She decided to attack first the evil which could be seen by every citizen riding in our street cars or walking along our streets—the billboard—and that her protest might carry more weight she secured the coöperation of the Thursday Club and the public press.
The first step was a call upon one of the leading theaters, whose manager suggested a visit to the local billboard manager; this courteous gentleman referred the committee to the eastern theatrical managers. New York being almost too far away for a personal visit, it was decided that the campaign must be made general, so the following letter was drawn up to be sent to all managers of theatrical productions:
“Gentlemen: The club women of St. Paul have objected for a long time to many of the bill posters, advertising plays in this city. We feel that they have a demoralizing influence on the youth, and we would urge that posters presenting undesirable scenes, women clad in tights, or any pictures that will leave a bad impression on the minds of the young, be eliminated. St. Paul is not the only city which objects to this class of advertising, and we hope that the movement will become nation-wide.”
This step of the Civic Department of the Thursday Club had been indorsed by the Fourth District of the Federation, and members of other clubs had pledged their coöperation.
To the joy of the committee, it was met more than halfway by the Poster Printers’ Association of America and by one or two journals devoted to the interests of poster printers and theatrical managers.
In March, 1911, the chairman of the Poster Printers’ Association issued a statement to poster printers, lithographers and theatrical managers, in which they were urged to use their influence against posters that might be deemed objectionable because of the titles used or the scenes illustrated.
The next step was the sending of lists of the leading producing managers—the men who control nearly all of the first class and popular priced theaters in the country—to every state president of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs in the United States, with a request that each state body take up the campaign for better plays and higher class advertising and make it a national movement.
Inquiries began to come in from other states in regard to a plan of work, showing the awakening of public interest. Local theatrical managers offered assistance, one manager asking that a committee be sent each week on the opening night to censor the play to run that week, promising to act upon suggestions made by the women—and he kept his word.
On November 10, 1911, we find the following notice in one of our daily papers:
“The civic committee of the Thursday Club is much pleased at the very evident results of its recent campaign for cleaner billboards. ‘I have noticed nothing objectionable in any of the posters advertising theatrical productions in St. Paul this season,’ says Miss Fairchild, ‘and the radical change in even the posters put up by the burlesque companies shows that the work of the club women of the country in appealing to producing managers and poster printers has had good results and been well worth while.’ Women have been on the lookout in many parts of the city and no protest has been disregarded; in one case the objectionable bill was found to be an old one which had ‘slipped in,’ but it quickly slipped off.”[[51]]