Although widely regarded as a pioneer in the field of direct marketing, Lawrence Chait's papers provide incomplete coverage of his innovations in marketing. There is, however, good coverage of his firm in full development (the period from the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s) and for his later career as an independent consultant (from 1975 to 1985). The papers are arranged as BIOGRAPHICAL AND PERSONAL MATERIAL, CORRESPONDENCE, CLIENT FILES, INBUDCO RECORDS, MARKETING PLANS, and AUDIO RECORDINGS.
The BIOGRAPHICAL AND PERSONAL MATERIAL consists of biographical information, examples of agency promotion, photographs, and speeches and writings. The biographical information consists of loose clippings, memorabilia, convention programs, and scrapbooks which have been disassembled for preservation. Items in the biographical files document Chait's career before the establishment of his own firm in 1957. Several of the disassembled scrapbooks contain sample mailings that Chait entitled “most frequently used” or “representative programs.” The speeches and writings, which consist of both written and oral presentations and which are arranged chronologically, provide good evidence for Chait's reputation as a leading theorist of the direct marketing field. His visionary use of automated lists is documented here, in a theoretical way. Chait's recorded speeches are in the AUDIO RECORDINGS series. After 1957, the textual records are relatively complete except for the period 1975-1978. The photographs, which are also of a personal nature, document Chait's activities as a speaker on professional subjects and as a leader of the Direct Marketing Advertising Association. However most of these images are unidentified. Also includes prints of Illinois Governor Daniel Walker, a Chait associate, while campaigning for office (either in 1972 or 1976) and negatives about activities while governor.
CORRESPONDENCE includes general mail not associated with major clients, primarily covering the years 1971 to 1974, correspondence concerning foreign travel particularly to Australia and New Zealand for his book on the South Pacific (A Businessman's Notes on Opportunities in the South Pacific), and a run of carbons of outgoing letters and memoranda. Since the client files cover only the years 1972 to 1974 and the planning files cover only the years 1963 to 1969, the carbons, which cover the period from 1968 to 1974, afford the most comprehensive view of agency operations. Chait's outgoing letters provide little detail about specific programs.
The CLIENT FILES primarily cover the early 1970s. A few files, such as those concerning International Moneyline, Street Smart Investing, and the Olympic coin program, document his work as an independent consultant, and a few files represent the early years of Lawrence G. Chait & Company. The majority of the series consists of alphabetical files. Also included are scattered subjects files pertaining to internal administrative topics such as staff memos or the marketing seminars that Chait sponsored. The client files from the 1970s consist primarily of correspondence, memoranda, draft copy, notes, sample mailings, budgets, and reports prepared by Maurice Chait and other members of the staff. The major files here include American Airlines; Beloit College; banks such as Harris Bank and First Pennsylvania; industrial firms such as Harnishfeger; insurance companies such as Royal Globe; mail order catalogs such as Aldens, Montgomery Wards, and Spiegel; and subscription newsletters such as International Moneyline, Public Relations News, Reporting on Government, Street Smart Investing, and Washington Watch; as well as the Beverage Gift Service, an unsuccessful mail order company that sold alcoholic beverages in which Chait invested. Marketing of Olympic coins for the Montreal and Los Angeles Olympics was a major effort for Chait from the mid-1970s through the 1980s.
Many of Chait's clients wanted to establish direct mailing operations of their own, and as a result Chait's firm shifted to corporate acquisition. About 1973 Chait spun off the merger and acquisition function into a subsidiary company, International Business Development Corporation (INBUDCO). The INBUDCO RECORDS consist of articles of incorporation, correspondence, memoranda, and agreements arranged alphabetically by client name. Some files pertain to familiar Chait clients such as Manpower and Montgomery Ward, but others represent new associations such as Econo-Car, Limited Edition Collectors, and Mother Earth News. These files end in 1974, and the ultimate fate of IMBUDCO is undocumented.
The MARKETING PLANS are arranged alphabetically by client name. Unlike the CLIENT FILES, the marketing plans primarily document work during the 1960s. Because of the generally incomplete character of the collection as a whole, the marketing plans form virtually the only documentation for this decade. The plans originally consisted of thermofax paper in black leatherette binders. Contact with the binders caused the copy paper to deteriorate rapidly. As a result, the plans have been microfilmed and are available only on microfilm. Researchers are warned that some filmed pages are virtually unintelligible because of the poor quality of the originals. The most substantial documentation in the marketing plans pertains to the Imperial Casualty Insurance Company, the Great Books of the Western World, Save the Children Federation, and the 3M Company. The plans are unsupported by working files, and it is not known to what degree they were implemented.
