The Press: The Digest Cleans a Rug

Although Reader’s Digest (circ. 15 million) is the world’s biggest monthly, Owner-Editor De Witt Wallace still answers his own phone, edits most of the magazine’s stories, and writes most of his own letters longhand. Last November, Editor Wallace sent off a letter to “Jerclaydon, Inc.,” a company so obscure that he could not even learn the names of its officers. Wallace simply addressed the letter: “President.”

The Digest, which periodically runs “Consumer Reports” telling its readers about promising new products, had run across Jerclaydon’s Glamorene, a new kind of rug cleaner. Before it recommended the product, the Digest, as it does with all new products, had it tested by Stamford’s (Conn.) York Research Corp. Wallace gave Jerclaydon the results: “. . . after more than a thousand tests on over 100 rug-cleaning products the laboratory reported: ‘Best rug-cleaning compound for home use we have found. Best on-location cleaner for institutional use.'” Adding that the Digest was preparing a three-page article on Glamorene, Editor Wallace gave the company a friendly warning: “In order that you may take adequate steps to supply retail outlets, we think it is desirable to warn you that this article will create a tremendous, nationwide demand . . .”

Rise & Fall. Glamorene’s makers, three brothers named Sheldon, Clayton and Jerold Hulsh, heeded the warning. They had been happy to sell about $40,000 worth monthly of their cleaner—a compound of cellulose fiber (resembling sawdust) and various cleaning agents which can be rubbed into a rug, then brushed out bringing the dirt with it. After they got the word from Wallace, they hired three fieldmen and in a whirlwind, 21-day tour, set up a nationwide network of salesmen.

Editor Wallace got them to sign a pledge not to make advertising hay of the Digest’s approval, but he let them use his letter to recruit dealers because “we . . . want any recommended product to be available in the stores.”

Soon after the Digest story came out in February, President Clayton Hulsh found that “we couldn’t keep up with the orders.” March and April sales skyrocketed to $1,000,000 a month.

Then the rug was pulled out from under Glamorene, and the Digest got a bad scare. In San Francisco, a Pan American World Airways serviceman died after cleaning a plane’s rug, and the coroner’s jury reported that the victim had died from inhaling “halogenated hydrocarbon” from trichloroethylene, one of Glamorene’s components. Professional rug cleaners gleefully took ads reproducing news stories about the San Francisco case and urging homeowners to avoid mishap by having experts clean their rugs. The health department banned Glamorene sales in San Francisco.

Recovery. The Digest, which has sometimes touted things that did not live up to the magazine’s enthusiasm (e.g., an athlete’s foot treatment that caused ulcers), hustled York Research’s Vice President Warren C. Hyer out to San Francisco to work with some nationally known toxicologists on an investigation. They concluded that Pan Am’s cleaners were actually using deadly carbon tetrachloride, which isn’t in Glamorene. At this, San Francisco’s health department publicly exonerated Glamorene and sales started up again.

Last week, as Glamorene kicked off a $500,000 advertising campaign, President Clayton Hulsh estimated that 1952 sales will top $15 million, v. 1951’s $225,000. Like most Digest stories, it looked as if Glamorene’s would have a happy ending.