Mayer, including the Oscar F. Mayer School at 2250 North Clinton in Chicago.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.