00:03:30 · Charlie Lamar
[00:03:30] S1: Well, growing up, I don't think I knew much about the business other I saw the billboards all around. It was here in Baton Rouge and a few other communities in South Louisiana. And so I really didn't get too much into the mechanics or what the billboard business is about until I was probably in high school, college. And it was always interesting to hear what the new things might be as far as what is so different than years ago. So different now than years ago because things like converting from long handle to short handle brushes to put the posters up when they were on paper, which to me it seems like they were on paper yesterday, which is probably, what, going on twenty years now? Plus, yeah. But that was pretty much it. And then when I got to college, I got a lot more into it. At that time, Kevin Riley Sr. Created the Lamar Corporation and I was board. On So that was about 1972, 1974.
00:04:39 · Ian Dallimore, Charlie Lamar
[00:04:39] S0: So to kind of take a step back, so a lot of our listeners aren't in the out of home space. So a lot of very digital native folks that have helped evolve the industry to where it is today. But maybe from your perspective, if you wanna kind of give the story, I know as we were prepping, jokingly said, but seriously, and we'll put the link in the blog about these people should just read the book because it's a beautiful story. And a lot of people, unfortunately, today outside of these walls actually don't know the story. Yours is a lot more intimate because it's part of your life and part of your DNA of who you are. Maybe give our listeners kind of the beginning, 1906 story. [00:05:19] S1: Well, in 1908, actually, think, my grandfather had been in Pensacola, moved from Georgia in 1902, which also happens to be the year my father was born. And the bank that he had come to be the president of my grandfather was located in the Opera House, what was called the Opera House. By that time, it was basically a vaudeville theater, which I always found strange that there was a bank in the backside of the theater. But in any event, there was a man there named Mr. Coe, the manager, and he was operating, what I think he called the Pensacola Amusement Company, which was the opera house. And he had one called the Pensacola Poster Company, which basically at that time was just automobiles were starting to run around in Pensacola. And they had the poster company to post bills, which I'm not even going into the details of how posters are posting bills.
00:05:19 · Charlie Lamar, Ian Dallimore
[00:05:19] S1: Well, in 1908, actually, think, my grandfather had been in Pensacola, moved from Georgia in 1902, which also happens to be the year my father was born. And the bank that he had come to be the president of my grandfather was located in the Opera House, what was called the Opera House. By that time, it was basically a vaudeville theater, which I always found strange that there was a bank in the backside of the theater. But in any event, there was a man there named Mr. Coe, the manager, and he was operating, what I think he called the Pensacola Amusement Company, which was the opera house. And he had one called the Pensacola Poster Company, which basically at that time was just automobiles were starting to run around in Pensacola. And they had the poster company to post bills, which I'm not even going into the details of how posters are posting bills. [00:06:19] S0: We're gonna put a photo of this up. [00:06:20] S1: But basically the posters that you see around a jazz fest and stuff, those are the size of the outdoor advertising at the time, which was advertising the events at the Opera House. But also during the off season, which was most of the year, he got into the business of posting for the local haberdashery or the grocer or stuff like that. And so he and my father formed a partnership in 1908. Mr. Coe decided to move back to somewhere in the Midwest he'd come from. So they had to divvy up their business interests, part of which was an interest in the Opera House itself. [00:07:02] S0: Which was the moneymaker, right? Of the Yes, two
00:07:02 · Ian Dallimore, Charlie Lamar
[00:07:02] S0: Which was the moneymaker, right? Of the Yes, two [00:07:06] S1: Opera House, the building and then the poster company. And so they flipped a coin in my grandfather's office according to family legend and my grandfather lost. So he got the poster company. And Mr. Coe got the interest in the Opera House which about ten years later, less than that probably 19, well about ten years later I think, hurricane came and blew down the Opera House. And so in our book, the subtitle is Bad Luck, Good Fortune. Because of that, we got into the billboard business. [00:07:44] S0: Yeah, and it's interesting too, because if you look at from a timeline perspective, and we'll put the link from our website where we have the history kind of laid out over time, it's interesting, and being a history buff, realize this as well, but it wasn't until 1908 that the Ford Model T automobile was actually introduced. So therefore that's whenever the true people can get around and drive around. So then simultaneously you have this small billboard company that began to pop up as well. So it really helped drive the purpose of having roadside billboards. I love that story so much because again, every company has a beginning and a purpose. And to your point about the book, I always say when I'm giving speeches, it's kind of like, yeah, and we lost, but did we really? Because the Opera house is, and you have a place in Pensacola as do I, and I don't think the Opera house is there anymore. [00:08:40] S1: No, no, blew away. Literally blew away a few years It's
00:08:40 · Charlie Lamar, Ian Dallimore
[00:08:40] S1: No, no, blew away. Literally blew away a few years It's [00:08:44] S0: a parking lot. I may add to the story, Charlie, that there's Lamar billboard there just out of spite, but I made that part of the legend up. I'm hoping that goes on for another one hundred years too. So as the history kind of goes on, so you have your grandfather started the company, And at what point did your father come on onto the company?
00:08:44 · Ian Dallimore, Charlie Lamar
[00:08:44] S0: a parking lot. I may add to the story, Charlie, that there's Lamar billboard there just out of spite, but I made that part of the legend up. I'm hoping that goes on for another one hundred years too. So as the history kind of goes on, so you have your grandfather started the company, And at what point did your father come on onto the company? [00:09:05] S1: Well, what happened is my recollection and I'm being told this long before my time. In the late 20s, my father was in college and his older brother had gone to Princeton and my father was at Princeton. And basically it was before the Great Depression. Pensacola had its own depression. And so my dad came back and worked basically in the little billboard company because by that time, the bank was also gone. My grandfather had been the president of it. Had gone bankrupt in one of those Yellow Pine disaster recessions in Pensacola. And eventually my grandfather sent my dad to New Orleans where his older brother was already in the bond business and was told, okay, let's start a branch in New Orleans. And that seemed like a great idea. And from all I've been told, they had a great time in New Orleans that is in their 20s. However, New Orleans kind of belonged to General Outdoor, which was a national billboard company by that time. And it was suggested that the Lamar's might want to leave the New Orleans market and in compensation, they were told we would trade their boards in New Orleans for some boards in this little river town up river called Baton Rouge. So my dad moved here in Baton Rouge in 1927.