BANKING: Prize Day

In a driving rain last week, block-long crowds lined up four-deep along Manhattan’s Madison Avenue for the opening of a new bank. “Look at them,” said Manhattan Savings Bank’s President Willard Denton. “Nothing like this has ever happened in banking before!” The reason was that Denton, in moving the headquarters of his medium-sized bank from lower Manhattan to midtown, had made an effort “to get the cold atmosphere out of the banking business.”

The spacious room was decorated with flags, flowers, and a 37-ft. mural of old New York; music floated in through loudspeakers. Everyone who showed up got a free piggy bank and free chances on 18 prizes ranging from a new Mercury to a trip to Bermuda and Nassau; those who opened accounts of $5 or more got pen & pencil sets.

Banker Denton proved that in banking, as in retailing, it pays to merchandise. In two days, 100,000 people swarmed through the new headquarters and the bank, whose accounts had numbered 125,000 signed up 20,000 new customers with $1,300,000 in deposits.