I was working as art director for Botsford, Constantine and Gardner in Seattle. In 1965 when Botsford (Seattle) decided to merge with Botsford (San Francisco.) At that time I was working on a number of tech. accounts such as United Control and some other electronic accounts that were subcontractors to Boeing Aircraft. Also, I was working on the Olympia beer account which I loved because it was so fun to work on.
Part of my duties at Botsford was to interview potential art directors and examine their portfolios, or “books.”
One day, this guy shows up looking very much like an immigrant just off the boat. He was wearing this heavy, raggedy overcoat that ran down to his ankles and he was carrying his beat up cardboard portfolio. He said he was from Australia but he talked like he was from Chicago. I was very skeptical of this character right off but he did say “mate” a lot.
He gave his name as “Eric McCain” (Real name withheld for anonymity.) and it turns out, his portfolio looked pretty damn good.
Unfortunately, Seattle was experiencing very depressing times. Boeing Aircraft was laying off workers by the droves and some joker put up a billboard that read “Last person to leave Seattle, please turn off the lights.”
Absolutely no agencies were hiring at this time. I felt like I was just hanging on by my fingernails.
I advised this young man to go South. Yes, go South young man, look for work in Portland or San Francisco or even Los Angeles, if necessary. He then gave me the “stink eye” and packed up his layout samples, and grumbled “Thanks a lot, Mate” and left.
Whew! That was a tough one!
A few months later I heard he was freelancing in Portland Oregon and later was hired by Botsford, Constantine and Gardner branch office in Portland. Woohoo! He made it!
Several years later, the “Big Merge” was decided by the guys in the upper level of management.
They closed the Portland office and moved most of the employees to the San Francisco Branch.
As I recall, the Seattle office remained open for a year or so before the move was finalized.
Soon decision time came. We had to decide whether we wanted to stay in Seattle or move with the company to San Francisco. The people who decided to go S.F. had to hustle around and sell their homes, find a home in the Bay area in a short amount of time.
I was lucky and chose a home in Terra Linda near San Rafael. As it turned out, the home I chose was one block over from Jim and Ann Stitt’s home and our kids became good friends.
Norm Nicholson lived near by in Lucas Valley. As it turns out, it must have been a good choice because we’ve lived here ever since.
FIRST DAY AT THE NEW OFFICE.
The office was in a building known as “The Jelly Factory.” It was once a real jelly factory back in the day, I guess.
When we arrived, our hosts showed
us our new quarters. As it turns out, our new offices were really cubicles located in the basement. Well, not quite a real basement but it was on a lower level, almost a basement, but it looked like a basement with cinder block walls and dingy gray paint, and a bunch of old iron pipes up above, looking more like a military compound. They erected a structure for cubicles made out of 2x4s and the walls were“Beaver Board.” Beaver Board is like a bulletin board material, soft and spongy.
Each cubicle had a drawing board and an office chair and nothing else. No taboret, no file cabinet, nothing else, nada! Some of the guys rounded up some empty cardboard boxes to put some of their supplies on it, while others didn’t know what the heck to do except stand there with their hands in their pockets and others just scratching their heads. Now what do we do? Well, this is the New Creative Department, right? So we get creative, right?
First, we round up some metal push pins with long points and start hanging “stuff” on the “bulletin board“walls. Stuff like t‑squares, triangles, French curves, ellipse guides, steel rulers, plastic rulers, type setting gauges and all the other ‘stuff” that most Art Directors cannot do without. No “stuff,” no layouts, right?
Magic Markers and NuPastels went on top of scrounged cardboard boxes. At least it’s a start.
Let’s just say, morale was deteriorating to an all-time low at this point. Very depressing!
BUT WE CAN DO IT. WE’LL SURVIVE THIS!
We were staying late in order to get things squared away for the next day and the office was empty, except for us.
Then.….……TA, DA! Enter Eric McCain!
It’s been years since we had our interview in Seattle.
“How’s it going mates?” he says and we return his lively greeting with the “stink eye” and silence. Not to be deterred, and full of Aussie energy, and looking like a brand new penny. All bright and shiny, he continues to try and cheer us up by breaking into a combination of an Irish jig and a sort of stomp that Aussies do. He’s doing this sort of odd tap dance thing all around the new cubicles, then he jumps up on a Account Executive’s desk who was unfortunately put in the same quarters as the Art Department. YEA!
He then does a little tap dance routine on this guy’s desk and jumps down and breaks into sort of a shadow boxing routine, trying to look like “Rocky Balboa” and he takes a punch at one of the Beaver Board walls. Bam, he hits the wall once and knocks all the art gear onto the floor. Some poor guy spent hours putting up his art gear. Okay, Eric was messing with the wrong AD and this guy wasn’t having any of it! So the offended person in the cubicle punches back at Eric through the wall! That makes a large hole in the wall and Eric takes another swing back and the other guy punches back also.
Bam Bam! Bam Bam! Now the wall looks like Swiss cheese and the mayhem continues. Now the whole Art Department goes ballistic and they smell blood in the air. At that point everyone starts punching their own walls and all the stuff is tumbling down on the floor making a terrible racket and everybody just keeps on punching the hated Beaver Board walls and all the frustration comes out at once and turns into a full on riot. It’s a real MUTINY! It’s like a scene out of a Pirate movie or an old western!
(The only saving grace was this entire incident took place after hours, when most people had left the office and no one came to investigate.)
Now the line of cubicles were in total shambles and everybody slowly came to their senses and we stood there looking at the chaos and asking ourselves what just happened?
It was getting late and we all had to get home. So we just turned the lights out and went home.
The next morning we all came back to work and were worried about what was going to take place and what were ”Execs” going to say?
When we entered our dismal, semi basement quarters everything was pretty much cleaned up. My guess was the custodians saw the terrible mess and cleaned the entire thing up. There were two or three “suits” there talking quietly amongst themselves and one of them asked “what happened here” We looked at each other and hunched our shoulders and said “Geez, I don’t know.” The Execs replied, “Well there’s going to be an investigation and we will surely get to the bottom of this.”
EPILOGUE
The investigation never took place!After weeks of waiting, I was never sure if there was ever a “real” investigation at all.
The only thing I can think of is: They all agreed that they had a bunch “prima donnas” on their hands and decided most of these guys are “bat nuts” in the first place and they’ll settle down.
If they fired all of us, who would finish the projects already in the works? Deadlines were coming up fast and there were a lot of them.
However, I was still fully prepared for a Formal “Ad Man Court Marshal” and I would plea: THE DINGO DID. IT!
To this day, I’m amazed that we all didn’t get fired on the spot. lol
Bill Stewart