The First Sponsorship?
Posted: 10/19/2009 9:48:18 AM by
Jim Andrews | with 1 comments
Of course we will never truly be able to identify the first corporate sponsorship—it was likely hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago and while IEG’s deal database is good, it ain’t that good.
However, my good friend Michael Aisner—whose own role in sponsorship history goes back decades—sent the following in an email from his visit to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum last week:
According to Michael and Internet research, the plane was built by the Wright Brothers in 1911 and was purchased for $5,000 and flown by a barnstormer named Cal Rogers in an attempt to make the first transcontinental flight of 30 days or less. Rogers was competing for a prize of $50,000 offered by William Randolph Hearst for accomplishing the feat.
Rogers secured sponsorship to the tune of $3 per mile from a company promoting a new grape soda in exchange for naming the plane for the brand: Vin Fiz.
From a description of the trip found here:
On September 17, 1911, Rogers departed Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn. Throughout his flight a train followed him carrying spare parts and mechanics. His flight required 70 landings for service stops and was interrupted by 15 crashes. He tried to navigate by following train tracks where possible. The difficulties of the flight were staggering; there were no airfields, no supplies, no instruments and no weather reports. In November, after 49 days and 82 flying hours, Rogers reached Pasadena, California. Though he failed to win the prize, Rogers’ determination won him the admiration of the American public and hinted at the future potential of the airplane.
Michael reports that Vin Fiz outfitted the railway car that followed Rogers with a repair shop, parts and other supplies. “They even brought along an automobile for liaison service. He flew 105 miles on the first day. The next day he crashed in a chicken yard and it took two days to repair his airplane, as well as his scalp. He'd used up his thirty days by the time he reached Kansas City. But Hearst's time limit had been just as unreasonable as that huge purse. Vin Fiz was still getting publicity. Rogers kept flying & did it!”
Michael ended his note with this epilogue: “A year later a bird got stuck in his rudder, he crashed and died.”
The last time I visited the Air and Space Museum was months before I started working at IEG, so if I even noticed the plane among the others, the sponsorship would have been lost on me. However, as both a chronicler of sponsorship and a longtime devotee of grape soda (Thank you Faygo for making a diet version, which I pick up by the case on my trips over to Michigan.), I’m thrilled to see the connection.
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