Milton Harry Biow

Milton Harry Biow (July 24, 1892 – February 1, 1976)[1] was an American advertising executive who founded the Biow Company.[2] Biow is recognized as one of the pioneers of the modern school of advertising.[2]

In 1917, Biow started a one-man advertising office in New York City.[2] It quickly grew to become one of the largest advertising agencies in the United States topping $50 million in revenues at its highest winning major accounts such as Anacin, Pepsi‐Cola, Eversharp, Ruppert beer, Schenley whisky and Lady Esther cosmetics.[2] Biow's agency was credited as the first to develop a national advertising campaign that used short and catchy advertising slogans on radio and television (such as "Bulova Watch Time" and Johnny's "Call for Philip Morris").[2][3] He was also responsible for bringing The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour to television and the Take It or Leave It to radio (which later became the $64,000 Question).[2] In 1934, he purchased WBBR with Arde Bulova and changed the call letters to WNEW, for "the NEWest thing in radio".[4]:2 In 1956, he disbanded his agency after the loss of several major accounts.[2] His firm was the starting point for advertising executive Norman B. Norman.[5]

In 1964, Biow wrote Butting In: An Adman Speaks Out which told the story of his time in advertising.[2]

Biow was a founder of the National Conference of Christians and Jews and was active with the United Jewish Appeal, the United Hospital Fund and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.[2] He was married Sophie (née Taub) Biow (1895-1943); they had two children, Richard Biow (married to Chinese translator and writer Adet Lin, daughter of Lin Yutang)[6][7] and Patricia Biow Broderick (married to actor James Broderick).[2][8] He was a member of Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan.[9]

Milton Harry Biow made Philip Morris cigarettes and John Louis Roventini, a/k//a "Johnny Philip Morris" famous. Here is that story:

American Folk Figure. In 1933 Johnny Louis Roventini was being promoted as "the smallest bellboy in the world" (as he only stood 48 inches tall) by the Hotel New Yorker. He met advertising man Milton Biow, who gave him a dollar to "locate Philip Morris." Not knowing that Philip Morris was a cigarette, he walked through the hotel, shouting "Call for Philip Mor-rees." Thus began a career with a lifetime contract. He always appeared in his short jacketed bellboy outfit, and was the company's "living trademark."
He was colloquially known as Johnny Philip Morris and heard on live radio programs on on some of the most watched television shows of the 1950s and 1960s, such as "I Love Lucy" and "Candid Camera." He retired in 1974, never married, and lived with his mother until her death in the 1960s.