Feb 19, 2008

Hallmark’s humble beginningsBy Connie GlaserBizJournals.com

If you’re like millions of Americans, you’ll send and receive several greeting cards this year. Some may come from companies like Current USA Inc., others from American Greetings Corp. But the largest group will undoubtedly come from Hallmark Cards Inc., a company that has dominated the greeting-card industry for close to a century.

Founded by Joyce Hall in the early 1900s, Hallmark is still privately held, with the family owning two-thirds. Hall began his career in Norfolk, Neb., at age 9, selling cosmetics and soap door-to-door. At 16, a Chicago salesman convinced him that there was money in postcards. So Hall persuaded his brothers to match his $170 investment and opened Norfolk Postcard Co.

By 1910, Hall had dropped out of school and moved to Kansas City, Mo., with a suitcase of clothes and two shoeboxes of cards; he was 18. A brother later joined him and they opened a book, card and gift shop. After the shop was destroyed by fire in 1915, they found a new location and started over. Following the fire, one of their first designs was a card that had a drawing of a rope with a knot at the end. It read, “When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”

Their company, known as Hall Brothers, also began selling Valentine’s Day and Christmas cards. The brothers invented modern-day wrapping paper when their stock of colored tissue paper ran out. In the late 1920s they changed the company name to “Hallmark” after the hallmark symbol used by London goldsmiths in the 1300s. The new name was printed on the back of each card and used in advertisements.

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