![]() But it wasn't just the winning that was miraculous it was the timing. ![]() Evelyn, who would surely be a Madison Avenue executive if she were working today, composed her jingles not in the boardroom, but at the ironing board.īy entering contests wherever she found them - TV, radio, newspapers, direct-mail ads - Evelyn Ryan was able to win every appliance her family ever owned, not to mention cars, television sets, bicycles, watches, a jukebox, and even trips to New York, Dallas, and Switzerland. To her, flouting convention was a small price to pay when it came to securing a happy home for her six sons and four daughters. Mom's winning ways defied the Church, her alcoholic husband, and antiquated views of housewives. Stepping back into a time when fledgling advertising agencies were active partners with consumers, and everyday people saw possibility in every coupon, Terry Ryan tells how her mother kept the family afloat by writing jingles and contest entries. ![]() ![]() The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio introduces Evelyn Ryan, an enterprising woman who kept poverty at bay with wit, poetry, and perfect prose during the "contest era" of the 1950s and 1960s. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |