1. In our first issue (Oct.1929), the National Bureau of Casualty and Surety Underwriters reported that less than 20 percent of the passenger cars on the road were covered by liability insurance.
2. Automobile plate glass insurance was touted as a growth specialty in 1929, since "nearly 82 percent cars manufactured in the U.S. were 'closed cars.'"
3. An annual subscription to the magazine cost 75 cents in 1930, $3 in 1960 and $25 in 2009.
4. The National Assn. of Insurance Agents (NAIA), the forerunner of today's IIABA, was founded in 1896 as the National Local Assn. of Fire Insurance Agents. The group changed its name to NAIA in 1913.
5. The National Assn. of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) dates back to 1931.
6. A series of 1930 ads from the Columbia Fire Insurance Co. of Dayton, Ohio focused on "Jean Greene," an "insurance woman" who wrote a faux advice column for the "girls" in insurance who served as secretaries to their bosses.
7. The Local Agent's "first signed article written by a woman" appeared in the June 1931 issue: "More Golf Liability Policies" by Cornelia M. Roche, manager, liability department, Maryland Casualty Co.
8. "Trend" articles reflecting the grips of the Great Depression during 1931 include "Residence Burglary...A Line Your Client Needs" (the seventh of a series!), "This Job of Getting Paid," on the difficulties of collection by Jack Minkoff of Harry Bell Agency Inc. in Stamford, Conn., and "The Foreigner as a Risk" by Joseph P. Colligan of the Colligan & Co. Inc. Agency in Fort Wayne, Ind., which observes that "...the average alien has the highest respect for insurance in general, is not in the habit of making unreasonable demands on loss adjustments, rarely 'fakes' a loss, and as for collections, our agency has never lost a penny on foreigners." (Why, some of my best friends are foreigners!)
9. A series of early 1930s ads by the America Fore Group of Insurance Companies played on Depression-era paranoia. One ad featured a snarling gangster ("When he crashes the front page--will his victims be insured against loss if they are your clients?"), another a cop nabbing a hobo breaking a window ("Whether smashed by some vagrant seeking shelter in jail or the many other ways plate glass is broken - owners of valuable window display space demand quick replacement. An F & C Plate Glass policy is a guarantee that they will get it.")
10. In the era of Bonnie & Clyde and John Dillinger, bank robberies were on everyone's mind. An early '30s United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. ad bragged when a bank was robbed in Clinton, Iowa, "the adjuster FLEW to the scene of the crime;" another boasted that when a Brooklyn bank branch was robbed on Thursday, the insurer paid the bank on Friday ("within one hour from the time the bank officials gave us the amount of their loss they were in possession of our check").
11. Former 1932 Olympic athlete Mildred "Babe" Didrikson was employed in the engineering department at Employers Casualty Co. in Dallas.
12. Flight was still a novelty in August 1932, when Local Agent featured an ad for Braniff Airways ("New low tariffs!" Chicago to Oklahoma City in 5 hours, 50 minutes for $37.50).
13. A 1933 news blurb noted that insurers were increasingly refusing to recognize loss claims resulting "from the careless dropping or throwing of cigarette or cigar stubs unless fire of considerable size ensues."
14. A February 1933 study of agency practices compiled by Jarvis Woolverton Mason provided a snapshot of the typical agency, from "one and two man agencies" to "six and more man agencies." Among the findings: 75 percent considered mutual fire companies as competitors; 47 percent believed windstorm provided good prospects in their territories; 50 percent accepted time payments and 49 percent used finance companies; and 56 percent considered "blotters" the most effective form of advertising.
15. The editor's column in the April 1933 issue commented on the March 6 national bank holiday, when FDR closed all banks, intending to stop panic withdrawals. The event left agents and insurers unable to cash checks on accounts until the bank on which it was drawn opened again. The event stressed the importance of more rigid collection methods.
16. Two days after the March 1933 bank moratorium, an earthquake struck Southern California, killing more than 100 people and generating $35 to $50 million in property damage.
17. An August 1933 article related how Frederico Buono, "one of the most skillful and successful claim fraud artists in the United States," had been indicted for grand larceny and attempted grand larceny in Brooklyn. Nicknamed "The Human Pincushion," Buono was famous for simulating complete paralysis of the lower limbs, even after being pricked with pins. He was captured through the efforts of the claim department of the National Bureau of Casualty and Surety Underwriters.
18. "We do our part:" The September 1933 editorial column focused on how the newly introduced National Recovery Administration (NRA) would affect the economy and insurance agents. The NRA dealt with issues like codes, maximum hours and minimum salaries applied to specific types of businesses. The magazine's masthead featured an NRA seal by October 1933, and many insurance companies followed suit in their Local Agent ads.
19. In the October 1933 issue, Local Agent editor Donald H. Clark looked forward to the upcoming convention of the National Assn. of Insurance Agents at the Drake Hotel in Chicago. The group is still around as the Big I; the Drake is still around too and known as the grande dame of Chicago hotels.
20. Bilking the system is nothing new. A February 1934 editorial chastised "unscrupulous lawyers who make their daily bread by urging prospective clients to 'milk' insurance companies" and called for intervention by the American Bar Assn.
21. A 1934 fire in the Chicago stockyards was the biggest fire property loss of the year at $4.6 million, followed by the $4 million loss related to the Morro Castle, the so-called "millionaire's yacht" that burned that year, killing 134.
22. The Dust Bowl or the "Dirty Thirties" was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936 (in some areas until 1940). The soil erosion forced changes in farm policy, including establishment of the Emergency Farm Mortgage Act, which allotted $200 million for refinancing mortgages to help farmers facing foreclosure, and the Farm Credit Act of 1933, which established a local bank and set up local credit associations.
23. In February 1944, Richard C. Budlong became managing editor of Local Agent. Previous journalistic stints included five years on the National Underwriter, and as editor of Accident and Health Review and the Casualty Insuror. His father, E.C. Budlong, was vice president of the Bankers Accident Insurance Co., and his brothers Theodore and Robert were both in the industry (Robert was publisher of the Insurance Broker).
24. The war years were prime for patriotic advertising. A February 1944 ad for Crum & Forster urges agents to "remember that little office boy" who is now a "full-fledged fighting man" overseas, and to buy war bonds to ensure his safety. Another ad from The Maryland in March, 1944 features a shot of overalls on a hanger with the headline "Evening Clothes." The copy discusses how many insurance agents, "after a hard day's work...take on a tough night shift in a war plant."
25. The cover of the March 1944 issue features a cartoon of Allied bombs raining down on a map of Japan.
26. During World War II, the Office of War Mobilization placed a complete ban on conventions, a move that prohibited meetings of more than 50 people. The decision was based on wartime transportation difficulties.
27. The draft during World War II meant labor shortages, and issues of the 1940s featured both ads and articles on how agents can cope with this pernicious problem. A 1944 Aetna ad suggests agents "take advantage of the newer comprehensive combination policies which broaden your coverage, reduce the cost, and cut down the number of individual policies."
28. People were evidently more superstitious in the 1940s. Several articles in the 1945 Local Agent, including one in April, address "Hoodoo Day"--otherwise known as Friday the 13th--and how these events are a great opportunity for agents to pitch personal accident insurance to their customers.
29. War-related ads and articles continued well after V-J Day. A 1945 ad from trucking specialist Markel Service, Inc. featured a drawing of GIs walking through war rubble and the headline of "Journey's End? There's no such thing!" Copy focused on how the American trucking industry, "now playing so vital a role in solving wartime transportation problems, is faced with a task no less vital to peacetime operations."
30. An April 1958 article touts the benefits of a ten-key calculator manufactured by the Bohn Duplicator Corporation of New York that "adds, subtracts, multiplies and divides, yet weighs only six pounds!"
31. During the late 1950s, California insurance agent Jane Blackburn of The Blackburn Co. of Santa Monica, wrote a monthly column for AA&B called "Diary of a Local Agent," which detailed the everyday business of calling on clients and prospects. Her November 1958 column deals with visiting a beatnik coffee house where "bearded gents get up and read rather turgid poetry against a background of mediocre or brilliant jazz, depending."
32. A May 1959 editorial discusses an experimental "safe driver" program in California by the National Bureau of Casualty Underwriters, which will establish a "practical program applicable wherever the state can furnish a record of violations and accidents."
33. A July 1959 article with photo described an innovation developed by Ed Pace, owner of Pace-Mosley Agency in Camden, Ark.: a drive-in window at his insurance agency, "much like banks employ, to serve customers who are in a hurry or who don't care to dress up to come into the insurance office."
34. Sign of the times: An August 1959 ad from Aetna states that "Nucleonics Means Sales for Radioactive Contamination Coverage" as "users of radioactive materials are increasing in almost every community throughout the country," with typical prospects including "water companies, hospitals pest control companies, farmers, soap manufacturers, educational institutions, and producers of petroleum products."
35. Senator Estes Kefauver, best known for heading up the 1950's Senate investigations of organized crime, also had his eye on the insurance industry. The February 1963 "What's Going On" column discusses how Kefauver's Senate anti-trust committee was examining the insurance business--"to see if federal regulation...is required to protect the public interest."
36. The February 1963 "Time and Trouble Savers" column focused on a "new, modern-designed stapler" introduced by Swingline, Inc., which was 8 inches long, accommodated 4 1/8 inches of paper, and could be opened to use for tacking. (Milton Waddams of "Office Space" would be thrilled.)
37. "Almost everything costs more today...except the life insurance you sell!" is the headline of a September 1963 ad from Continental Assurance Co. Example? Pot roast was 8 cents a pound, porterhouse 16 cents, ham 13 1/2 cents, while life insurance cost less because of "automation, better investment returns, better health and longer life span."
38. The same old story: A January 1955 ad from Aetna with the headline "We don't agree" opened with, "There's a lot of talk these days about the future of the American Agency System...that the system has seen its best days. We don't agree."
39. In the 1950s Local Agent conducted several business machine surveys, focusing on what types of "technology" were in use at insurance agencies. From the February 1955 article: "The typewriter is still king, although it has lost a little ground (to the electric typewriter) in the last two years and the adding machine still runs a close second." Other high-tech gadgets included postage scales, safes, check writers, air conditioners, mimeographs and duplicators, letter openers (I'm assuming they mean electric), calculators, addressing machines, intercom systems, dictating machines, envelope sealers, tape recorders, billing machines, and punch-card services.
40. In the Feb. 1955 issue, an article entitled "Photo copy machine saves agency time and money," a Syracuse, N.Y. agent extols the virtues of the Hunter photo copy machine: "All the secretary has to do is insert the material to be copied and a sheet of special light sensitive paper into the machine, adjust the exposure dial for the right amount of light, density and degree of opaqueness and for one or both sides of the paper, then take out the finished copy. The total time required is less than one minute."
41. During the days before Dr. Jonas Salk's vaccine, polio was a serious threat to American children. An August 1955 ad for the Hoosier Casualty Co. touted polio expense coverage up to $10,000, plus coverages for encephalitis, scarlet fever, smallpox, tetanus and rabies up to $5,000 for a family rate of $10 per year.
42. A February 1957 articles promises that federal flood insurance will be offered for sale in the spring of that year--unfortunately, Congress refused funding to the Federal Flood Indemnity Administration and the National Flood Insurance Program was not created until 1968.
43. In a February 1957 article, Edgar H. Legere writes of the advantages of his agency's "window posting machine," a piece of technology similar to a cash register. A four-copy invoice (ledger card) was typed when a new policy was written. The original was mailed to the customer and the remaining three were used for collection followup. The ledger card could be reinserted into the machine at each payment. "No pencil-and-paper figuring or mental arithmetic is required," Legere writes.
44. As a sign of the times, the Nuclear Energy Liability Insurance Assn. formed in 1957 with 134 members.
45. Times have changed: In a 1957 ad, the Combined Insurance Co. of America asked "Does an annual retirement income of $12,000 interest you?"
46. An April 1957 article highlights the "5 categories of insurance advertising." The categories are: advertising in consumer publications, trade paper advertising, direct mail advertising, local newspaper advertising and radio/television advertising.
47. Time and trouble savers for the local agent: A 1957 article featured a "pocket timer" that clips onto clothes. "Use of this gadget can dramatically illustrate the old approach 'May I have 10 minutes of your time?' When the agent begins an interview with this request, he can make considerable ado about setting the timer, emphasizing to the prospect that he really means what he says about '10 minutes.'" The timer retailed for $4.95.
48. The "Down to Cases" column has run in the magazine in some form for more than 30 years. Now written by Barry Zalma, previous columnists included Richard J. Watson in the 1970s and William F. Little in the '50s.
49. Ads in the late 1950s and early 1960s for Zurich Insurance, known at the time as Zurich-American, featured "Mr. Za," a moustachioed guy in a fedora.
50. In December 1960, Tower Insurance advertised safe driver collision coverage designed to help agents hang onto auto coverage, with a $50 deductible the first year, reduced by $10 each year the driver is accident free, with 5 years providing full coverage.
51. The New Hampshire Group was the first insurer to offer to insure the driver, and not the car, according to a Jan. 1960 article. The "individual operator" policy protected the insured against liability for injury or damage arising while driving a car or while another driver is driving the insured's car while the insured is a passenger.
52. "Prudence Pru" is the name of the "lovely young lady" who represented Prudential's Brokerage Services. According to her bio, Prudence is "typical of the thousands of Girl Fridays who make the job a lot easier for their busy bosses." Prudence appeared in ads and monthly newsletters in the 1960s.
53. In a March 1960 article "Automated accounting machine gives us time to get out and sell," David A. Lewis writes how his agency improved efficiency by eliminating bookkeeping chores with the "accounting machines," now more commonly known as a calculator.
54. There are four ways to solicit renewals, according to an April 1960 article. They are: Personal call (best), telephone call (good), personal letter (fair) and mailed bill (poor). Personal calls should not be confused with telephone calls--a personal call is a visit to the insured's home or place of employment.
55. An April 1960 article touts the time savings of the copying machine. "Our office has achieved time savings of three to four hours per week, eliminating manual copying tasks," writes Stan Gorham of the C.R. Gorham Agency, Brainerd, Minn. "We are really impressed with the ease of operation, speed of copying and the immense amount of time it saves performing our routine office chores."
56. Politically incorrect: The Andover Companies' ads in the '50s and '60s featured a cartoon pilgrim and his stereotyped Native American friends with ad copy like, "Tepee Tillie hep to hi-fi. Save up dividend wampum from Merrimack tribe."
57. Congressional investigations of the insurance industry are nothing new: the Anti-Trust and Monopoly Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate had us on the griddle from 1958 to 1960, focusing on competition in the aviation and ocean marine markets.
58. The 1960s mascot for Norfolk and Dedham insurance company in its ads was a black French poodle named Homer.
59. Capitalizing on 1960s trends, the Percy H. Goodwin Co. opened a branch office in El Cajon, Calif., that featured a drive-in customer service structure, according to a Dec. 1960 article. "This makes it possible for our customers to stop for information or pay bills without leaving cars."
60. The introduction of Medicare in 1965 had agents worried about how the federal program would affect business. A November 1965 article by J.F. Follmann Jr., director of information and research for the Health Insurance Assn. of America, analyzed the program and concluded that supplemental coverage would still be needed by the public.
61. A March 1965 feature in the "Time and Trouble Savers" section introduced "a new electric clock that shows the time--to the second--without using hands that are found on conventional clocks." The "Phoenix Tymeter...powered by a U.L. approved electric motor...utilizes revolving numbers to show the time."
62. The cost of a standard driver education course in various school systems ranged from $40 to $60 per student in 1965, according to the Insurance Information Institute. Courses meeting national standards were available to only 39 percent, or less than 4 out of 10, public high school males who reached legal driving age during the 1960-1961 school year.
63. A March 1971 Reliance Insurance Co. ad stated "Have we got a girl for you!" According to the ad copy, these girls, or claim service representatives, have soothing voices and are very friendly. "Think about it. If you had an accident, wouldn't you appreciate a chat with a pretty girl? Of course you would," the ad states.
64. The Hartford introduced contractors' liability beginning in 1975.
65. The 1975 AA&B readership study showed a trend toward larger agencies: 19.6 percent of the agencies surveyed had volumes in excess of $1million. In 1970 that figure was 8.3 percent and in 1965, just 1.5 percent.
66. What can a small computer do for you? Plenty, according to a January 1985 ad. The magazine published a manual "Microcomputers for insurance professionals" that examines the many uses for computers in rating, claims handling, word processing and other agency tasks.
67. Everything is cyclical: A May 1985 article, "Dealing with soft-market underwriters in a tight market" brings today's situation to mind.
68. According to the May 1985 AA&B reader survey, 52 percent of respondents said they now have an in-house computer system, up from 40 percent of respondents in 1984. In 1980, the first year AA&B polled readers about automation, just 12 percent of the respondents had in-house computers.
69. An August 1985 article instructs readers on how to insure space exposures, for space shuttles, satellites, spacecraft designers, owners, astronauts and third parties.
70. In the 1980s, gymnastics became one of the most popular competitive sports due to the success of Mary Lou Retton, the first American woman to win a gold medal in gymnastics in the 1984 Olympics. Insuring gymnastic clubs became a specialty for some agencies, according to an August 1985 article
71. In the mid '80s Life of Virginia ran ads featuring Max, a heavyweight boxer for the company's Challenger Max product line. "Put MAX in your client's corner...before someone else does," the ads read.
72. Cigna ran an HMO ad featuring Julius Erving, aka "Dr. J" of the Philadelphia 76ers in the mid-'80s. "Unfortunately, this is one of the few doctors Americans see regularly," the ad read.
73. Alternative energy was thought about way back in November 1985. An article, "Insuring alternative energy projects," encourages agents to provide risk management services for solar and hydroelectric projects.
74. A December 1989 article informed the reader on the advantages of "instant photography" or Polaroid pictures. "Instant photography is used in all stages of the insurance process. When we call on a risk, we take Polaroid photos of properties in question and attach them to ACORD forms," writes Betty Forthe Harbison, owner of Forthe Insurance Agency.
75. In 1993, Wayland "Buddy" Hancock advised readers to transfer files by modem for ease of editing. "There are two ways to transfer files by modem," he writes. "By connecting two computers over telephone lines or by using a network service."
76. What were the four most important words in business in the mid-'90s? According to Safeco, it was "Survival of the fittest."
77. Do you think the term "Main Street" was coined and gained popularity in the 2008 presidential election and the economy crisis? Not so. The Ohio Casualty Group has been "Writing business on Main Street for 75 years" according to a mid-'90s ad.
78. A March 1995 article advises "A good time to call contractors is during bad weather, when they may be unable to work outdoors."
79. ACORD forms became available on CD-ROM, through Silver Plume, in 1995.
80. After months of hype, Windows 95 was released in late August 1995. The software made transferring files from remote locations easier and faster than Windows 3.1.
