PROVENANCE_______________________________________________________
The Wayne Welch, Inc. Collection
4.0 Linear Feet
Collection No. MSS-052The materials which comprise this collection were donated to the Archives and Special Collections Department at the Auraria Library by Mr. Wayne A. Welch on September 12, 1983.
Property rights to this collection are held by the Archives and Special Collections Department of the Auraria Library . Literary rights to the collection are dedicated to the public. There are no restrictions placed on these materials. Photocopies may be made for purposes of scholarly research.
Citation:
The Wayne Welch, Inc. Collection Carton/Fd# Archives and Special Collections Department Auraria Library Denver, Colorado
Wayne A. Welch was born on May 21, 1911 in Bedford, Iowa. He graduated from high school ther in 1930, then he moved to Omaha, Nebraska, to study in a small business college. In 1931, he mover to Des Monies, Iowa, where he worked as an assisstant to a sales manager in a food company, along with assorted other sales related jobs. In 1935, he secured a position with the Iowa Broadcasting Company, working in sales promotion, and public relations, until December, 1942. He then worked for an advertisng agency in Des Monies, until he was drafted into the Army in Februrary, 1944. While in the Army, Mr Welch worked in recruiting and public relations, in the Seventh Service Command, headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. In late 1945, after his discharge Mr. Welch, at the age of 34, moved to Denver to found the Wayne Welch, Inc., an advertising agency. He chose Denver because he believed that the city and area were on the verge of great expansion. He also thought Denver, compared to eastern cities of similar size, we behind in exploiting the advantages of advertising and public relations. He began advertising his business, with the same promotional techniques that he used for his clients. Through business journals, newsletters, bro- chures, direct mail and samples, he informed potential clients of his agency's capabilities. At first, only one other person worked with him - an artist, who was also fresh out of the military. At the end of his first year in business, however, he had a staff of three persons besides himself. Mr. Welch's business was the first to buy and use a syndicated film of Liberace on television, and the first to represent a home building client with a community pool for home owners. They were the first Denver agency to put an ad in the yellow pages for their own business, and the first to build their own building. Mr Welch was a founding member and president of the Colorado Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. The agency based its fees upon the amount of time spent with a client. They refused to accept clients they felt they could not help, which helped them to develop a good reputation. On a few occasions, the agency was threatened by clients who struggles to pay their bills, but, in the end, almost all managed to do so. One exception, however, was the "Lure of the Month Club", that owed the firm $4,700 when it went bankrupt. Only $50 was recovered. After this incident, billing was more frequent to those clients whose financial condition was shakey. The Denver National Bank, Wright-McGill (a security life and accident in- surance company), and Midland Savings were the biggest accounts for the agency, although smaller accounts paid better for the amount of time spent on them. In 1957 the agency changed its name to Welch-McKenna, Inc., adding the name of Austin J. McKenna, who had worked for the agency almost from the start. The, in 1962, Mr. Welch merged his firm with Potts-Woodbury's, an agency with offices in Kansas City, New York and Denver. Mr Welch was unhappy with the results of this merger, so reestablished Wayne Welch, Inc., in 1964 and continued with his previous business until his retirement in 1973. the business was continued as a non-operating holding company with interests in art and investments, until 1984, when it was dissolved.
Carton number 1 consists of printed samples from at least 17 accounts handled by Wayne Welch, Inc. Materials in these files include leaflets, flyers, stationary, envelopes, reorder slips. postcards, bottle labels, booklets, printer's mats from newspaper ads, memo pads, badges, stickers, play money, and arrowhead reproductions. The contents of Carton 2 are nine scrapbooks. These contain, in addition to some more samples of advertisements from clients, numerous clippings of successful attempts by the agency to get hteir clients into the newspapers. The first scrapbook also contains examples of the way in which the Welch agency promoted itself. The contents of Carton 3 include: a 16mm color, silent motion picture film from the early 1960's TV promotion film done by the Welch Agency for Magic Mountain, Inc., a cassette recording of Wayner Welch in an interview with David Alexander on September 12, 1983; and 8 photographs and a negative of Wayne Welch and agency. Box 1 contains 4 scrapbooks of more samples, organized again by the name of the account. In addition, there are six scrapbooks, which contain, in relatively chrono- logical order, samples and newspaper clippings dating from 1945 to the early 1960's. These range in size from cards to posters. They are organizaed by the name of the account.
Carton/Item # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1/1 Adams Retouching Machine Company: Five types of 2 and 3 color leaflets. 1/2 Baker Metropolitan Water and Sanitation District. Four types of 2 and 3 color leaflets. 1/3 Denver Hill Casket Co.: Stationary, envelopes, and reorder slips. 1/4 Denver National Life Insurance Co.: 1963 Annual Report. 1/5 Earth Resources Co.: Five types of leaflets and 2 Folsom arrow heads. 1/6 Electronicn Safeguards, Inc.: Stationary, envelopes, and postcards. 1/7 First-American Mortgage Co.: One type of leaflet. 1/8 First Trust Corp.: Leaflet and printer's mats. 1/9 Hallco, Inc.: Two color leaflet. 1/10 Hilex Co.: Three color bottle label. 1/11 Jefferson Savings and Loan Assoc.: Ten types of leaflets, cards, etc. 1/12 Miscellaneous large samples: Leaflets, stationary, envelopes and booklets. 1/13 Miscellaneous small samples: Labels, business cards, postcards, leaflets. 1/14 The Monogram Shop: Printed samples of styles and designs for leaflets, stationary, cards, and etc. 1/15 Moore Mortuary: Cards, labels, stationary, leaflets, booklets, certificates, etc. 1/16 Rocky Mountain Pretzel Co.: Printer's mats, labels, stationary, flyers. 1/17-18 Wilkerson Corp.: Example book, circulars, catalog, memo pad, badges, cards, tickets, play money, leaflets. 1/19-21 Promotional Pieces and Publicity: First financial statement, responsibility statement, promotion and PR 1955-1968. 1/22-23 Promotion Peices: Active Clients A-c, E-Z; Samples from 6 accounts.
Carton/Item # ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2/1 Publicity (Active), A-B: Newspaper clippings on clients - 1965-1970 2/2 Publicity (Active), C-E: Newspaper clippings on clients - 1955-1970 2/3 General Publicity, non-active accounts, A-L: Clippings on clients 1955-1962 2/4 Publicity (Active), J-Z: Newspaper clippings on clients - 1961-1968 (and one photograph). 2/5 General Publicity, non-active accounts, M-S: Newspaper clippings, 1955-1962, on clients and Wayne Welch agency. 2/6 General Publicity, non-active accounts, T-Z: Clippings on client's accounts, 1955-1964. 2/7 New Coverage, Earth Resources Co.: Clippings, 1960-1972. 2/8 Promotion Pieces: Inactive clients A-I. 2/9-12 Non-active Food accounts.
Caton/Item # ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3/1 Filmstrip: Magic Mountain, Inc., work print (5 min., 41 seconds) color, silent, 16mm [early 1960's]. 3/2 8 photographs and one negative of Wayne Welch and his agency. 3/3 One 90 minute cassette sound recording of an interview between David Alexander and Wayne A. Welch, (9/12/83).
Box # ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1/1-4 Non-active Banking and Savings and Loan accounts. 1/5-7 Non-active Industrial accounts, A-L. 1/8-11 Non-active Industrial accounts, M-R. 1/12-15 Non-active Industrial accounts, S-Z.
Scrapbook # -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 23 1/4" X 19": 19 leaves (some blank), contains 3 posters and numerous samples and clippings from 1945 - 1948. 2 11 1/2" X 10 1/2": 21 accounts, sample leaflets, flyers, etc. mid 1950's. 3 15" X 13": 4 accounts, 61 leaves (some blank), samples late 1950's. 4 Jeppesen & Co., 17 1/2" X 14": 19 leaves of samples (28 blank leaves), late 1950' and early 1960's. 5 15" X 13": 8 leaves, miscellaneous samples, photographs of Welch-McKenna, Inc., early 1960's. 6 15" X 13": 3 accounts, 51 leaves, mostly printer's mats, early 1960's.