August 15, 2025 • 8 mins
The key to making your dreams become reality, is not accepting limitations. We're revisiting the first female powerhouse in the Madmen era of Madison Avenue, Mary Wells Lawrence. She rose from a working class life in Ohio to creating iconic ads for TWA, Pan Am, Hertz, IBM, Proctor and Gamble . . as well as the “I Love New York“ campaign. And she was still living the dream well into her 90s!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Have you ever asked yourself if there's a limit to
your dreams? Maybe you think you're not talented enough or
connected enough. Are you're going to have the right looks
or background to make it to the top. Well, guess what,
You are only limited by yourself. None of the rest
of it matters. And the person I'm going to tell
you about proves it. Ever heard these from the golden
(00:21):
age of Madison Avenue ad agencies? I love New York. Oh,
I'm a bad voice. Sorry, PLoP plup, fizz fizz. Oh
what a relief it is. Well, they came from a
really surprising source. I'm Patty Steele. This kid from Youngstown,
Ohio became the most powerful and wealthiest woman in the
ad world at a time when women who are not
(00:43):
really welcome. Mary Wells Lawrence believed in herself and the future.
That's next on the backstory. The backstory is back. Okay,
you're just a shy, middle class kid from Youngstown, Ohio.
But within a few decades you become the most powerful
woman in the ad industry's mad Men era with iconic
(01:07):
ad campaigns, and you have spectacular homes around the world
and a massive yacht in the Mediterranean sounds like my
kind of life. And imagine being a part of the
impossibly glamorous world of Madison Avenue advertising in the nineteen
sixties and seventies. I love the show mad Men. You
sort of get a peak at all that glamour, but
(01:28):
you also get a peek at the prejudices that put
up roadblocks for so many talented people in those days.
Mary Wells Lawrence was one of them, but she wasn't
going to let anybody stop her. Mary created some of
the most iconic advertising of that time period. For Ford
Quality is job one for Alka Seltzer PLoP PLoP, phizz phizz. Oh,
(01:48):
what a relief it is, Midas Muffler Trust, the Midas Touch,
also Twa pan am Hertz, IBM, Procter and Gamble, and
notably the State of New York. You know the tune
I Love New York. And she completely rebranded Braniff, an
unsuccessful regional airline, making it into the airline of the
(02:10):
jet set through brilliant advertising, fresh customer relations, and a
colorful makeover of its jets and flight attendant uniforms. Then
she married the CEO and continued to grow her own business.
She was the first woman to found own and run
a major ad agency, and the first female CEO of
a company that traded on the New York Stock Exchanges
(02:33):
Big Board. Okay, now, let's go back to that shy
little girl. An only child growing up in a middle
class family in Youngstown, Ohio, a world away from all
the glitz of post World War II New York City.
Her dad sold furniture, and her mother wanted Mary to
be an actress, enrolling her in music, dance, and acting classes, all,
(02:54):
as it turned out, useful in the world of advertising.
In her late teens, her dad took Mary to New
York City to study acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Think
what that must have been like in nineteen forty five.
She'd never seen a person of color, a really big city,
or even an ocean before a year later, at eighteen,
(03:15):
she headed to the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh
to study business. Eventually, while working as an ad copy
writer back in Youngstown, she got married and then divorced.
Several years later, she moved to New York City working
in Macy's ad department, and then came her career at
several iconic ad agencies. From there, she just kept moving up.
(03:36):
During those years, she and her team came up with
iconic ads, including one for Braniff, which at the time
was a struggling regional airline. The CEO asked her to
put Braniff in the news, and so that's what she did.
She said, Braniff's terminals looked like a prison camp, the
planes were drab, and flight attendants dressed like nurses. But
(03:57):
it was the nineteen sixties, and she said, I saw
Braniff in a wash of beautiful color. The airliners were
painted in those brilliant colors, interiors were redone in gorgeous
mods sixties fabrics, Terminal lounges were redesigned with primitive art,
and flight attendants were dressed in Emilio Pucci fashions, clothing
(04:18):
and sexy designs, all in brilliant colors that were removed
in layers during the flights. An idea she called the airstrip.
Although they never got naked. The ad slogan the end
of the plane plane. Braniff suddenly became the airline of
the young jet set and had an eighty percent jump
in business. Mary thought she'd earned the right to be
(04:40):
her agency's president and her CEO said, you're absolutely right.
We're going to give you all the decision making power
and the money of the president. But here's the thing.
You're a woman, and a woman president will scare clients away.
So she didn't get the title. Mary was livid. She
said he could see that I was feeling a red
rage and he said and said, you wouldn't want to
(05:01):
ruin something you Bill, would you. That's when I just
walked out the door. I wanted my own agency. Her
team went with her and they set up shop in
a hotel suite. Pretty Soon they had clients like Ford, IBM,
Procter and Gamble, American Motors, Cadbury, Schweps, Hurts, Philip Morris
and Pan MTWA and of course Branif. She then married
(05:23):
the brand of CEO. Then came her most far reaching
ad campaign of all. It was I Love New York,
which began in nineteen seventy seven when the city was dangerous,
filled with garbage and graffiti, there was a serial killer
running around, and there was plenty of racial upset. To
bring back tourism to the city and around New York State,
(05:44):
Mary's company, Wells Rich Green was hired along with a
graphic designer who came up with the heart logo to
match the slogan I love New York, says Mary. The
first ad we made ended with the actor Frank Langella
as Dracula outside of Broadway Theater, where he was starring
as that vampire. He looked into the camera and he said, menacingly,
(06:05):
I love New York, especially in the evening. The ad
campaign was originally supposed to last just a few months,
but it went on for years. One of the most
successful in history. Mary Wells Lawrence came of age in
an era when deals were made in exclusive New York
City restaurants, spectacular seaside mansions in the Hamptons, and in
(06:27):
the south of France, where she and her husband owned
a chateau, and where her pal, Princess Grace of Monaco
would drop in to wow her clients. They spent a
lot of time on board their yacht, and in fact,
after her husband died in two thousand and two, she
sold it and bought a much bigger one, the one
hundred and fifty five foot yacht called Strange Love. Mary said,
(06:51):
I love to travel. I constantly want to learn things
learn something each day that I didn't know yesterday. In
nineteen seventy one, she was named Woman of the Year
by the American Advertising Federation and inducted into the ad
Hall of Fame. In nineteen ninety nine, ad Age called
her advertising's most widely publicized symbol of glamour, success, wealth,
(07:14):
brains and beauty, and she was tough. In the nineteen eighties,
she survived both uterine and breast cancer, but Mary Wells
Lawrence continued to believe in the future. One of my
favorite stories about her came from an interview in the
New York Times Real estate section. She was selling this
incredible apartment she lived in in New York because she
(07:36):
wanted to move to the UK. She said, all my life,
I've been where I was supposed to be. I always
wanted to live in London and never got the chance.
So that's where I've bought a new place. Now here's
the thing. She was ninety one years old at the
time of that move, and she was looking toward the future.
And that is the way to live your life. You
(07:57):
gotta believe hope. You're enjoying the backstory with Patty Steele,
Follow or subscribe for free to get new episodes delivered automatically,
and feel free to dm me if you have a
story you would like me to cover. On Facebook, It's
Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.
(08:20):
The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis
Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser.
Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday
and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with
comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty
Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening
(08:43):
to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history
you didn't know you needed to know.
Have you ever asked yourself if there's a limit to
your dreams? Maybe you think you're not talented enough or
connected enough. Are you're going to have the right looks
or background to make it to the top. Well, guess what,
You are only limited by yourself. None of the rest
of it matters. And the person I'm going to tell
you about proves it. Ever heard these from the golden
(00:21):
age of Madison Avenue ad agencies? I love New York. Oh,
I'm a bad voice. Sorry, PLoP plup, fizz fizz. Oh
what a relief it is. Well, they came from a
really surprising source. I'm Patty Steele. This kid from Youngstown,
Ohio became the most powerful and wealthiest woman in the
ad world at a time when women who are not
(00:43):
really welcome. Mary Wells Lawrence believed in herself and the future.
That's next on the backstory. The backstory is back. Okay,
you're just a shy, middle class kid from Youngstown, Ohio.
But within a few decades you become the most powerful
woman in the ad industry's mad Men era with iconic
(01:07):
ad campaigns, and you have spectacular homes around the world
and a massive yacht in the Mediterranean sounds like my
kind of life. And imagine being a part of the
impossibly glamorous world of Madison Avenue advertising in the nineteen
sixties and seventies. I love the show mad Men. You
sort of get a peak at all that glamour, but
(01:28):
you also get a peek at the prejudices that put
up roadblocks for so many talented people in those days.
Mary Wells Lawrence was one of them, but she wasn't
going to let anybody stop her. Mary created some of
the most iconic advertising of that time period. For Ford
Quality is job one for Alka Seltzer PLoP PLoP, phizz phizz. Oh,
(01:48):
what a relief it is, Midas Muffler Trust, the Midas Touch,
also Twa pan am Hertz, IBM, Procter and Gamble, and
notably the State of New York. You know the tune
I Love New York. And she completely rebranded Braniff, an
unsuccessful regional airline, making it into the airline of the
(02:10):
jet set through brilliant advertising, fresh customer relations, and a
colorful makeover of its jets and flight attendant uniforms. Then
she married the CEO and continued to grow her own business.
She was the first woman to found own and run
a major ad agency, and the first female CEO of
a company that traded on the New York Stock Exchanges
(02:33):
Big Board. Okay, now, let's go back to that shy
little girl. An only child growing up in a middle
class family in Youngstown, Ohio, a world away from all
the glitz of post World War II New York City.
Her dad sold furniture, and her mother wanted Mary to
be an actress, enrolling her in music, dance, and acting classes, all,
(02:54):
as it turned out, useful in the world of advertising.
In her late teens, her dad took Mary to New
York City to study acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Think
what that must have been like in nineteen forty five.
She'd never seen a person of color, a really big city,
or even an ocean before a year later, at eighteen,
(03:15):
she headed to the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh
to study business. Eventually, while working as an ad copy
writer back in Youngstown, she got married and then divorced.
Several years later, she moved to New York City working
in Macy's ad department, and then came her career at
several iconic ad agencies. From there, she just kept moving up.
(03:36):
During those years, she and her team came up with
iconic ads, including one for Braniff, which at the time
was a struggling regional airline. The CEO asked her to
put Braniff in the news, and so that's what she did.
She said, Braniff's terminals looked like a prison camp, the
planes were drab, and flight attendants dressed like nurses. But
(03:57):
it was the nineteen sixties, and she said, I saw
Braniff in a wash of beautiful color. The airliners were
painted in those brilliant colors, interiors were redone in gorgeous
mods sixties fabrics, Terminal lounges were redesigned with primitive art,
and flight attendants were dressed in Emilio Pucci fashions, clothing
(04:18):
and sexy designs, all in brilliant colors that were removed
in layers during the flights. An idea she called the airstrip.
Although they never got naked. The ad slogan the end
of the plane plane. Braniff suddenly became the airline of
the young jet set and had an eighty percent jump
in business. Mary thought she'd earned the right to be
(04:40):
her agency's president and her CEO said, you're absolutely right.
We're going to give you all the decision making power
and the money of the president. But here's the thing.
You're a woman, and a woman president will scare clients away.
So she didn't get the title. Mary was livid. She
said he could see that I was feeling a red
rage and he said and said, you wouldn't want to
(05:01):
ruin something you Bill, would you. That's when I just
walked out the door. I wanted my own agency. Her
team went with her and they set up shop in
a hotel suite. Pretty Soon they had clients like Ford, IBM,
Procter and Gamble, American Motors, Cadbury, Schweps, Hurts, Philip Morris
and Pan MTWA and of course Branif. She then married
(05:23):
the brand of CEO. Then came her most far reaching
ad campaign of all. It was I Love New York,
which began in nineteen seventy seven when the city was dangerous,
filled with garbage and graffiti, there was a serial killer
running around, and there was plenty of racial upset. To
bring back tourism to the city and around New York State,
(05:44):
Mary's company, Wells Rich Green was hired along with a
graphic designer who came up with the heart logo to
match the slogan I love New York, says Mary. The
first ad we made ended with the actor Frank Langella
as Dracula outside of Broadway Theater, where he was starring
as that vampire. He looked into the camera and he said, menacingly,
(06:05):
I love New York, especially in the evening. The ad
campaign was originally supposed to last just a few months,
but it went on for years. One of the most
successful in history. Mary Wells Lawrence came of age in
an era when deals were made in exclusive New York
City restaurants, spectacular seaside mansions in the Hamptons, and in
(06:27):
the south of France, where she and her husband owned
a chateau, and where her pal, Princess Grace of Monaco
would drop in to wow her clients. They spent a
lot of time on board their yacht, and in fact,
after her husband died in two thousand and two, she
sold it and bought a much bigger one, the one
hundred and fifty five foot yacht called Strange Love. Mary said,
(06:51):
I love to travel. I constantly want to learn things
learn something each day that I didn't know yesterday. In
nineteen seventy one, she was named Woman of the Year
by the American Advertising Federation and inducted into the ad
Hall of Fame. In nineteen ninety nine, ad Age called
her advertising's most widely publicized symbol of glamour, success, wealth,
(07:14):
brains and beauty, and she was tough. In the nineteen eighties,
she survived both uterine and breast cancer, but Mary Wells
Lawrence continued to believe in the future. One of my
favorite stories about her came from an interview in the
New York Times Real estate section. She was selling this
incredible apartment she lived in in New York because she
(07:36):
wanted to move to the UK. She said, all my life,
I've been where I was supposed to be. I always
wanted to live in London and never got the chance.
So that's where I've bought a new place. Now here's
the thing. She was ninety one years old at the
time of that move, and she was looking toward the future.
And that is the way to live your life. You
(07:57):
gotta believe hope. You're enjoying the backstory with Patty Steele,
Follow or subscribe for free to get new episodes delivered automatically,
and feel free to dm me if you have a
story you would like me to cover. On Facebook, It's
Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.
(08:20):
The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis
Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser.
Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday
and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with
comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty
Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening
(08:43):
to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history
you didn't know you needed to know.
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