Duncan Hines (33 page)

In early January 1946 Welch visited Bowling Green and gave the business a thorough top-to-bottom investigation. Everything Hines had in his office was turned over to his discerning eye. He went through the company's financial records. He read every scrap of paper in the file cabinets. But after he had completed his probing study, he was still puzzled as to how the man made any money. It all seemed so chaotic. To Welch's organized mind, Hines's methods of accounting and office organization were enough to drive anyone crazy. It was a patchwork operation, not an efficient, businesslike venture. He finally concluded that Adventures in Good Eating was nothing more than a glamorous hobby, and certainly not a business. After several frustrating months of trying to get some straight answers from Hines and his accountant/bookkeeper,
Cecil “Hoot” Holland, Welch decided not to run Hines's business, not only because he believed it could not generate enough money for him and his family, but also because he believed Hines was not serious about letting him manage it. There was also another reason. Between the time the subject was first broached and his decision not to accept, Hines had married Clara. In Welch's eyes, she swiftly took control of his business affairs and quickly rendered moot any service he could have provided.

Welch concluded later that even if Hines had never married Clara, it was unlikely he would have accepted the job. It was his contention that Hines, the printer, overruled Hines, the businessman. As he saw it, Hines was more interested in producing a high-quality book than he was in running an efficient business or making much money beyond his material needs. His reasoning in this regard came about one day after carefully examining Hines's books and business practices. He sat down with the older man and had a frank talk with him. Welch quickly came to the point. “Duncan,” he said, “you've got a major problem with the book.” Hines asked what was the matter. Speaking specifically of
Adventures in Good Eating
but also including in his remarks
Lodging for a Night
and the
Vacation Guide
, Welch said, “The problem is that it's too good, so far as the printing is concerned. It never wears out.” He pointed out, for example, his practice of putting glue between the book's cover and its fly leafs. One could not pull back the book covers and easily pull them off the way one could with a standard paperback book. “That's a great book,” Welch said to him. “That's a quality book. But Duncan, what you're selling is a directory. It's got to wear out every year.” A fine, well-produced book, he added, had not only wrecked his balance sheet, it had also inadvertently slightly harmed his reputation. Recalling some letters he had reviewed in the files, he said, “You're getting complaints from people about restaurants that you've not recommended in four years, or you're getting complaints from people about restaurants that are no longer in business. Or you're getting complaints about a restaurant that has been deleted in your new book but is still in last year's edition. The problem is that your
customers' old book hasn't worn out, and as a result they haven't bought a new one. What you're doing is making people keep obsolete directories. These directories you're selling should self-destruct every year because you've got to sell books. That's the nature of the business. And you're hurting your reputation, Duncan. When people try one of these old guidebooks, they're eating at places that are no longer recommended by you. And when the food is no good, they're saying to themselves that they don't understand how you got your reputation to begin with.” Despite Welch's best efforts, Hines just could not understand Welch's reasoning; the thought of producing a cheap product horrified him. No matter how many times Welch explained that a cheaper quality directory would net him more money, he simply could not bring himself to lessen the quality of anything associated with his name.

Welch's other problem with his business practices was Hines's refusal to endorse products; this was, of course, two years before Hines met Roy Park. Welch told him, “You've got a fine name. You've got a great reputation. And if Duncan Hines endorses something and approves of it, then people will conclude that it must be good.” Hines pooh-poohed this idea, branding it as “commercial.” Welch countered that since the books produced by Adventures in Good Eating, Inc. were not making enormous sums of money, he should look at endorsements as “bread on the table.” “You've got to increase your income,” he said. Hines still contended that endorsing products was too commercial for his taste, and that the answer to any financial problem his company faced was to sell more books. Welch countered this assertion by contending that, based on his examination of the company's financial records, such as they were, selling more books was not going to help his profit margin. His books ignored inflation and were still sold at $1.50. The production costs were rising in spite of this fixed price and increased sales of the books would only exacerbate the company's financial problems. When it became apparent Hines would not see his logic, Welch gave up. He told others later, “I just can't change Duncan. He's a gentleman of the
old school. His word is his bond, and he just doesn't think people would appreciate it if he incorporated my recommended changes.”
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In 1951 Clara persuaded her husband to hire her half-brother, Bob Wright. The younger man worked for his famous brother-in-law for a few months. Wright's first job was billing those who rented the “Recommended by Duncan Hines” signs. Although his employment was brief, he developed some firm opinions about his famous in-law and his business. Hines, he believed, made most of his money from his sign rental business; he charged enough to cover his gas, lodgings and meals. Although over 9,000 establishments were eventually included in all three guidebooks, only 1200 to 1500 of them took advantage of the famous signs bearing Hines's approval. His sign rental business translated into an annual profit of almost $38,000 a year—a hefty sum when one considers that the average income in the United States in 1951 was a little over $3,000.
⁵⁷²

Before the Second World War Hines had a profitable country ham business, but by 1951 it scarcely existed. The only ham orders he filled now were those for special friends—and only if they asked. When he received a request for a country ham, it was now his practice to go downtown and obtain one from Sam Nahm, a relation of Clara's first husband, who ran a Bowling Green feed store.
⁵⁷³
Sometimes he got his country hams from Jimmy Siddens in Bowling Green; other times he ordered one from a favorite outlet in Cadiz, Kentucky, a town well-known for producing marvelous slabs of Kentucky's favorite delicacy.
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However, for some unexplained reason, in the summer of 1951, Hines briefly flirted with the idea of getting back into the country ham business—and he believed his young brother-in-law was just the person to carry out his plans. Hines had it all worked out. He had the young man's future all planned. He told his brother-in-law that he was going to be the manager of this new enterprise. All he had to do was travel deep into the western Kentucky countryside and arrange with ham producers to supply him with choice two-year-old country hams. Wright made one trip into the country with him
to line up a couple of potential ham suppliers, but for some reason, after a burst of energy into this potential lucrative direction, nothing further came of his grandiose plans. It never got off the ground because Hines, as usual, had too many other projects going at once, and there was no time left for this one. After working for Hines for three months, Wright saw more rewarding employment opportunities and left Bowling Green for a job in San Francisco.
⁵⁷⁵

Because of his age, and because of Clara's prodding, Hines slowed down his busy schedule. She insisted he not venture out on the highway as often. This was easier said than done; there were times when Hines could not avoid having a jam-packed agenda on his calendar. But most of his days throughout the 1950s were characterized by a relative peacefulness. Duncan Hines had just enough to keep himself busy. No more. No less. He could remain in Bowling Green for longer periods because his books continued to sell. Year after year, sales for all four publications increased. Keeping himself before the public to generate sales no longer seemed urgent. With the exception of the
Vacation Guide
, his books always sold out. Paul Moore, who oversaw book production from about 1947 through 1953, stated that a typical printing run for
Adventures in Good Eating
in the early 1950s was approximately 25,000 copies. A comparable printing for an edition of
Adventures in Good Cooking
approximated 17,000 copies, while a print run for an edition of
Lodging for a Night
usually came to about 10,000 copies. All three books far out-paced sales of the
Vacation Guide
, which rarely sold out of its annual 5,000 unit print run.
⁵⁷⁶

Hines and Clara were not on the road these days nearly as much as they had been. For as much as three months of the year, they stayed home. A typical automobile trip at this time might take them north to Omaha, Nebraska, west to Seattle, Washington, south to San Francisco, California, and west to Dallas, Texas. They would spend three or four days in each city before eventually returning to Bowling Green. During these trips Hines seldom popped into restaurant kitchens unannounced, checking on the quality of the establishment's cuisine. By and large, that was a thing of the past. Besides, he did not have to since the public was now
doing it for him. By 1950 his very active dinner detectives were still with him, but they had dwindled to about a dozen individuals. Although the general public was helpful to Hines's cause, his “detectives” were still the ones he trusted most.
⁵⁷⁷

Many people worked for Duncan Hines, but the ones who made his operation an efficient one were his secretaries. By 1950 much of the post-war chaos Clarence Welch had witnessed four years earlier had vanished. To be fair, Welch inspected his operation at a time when book orders were coming in so fast that his office staff could barely keep up with the demand. But now the operation functioned like clockwork. Without his secretaries, Hines could not have put out any of his guidebooks, and he knew it. It is unlikely all their names will ever be known. Many of them, like Edith Wilson, Emelie Tolman and Olga Lindquist are long dead, but some employees have left behind their recorded impressions.

One such person was Mary Jo Agee, who worked for Hines during the early 1950s. Agee was a woman in her late twenties or early thirties with two children. She was several years older than her fellow office colleagues. “She was a short person who wore four-inch high-heels all the time, even while doing her housework,” said one of her co-workers.
⁵⁷⁸
Her job was to fill book orders. She typed the shipping labels and sent customers their bills. When she finished these tasks, she gave the labels and bills to John Henry Foster, Hines's handyman and groundskeeper, who hand-wrapped all orders before taking them to the post office. Sometimes Foster's efforts did not suit the fastidiously neat specifications Hines laid down for him. Once Foster put the wrong label on a box of books, and the mistake sent Hines into a state of prolonged vocal exasperation. As always, however, he quickly cooled off within a few minutes. Sometimes, though, Hines hired employees who did not suit him at all. One woman he hired simply could do nothing right in his estimation and he soon dismissed her. She was not the only one. If an employee ever made a mistake, such as sending a
customer a cookbook instead of a guidebook, it was usually only a matter of time before that person found employment elsewhere. As was the case in Chicago years earlier, his lack of a discernible criteria for selecting those he hired, caused him to have unnecessary fits. He knew what qualities in a person he did not like but apparently could not detect them during the initial interview. As a result, those he employed was a hit-or-miss affair.
⁵⁷⁹

Mary Herndon remained in his employ from the summer of 1951 until the first couple of weeks in 1954. When she applied for the job, she had just completed two years of study at Highland Park Junior College in Highland Park, Michigan. Shortly after her graduation in May and her return to Auburn, a small town located 20 miles west of Bowling Green, she learned of an employment opportunity with Hines by way of a family friend, Hines's niece, Louise Hines. When she applied for the job, she expected to be interviewed by one of his secretaries. To her surprise, her interviewer was none other than Duncan Hines himself. With little fanfare she was hired on the spot and told to return the next day. She was given no tests or applications to fill out. She was hired on a trial basis to see how she would work out. Hines would quickly discover for himself if he wanted her to remain. On her first day on the job, he took her into his living room, offered her a seat at a card table, sat down across from her and began dictating letters. She found his style of dictation surprisingly eccentric. Unlike the straightforward, curt manner most businessmen used, his manner of dictation was much like his speech and train of thought: jerky, frequently unorganized, and filled with a profusion of jokes and ad-libs. The whole purpose of each letter was to amuse the reader. Entertainment was the most important consideration. She never anticipated a boss like this in secretarial school. As did his other secretaries, Herndon adjusted. When she typed her first letters, she asked the other secretaries if Hines was really serious about signing his correspondence “the head rooster.” It was explained to her that he used that
nom de plume
only in letters to his friends. Nevertheless, for the first few days, his unusual method of dictation
nearly drove her crazy, and she was more than thankful that another secretary took most of it.
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