| Notes |
On Dec. 29, 1942, for a variety of legal and tax reasons, Mr. Lasker virtually gave the agency to the managers of its three main offices: Emerson Foote in New York, Fairfax Cone in Chicago and Mr. Belding in Los Angeles. (Mr. Francisco, whom Mr. Lasker loved as a son, would have been a founding partner, but with the U.S. at war, he had left the agency several months before to work for Nelson Rockefeller's Office of Inter-American Affairs.)
Mr. Lasker gave them the agency but not the name, snuffing out the Lord & Thomas brand. On Jan. 4, 1943, employees returned after the long New Year's weekend to find the same offices, furniture, accounts and colleagues but a different name on the door: Foote, Cone & Belding. Mr. Lasker lived for another decade but never became actively involved in advertising again. |