Death of Lee

In the composing room of every large newspaper in the land is a tray of type ready to be slapped into the front page at the ring of a telephone. It has been there for years. It is the obituary of John D. Rockefeller Sr. Few weeks ago when aged, ailing Mr. Rockefeller went to Florida, newshawks begged his famed pressagent, Ivy Ledbetter Lee, to help them bring his client's obituary up-to-date. Last week in the swank Lee offices at No. 15 Broad St., Manhattan, the Lee associates went into a hurried conference over an obituary--not for John D. Rockefeller but for Ivy Lee. Death had come suddenly to the nation's first "public relations counselor" in his 58th year. Cause: brain tumor.

The name of Ivy Lee, richest publicist in the land, is known to the greenest cub reporter (TIME, Aug. 7, 1933). Yet few newsmen ever saw him, few understood him, most resented or mistrusted him. Yet no one could deny his claim that he never asked a newspaper editor to print anything. On the other hand, newsmen well knew that Ivy Lee would give out just what information he considered helpful to his clients, and no more.

The identity of those clients who had made Ivy Lee a millionaire was partly an office secret. Everyone knew about the Rockefellers, and the Pennsylvania Railroad, Ivy Lee's first account, which he held until his death. With the Pennsylvania, Pressagent Lee first applied his theory that a corporation should "take the public into its confidence." He "humanized" tracks and freight rates, dividends and dollars. The idea worked well for Pennsylvania, and even better for Ivy Lee, who came to hear himself called "Physician to Corporate Bodies."

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