16 Facts About Jam Handy

Jam Handy appeared swimming in a commercial from 1978 asking for the public to support American athletes training for the 1980 Olympic games before the boycott.

In 1965, Jam Handy was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Jam Handy was accepted to the University of Pennsylvania but was told to leave after two weeks of classes.

Jam Handy worked in a number of departments at the Tribune.

Jam Handy began researching exactly what made people buy a particular product.

Jam Handy left the Tribune to do further work on corporate communications.

Jam Handy worked with John H Patterson of National Cash Register, who had used slides to help train workers.

Jam Handy was married to Helen Hoag Rogers and had five children.

Between 1936 and 1938, the Jam Handy Organization made a series of six animated fantasy sales films for Chevrolet featuring a gnome named Nicky Nome, which showed new Chevrolet automobiles saving the day from villains, often in retellings of classic tales such as Cinderella, the subject of two of those films, A Coach for Cinderella and A Ride for Cinderella.

The Jam Handy Organization produced the first animated version of the new Christmas story Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, sponsored by retailer Montgomery Ward and directed by Max Fleischer.

Jam Handy was noted for taking only a one-percent profit on the films, while he could have taken as much as seven percent.

Jam Handy was noted for never having a desk at work, instead using any available workspace.

Jam Handy's suits did not have pockets, as he thought they were a waste of time.

Jam Handy would receive an honorary doctorate from Eastern Michigan University.

Jam Handy died in Detroit on November 13,1983, at the age of 97.

An hour-long interview with Jamison Handy is available at Internet Archive.