GLAMOUR OR SID - WHICH ONE FOR THE 1955 MULLARD CALENDAR

As early as 1952, Mullard top brass were considering how best to promote their product range with the expounding of an idea which became all too prominent some 10 - 15 years later.      The idea was of course a calendar and not just any calendar but a glamour calendar, much board room discussion was made of the merits of Roedean-esqe girls showing cheeky smiles, a shapely ankle or even a svelte swimsuit with a plunging back line but the eventual conclusion was that such an approach might sully the wholesome Mullard image - the phrase 'sex sells' wasn't yet coined by Madison Avenue though I am sure Don Draper and Roger Sterling must have thought of it!!!!!!

Instead, a compromise was reached, the calendar format was used with a rather fetching presentation of Sid the Serviceman on the front cover and handy valve equivalents and operating data inside for common valve types.  Here we see the Mullard Top Brass at the Mullard Dealer event in 1954 perusing an advance copy of the wall chart with the chap on the right, Mr D M Hall, Manager of the Mullard Valve Sales Department appreciatively commenting, sotto voce, "I say, phwoarrr, look at the getter bloom on that!"

Today, these wall charts do occasionally turn up with their page edges crinkled and worn, a testimony to their use as an aide-memoir in some long gone radio service workshop.