Tuesday, March 14, 2023

George C. Bloss: Pitchman for Land and Liquor


The May 1900 issue of Printers Ink, the “bible” of American advertising, published a lengthy article on the unorthodox but highly effective methods used byGeorge C. Bloss to sell housing lots in what hitherto had been farmland in northern Kentucky.  The publication hailed the pitchman’s “scheming and business ability.” An acknowledged driving force behind the founding of two new communities, Bloss subsequently applied his talent to selling “Eastern Ryes and Kentucky Bourbons.”  The results turned out significantly different.  

Born in Cincinnati in May 1855, George was the only child of Elizabeth and George Bloss, his father a newspaper editor transplanted from Vermont to Ohio.  Of George’s early life, education and occupations, the records are scant.  We can assume that eventually he was involved in real estate.  Bloss hove into public attention in a major way in 1888 when at age 33 he was named general manager of a syndicate controlling a large swath of farmland in Kentucky about six miles south of the Ohio River.  A housing development had been made possible by the construction of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad near the site, allowing easy transit to and from the Queen City.


Credited for “new ideas” of how to sell housing lots, Bloss capitalized on the laws that shut saloons on Sunday in Ohio but not in Kentucky.  He ran Sunday excursions to the site on trains hired for $120.  A round trip cost passengers only a dime.   At the pitchman’s behest hawkers roamed the cars selling beer.  Sales were brisk and helped defray the cost of the trains. Once landed at the tract other alcohol vendors greeted visitors. 


The excursions became highly popular among citizens of Northern Ohio as hundreds each weekend trekked to the land syndicate’s holdings.  Frequently as many as 20 carloads of people would arrive of a Sunday at the projected new suburbs.  Bloss saturated the Cincinnati Post with quarter and half page ads, including one shown here.  He emphasized the scenic and heath benefits of the location and the low cost of lots:  “50 cents down and 50 cents a week.”  


The development proved a huge success.  Shown below, a small business section sprang up as lots sold quickly.  In the end two adjacent towns were created, called Erlanger and Elsmere.  Both have been designated home rule cities and are continuing to grow.  Erlanger now has a population of just under 20,000 and Elsmere, 8,500.  Both are suburban municipalities of well-kept bungalows.  



Bloss was credited with making the syndicate the equivalent of more than $2 million above the purchase price of the farmland.  He subsequently was elected one of the first town trustees of Erlanger.   With Bloss’s star having risen high over the Cincinnati landscape, little wonder that when a syndicate formed to create a new liquor house in a city already chock full of distillers, wholesale liquor dealers, and whiskey brokers, the money men sought out Bloss as their chief operating officer.  With Erlinger-Elsmere developing briskly, the pitchman agreed.


In April 1903, according to State of Ohio records, the Consolidated Hopewell Company filed its incorporation papers in Columbus.  George G. Bloss was listed as “manager.”  Located at 30 Main Street in Cincinnati, the company billed itself as a distiller.  No evidence exists, however, that Consolidated Hopewell actually was producing liquor.  More likely it was acting as a “rectifier,” blending whiskeys obtained elsewhere, bottling it and selling it by mail order.  Company ads emphasized its proximity to Cincinnati’s recently opened East Side railroad depot, shown below.



In his efforts to replicate his success with the Erlinger-Elsmere Land Syndicate, Bloss found himself in a very different environment.  Instead of a large vacant “playing field” he found himself in a landscape filled with high-flying, nationally known competitors.  Only one whiskey is known under the Hopewell label, “Old Hunter Belle Rye.”  Bloss advertised his products, including wines, in newspapers and through trade cards.  Dogs and children seemed to be his favorite subject matter.



Since virtually all his competition was issuing advertising shot glasses to the saloons, restaurants and hotels carrying their alcohol, Bloss obliged with a fancy molded glass shot with no advertising on the surface.  A glance from the top, however reveals ”Consolidated Hopewell Co.” in the base.



The problems faced by Bloss’s liquor enterprise came to light in a New York circuit court case fled by the Lanahan Company of Baltimore [see post of Oct. 14, 2011].  This distiller of “Hunter Rye” sued a liquor dealer named Kissel from Brooklyn for trademark infringement for selling a brand called “White Label Hunter Whiskey.”  In the course of making his decision, District Judge Thomas researched other whiskeys then on the market that had “Hunter” in their name and found four others, including Bloss’s “Old Hunter Belle Rye.”  In making his decision, the judge noted:  “If a person inquired for “Hunter Whiskey,” he would not have received “Louis Hunter 1870 Pure Rye,” “Hunter’s Own,” “Hunter’s Game,” or “Old Hunter Belle Rye.”  He then ruled for the defendant, Kissel.  


In his opinion the judge highlighted Bloss’s problem in marketing his whiskey:  “There is evidence…that this whiskey has some sale in bottles wearing a dark label with a white medallion therein, showing a huntress on horseback, the label bearing the words ‘Old Hunter Belle Rye, 17 Years, etc.’  It is alleged  that it is bottled and sold by the  ‘Consolidated Hopewell Co.’ of Cincinnati; such company is of very recent formation and apparently is unknown to the trade.  There is no evidence that the complainants had knowledge of this brand until the evidence herein was taken.”


Judge Thomas was asserting what Bloss already must have known.  Fully two years after incorporating Consolidated Hopewell, his “Old Hunter Belle Rye” was still “apparently…unknown to the trade.”  His ads, the attractive trade cards, the fancy shot glasses, and the elaborate labels all apparently had missed their mark.  Consolidated Hopewell Co. was sliding into insolvency.  The end came about 1908 when the firm was declared bankrupt.  Although Bloss went to court to ask that the receiver in bankruptcy be directed to continue in business, by the following year according to Ohio records, Consolidated Hopewell was history.



Likely feeling the pain of the liquor house failure, Bloss retreated to his residence on Graves Street in Erlanger, above, to enjoy home life with his wife, Dorothea, and teenaged daughter, Bertha, and to look after his real estate interests.  He continued in high repute in the two towns he had fostered.  In 1915 the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune  reported Bloss successfully had negotiated the gift of an attractive woodland tract near Erlanger as public parkland and a “gathering place for all worthy organizations and nature lovers.”  He then was chosen by authorities to act as the initial park manager.  After many years continuing to be active in the towns he had been instrumental in creating,  Bloss died in 1950 while vacationing in Palm Beach, Florida.  He was 95 years old.


Note:  This article was the product of numerous internet sources, particularly the May 1900 Printer’s Ink article.



































 






 






 


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