Who invented hallmark

The s brought about changes in the corporate leadership of Hallmark, although the company remained a family affair. Donald J. Hall was named president and chief executive officer CEO , replacing his father, Joyce, who remained chairman of the board of directors.

Continued growth spurred the company to build a new manufacturing plant in Topeka, Kansas, and expand its Lawrence, Kansas, facility to , square feet. The company was also doing well globally, which led it to form a subsidiary, Hallmark International. Upset with the quality of early television, Hallmark founder Joyce C.

Hall decided to do something. In the early s, he set about creating a series of programs based on some of history's most critically acclaimed books, stage plays, and operas. The first was the world premier presentation of the opera Amahl and the Night Visitors by Gian Carlo Menotti , which aired on Christmas Eve In , Hallmark debuted William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

It was the first time a Shakespeare play was aired on TV. Although the series maintained a focus on the classics, it also expanded to include socially relevant stories written specifically for television.

These intimate portraits included Teacher, Teacher , the story of a mentally challenged youth, and My Name is Bill W. The program continues into the twenty-first century with such offerings as The Runaway , about two boys dealing with racial prejudice in post-World War II Georgia, and Follow the Stars Home , the story of a single mother raising a disabled child.

Over the years, the Hall of Fame original programs have won eighty-seven Emmy Awards, the highest honor given in television. Among the award-winning programs are jason and the Argonauts and the great sea epic Moby-Dick , written by Herman Melville In the mids, Joyce Hall became concerned about the deteriorating conditions in the Kansas City neighborhood where Hallmark's corporate headquarters were located.

When city officials failed to take notice Hall decided to act on his own. In , he retired as CEO in order to devote more time to the issue. Two years later he began construction of the Crown Center, a residential, retail, and commercial real estate development designed to halt urban decay in the neighborhood. Part of the complex, which included office space, opened in In , after Donald Hall had been running the company for twenty years, Hallmark's board of directors thought it was time to select a CEO from outside the family.

It turned to Irvine 0. Hockaday Jr. When Hockaday was appointed CEO, it marked the first time that Hallmark did not have a Hall family member at the helm. Some industry observers believed that bringing in an outsider might cause friction among the company's old guard.

It seemed, however, that new blood was exactly what Hallmark needed. Hockaday was quickly accepted by the other top executives and led the company through one of its most dynamic periods. The Litho-Krome acquisition gave the company a quality printing plant in the South. The other two purchases bolstered Hallmark's international presence, allowing the company to cut costs by producing cards directly in Australia and New Zealand. The company also expanded its product line, introducing Shoebox Greetings, an offbeat line of cards aimed at young, hip adults, and Mahogany, greeting cards designed for African Americans.

Hallmark continued its buying spree into the s when it acquired several more companies, including Mundi-Paper, a Spanish greeting card manufacturer, and RHI Entertainment, a television programming and distribution firm. In , RHI was renamed the Hallmark Entertainment Network, and given the mission to produce and distribute miniseries and movies made for television, including programs for the Hallmark Hall of Fame. It also operated the Hallmark Channel, a twenty-four-hour cable network dedicated to family programming.

Other acquisitions during the s included William Arthur, a producer of stationery products; Irresistible Ink, Inc. Hallmark made a change in leadership in when Donald J.

Hall Jr. For the first time in sixteen years, a member of the Hall family was again at the reins, and industry observers watched to see if Hall Jr. Hallmark ran into legal problems in when greeting card creator Susan Polis Schutz and her husband Stephen sued the company for copyright infringement. Joyce C. Hall, founder of Hallmark Cards, Inc. The Hall family moved to Norfolk, Neb. But the market for imported postcards in Norfolk was limited.

So in January , year-old Joyce dropped out of high school, crammed two shoeboxes full of postcards, and boarded a train for Kansas City, Mo. At first, he called on drugstores, bookstores and gift shops, wholesaling products created and manufactured by others.

As business picked up, he ventured to the towns served by the railroads running in all directions from the Midwestern rail center. Soon brother Rollie joined him, and they opened a specialty store in downtown Kansas City, dealing in post cards, gifts, books and stationery. They can also be credited for inventing decorative wrapping paper in an improvisation after running out of the standard plain paper , as well as the card display racks you still see in every store today.

During the Depression, J. In fact, Hall Brothers Inc. Although the company started going by Hallmark in , the slogan, ""When You Care Enough to Send the Very Best," coined in , actually preceded the company's official name change in When J. Today, Hallmark has grown into a network of related companies with several greeting card and product lines.

And the Hall family legacy lives on: J. Hall , and Donald J. Hall, Jr. Country Life. Design Ideas. Home Maintenance. Country Living Shop. Shopping Guides. United States.