Taken from the unpublished, though often spoken, memoirs of Llew Chapman:
To borrow a phrase from the famous Christmas question about Santa Claus....Yes, there really is an Olan Mills.
Olan and I have been friends for many years since our days at McCallie in the late forties. The photography business had been started by his Dad several years earlier in Alabama and Mr. Mills moved the headquarters to Chattanooga a bit before Olan and I met.
In those days, before there were many photo studios, Olan’s Dad had his sales people solicit business by going door to door. A coupon was sold to the home owner for $1.00 which entitled them to an 8"X10" sepia toned portrait after the photos were made.(This was before the days of color photography and the sepia tone was very impressive). Shortly after the coupons were sold, a photographer would set up the "studio" in a motel and customers would come, have the pictures made, and return a few days later to select their $1.00 photo. At this time the customer was offered additional photos which many ordered This unique sales operation proved to be very profitable and the Olan Mills business flourished.
In the summer of 1948 after our graduation from McCallie, Olan and I and two other close friends sold the $1.00 coupons in towns in Ohio, Michigan and Cape Cod during a two week sales trip. We kept 50 cents of each sale and the company got the rest. Our sales were NOT that great and we began staying in VERY cheap motels and eating as cheaply as possible, not a good existence for McCallie graduates who thought they had the world by the tail and were headed for college.
We later realized that the trip was a way to help Olan learn the business and, to this day, we say our "training trip" is the reason Olan Mills studios have done so well. We had many interesting sales adventures on the trip and we have enjoyed telling family and friends about these events over and over for over 50 years. Some are beginning to tire of hearing them!
Following graduation from college, Olan joined the business and began using the telephone to solicit sales. The Olan Mills portrait studios were established all over the country; newspaper advertising helped generate a lot of business. Olan has introduced many other sales and operations techniques to improve the business.
Olan and his family have been very generous donors to many civic and religious efforts over the years. We have remained good friends all of these years and we still enjoy getting together and, you guessed it, re-telling stories about our famous trip.
Note from Blog editor: I think we're ready to hear those traveling salesmen stories now!!
