The Nation: Sale of the Centuries

Yes sir, folks, step right up, today only, one per customer, all sales final, for the price of eight crisp $10 bills or four used 20s, get your red-hot $100 bills!

Chicago’s United America Bank needed no such carny-barker approach to create a run on the bank. To celebrate the firm’s tenth anniversary, officials decided to forgo the standard promotional hoopla and instead advertised a money sale. Each of the first 35 customers in line last Wednesday morning got to purchase a $100 bill for $80. There were similar sales of descending denominations capped by the sale of 1,800 silver dollars at half price.

The gimmick was not lost on Chicago bargain hunters. The most enterprising among them were the four Johnson brothers: Linton, Wallace, Ron and Carl, who managed to be the first four in line. They planned their vigil carefully, arriving at the bank’s door at closing time the day before the sale. Said Linton, the eldest at 24: “We had all we needed. We brought some sandwiches for dinner and breakfast and a record player with some of our sounds.” The Johnsons made a party of it, dancing and singing through the night.

Other members of the United 35 dozed in sleeping bags, played cards and listened to radios. The sale was over in two hours, costing the bank only $2,740. Bank President John L. Cooley has received phone calls from other bank managers who said they would like to give the gambit a try. Check your local listings for time and place.