The history of the Watch Tower Society using public witnessing to spread the message goes right back to the booths at World Fairs in the very early days and is continued today with the modern use of carts and trolleys with banners and sample literature.
A more unusual version of this public activity
occurred in 1921, when advertizing material was showered onto a public
gathering from a great height. The occasion was the Pasadena Rose parade, held
each year on New Year’s Day. Apart from the interruptions of Covid it has been
held each year since 1890.
Numerous floats and marching bands travel in
convoy (mainly along Colorado Boulevard) and it all ends with a football game in
the Pasadena Rose Ball. From an estimated 2000 spectators in its first year,
1890, approximately 700,000 people watch the parade each year in modern times.
The Pasadena
Post for 1 January 1921 carried this announcement:
An airplane will drop messages over the line
of march. Special booths will be located all over the city for the distribution
of literature and the sale of books. All this to bring to your attention that Millions Now Living Will Never Die.
Book can be had at any of the stands for 25c. Or Call Colorado 2275.
The same story had been carried in the Pasadena Star-News the day before, 31
December 1921.
So, leaflets would be showered onto the
crowds who witnessing the procession encouraging all to visit booths
strategically located in the city.
The actual leaflet was a flyer, sized 3 ¼
by 8 ½ inches, and at least one has survived to this day.
Note the address: International Bible
Students Ass’n, 1051 So. Grand Avenue.
This was the local headquarters for the
IBSA. Shown here in the picture below, it is the house on the left, which had
formerly been a funeral home before being taken over by the Bible Students in March
1918.
It remained their local headquarters until
1923, when it was destroyed by fire. The replacement headquarters would be
situated at 1023 Sentinel Avenue, which was the home address for Bible Student,
Robert Montero. He is pictured with his wife in the photograph below, c.1921.
Returning to the flyer, the reverse of
this copy had a pencilled annotation.
It reads “These slips were droped (sic)
from a small ( ? ) over Pasadena, Ca. Looked like a snow storm. Seen by O.G.H.”
Several photographs exist of the two-seater
bi-plane that took off from The Sierra Airdrome with its large sign “Millions
Now Living Will Never Die.”
We are reliably informed that the figure
on the left of the last photograph is Melvin Sargent of the Los Angeles area. His
life story was in the Watchtower for 1 August 1987.
This account of an eventful life does not
mention this 1921 incident, nor does it indicate that Melvin was a pilot. We
can reasonably assume that his role was to sit behind th
With grateful thanks to Tom who supplied both the story and the graphics.
7 comments:
Fascinating story! Is this the same Robert Montero who was appointed branch overseer for Mexico in 1933, according to the 1995 Yearbook?
Hi "latecomer". Yes, this is the same Roberto Montero. He lived in Los Angeles before going to Mexico.
Thanks for the reply. In that case, the photo is significant, as none is included in the 1995 Yearbook!
If I may allow myself a modest complement to your remarkable research : It seems that this method of ‘flying in midheaven with an everlasting good news to declare to those who dwell on the ground’ — even without necessarily an angelic support — was not uncommon in these years following WW I… as can be seen in the case of a similar campaign in Switzerland ten years later, in January of 1932, according to the comprehensive and in-depth study dedicated to this country by the historian Esther Martinet in the collective work of Besier and Stockłosa “Jehovah’s Witnesses in Europe, Past and Present ”, volume 3, in German (seemingly not yet published in English) by editor Lit Verlag (2018), pages 515-6.
For her research she benefited from an access to several Watchtower archive repositories that she cross-checked with the contemporary press and interviews or (auto)biographies of surviving eyewitnesses.
According to her contribution, ‘in connection with a campaign of worldwide distribution of a brochure proclaiming the new identity of the Witnesses, the local branch office of the Society chartered the flight of two planes, one dragging an advertising banner, the other dropping flyers, over 4 Swiss cities (Berne, Solothurn, Olten and Basle) from January 31st to February 7th, 1932, after approval by the police, the city authorities incurring considerable expenses for the disposal of the thousands of leaflets‘…
‘In Berne, at the same time, three cars with original inscriptions rolled through the city and there were 40 sandwich-men with posters on street corners whilst others walked through the streets of the four cities. The following Sunday, when the witnesses visited the residents from house to house with the brochure, everyone had already been informed about the campaign and the brochure was spreading extremely well.’
‘The press perceived this campaign in the rough manner and harsh tone that dominated the media language of those years; for example, the „Berner Tagwacht“ (“the Berne Morning Call”, a socialist newspaper) reported on „Airplanes in the service of dumbing down the people“ („Flugzeugen im Dienste der Volksverdummung“):
very nice indeed!
Stéphane
PS probably the undeciphered word on the back of the flyer : “These slips were droped (sic) from a small ( ? ) over Pasadena, Ca.“ could be “a small bal[l]oon” ?
Many thanks for the details from Switzerland. If the owner of the flyer in the article received it some time after the event, then "balloon" makes perfect sense for the word I couldn't decipher, even if they appear to have just been thrown out of the bi-plane "loose".
Sorry, the following extract has slipped from my post :
From the 1933 I.B.S.A Year Book page 85 :
“A special event during the Kingdom Week, from January 31 to February 7, was our action with two aeroplanes in the capital of Switzerland and also in three other cities of this land. It was an interesting sight. The first aeroplane scattered leaflets over the cities, and the second carried a large banner with the inscription "The Last Hope”. Then brothers walked through the streets as sandwich men with posters. Forty workers stood on street corners and called out the message to the people, and three cars rode through the city with original advertising matter. The following Sunday, when the brethren visIted the people with the booklets, they were all informed regarding the action in the capital, and the booklets could be placed quickly. At Bern alone within three hours the forty brethren placed 2,000 booklets on the street, and during this special week 2,266 workers placed, during 25,609 hours, 2,108 books and 152,892 booklets.”
Very cool history! Thx Tom/Alan
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