tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post1195914859488716472..comments2024-03-19T07:48:54.021-06:00Comments on Gus Van Horn: Friday HodgepodgeGus Van Hornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-24414769087493650072021-09-10T14:07:32.329-06:002021-09-10T14:07:32.329-06:00C and Snedcat,
Those are great! Thanks for passin...C and Snedcat,<br /><br />Those are great! Thanks for passing them along!<br /><br />GusGus Van Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-48473262344464193032021-09-10T13:25:58.937-06:002021-09-10T13:25:58.937-06:00Yo, Gus, No. 3 reminds me of the train wreck of Ed...Yo, Gus, No. 3 reminds me of the train wreck of Edgar Wallace's once-famous <i>The Four Just Men</i>. Quoth <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Just_Men_%28novel%29" rel="nofollow">Wiki</a>:<br /><br /><i>Enthusiastic, but without any substantial managerial skill, Wallace had also made a far more serious error. He ran the FJM serial competition in the Daily Mail but failed to include any limitation clause in the competition rules restricting payment of the prize money to one winner only from each of the three categories. Only after the competition had closed and the correct solution printed as part of the final chapter denouement did Wallace learn that he was legally obliged to pay every person who answered correctly the full prize amount in that category; if six people got the 1st Prize answer right, he would have to pay not £250 but 6 × £250, or £1500, if three people got the 2nd Prize it would be £600 and so on.<br /><br />Additionally, though his advertising gimmick had worked as the novel was a bestseller, Wallace discovered that instead of his woefully over-optimistic three months, FJM would have to continue selling consistently with no margin of error for two full years to recoup the £2,500 he had mistakenly believed he needed to break even. Unfortunately during this period the number of entrants correctly guessing the right answer continued to rise inexorably. Wallace's response was to simply ignore the situation, but circumstances were ominous. As 1906 began and continued without any list of prize winners being printed, more and more suspicions were being voiced about the honesty of the competition. In addition, for a working-class Edwardian family, £250 was a fortune and since those who were winners knew it (courtesy of the published solution) they had been waiting impatiently for the prize to be paid out. Harmsworth, having refused the initial £1,000 loan, was furious at having now to loan over £5,000 to protect the newspaper's reputation because Wallace couldn't pay.</i><br /><br />Wallace was basically a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Wallace#Method" rel="nofollow">writing machine</a>--and he had to be, given the financial train wreck he so often made of his life: "Wallace narrated his words onto wax cylinders (the dictaphones of the day) and his secretaries typed up the text. This may be why he was able to work at such high speed and why his stories have narrative drive. Many of Wallace's successful books were dictated like this over two or three days, locked away with cartons of cigarettes and endless pots of sweet tea, often working pretty much uninterrupted in 72 hours." There is a most entertaining <a href="https://thepassingtramp.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-heirs-of-edgar-wallace-part-1.html" rel="nofollow">inside view</a> of Wallace's working methods in a post at The Passing Tramp.<br /><br />Full disclosure: I've read a couple of his mystery short stories, I think, that showed up in anthologies; I've not been highly motivated to seek his stuff out.Snedcatnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-25811581968520939722021-09-10T13:14:16.115-06:002021-09-10T13:14:16.115-06:00Hi Gus,
Speaking of badly thought out promotions,...Hi Gus,<br /><br />Speaking of badly thought out promotions, one of the car dealers in SLC offered a "buy a car from us and we'll pay 3 months of your utility bills!"<br /><br />One of my grandmother's neighbors had a HUUUUUUUUGE house. And a monthly utility bill of about $20,000. (He owned an oil company.) <br /><br />So he went in to take advantage of the promotion. The sales manager freaked! <br /><br />They would've had to pay him to take any car on the lot under the terms of the promotion. He agreed to take the car for dealer invoice. (Which still leaves plenty of money on the table for the dealership.)<br /><br />I don't believe they ever re-ran that promotion.<br /><br />c andrew<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com