Dudley, Pendleton

Pendleton Dudley started what Scott Cutlip enumerated as the fifth public relations agency launched in New York City in the early 20th century. Dudley's [Page 268]career was encouraged by Ivy Ledbetter Lee, who recognized the virtue in having several public relations agencies competing for business in New York City. Having many firms gave credibility to each one. It was a profession that called on many to set their sights on using professional skills to advance clients' interests in an ethical and responsible manner. Lee also recognized Dudley's skills as a journalist and public relations practitioner.

Born on September 8, 1876, Dudley, like others of his time, responded to the joint need for mass media outlets to fill their time or space as well as the complementary desire by and need for clients to reach mass audiences. He was fascinated by the potential impact of magazines to reach audiences with news, opinion, and publicity. Long after, in 1952, he recalled the luring power that an article in the Saturday Evening Post had had on his young mind in Missouri. He yearned to travel to New York City to learn how to write such articles. The name of the article was “Working One's Way Through College.”

Like John W. Hill and Earl Newsom, Dudley was born and raised in the Midwest (in Missouri), where he became interested in the news business and was lured to New York by the excitement, education, and prosperity the city offered. Dudley became acquainted with Lee, who inspired him with an ability to gather and present the news. Like Lee, Dudley was attracted to businessmen who did things in a big way. Industrial news had an electrifying effect on Dudley, who realized that successful competition required sound communication skills to reach targeted audiences. Publicity was a calling that drew the attention of Dudley, as it did others who forged the profession by forming successful agencies in New York City in the early 20th century.

As he began his career, he made the transition from working for publications such as the Wall Street Journal to serving clients. Much to his professional and ethical surprise, he learned that clients had no qualms about his remaining on the payroll of the Journal while being paid by clients to use his column space to promote their interests.

The agency he created in 1909, Pendleton Dudley and Associates, matured into the venerable Dudley-Anderson-Yutzy, which expired when it was purchased by Ogilvy & Mather in 1983. At the time of its sale, the agency was owned by two of the pioneering women in public relations, Jean Way Schoonover and Barbara Hunter. As was typical of such successful agencies, this one had a long and distinguished list of industrial clients, trade associations, charities, and labor unions. AT&T was an early and continuing client. Dudley also influenced the development of the American Meat Packers Association of Chicago and the Corn Industries Research Foundation. He lent space and writing talent to two of his clients, DeWitt and Lila Wallace, who launched the Reader's Digest from Dudley's pony barn.

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