November 17, 2025 • 14 mins
This January 2, 1938 episode of Captains of Industry tells the story of John Wanamaker, the Philadelphia merchant who transformed American retail. Beginning as an ambitious young salesman, Wanamaker dreamed of a store built not just on commerce, but on fair dealing, trust, and hospitality.
His innovations — fixed prices, money-back guarantees, employee education, and designing stores as places of experience rather than mere counters — reshaped how Americans shop. From a rented storefront to a grand emporium filled with marble galleries, tea rooms, and music, Wanamaker’s vision turned buying and selling into something more human — a relationship between merchant and community.
Subscribe to the Old Time Radio Snack Wagon at https://www.snackwagon.net
Related:
John Wanamaker: A Retailing Innovator
http://www.maykuth.com/Archives/wana95.htm
A Short History of the Life of John Wanamaker:
https://web.archive.org/web/20181014181113/http://wanamakerorgan.com/john.php
Stories of Great Christians: John Wanamaker:
https://moodyaudio.com/products/john-wanamaker
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/old-time-radio-snack-wagon-rare-historic-radio-programs--5919985/support.
His innovations — fixed prices, money-back guarantees, employee education, and designing stores as places of experience rather than mere counters — reshaped how Americans shop. From a rented storefront to a grand emporium filled with marble galleries, tea rooms, and music, Wanamaker’s vision turned buying and selling into something more human — a relationship between merchant and community.
Subscribe to the Old Time Radio Snack Wagon at https://www.snackwagon.net
Related:
John Wanamaker: A Retailing Innovator
http://www.maykuth.com/Archives/wana95.htm
A Short History of the Life of John Wanamaker:
https://web.archive.org/web/20181014181113/http://wanamakerorgan.com/john.php
Stories of Great Christians: John Wanamaker:
https://moodyaudio.com/products/john-wanamaker
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/old-time-radio-snack-wagon-rare-historic-radio-programs--5919985/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, there are you, Adam Graham the very same and
this is my old time radio snack wagon.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to the Old Time Radio snack Wagon, where we
serve up a bite sized portion of old time radio.
And now here's your snack wagon host, Adam Graham.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
We're serving up another helping of a series I've brought
you last season, Captains of Industry. If you've ever listened
to the Sherlock Holmes programs that were sponsored by Clippercraft,
one of the locations where you could buy clipper Craft
suits was in the John Wannamaker stores. I often wondered
(00:49):
who was John Wannamaker. We'll find out in this Story
of John Wannamaker.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
The Story of John Wannamaker on the outskirts of Philadelphia
in July eighteen hundred and thirty eight. John was the
eldest of six children and seemed destined to become outstanding
in the world of business. His first experience consisted.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Of odd jobs, errand boy stock boy.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
He then took a position of salesman with Colonel Bennett
and Tower Hall, pioneer of the retail clothing business in Philadelphia,
and after a few years, John one day asked to
speak to the colonel.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Well, come in, John, come in. What have you got
on your mind?
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Now? I'm sorry, colonel if I've interrupted anything.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Oh to what do you want to see me about?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I've been with you at Tower Hall for several years now,
Colonel Bennett, and I've studied the business carefully.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
Ye're the best salesman I've got. Then, well, well, what.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Is it speak of?
Speaker 5 (01:42):
John?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Very well, Colonel Bennett, I'd like either a substantial increase
in salary or a share in the business.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
You what, I believe I've earned it, sir, You believe.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
I'm the best judge of how much you should earn
want to make her.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
But Colonel Bennett, you just said that I was the
best salesman you had.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
You see what.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Happens when I give my clerks a little praise goes
to their hits. They want to share in my business.
Nothing has gone to my head, Colonel.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
I came here to ask you for that, and would
have asked the same thing had you said nothing in
my praise.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Isn't the laborer worthy of his hire?
Speaker 6 (02:10):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (02:10):
No?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
And now we can leave the Bible quotations out of
this wannamaker and you don't get either a raised or
her share of my business, then you leave me no alternative.
Colonel Bennett, I'm sorry, what do you mean. I shall
open a store nearby and take your trade you want,
and what pray, Telly, you're going to use for money?
It will take time, I know, but open the store
(02:31):
I shall, and I promise you, Colonel Bennett, it'll be
the biggest department store in the world. Thus, John Wannamaker
set the pattern of his life, and as a part
of this pattern, he married lovely Mary Aeroner Brown in
(02:54):
eighteen sixty. A year later, we find John, Mary and
her brother Nathan at the Wannamaker home. I'm asking you
to become my partner in this venture, Nathan, because you're
the man best fitted for the place. I want to
establish a clothing store that will revolutionize the business.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Well, what have you got in mind? John?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
As they are now, stores are opened and closed at
the owner's whims. Once an article is bought, an exchange
in return of the purchase price is unheard of. Now
the public regards the merchant as an army whose chief
ambition is to cheat them as much as possible.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
And you expect to change all that John lets a lifetime.
Speaker 7 (03:27):
Works, but you have your lives to do it in Nason.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
You have confidence in this plan, Mary.
Speaker 7 (03:32):
Complete confidence. John plans to stabilize the hours of service,
establish a school in a store for the training of employees,
give the employees shorter hours and summer holidays with pay,
and give the customers not only good service, but waiting rooms,
the post office, a restaurant.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Now, hold on here, how much money have you've got, John,
two thousand dollars?
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Two thousand?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Can you expect to do all this to pioneer in
things that may make you the laughing stock of Philadelphia?
Well as to that, maybe they will laugh at first,
but they'll come back again for the good service and
continue to come back.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Nadan.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
I'm so sure of this that I'm backing my dream
with every cent of my savings. Will you do the same,
put up two thousand dollars for something that sounds completely impossible? Eh, Well,
you've never failed yet in anything you put your heart
and soul into. All right, I'll do it. My heart
and soul's in this, all right, Nadan. It's going to
be a struggle, but we'll make good. I know we'll
(04:26):
make good. The partners rented two floors in a building
called McNeil's Folly. Even their best friends doomed the venture
to failure due to the war and general business depression,
but by eighteen hundred and sixty nine business had so
(04:47):
increased that Oak Hall had to be enlarged and a
branch store was opened.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
But yet more room was needed, and Wanna.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Maker purchased a huge pasture at thirteenth in Market Streets,
which contained the recently deserted freight station of the Pennsylvania
A Road. When his competitors heard of this purchase, loud
was the laughter dire with the predictions.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
At Green John Wannamaker's.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
Crazy Country is passing through a business panic.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
You'll be wiped out.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
You can't make a store out of an old prate
sting saved.
Speaker 6 (05:16):
Right, Dreamers don't belong in business.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
And what do you think, Mary? Why? John?
Speaker 7 (05:29):
What is it to think? He's made the right move?
And this new store is going beyond even your highest hope.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Oh dearest Mary, what a wife? What a comrade? You are?
You're right? This still will exceed my highest hopes.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Because if there's one person in the world I couldn't fail,
it's you. A new store called the Grand Depot slowly
arose from the humble prate station business rowin such leaps
and bounds that by eighteen eighty four Wannamaker was forced
(06:03):
to open another store on Ninth Street and Broadway, and
these two great stores saw stirring times as the years passed.
The old freight station became crowded, outmoded, and John Wannamaker
saw that he must build a new store on the site.
But how to do this without interrupting business? And even
more important, Wannamaker decided that in this new store he
(06:23):
was going to incorporate everything that he had ever dreamed
of in a store. So he called a meeting of
his board of directors and store managers. Gentlemen, as you
all know, we must expand. But what you may not
know is the idea behind this expansion. This new store
of ours is not only going to give our customers
good service, but entertainer entertainment in business. Mister Wallamker, Yes, Lloyd,
(06:46):
this store is going to be a monument to the customer.
I've already discussed the plans of the architects. It's going
to have a grand court storing one hundred and fifty
feet high without a break, with columns of dark green marble,
balustrades of the various stores.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
And an organ. That's the dream of my life, to
have a mighty organ in my store. Oh, why you
will make us all laughing stark, mister Wallamy.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Someone said that to me long ago, Lloyd, and it
since proved a false statement. This grand court isn't going
to be the only unique feature. There will be the
Egyptian Hall, a magnificent auditorium seating two thousand people, and
the stage where five hundred people can sing at one time,
accompanied by a pipe organ of.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Three thousand pile.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
But why why five hundred people on the stage singing
at the same time. Because my store must give beauty
as well as service, Lloyd. I want to make shopping
a pleasure, something to be looked forward to. Adjoining this
Egyptian Hall will be a Greek hall with walls of
solid mahogany inlaid with satin wood. Then there'll be the
house that Budget built, the Crystal tea room served by
(07:50):
a vast modern kitchen and presided over by the finest chefs.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I can get on the roof. I plan an athletic
field and a promenade for store employee, which madness mis
to wanna make it?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
And even if you build lawless, how are you going
to do it without stopping business, perhaps losing our tread.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
I'm going to build in sections.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Gentlemen, what Yes, while one fourth of the old building
is closed off and torn down and the new building
is erected, business will continue in the other three For
all nonsense.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Customers won't come into a store that's full of construction
noises after World Day.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Wait and see, gentlemen, wait and see.
Speaker 8 (08:31):
I'd like three yards of late see as a noise
makes hearing them so difficult. Yes, but I traded John
wanna make a store? If he said it sounds out
in the middle of the street. Such a fine man
he is, and such a great store. I'm always satisfied
with whatever I buy.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Just the wanna make it will be dead to hear that, madam.
Now what was it you were three yards of late names?
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (08:52):
Yeah, that coud was over by that pile of pumper.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Would you follow me? Bad? What you said?
Speaker 8 (08:56):
Be careful those do for I will you know this
maker has a challenge making shot in your pleasure. Even
when he says, Jolie, stow around your ears.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
And thus they came as Wannamaker had said they would.
And at last, on June eleventh, nineteen ten, six years
after the first troubleful of earth had been turned, the
store was completed, and standing on the roof, overlooking the
full sweep of the city, with the President of the
United States, William Howard Taft beside him, John Wannamaker waits
to put the capstone of the building in place.
Speaker 6 (09:35):
Mister Waamaker, this building, with its great beauty and many
artistic features, wonderful as it is, is but a poor
monument to your success in proportion to the spiritual monument
you have erected in.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
The hearts of all who know you.
Speaker 6 (09:52):
And I am proud to be here on the day
when the combination of your dreams come to pass.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Thank you, mister President. Thank you, my friends.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
There's a half a century of business endeavor, strenuous and constant,
that looks down upon us today as we old friends
and young beginners stand together for this interesting service. The
inscription on the stone reads this block put in place
on June eleventh, nineteen ten by John Wannamaker. March completion
(10:33):
of this structure begun April twenty sixth, nineteen hundred and four.
Cornerstone lay June twelfth, nineteen hundred and nine. Let those
who follow me continue to build with the plum of honor,
the level of truth, and the square of integrity, education, courtesy,
(10:53):
and mutuality. John Wannamaker. The inscription on the capstone is
(11:17):
a fitting end to this story of John Wannamaker. Not
even the glory of the business done and good accomplished
by his great store, nor his activities as Postmaster General
of President Harrison's Cabinet, nor his great activities during the
World War, can reveal his sterling character more than these
simple words. His large philanthropies consisted of such monuments as
(11:37):
Bethany Church, the Wannamaker Institute of Industries, Bethany Day Nursery,
the John Chambers Memorial Church, the Friendly Inn for Destitute Men.
These are but few examples of a great man's great generosity.
John Wannamaker, Captain of Industry.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Welcome a great little profile of a fascinating figure in
American retailing. Some of the practices he introduced are so
calm in place, it's easy to take them for granted,
but his impact is still felt today. This episode referenced
Wannamaker's faith, with him quoting Scripture to Colonel Bennett and
(12:22):
his donation to Best in the Church. But he was
actually very prominent for his faith in his day. He
was the first corresponding Secretary of the National YMCA when
the religious aspect of that organization was more prominent. Wannamaker
(12:42):
actually had his life story serialized for Moody Radio's series
Stories of Great Christians. Well, the cast of today's episode
was uncredited. I would swear that Colonel Bennett was played
by Julianoah, who played Perry White in the Adventures of
Superman radio series. It seems that Noah may have been
(13:05):
topcast a bit as the old man who told people
something was impossible or couldn't be done. Of course, Wannamaker
didn't bend steel in his bear's hands, but he helped
shape the future of American retailing while building a business empire.
It's time for me to close up the old snackwagon,
(13:26):
but don't worry. We'll be back with another serving of
old time radio goodness before you know it. If you
want to enjoy some of our longer form podcasts. You
can feast away at my website at Great Detectives dot net.
Your emails are also welcome at Adam at snackwagon dot net.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
The Old Time Radio Snackwagon comes to you from Boise, Idaho.
Your host is Adam Graham. Sound production is by Rhyn's
Media LLC. You can listen to past episodes of the
Old Time Radio snack Wagon as well as connect on
social social media at our website at snackwagon dot net.
Email suggestions for episodes to Adam at snackwagon dot net.
(14:10):
This has been the Old Time Radio Snackwagon.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Until next time. Goodbye,
Hey, there are you, Adam Graham the very same and
this is my old time radio snack wagon.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to the Old Time Radio snack Wagon, where we
serve up a bite sized portion of old time radio.
And now here's your snack wagon host, Adam Graham.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
We're serving up another helping of a series I've brought
you last season, Captains of Industry. If you've ever listened
to the Sherlock Holmes programs that were sponsored by Clippercraft,
one of the locations where you could buy clipper Craft
suits was in the John Wannamaker stores. I often wondered
(00:49):
who was John Wannamaker. We'll find out in this Story
of John Wannamaker.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
The Story of John Wannamaker on the outskirts of Philadelphia
in July eighteen hundred and thirty eight. John was the
eldest of six children and seemed destined to become outstanding
in the world of business. His first experience consisted.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
Of odd jobs, errand boy stock boy.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
He then took a position of salesman with Colonel Bennett
and Tower Hall, pioneer of the retail clothing business in Philadelphia,
and after a few years, John one day asked to
speak to the colonel.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
Well, come in, John, come in. What have you got
on your mind?
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Now? I'm sorry, colonel if I've interrupted anything.
Speaker 5 (01:31):
Oh to what do you want to see me about?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I've been with you at Tower Hall for several years now,
Colonel Bennett, and I've studied the business carefully.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
Ye're the best salesman I've got. Then, well, well, what.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Is it speak of?
Speaker 5 (01:42):
John?
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Very well, Colonel Bennett, I'd like either a substantial increase
in salary or a share in the business.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
You what, I believe I've earned it, sir, You believe.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
I'm the best judge of how much you should earn
want to make her.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
But Colonel Bennett, you just said that I was the
best salesman you had.
Speaker 5 (01:57):
You see what.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
Happens when I give my clerks a little praise goes
to their hits. They want to share in my business.
Nothing has gone to my head, Colonel.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
I came here to ask you for that, and would
have asked the same thing had you said nothing in
my praise.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Isn't the laborer worthy of his hire?
Speaker 6 (02:10):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (02:10):
No?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
And now we can leave the Bible quotations out of
this wannamaker and you don't get either a raised or
her share of my business, then you leave me no alternative.
Colonel Bennett, I'm sorry, what do you mean. I shall
open a store nearby and take your trade you want,
and what pray, Telly, you're going to use for money?
It will take time, I know, but open the store
(02:31):
I shall, and I promise you, Colonel Bennett, it'll be
the biggest department store in the world. Thus, John Wannamaker
set the pattern of his life, and as a part
of this pattern, he married lovely Mary Aeroner Brown in
(02:54):
eighteen sixty. A year later, we find John, Mary and
her brother Nathan at the Wannamaker home. I'm asking you
to become my partner in this venture, Nathan, because you're
the man best fitted for the place. I want to
establish a clothing store that will revolutionize the business.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Well, what have you got in mind? John?
Speaker 3 (03:11):
As they are now, stores are opened and closed at
the owner's whims. Once an article is bought, an exchange
in return of the purchase price is unheard of. Now
the public regards the merchant as an army whose chief
ambition is to cheat them as much as possible.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
And you expect to change all that John lets a lifetime.
Speaker 7 (03:27):
Works, but you have your lives to do it in Nason.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
You have confidence in this plan, Mary.
Speaker 7 (03:32):
Complete confidence. John plans to stabilize the hours of service,
establish a school in a store for the training of employees,
give the employees shorter hours and summer holidays with pay,
and give the customers not only good service, but waiting rooms,
the post office, a restaurant.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Now, hold on here, how much money have you've got, John,
two thousand dollars?
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Two thousand?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Can you expect to do all this to pioneer in
things that may make you the laughing stock of Philadelphia?
Well as to that, maybe they will laugh at first,
but they'll come back again for the good service and
continue to come back.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Nadan.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
I'm so sure of this that I'm backing my dream
with every cent of my savings. Will you do the same,
put up two thousand dollars for something that sounds completely impossible? Eh, Well,
you've never failed yet in anything you put your heart
and soul into. All right, I'll do it. My heart
and soul's in this, all right, Nadan. It's going to
be a struggle, but we'll make good. I know we'll
(04:26):
make good. The partners rented two floors in a building
called McNeil's Folly. Even their best friends doomed the venture
to failure due to the war and general business depression,
but by eighteen hundred and sixty nine business had so
(04:47):
increased that Oak Hall had to be enlarged and a
branch store was opened.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
But yet more room was needed, and Wanna.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Maker purchased a huge pasture at thirteenth in Market Streets,
which contained the recently deserted freight station of the Pennsylvania
A Road. When his competitors heard of this purchase, loud
was the laughter dire with the predictions.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
At Green John Wannamaker's.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
Crazy Country is passing through a business panic.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
You'll be wiped out.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
You can't make a store out of an old prate
sting saved.
Speaker 6 (05:16):
Right, Dreamers don't belong in business.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
And what do you think, Mary? Why? John?
Speaker 7 (05:29):
What is it to think? He's made the right move?
And this new store is going beyond even your highest hope.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Oh dearest Mary, what a wife? What a comrade? You are?
You're right? This still will exceed my highest hopes.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Because if there's one person in the world I couldn't fail,
it's you. A new store called the Grand Depot slowly
arose from the humble prate station business rowin such leaps
and bounds that by eighteen eighty four Wannamaker was forced
(06:03):
to open another store on Ninth Street and Broadway, and
these two great stores saw stirring times as the years passed.
The old freight station became crowded, outmoded, and John Wannamaker
saw that he must build a new store on the site.
But how to do this without interrupting business? And even
more important, Wannamaker decided that in this new store he
(06:23):
was going to incorporate everything that he had ever dreamed
of in a store. So he called a meeting of
his board of directors and store managers. Gentlemen, as you
all know, we must expand. But what you may not
know is the idea behind this expansion. This new store
of ours is not only going to give our customers
good service, but entertainer entertainment in business. Mister Wallamker, Yes, Lloyd,
(06:46):
this store is going to be a monument to the customer.
I've already discussed the plans of the architects. It's going
to have a grand court storing one hundred and fifty
feet high without a break, with columns of dark green marble,
balustrades of the various stores.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
And an organ. That's the dream of my life, to
have a mighty organ in my store. Oh, why you
will make us all laughing stark, mister Wallamy.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Someone said that to me long ago, Lloyd, and it
since proved a false statement. This grand court isn't going
to be the only unique feature. There will be the
Egyptian Hall, a magnificent auditorium seating two thousand people, and
the stage where five hundred people can sing at one time,
accompanied by a pipe organ of.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Three thousand pile.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
But why why five hundred people on the stage singing
at the same time. Because my store must give beauty
as well as service, Lloyd. I want to make shopping
a pleasure, something to be looked forward to. Adjoining this
Egyptian Hall will be a Greek hall with walls of
solid mahogany inlaid with satin wood. Then there'll be the
house that Budget built, the Crystal tea room served by
(07:50):
a vast modern kitchen and presided over by the finest chefs.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I can get on the roof. I plan an athletic
field and a promenade for store employee, which madness mis
to wanna make it?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
And even if you build lawless, how are you going
to do it without stopping business, perhaps losing our tread.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
I'm going to build in sections.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Gentlemen, what Yes, while one fourth of the old building
is closed off and torn down and the new building
is erected, business will continue in the other three For
all nonsense.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Customers won't come into a store that's full of construction
noises after World Day.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Wait and see, gentlemen, wait and see.
Speaker 8 (08:31):
I'd like three yards of late see as a noise
makes hearing them so difficult. Yes, but I traded John
wanna make a store? If he said it sounds out
in the middle of the street. Such a fine man
he is, and such a great store. I'm always satisfied
with whatever I buy.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Just the wanna make it will be dead to hear that, madam.
Now what was it you were three yards of late names?
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (08:52):
Yeah, that coud was over by that pile of pumper.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Would you follow me? Bad? What you said?
Speaker 8 (08:56):
Be careful those do for I will you know this
maker has a challenge making shot in your pleasure. Even
when he says, Jolie, stow around your ears.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
And thus they came as Wannamaker had said they would.
And at last, on June eleventh, nineteen ten, six years
after the first troubleful of earth had been turned, the
store was completed, and standing on the roof, overlooking the
full sweep of the city, with the President of the
United States, William Howard Taft beside him, John Wannamaker waits
to put the capstone of the building in place.
Speaker 6 (09:35):
Mister Waamaker, this building, with its great beauty and many
artistic features, wonderful as it is, is but a poor
monument to your success in proportion to the spiritual monument
you have erected in.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
The hearts of all who know you.
Speaker 6 (09:52):
And I am proud to be here on the day
when the combination of your dreams come to pass.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Thank you, mister President. Thank you, my friends.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
There's a half a century of business endeavor, strenuous and constant,
that looks down upon us today as we old friends
and young beginners stand together for this interesting service. The
inscription on the stone reads this block put in place
on June eleventh, nineteen ten by John Wannamaker. March completion
(10:33):
of this structure begun April twenty sixth, nineteen hundred and four.
Cornerstone lay June twelfth, nineteen hundred and nine. Let those
who follow me continue to build with the plum of honor,
the level of truth, and the square of integrity, education, courtesy,
(10:53):
and mutuality. John Wannamaker. The inscription on the capstone is
(11:17):
a fitting end to this story of John Wannamaker. Not
even the glory of the business done and good accomplished
by his great store, nor his activities as Postmaster General
of President Harrison's Cabinet, nor his great activities during the
World War, can reveal his sterling character more than these
simple words. His large philanthropies consisted of such monuments as
(11:37):
Bethany Church, the Wannamaker Institute of Industries, Bethany Day Nursery,
the John Chambers Memorial Church, the Friendly Inn for Destitute Men.
These are but few examples of a great man's great generosity.
John Wannamaker, Captain of Industry.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Welcome a great little profile of a fascinating figure in
American retailing. Some of the practices he introduced are so
calm in place, it's easy to take them for granted,
but his impact is still felt today. This episode referenced
Wannamaker's faith, with him quoting Scripture to Colonel Bennett and
(12:22):
his donation to Best in the Church. But he was
actually very prominent for his faith in his day. He
was the first corresponding Secretary of the National YMCA when
the religious aspect of that organization was more prominent. Wannamaker
(12:42):
actually had his life story serialized for Moody Radio's series
Stories of Great Christians. Well, the cast of today's episode
was uncredited. I would swear that Colonel Bennett was played
by Julianoah, who played Perry White in the Adventures of
Superman radio series. It seems that Noah may have been
(13:05):
topcast a bit as the old man who told people
something was impossible or couldn't be done. Of course, Wannamaker
didn't bend steel in his bear's hands, but he helped
shape the future of American retailing while building a business empire.
It's time for me to close up the old snackwagon,
(13:26):
but don't worry. We'll be back with another serving of
old time radio goodness before you know it. If you
want to enjoy some of our longer form podcasts. You
can feast away at my website at Great Detectives dot net.
Your emails are also welcome at Adam at snackwagon dot net.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
The Old Time Radio Snackwagon comes to you from Boise, Idaho.
Your host is Adam Graham. Sound production is by Rhyn's
Media LLC. You can listen to past episodes of the
Old Time Radio snack Wagon as well as connect on
social social media at our website at snackwagon dot net.
Email suggestions for episodes to Adam at snackwagon dot net.
(14:10):
This has been the Old Time Radio Snackwagon.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Until next time. Goodbye,
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