The great magnet

Image 3 of 10

(Image: Stadium Week Parade, Broad and High streets, 1920) The John Price Jones Company of New York, which had run successful endowment campaigns for Harvard, Smith and Bryn Mawr, won the task of promoting the Stadium fund drive. The admen approached their task with missionary zeal, going so far as to quote Ralph Waldo Emerson in their firm's promotional material: "Great men are they who realize that spiritual is stronger than any material force; that thoughts rule the world." Their powers of persuasion soon involved the entire city: the facade of the Deshler Hotel, at the northwest corner of Broad and High, held a horseshoe of lights. A billboard on Capitol Square showed a drawing of the Stadium, and the phrase, "The magnet that will draw the rest of the world to Columbus."