Did You Know F. Scott Fitzgerald was Once a Copywriter?

Part 5 of a 5-part series

The year was 1918. The Great War had ended. And 22-year-old F. Scott Fitzgerald wanted nothing more than to marry the belle of Montgomery, Alabama, Zelda Sayre.

But, as Sayre made clear, there'd be no union until he could support them.

So the Princeton-educated Fitzgerald moved to New York, to try out journalism.

The venture came to little.

At a friend's urging, Fitzgerald took a $35-per-week job as a copywriter at the ad agency Barron Collier.

Things began to look up. Fitzgerald received a $5-per-week raise, when he wrote a client-pleasing slogan for the Muscatine, Iowa-based Muscatine Steam Laundry Company, "We keep you clean in Muscatine."

"'It's perhaps a bit imaginative," the agency head told him. "But still it's plain that there's a future for you in this business."

But copywriting didn't earn Fitzgerald enough to satisfy Sayre.

He quit the job and moved back into his parents' home in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Two more years and the appearance of his first best-seller would pass before the couple wed.

Did You Know Danielle Steel was Once a Copywriter?

Part 4 of a 5-part series

In 1972, while researching an article about conscientious objectors imprisoned during the Vietnam War, freelance writer and millionaire heiress Danielle Steel met inmate Danny Zugelder in a California penitentiary.

Zugelder, serving time for bank robbery, became instantly smitten with the high-born Steel. Within months, Steel moved from New York to San Francisco, so she could visit Zugelder every week. The couple would have lengthy picnics on the prison lawn and liaisons in a bathroom in the visitors' center.

Zugelder moved in with Steel after his parole the following year. To support their new household, Steel took as job as a copywriter for Grey Advertising, while working nights on a novel.

The couple's bliss lasted less than a year. In 1974, Zugelder was convicted of robbing and sexually assaulting a woman, and sentenced to seven years in a state prison.

In 1975, Steel married Zugelder in the prison’s canteen. But the marriage lasted only two years.

Zugelder later reflected that Steel had been using him as grist for her novel, which depicted the romance between a socialite writer and a poor ex-con.

Did You Know Terry Gilliam was Once a Copywriter?

Part 3 of a 5-part series

In the mid-1960s, Terry Gilliam found himself unable to earn money as a cartoonist, so took a job as a copywriter in a Los Angeles ad agency.

The long-haired Gilliam didn't mind the salary, but hated agency life. Each day, he would arrive late, take long lunches and leave early.

Clients particularly troubled him.

When one, Anderson Split Pea Soup, asked for a new campaign to promote its namesake product, Gilliam produced a series of clever newspaper and radio ads. But the ads failed to increase sales in the test-market chosen by the client, and were immediately scrapped. Soon after, Gilliam learned that Anderson Split Pea Soup didn't stock its product in any stores in the test market it had selected.

After only 18 months on the job, Gilliam quit the ad agency and moved to England. That same year, he found a gig with a new BBC show, Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Though Gilliam would never again produce ads, memories of agency life haunted him and would influence his dystopian film Brazil.

Did You Know Alec Guinness was Once a Copywriter?

Part 2 of a 5-part series

In 1932, fresh out of school, Alec Guinness became a copywriter for London-based Arks Publicity, where he wrote ads for Rose’s Lime Juice.

Earning only 20 shillings a week (the equivalent of about 70 US dollars today), Guinness quit his copywriters' job to try acting.

To break onto the stage, Guinness cold-called "the greatest Hamlet of his generation," John Gielgud. Gielgud advised Guinness to take lessons from actress Martita Hunt. 

After the second lesson, Hunt told Guinness, "You'll never be an actor. You've got no talent at all." But he stuck out the lessons and in a year won a scholarship to drama school. 

In 1934, Guinness landed a minor role in Gielgud's second production of Hamlet and his acting career took flight.

Did You Know Bob Newhart was Once a Copywriter?

Part 1 of a 5-part series

In the late 1950s, Bob Newhart left a job in accounting to become a copywriter for a Chicago-based film and TV production company.

During idle hours, Newhart and a coworker would entertain one another by pretending to make long phone calls about absurd topics.

They began to tape-record the calls and send the tapes to local radio stations, hoping for a gig.

After the coworker left the firm, Newhart continued to make the recordings on his own. He would portray only one end of the phone conversation, playing the "straight man" while implying what the "funny man" was saying.

Within a year, Newhart was discovered by Warner Brothers Records and his career in professional comedy was underway.