Hallmark Playhouse

Dramatic anthology (1948 - 53)

Among the legendary figures in the annals of American marketing, there was a young man of drive and ambition named J.C. Hall. In tough times, when his minister father would preach "The Lord will provide", young Hall would reply that there was nothing wrong with giving the Lord some help!

In 1905 Hall was impressed by a salesman who came into the family store, and convinced his brothers to invest $150 in postcards. The wholesale card business took off enough that Hall decided to enter a larger market in Kansas City. Arriving in KC with little more than two shoe boxes full of cards, Hall soon expanded and was soon running a store with his brothers which in time would grow to become the Hall Department Store in KC. The store burned in 1915, destroying the inventory of cards. When rebuilding Hall found a press and began printing his own cards. It was also in this period that he began to expand into Greeting Cards, saying "they were more than a form of communication- they were a social custom.

In 1944 the company adopted the name Hallmark after the stamp of genuineness used by goldsmiths.

In 1948, about the time the company began to venture into radio advertising, it adopted the slogan "When You Care Enough to Send the Very Best". The Radio program would be the Hallmark Playhouse, and featured very well done literary adaptations hosted by celebrated author James Hilton. There is some supposition that Hilton began to use the program to promote his own writings, and in the fall season of 1952, hosting duties were turned over to famed actor, Lionel Barrymore. The program was on TV beginning in 1951 as The Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the radio program adopted this name in 1953. the TV Hall of Fame was one of the first programs broadcast in Color, was the second longest running TV program of all time, and received numerous awards.