April 2009 Archives

Charles

Send a comment to Charles

Last week, Benjamin Edwards III passed away at the age of 77. Mr. Edwards was the longtime CEO of A.G. Edwards, Inc.  The company became part of Wachovia Securities  in 2007, and became a part of Wells Fargo last year.

His great-grandfather, Albert Gallatin Edwards, was the founder of the St. Louis-based brokerage firm. Mr. Edwards joined the firm in 1956 after serving in the U.S. Navy. Ten years later, he was the Managing Partner, then President soon after. In 2001, Mr. Edwards stepped down from day-to-day operations and became Chairman Emeritus.

Under Mr. Edwards' leadership, A.G. Edwards  grew to one of the nation's largest investment firms. Equity capital  grew from $3.5 million in 1965 to $1.6 billion in 2001. Over that same 36 years, A.G. Edwards grew from 44 offices to nearly 700; from 300 financial consultants to 7,000.

Mr. Edwards established a culture of "client first" at A.G. Edwards, where the Golden Rule  became a foundation of business policy. Mr. Edwards was a firm believer as well in making the company a positive place to work. Active in community service and in financial industry affairs, he was married for over 50 years, with four children and 11 grandchildren.

In Mr. Edwards' final letter to shareholders in 2001, he wrote: “I couldn't have scripted a better career...May we always put our clients' interests first, and may we always enjoy our work together.”

Christy

Generally when I think of mascots, I think of sports teams, such as Phillie Phanatic  of the Philadelphia Phillies.  Rarely would I think of a bank having a mascot. Yet by working in the Wells Fargo Corporate Archives, I can tell you that many banks have had mascots over the years.

Mascots , by definition, are animals, people or objects that are "charms" thought to bring good luck. The mascot then becomes a symbol of the group that has adopted it. Wells Fargo's early days saw the use of dogs for protection and companionship, which led to Jack the Dog as the Wells Fargo mascot.

Recently I received an email letting me know that we will be acquiring a full-size costume of "Lucky." Lucky is coming to us from our friends in Texarkana , thanks to the recent merger of Century Bank with Wells Fargo.

And what exactly is Lucky? Well, a giant number seven , of course! Lucky was made to represent the seven-day banking service that Century provided. And with a name like that, how could he not provide good fortune?!

Wells Fargo's Corporate Archives has two other full-size costumes and various other products of other mascots within its collections. Both of these costumes come from the Norwest Corporation collection. One is Buddy Bear and the other is Barney the Snowman. As we needed some visuals to go with this post, Barney magically came to life in our offices...

Do you have a favorite mascot? Send me a comment of your tale!

Charles

I get emails all the time from folks who have Wells Fargo stuff. There's a lot of Wells Fargo stuff in circulation out there — souvenir stuff, that is. Trouble is, most of it is, um, inauthentic.

We get asked about guns and belt buckles most often. But the items folks ask about are dramatically varied: binoculars, lanterns, brass plaques, scales, Bowie knives, axes, handcuffs, mirrors and desks. And that's the short list.

Because the Old West resonates so much with people, things that seem authentic can be "made" authentic by applying another Western personality on them: Tombstone , Dodge City , Deadwood, Kit Carson  — and Wells Fargo. Over the years, people have applied our name to guns, tea kettles, badges and trunk. My personal favorite fake is the Wells Fargo spittoon. What company in its right mind would have something custom-made for that?!

The goal was to make an ordinary object more desirable and get a better price. If you have an old-looking object, its age can be"proved" with a fake Wells Fargo mark emblazoned on it. Suddenly, junk becomes artifact. Over time, these objects may become believable due to their age. Some"fakes" are 100 years old. They have value to some collectors in and of themselves!

As to guns, Wells Fargo never had guns made. Armed personnel supplied their own equipment. Of course, one never knows what might turn up out there, but it's pretty safe to say that your firearm with the Wells Fargo markings is not authentic. Most belt buckles people ask about are not nineteenth-century artifacts, but quality fantasy items created in the 1960s. They are solidly made of brass, using authentic nineteenth century art work. But they are not 100 years old.

And why would Wells Fargo make a bunch of belt buckles, anyway? Of all the things they would have brainstormed about in 1896:"You know, men, our Agents in the field are having their pants fall off at an alarming rate! We have to issue Company belt buckles as soon as possible!"

Nope. Didn't happen, friends.

Wells Fargo Bank produced two belt buckles as commemorative pieces. In 1973, noted graphic artist Mike Dolas designed a rectangular brass or silver buckle with a stagecoach on it. Another buckle was oval in shape and sported an Agent's star. Both have Wells Fargo Bank markings on the reverse. These were intended for sale as gifts and are modern.

Well, I guess 1973 ain't so contemporary. It's pretty close to "antique-hood"!

Charles

Nothing is as heartwarming as a funny-looking dog. You just know he's your best friend EVER.

Second on the heartwarming list has to be a funny-looking building — it simply HAS to be a good place if it looks that bad.

Of course, sometimes a structure looks bad because of the architectural sensibility of the time. Victorian buildings, for instance, are the absolute definition of "WAY too much of everything!"  Or mid-twentieth blocks  that eschewed anything that might suggest humans were inside.

Then there's Kennedy-era  cool. Like the A-Frame Wells Fargo branch built in the early 60s in Eureka, California. The idea was, I think, to suggest Mountains and skiing and a Winter Olympics vibe.  That's just my opinion, of course, but I'm generally right about things like this that don't matter.

In 1944, Wells Fargo plopped a trailer at the U.S. Naval Air Station   in Alameda, California, to provide quick financial services for service people and employees at the base. The trailer was there till the mid-60s, before Wells Fargo consolidated the several branches there into new buildings.

In 1960, American Trust Company and Wells Fargo merged. The combined company had an office aboard the cruise ship SS Monterey.  The sign detailing Fiji currency suggests to me that the biggest business at the window was currency exchange. Whatever the case, it was a nice assignment, I'll betcha.

A few years later, a new Wells Fargo branch was being built in Placerville, California. The Company set up temporary quarters in a double-wide trailer on the Fairgrounds.  There is a reason this is funny to me. Now I know temporary quarters in trailers are not unusual in any business, and the fairgrounds are a large space with limited use. It was a smart decision. It's just that when you see the photo, it looks like "a double-wide on a fairgrounds."

All the comedy you expect from that phrase happens. Sorry.

Charles

The Stanley Cup Playoffs begin Wednesday in the National Hockey League.  Guided By History happily gives a stamp of approval!

Whether or not you're a hockey fan, you should take a look at the sport. Hockey is cool and has all the elements you love. There's the video game element, for starters: Teams race back and forth trying to put a small projectile  in a cage  using cudgels.  The cage is protected  by a Cerberus-like figure. 

Hockey has the basketball element: Graceful, speedy strategy and playmaking — even speedier, though. But it's without all the silly officiating, where the whistle interrupts everything all night long. Hockey has the football element: Shoulder pads and helmets, big guys plowing into each other  — even slamming each other into a wall! But it's a smaller field of play, and hockey players exercise all this skill and hard contact while on ice skates. 

Pretty macho.

Hockey also has a baseball-like history , with great games and legendary players and a Hall of Fame  and dynasties  and everything. To cap it all, the Stanley Cup  quest is a total saga every year. The winning team overcomes every possible obstacle — only the very best can survive to claim the Stanley Cup.

I say all this not because I'm a fan — I'm a fan because of all of this, which made me a fan. Hockey is cool. Chuck sez check it out!

Charles

The baseball season has begun  and I thought I'd look around for a story on it.

Our Archives have some vintage pix of Wells Fargo teams from earlier days. Way back when, baseball teams were very local. There were town teams, school teams, ethnic teams, company teams and pro teams. Good players moved from team to team and game to game, playing for one team in the morning, another in the afternoon. This tradition still survives, just in a different shape. You'll find school teams, of course, and the Minors  are still doing a good business. Local clubs field teams.

"Semi pro"  teams were usually sponsored by a local company and competed against others in the area. The best would compete at the end of the year in the National Baseball Congress World Series , which is still around. That sort of semi-pro ball largely disappeared in the last 30 years, but many Big League players made their mark in this local tradition. Wells Fargo had teams, sponsored by local offices, and often took local championships. Sometimes, teams would form just to play each other for pride. Winners got their pictures in the Wells Fargo Messenger.

As I looked up all of this on the web, I chanced across the story of Mickey Lolich , a pretty good pitcher for the Detroit Tigers  in the 1960s and 70s. While best known for his three wins in the 1968 World Series , Lolich pitched every four days for years, often throwing a complete game. He struck out 2,832 — third all-time among lefties.

Lolich  was a workhorse on the field, but was beloved for his, well, regular guy shape — he looked like your dad out there. He owned a donut shop in the Motor City and retired from baseball to run it. Naturally right-handed, Lolich had injured his right shoulder as a kid (a tricycle accident!) and became a left-handed thrower as a result.

Mickey Lolich is not remembered well enough . His amazing 1971 season was Cy Young Award-worthy, except for the phenomenal year turned in by Vida Blue , who took all the big awards that year. Lolich was almost as effective the next year for the division-winning Tigers, but Gaylord Perry  was just a little better and won the award. Lolich will have to console himself with several Tigers pitching records, and the eternal devotion of Tigers fans.

Funny thing is, Lolich's numbers eclipsed another pretty good pitcher for the Tigers: a guy named Hooks Dauss.  Hooks pitched during the Ty Cobb  years in Detroit, likely why we've never really heard of him. He won over 200 games, pitched a lot of innings, and is 30th all-time for hit batsmen. (FYI, you gotta be a good pitcher to plunk a hitter.)

Hooks Dauss and Mickey Lolich were really good ballplayers, but too few people remember. So I'm doing my part to campaign for them.

There's your baseball piece for the spring, folks.

Charles

If you're a blogger, you know one of the cardinal rules is never fuss about how hard it is to come up with stuff to write about. Another is to never start a history blog with, "Hmm, let's see what today in history looks like." That's like starting an essay with, "Webster defines (whatever you're writing about) as...."

HUGE no-no.

But I make an exception to the anti-"Hmm" rule today, because there's nothing else to write about. (Uh oh.) I recall that April 3 is a day with several interesting historical tidbits. Seriously, try it with March 23: Nothing there.

April 3rd has three events I have to key on. First, the Union Army captured Richmond, Virginia , the Confederate capital. The American Civil War ended six days later. It's really big because that war was so fierce and seemed to last an eternity. By some historical thinking (mine), the Civil War was the culmination of America's first 250 years — and the blueprint, if you will, of the following century and a half (or so).

(Another cardinal rule: Ease up on the punctuation, will ya?)

Then there's the assassination of Jesse James. The James Gang terrorized banks and railroads for years, before the legendary outlaw was killed by one of his followers. Many believe that James was still fighting the Civil War through his crimes. While that may be true, James managed to find an enchanted place in American memory while being a criminal. Unlike, say, Bruno Richard Hauptmann , executed this day for the kidnap and murder of the Lindbergh baby, "The Crime of the Century" (at that time, anyway). Hauptmann is one of history's great villains, despite a body of evidence that suggests his innocence.  A very interesting thing to ponder.

Finally, the Pony Express  started its first successful run from point to point in 1860 — Saint Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California. The hard-luck operation would fade from view in about 18 months, but the Pony Express still charges hard and purposefully through the imagination. There are big plans to commemorate the Pony Express next year, its sesquicentennial. Wells Fargo had a piece of the Pony Express during its final months, so we hope to play a role. We did a lot for the 150th of the first overland stagecoach.

Oh, and one more thing: The von Kappelhoffs  had a baby girl today. We're all the better for it.

Martha

I decided to research the history of April Fools' Day.  All I have ever known about it is that most of us enjoy playing harmless pranks on one another every year on April 1st. It always seemed like a good excuse for a few laughs.

As for its history, April Fools seems to have begun prior to the reign of Charles IX of France  (1550-74). The French originally celebrated New Year's Day on April 1st. When Charles ordered the calendar changed to what is now known as the Gregorian Calendar , New Year's Day fell on January 1st. For many reasons, much of Europe did not celebrate New Year's Day on the new date. For one, news traveled very slowly and some countries did not even hear of the change till years later. Another reason is that some people were too stubborn to acknowledge the new system, and wanted the calendar to remain the way it had always been.

Non-followers of the Gregorian Calendar were ridiculed as "fools." They were often sent on "fools errands," or invited to parties that were never held. So, due to traditionalists and slow communication, these fools were the reason for April Fools' Day as we call it today.

The English  believe it is bad luck to play jokes after noon on April Fools' Day. Some say it's good luck for babies to be born on this day, while it may not be a good day for gambling.

In Scotland , April Fool's Day is celebrated for two days — one is known as "Taily Day,"  where you might be the "butt" of a joke. The "kick me" sign , taped to someone's back, originated from this tradition. French youth often tape paper fish to their friends' backs, known as "April Fish."  The name originated from the idea that a young fish is easily caught.

In Portugal, people have been known to throw flour at each other.

The book April Fool, or The Evils of Deception , tells of a prank played in 1852 by a young man. He saw a group of girls in the street and shouted, "Run, run girls, a horse is coming!" The girls ran, though there was no horse. One of the girls, holding the hand of her sister, "was so intent upon getting her out of danger, that she did not see a lamp-post, which was in her way, and struck her head against it."

The young man snickered and yelled out, "April Fools!"

However you celebrate April Fools' Day — putting a fake spider on a co-worker's desk or hiding someone's lunch — have fun. And do it with care!