Promoting the Promoters: Nineteenth-Century Publicists in Historical Context: Pioneers of Promotion: How Press Agents for Buffalo Bill, P.T. Barnum, and the World's Columbian Exposition Created Modern Marketing

John Burke had spent an itinerant life promoting theatrical companies in locations as diverse as Tombstone, Arizona, and Washington, DC, before crossing paths with Buffalo Bill Cody just as the latter took to the stage to capitalize on his celebrity status, which he owed to a series of fanciful dime novels loosely based on his life as a frontier scout and buffalo hunter. Facing considerable skepticism both nationally and internationally about the viability of the project, Handy created an organization that was carefully departmentalized to generate local and international publicity; publish and distribute pamphlets and posters; lobby legislators, trade organizations, and foreign officials; and keep records of their progress (in January 1893, the department reported that 70,000 articles and 3,643,200 words about the fair had been published around the world). The book offers no evidence that any of these men engaged in strategic planning, market research, product testing, or many other essential aspects of modern marketing.