SMALL BUSINESS: High & Dry

Dee Givens, 37, a Chicagoan with bright blue eyes and bright new ideas, always wanted to be a nurse. But after she started to work, she had some doubts. Most of her patients were babies and they were usually a little soggy. So, off-duty, she tried to develop a waterproof outer diaper. She finally devised a “Dri-ette,” two pieces of flannel bonded to a waterproof center which eliminated the objections of many mothers to rubber pants. The Dri-ette was not patentable but it did the trick. Babies could get wet, but nobody else would.

In her spare time Dee Givens made a few Dri-ettes by hand and sold them to two department stores. Harassed mothers grabbed them up so fast that Dee saw a future in the business of making babies socially more presentable. She quit nursing in 1936, borrowed $100 from the La Grange State Trust & Savings Bank and set herself up in business with two helpers in a tiny Western Springs store. Shortly after, the bank executive who had lent her the money became the father of twins. The Dri-ettes made such a hit with him that he backed her with other loans.

As the demand for Dri-ettes grew, Dee expanded into two adjoining store buildings, had connecting doors knocked through the walls. The wartime shortages of rubber nipped her, but she developed a Dri-ette from synthetics. As business burgeoned, other manufacturers copied her idea. She merely added new products, standbys like waterproof panties, sheets and aprons.

Dee had them tested in laboratories for skin irritation, then road-tested them on neighbors’ and friends’ babies. She also marketed a few more gadgets: educational place mats, a luminous rattle which babies could find in the dark, a portable urinal for little boys.

By last week Givens & Co. had expanded into four small plants with 45 employees. The 23 different products were being shipped as far as Honolulu. Sales for 1946 were $518,566.53, net profit $35,000. And 1947 looked like a good year for babies; Dee Givens expects sales to top $750,000.