Allan Stone - an Industry Pioneer

Allan Stone

A true Licensing Industry Founding Father and Pioneer Allan Stone, who was one of the licensing program based on the chiltrue pioneers of the licensing indren’s television series – one of the dustry sadly passed away from very first times this had been achieved. coronavirus on April 23rd, aged 96. At its height, Howdy Doody had more than 100 licensees across many catStone’s legacy, of course, lives on egories as well as promotions with through sons Michael, co-founder and sponsors of the show such as Colgate, Chairman of Beanstalk and Robert, Kellogg’s and Welch’s. President of Excel Branding Group. Realising the potential of licensing, in He began his career, back in 1949, at 1960, Allan Stone founded Licensing the Howdy Doody Show where he Corporation of America (LCA) which was responsible for a comprehensive was then the first-ever independent licensing agency and which became the leading agency for many years. LCA merged with National Kinney, who owned DC Comics and the group went on to acquire Warner Bros out of bankruptcy and eventually renamed the company Warner Consumer Products. LCA represented a wide variety of properties including sports properties, such as the MLB and the NBA, movies such as MGM’s James Bond, celebrities including Arnold Palmer and DC Comics which, of course, included Superman and Batman. During those years Stone also began licensing the characters from General Mills’ cereals – a sector that is now widely used but in the 1960s was very much ahead of its time. In 1967 Stone was also responsible for one of the first retail exclusives when he licensed the United States Lawn Tennis Association to Macy’s to establish a shop-in-shop and to create a USLTA licensed tennis ball, which was used at the first U.S. Open Championship in 1968. After ten years as President of LCA, Stone decided it was time to move on and he founded a company called Hamilton Projects where he was responsible for developing licensing programs around corporate and trademarked brands. His first two clients were Coca-Cola and Harley Davidson. As legend has it, he told the story of how Coca-Cola came to him, pleading with him to license their trademark as they were frightened of losing it to knock-offs at the time. And Harley Davidson came to him, after just exiting bankruptcy from AMF Bowling Corporation, interested in seeing if there was any value in the Harley Davidson logo! He represented a number of celebrities, such as Charlie Chaplin, television programs such as All in the Family on

ABC and other brands such as The Smithsonian Museum in what was the first museum licensing program, UNI- CEF and the 1976 American Revolu- tion Bicentennial Commission. He also concentrated efforts on corporate brands and trademarks. Hamilton represented companies such as the leading athletic manufacturer Spalding as well as McDonald’s, Wen- dy’s, Campbell’s Soup and, of course, his original clients The Coca-Cola Company and The Harley-Davidson Motor Co. During this time, Stone went on to hire people who are legends in their own right in the industry – such as Debra Joester who came out of the music industry, Stan Weston, who went on to create LCI, and Murray Altchuler who amongst other things was the co-founder of our industry’s

Allan Stone with Debbie Reynolds

trade association LIMA (now Licens- ing International). Stone’s clients read like a who’s who of licensing and included companies that, at the time, were totally unfamiliar with licensing. The Hassenfeld Broth- ers from Rhode Island signed to cre- ate pencils and pencil cases for How- dy Doody (now Hasbro, of course). The Connecticut Leather Company (Coleco) signed for woven belts and the deals were innovative and, in many cases, unique – Lassie dog food in the early 1960s, Coca-Cola clothing and Howdy Doody on packages of carrots – all ground-breaking deals that we all take for granted today. Between LCA and Hamilton Projects, Allan Stone represented an extraordi- nary roster of properties, as varied as New York’s World Fair and the Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee to James Bond, The Flintstones, Sesame Street, Star Trek, Bugs Bunny, Charlie Chaplin, Madison Square Gardens and Evil Knievel. Robert Stone, who like brother Mi- chael followed in the family footsteps, spoke to Total Licensing about his father and what he meant to the in- dustry. “How do I possibly sum up my father’s accomplishments as the pioneer, trail blazer, creative genius who established an industry that we are all proud to be a part of. He opened the door to innovation and creativity that, today some still think is ground-breaking but actually, my Dad did it before most of us were born! Just a few of the thou- sands of innovations that come to mind include Howdy Doody Carrots, Carl Yastrzemski Yaz wonder bread, Jackie Robinson dolls, James Bond Cologne, Charlie Chaplin Tramps Cigarettes, Lassie Dog Food, Laugh In lingerie, Macy’s as official tennis ball to the US Open, Coca Cola Clothes designed by Tommy Hilfiger, Statue of Liberty /Ellis Island Foundation scrap metal turned limited edition memora- bilia, Archie Bunker for President Ki- osks, George to George Presidential Inaugural, Arthur Ashe’s Black Tennis & Sport foundation at K Mart, MacKids at Sears, Gabby Hayes Fishing poles, American Ballet Theater at The Lim- ited yoga wear, thirteen non-exclusive Harley Davidson t-shirt licensees, Bat- man walkie talkies and the list goes on and on. Innovation. Creativity. Compassion. My Dad did it all and licensing is the way it is today is because of his ac- complishments. Many of us would not be in the business today if not for what he achieved through his compa- nies Licensing Corporation of Ameri- ca and Hamilton Projects. As the New

Allan with Evil Knievel

York Times so aptly titled his coverage in the 80’s, ‘Allan Stone, Pioneer To Profits’” Allan Stone sold Hamilton Projects to Cincinnati-based Taft Broadcast- ing - who at the time, also owned The Hanna-Barbera Studios - in 1986 and left the company soon afterwards. He continued to consult in the industry for several years afterwards.

Allan and Charlie Chaplin at the Academy Awards