William Wrigley
William Wrigley, Jr. was born in Philadelphia on September 30, 1861. His family came from English Quakers dating all the way back to the time of William Penn. At age nine, Wrigley worked at his father's business, a soap manufacturer based in Philadelphia. He worked at the manufacturing plant, stirring vats of soap. Eventually, he worked for his father as a traveling salesman, selling soap from a horse-drawn wagon. He would sell soap for the next seventeen year.
In 1885, Wrigley married Miss Ada Elizabeth Foote of New York City. Six years later, the Wrigleys moved to Chicago. With a loan from his uncle, Wrigley established himself as a businessman and again sold soap. As an incentive for customers to buy his products, Wrigley offered additional goods as bonuses. These bonus products included baking powder, cookbooks and .. chewing gum! Wrigley's baking powder started to become more popular than his soap. He soon switched to baking powder as his main commodity. Chewing gum was included with every purchase! Once again, the chewing gum became more popular than the baking powder. In response, Wrigley focused his business on the production and distribution of chewing gum! Wrigley would soon become the largest gum manufacturer in the world, establishing multiple gum companies in several countries. They offered gum in different flavors such as Juicy Fruit, Spearmint and Doublemint.
For a few years, the Wrigleys spent their winters in Altadena, California. They rented out houses in Southern California to escape the cold winters of Illinois. They liked the Pasadena area and in 1914 the Wrigleys purchased the twenty-two-room Stimson mansion. The home built in an Italian Renaissance style was originally built for real estate tycoon, George Stimson. After the house was built, Stimson sold it to the Wrigleys for $170,000. The mansion would later serve as the base of operations for the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association.
In 1916, Wrigley wanted to build a Turkish bath in his mansion. His gardener, Albert Conrad suggested a Pasadena contractor and lumber-mill owner named David M. Renton. After completing the Turkish bath ahead of schedule, Wrigley continued to employ Renton who would go on to build several more additions to the Wrigley mansion.
David Malcolm Renton
Renton was a Canadian-born contractor born on Prince Edward Island, a province of Canada, on February 8, 1878. He immigrated to the United States in 1898.
David Malcolm Renton (1878-1947) known as "DM" was a builder and business executive in Southern California. He is best known for his Craftsman style homes in Pasadena and for the construction of the Catalina Casino ballroom and other homes on Catalina Island in the early 1900s.
Renton was a building contractor in Pasadena who met William Wrigley in 1916. He went to Catalina Island in 1919 and Wrigley made Renton vice-president and general manager of the Santa Catalina Island Company from 1919-1936. Renton worked on Wrigley's house in Pasadena and was hired to supervise building projects on the island including installation of a water system, sewer system, diesel electric plant and gas plant among other projects. Renton helped to build the Bird Park, an 18-hole golf course with club house and two Wrigley homes (Mt. Ada and Casa del Monte). Casa del Monte was built for William Wrigley, Jr.'s son, Philip Knight Wrigley. D.M. Renton had telephone number 1 in the 1924 Avalon telephone directory. His residence at 356 Catalina Avenue was telephone number 8. The home sat on the opposite hillside from the Wrigley mansion on Catalina Island. When Renton retired in 1936, he lived at a cattle ranch in Atascadero, California. He named it "Rancho Santa Catalina". He later returned to Pasadena when he became ill and passed at his home on Los Robles Avenue in 1947.
David M. Renton Catalina Residence
William Wrigley first visited Catalina in February of 1919 and he was soon "bubbling over with enthusiasm regarding the possibilities of making the island one of the world's most famous and attractive resorts". Due to a 1915 fire in Avalon which destroyed six hotels and several clubs Wrigley realized Avalon needed to be rebuilt and would require a massive construction effort. Wrigley turned to David M. Renton. Within two days of Renton's arrival in Catalina, he was preparing to build a hundred houses in Avalon. The houses were sold by the summertime. Wrigley trusted Renton with the island by later telling him .. "I believe you have found your life's work on Catalina island. You have my confidence up to 100 percent".
After acquiring control of Catalina Island, William Wrigley, Jr. started a sprawling advertising campaign. The island's slogan became "In all the world, no trip like this". He produced booklets, folders, magazine and newspaper ads plus magazine articles in order to attract tourists. Wrigley's philosophy on advertising were these words ..
Tell 'em quick and tell 'em often. You must have a good product in the first place and something people want, for it's easier to row downstream than up. Explain to folks plainly and sincerely what you have to sell, do it in as few words as possible and keep everlastingly coming at them. Advertising is pretty much like running a furnace. You've got to keep on shoveling the coal. Once you stop stoking, the fire goes out".
Wrigley and Pasadena-based contractor, David Renton transformed Santa Catalina Island into a thriving modern paradise as well as one of the most popular vacation spots in the State of California. The annual visitor count in 1919 was an estimated 90,000 people. By 1930, the island was seeing an estimated 750,000 visitors each year.
William Wrigley passed at the age of seventy in 1932. He was at his Phoenix, Arizona mansion when he fell ill. His body was returned to Pasadena where private services were held at the Wrigley Mansion. His pallbearers included David Renton. He was interred in a custom-made sarcophagus within a mausoleum at the head of Avalon Canyon. Later, his remains were moved to Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Renton was involved in the building of the mausoleum.
"To have had a part in its construction, a memorial to one of America's greatest men, my friend and chief, is an honor I shall ever cherish".
David Malcolm Renton
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