A Suitable Case for Traveling

By John Mannering Harrison

An English version of a true story concerning a round the world trip In 1966 when a client of Erwin Wasey asked the advertising agency to create a promotional scheme to launch a range of virtually indestructable lugguage.
As a consultant art director, John Mannering Harrison arranged with BOAC (now British Airways) to take the suitcases around the world agreeing two free tickets and the hotel costs to be paid by them. Location photography was the in thing at that time and for such a small client, it raised many eyebrows by creating the ultimate location project.
The concept presented was to portray the range of lugguage in odd situations to indicate that they would stand up to all forms of travel, no matter how hard, such as planes, trains, rickshaws, ski-lifts, taxis and camels.
Accompanied by his trusted photographer, Gray Lacey, they visited many exotic major cities in circumnavigating the world which was slightly hilarious and sometimes perilous to create the advertising campaign that they would never forget.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 21, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477104934

John Mannering Harrison

John Mannering Harrison Born in England in 1931, he lived and worked in London, England until he moved to Bradenton in Florida with his wife Susan when he retired in 2002 after a successful career as a graphic design and marketing consultant. His design & marketing group won numerous design awards and his work has been featured as articles in the leading international design publications and exhibited in worldwide major exhibitions. His son Jed Mannering Harrison has also established himself as a senior design consultant in London and has designed the covers for this book. He also has a further son Paul Mannering Harrison and a daughter Jane Elizabeth Birman, from a previous marriage who both live successfully in Perth, Western Australia, with their respective families John Harrison can be contacted at: Telephone [phone] Email [e-mail] 649 Foggy Morn Lane Bradenton Florida 34212 USA

Book preview

A SUITABLE CASE FOR TRAVELLING

A BOOK

BY JOHN MANNERING HARRISON

Previous published book by

John Mannering Harrison

‘The Penance Walk’ in 2010

XEROXCWX11486.tif

Dedicated to my wife Susan.

After so many years she still finds my stories humourous.

Copyright © 2012 by John Mannering Harrison.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

113743

Contents

Preface

Earlier days

Chapter 1

London

Chapter 2

Geneva

Chapter 3

Rome

Chapter 4

Cairo

Chapter 5

New Delhi

Chapter 6

Bangkok

Chapter 7

Hongkong

Chapter 8

Tokyo

Chapter 9

Honolulu

Chapter 10

San Francisco

Chapter 11

San Antonio

Chapter 12

Mexico City

Chapter 13

New York

Chapter 14

London

Some of the background stories told to me,

or read from guide books during our journey,

may not be accurate, or could be considered

as folk lore, but I hope they add to the

general flavour of my story.

A suitable case for travelling

Forward

The ‘journey’ as enacted through the following pages commenced in the mid 1960’s and lasted 36 days, going East starting from London, England, then circling the globe and returning to London. Twelve capitol or major cities were visited. The object was to test the durability of a new range of luggage produced by ‘Antler’ branded as ‘Zenith’ described as virtually indestructible. A series of photographs were taken at each stop to be used upon return in an advertising campaign. The author experienced a number of adventures during the trip, which hopefully will raise a smile from a reader, or wonderment why he could be so naive.

Life in England had changed considerably from the dour war years including the 1950’s and rationing had ceased. The Festival of Britain in 1951 had given the country a lift and direction for a better environment, living standards, entertainment and communication. By the 1960’s British youth were leading the vanguard towards these objectives with a swelling ‘POP’ culture. The Carnaby Street image was created, The Beatles appeared. Make love not war was the current slogan. Ban the Bomb was a rallying cry. Design and personal expression was the order of the day and anybody opening their own oyster hoped to find a pearl.

Preface

Earlier days

My first full time job was obtained in January 1947 with a small publishing company that produced a number of trade magazines. The main titles being ‘The Colliery Guardian’ and ‘Water and Water Engineering’. A far, hardly noticed, obscure corner of the publishing world, but I had a position with wages. It was shortly after the end of WW2. Everything was still fully rationed and life was very frugal and grey. The English public had voted in The Labour Party under Clem Atlee, rejecting Sir Winston Churchill and hoped that the future wealth of the country would be shared more equally amongst the total population.

I had managed to be hired as an office boy. I was delighted as jobs were hard to come by. The main reason I had obtained the position was the fact that my father had worked for the company before he succumbed to a serious illness in 1939 at the young age of 32 years old. A Mr Murdock was the general Manager and the office where I worked came under his jurisdiction. As far as I was concerned it was just an office with rather dowdy furniture. I learnt after a few nervous days that it was the Publicity Department and my father had worked there as a Commercial Artist. I had remembered seeing a few pieces of work he had produced and, in the back of my mind, thought it would be a nice and interesting thing to do.

The day to day work I had to do, was for a Mr Smith, who was a very pleasant man in contrast to a rather dour and gruff Mr Murdock. The duties included deliveries and pick-ups required in the near vicinity, some filing, making copious cups of tea, sweeping up, emptying the waste baskets and tidying the area at the end of each day.

Mr Smith took me under his wing and spoke of my father and always pleasantly. When he first started to work there; he was also an office boy and answered to my father. My father’s nick name was ‘Bob’ as he always seemed to have the change for a shilling.

The Building the firm occupied was built in the 1870’s in Furnival Street near Holborn and Chancery Lane right opposite the Patent Office for the City of London and consequently reflected the period, decor and furnished with office equipment of that time. There was not too much light emitted through the dusty windows. It was shut out because of the narrow streets and the four to five story buildings that lined them. The whole atmosphere was very gloomy and what electrical lighting we had was invariably switched on. A rather meek young lady was secretary to Mr Murdock, who worked outside of his office in a small cubicle answering his frequent bellows for attention. She used a rather large upright typewriter, which must have been quite an eye strain to work in comparison to today’s desk top computers. In those days in England one never complained.

I really did not take too much notice of people and what was going on around me as I was so happy to have a full time job at the age of fifteen years and six months at the princely sum of Two Pounds Twelve Shillings and Six Pence per week.

I must have looked very strange and odd to young people of today, as I wore a suit that was required, if you worked in an office. There was really no casual clothes. You passed from wearing a school blazer to grown up clothes. My suit was obtained from ‘Burtons’ known as the 50 ‘Bob’ tailor which was virtually a week’s wages paid to me. I also wore a shirt requiring a separate stiff collar which was held in place with a stud front and back, which was finished off with a pair of cufflinks that had belonged to my father. As I was not too tall I must have given the impression of a small adult. When you started a ‘Proper’ job you finished your life as a child and became an adult for all intent and purposes.

I had the very good fortune, on occasion, to deliver material to the printing company that produced the trade magazines our company published and to pick up proofs that required checking and proof reading. I was very intrigued and comfortable with the printing world and, from that time on, I never deviated from that initial interest and calling throughout my entire career.

I was fairly neat and tidy at my work, so after a few months Mr Smith seeing that I was handy with a pencil, introduced me to an indian ink compass and ruling pen and sometimes asked me to help out by drawing maps identifying the locations of coal mines in the United Kingdom for a Year Book produced by The Colliery Guardian. I really enjoyed doing that and it was not too long before I produced all the map making required which took half of my time. With the tea making, running errands, filing and clearing up at the end of the day, kept me very busy.

Lunch every day was taken at the nearby Lyons Tea Shop in High Holborn. I really liked their baking standards and enjoyed the Vienna rolls. They helped to accompany the meat pie or sausages I had chosen. If I was still a little hungry and with cash permitting I would indulge myself to partake of a fruit pie and custard. Good memories.

I was still living with my mother and would contribute two thirds of my salary, less the London transport fares for bus and underground train that I needed to get to and from my work. This left me with about ten shillings for lunches and hopefully a few shillings over for the weekend.

As I came more deeply interested in the printing and publishing world, helped by some night school and study at The London School of Printing at Back Hill in Islington, I managed to move to other companies increasing my salary at every move. I always tried to use the experience I had gained in a previous position, hoping that what I had learned, was fairly unique in a new job attained. In one of my positions I worked for a process engraver, that produced printing plates and blocks for the ‘Letterpress’ process, which was the main technical system of the day and the result was being hired as a block order clerk for quite a large trade publishing house. I followed this a few years later, after my National Service, working for another trade publisher. My job was in the Publicity Department involved mainly in administrative work, but I managed to wriggle into producing event covers for programmes designed for motorcycle events and races for local clubs in areas around England. I even managed to obtain a desk drawing board to emphasize my duties. In those days graphic designers were described as Commercial Artists and I longed to be one.

A recruitment advertisement in a trade design magazine caught my eye as I was thumbing through the classified section in the back of the journal. It was always worth looking to see what jobs were on offer. The company wanted to interview potential candidates for a position in their publicity department. One, of course, would need to present their CV and was a recognised designer. The Company was called Wiggins Teape, a papermaker and they were looking for an additional Graphic Designer. The term ‘Graphic Design’ was becoming more widely used. It was rumoured that the Central School of Art and Design in London had coined the term as being more relevant for design and typographic work produced on a drawing board for the printing industry and its allied trades.

I was now married and in my mid-twenties and bursting to have that status. I felt I had no chance by working on the fringe of the typographic and graphic world. Nothing ventured nothing gained, so I carefully wrote a letter in answer to their notice.

I actually received a reply and armed with my very meagre portfolio of work arrived at their Head Office near St Paul’s near the bottom of Fleet Street for my scheduled interview. Feeling very nervous I was ushered into an office occupied by a tall distinguished looking gentleman in his early forties who bade me to take a seat and proceeded to ask me a few questions.

Was I a member of the SIAD?

I had never even heard of the organisation.

The Society of Industrial Artists and Designers. He explained.

No, I’m sorry I am not. I answered.

Umm, well, let me see your work please.

After he had looked at a few items that I showed him from my recently purchased portfolio case, he grimaced somewhat and said he was sorry, perhaps I should contact them in a few years time, when I had completed some more work. I realised that the position would be a plum job. I felt very rejected. Still, it had been interesting to see a well appointed design studio that I passed through after leaving his office, to be guided to the elevator to take me back down to the reception area before meekly walking out onto the street again.

The letter arrived about three weeks later requesting me to come for a second interview. I was completely dumb struck. It was a bolt from the blue. I still remember the feel and smell of the stationery the company had used. It was one of their top quality laid writing papers. Beautiful, it reproduced the corporate logo and accompanying address typography perfectly. I must have read and reread the letter dozens of times wondering what they had in mind. I could not believe they would offer me the job I had applied for.

I duly arrived at their Head Office at the same address as before and I was more nervous than my first interview. I was shown into an office which was more spacious and grander than the first one to be greeted with a friendly firm hand shake. He was a much younger man than the first gentleman I had seen and introduced himself as the Studio Manager and Senior Designer.

May I call you Don? He asked, which I thought was a little strange and being still very unsure, I decided not to correct him to disturb his pleasant reception of my presence in his office.

Well, when can you start? He inquired. "I believe in your present position you have to give a clear month’s notice. In fact, I was on a weekly notice and again just nodded at his assumption as I did not want to contradict him. My heart was thumping, my God they want to hire me.

So let’s make it October the first, as today’s date is August the seventeenth. That will give you a clear month to finish and tidy up at your present place. What do you say?

Sounds perfect. I replied. Do you want to see my work again? I asked.

No, that is not necessary, we know what potential you have and the possible value you will have to Wiggins Teape. Oh, by the way, is a salary of 2,000 Pounds a year to start acceptable?

I managed to keep my emotions in check and gulped back a Yes, that will be fine. I was earning less than 700 Pounds at the time on a cash basis and no Bank Account.

Sorry I have got to dash off, see you at the beginning of October and we will send you a letter to confirm our offer which you will need to reply, which I trust will be in the affirmative. Good, is that okay with you?

Yes, very much so, I replied. Thank you, I look forward to seeing you.

Good, oh by the way, show up on the first morning at about 9.30, so everybody can get in to show you around.

With that he got up from his chair quickly and turning away from his desk asking if I knew my way out and would I mind doing that myself. No problem, I replied and with that he was gone. I was quite dazed for the next few days and found