Firehouse No.1 restored as Gossage's Agency
Howard Gossage was born on August 30, 1917 in Chicago and grew up in Queens, New York, Denver, New Orleans and Kansas City. His middle name, which he was noticeably fond of employing, was Luck. He was educated at the University of Kansas City, and after time as a World War II navy combat pilot and two years as promotion manager for radio station KLX in San Francisco, he studied at the Universities of Paris (where he pursued a doctorate in sociology but did not complete it) and Geneva.
At the age of 36, Gossage had his first advertising job at San Francisco's Brisacher, Wheeler and Staff. He said, "I got into advertising, actually, because there wasn't anything else I knew how to do. I think a successful ad man has to have something missing in his character, the way an actor does"(Rotzoll 1980). Brisacher, Wheeler and Staff was bought out within a few years by Cunningham and Walsh, with the then vice president Gossage quitting shortly after. He joined forces with Joe Weiner in 1957 and there began his self-employment. Since all the jobs he had taken up since the navy (and three before) had either resulted in his firing or in leaving in dudgeon, he believed he would prove to be a better boss for himself than others (Rotzoll 1986).
Weiner and Gossage started with Belfast Beverages, Paul Masson Vineyards, Bel-Air frozen foods, and Blitz beer, and shortly moved to their renowned offices in the upper two floors of San Francisco's Original Firehouse No.1. From there, over the next 12 years, Gossage not only conducted his business of advertising but also got involved with a myriad other endeavors. He bought Joe Weiner out in 1963 and teamed up with Robert Freeman, an art director, whose name went up on the masthead thereafter. He diversified into a number of areas with his holding company The Shade Tree Corporation. It included, amongst others a consultancy firm (Generalists Inc.), a media placement agency (Freeman & Gossage, Inc.) and a design and manufacturing firm (Intrinsic, Inc.) with Marget Larsen as the brilliant art director heading it.(Bendinger 1995)
His immensely successful though short career ended on July 9, 1969 when he died of leukemia. After he got news of his leukemia, he lived a zestful life and called for a celebration of death in his famous article ("Tell me, doctor, will I be active right up to the last?") in the Atlantic Monthly. As aptly said by the Atlantic editor, ' he did not bemoan his fate…Just as he believed it possible to live, he showed us it is possible to die.'(Gossage 1969)
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Firehouse No.1 restored as Gossage's Agency |
Alice Lowe, who worked with Gossage as President, Media director and Office
manager of his agency said that he had a quality about him which the Irish call
Flaithiulach (pronounced "Flahoolick") (Bendinger, 1995). A marvelous
Gaelic word meaning "princely exuberance, a generosity or lavishness
of spirit," a term particularly apropos of advertising's flamboyant
wizard.
The "Socrates of San Francisco" as he was called, not only conjured up spectacular advertising campaigns with magical ease, but he had a dramatic appearance that fit the part perfectly. Described variously as "a tall, pale advertising man with one of the great heads of unruly gray hair in the country, flowing back like John Barrymore's" and "an unforgettable figure about town," his presence was startling and most people considered him strikingly handsome. He was known to have a pungent wit, tremendously creative mind, delicious sense of humor, and most of all, an embracing love of mankind. He was a perfectionist and whatever he did was carried off with gusto and abandon. A favorite maxim of his was: If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing (Bendinger 1995).
Gossage touched the lives of innumerable friends and associates. He had some of the most distinguished brains in the country, from Tom Wolfe to Terry Thomas, coming to call on him in the magnificently restored old firehouse on Pacific Street in San Francisco. Amongst his friends he had the likes of Warren Hinckle, Dugald Stermer, Carl Ally, Herb Caen, John Steinbeck and Stan Freberg. It was all because he made people think and he still does, with the legacy that his life's philosophy offers us.