The Billboard Ministry Best Seller billboards are also now in existence everywhere, preaching their silent twenty-four hour sermons along the busy highways. The results are heartening. There’s the case o f the pastor in Iowa. While he was dealing with a young man who accepted Jesus Christ in his automobile, he discovered that the young convert had first been con victed o f his need o f salvation through a Best Seller billboard on the highway. Nor has Best Seller Publicity been limited to streetcar posters and high way billboards. Over a Chicago tavern and cigar store on Madison and San gamon streets, in the heart o f Skid Row, stands a Best Seller Neon sign with the words: “ The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” The Posterettes One o f Best Seller’s most fruitful enterprises has been the posterettes, tiny replicas o f the streetcar posters. One business man made unusual use o f them. A telephone inquiry one morning sent him for information which he kept under the glass top o f his desk. Suddenly the idea flashed into his mind: “Why not keep Best Seller posterettes under my glass?” So there they went! Shortly after this, his secretary came to him with a troubled heart. The posterette on her employer’s desk caught her eye and she turned to Christ who invites the sorrowing. Three others were touched by this same display. During the Christmas holidays, gaily-dressed “Merry Christmas girls” stand at one o f the world’s busiest street corners (State and Madison, Chicago) and hand out, with happy smiles, these life-giving posterettes. Hospital trays also carry their cheery and comforting messages. In Hotel Rooms Two Christian hotel proprietors discovered the value o f this type of witnessing when they placed a Best Seller poster under their glass dresser tops. They report that since this was done there has been less drinking in the rooms. A Hebrew Christian in New York kept a.car poster displayed on a table in his room. Every month when his landlady came to collect his rent, she demanded that he take it down. “ I pay rent for this room,” he promptly informed her, “ and I can keep what I choose in it.” Then he A U G U S T , 1 9 5 0
A Best Seller billboard at a busy intersection in Los Angeles, California
topped it off by witnessing to her. Scoffing, she left. But one day, in spite o f herself, a certain poster at tracted her, and she asked her roomer for further details. As a result, she and her entire family were saved. Origin and Organization Just what is Best Seller Publicity? How did it begin? Who is behind it? How does it function? It all began twelve years ago when Jo Peterson, a business girl, riding a Chicago “ L,” aimlessly read the car “ ads.” It seemed to her that every thing was clamoring for attention from chewing gum to cures for ar thritis. Suddenly she thought: “Why not advertise God’s Word, the World’s Best Seller?” “ The modern man is eye-minded,” states an advertising magazine. Miss Peterson was experienced in the ad vertising field and realized its mam moth possibilities. “Why not capitalize on it for God ?” she asked herself. The idea stuck with her day and night. She couldn’t shrug it off. Some thing had to be done about it. The more she prayed about it, the more it tantalized her. She must find someone to meet this need. But who? No one seemed to feel the burden o f it like herself. The struggle was terrific, but finally realizing that it was God’s personal call to her, Miss Peterson left a lucrative position and stepped out in faith in God.
With Mrs. Philip D. Armour, Chris tian wife o f the famous meat packer, and a few others, a meeting was ar ranged. On that day in December, 1937, Best Seller Publicity was born, in faith and prayer. Today thousands o f colorful post ers, designed by well-known Christian artists, and imprinted with Scripture texts, are distributed each month from New York to California, in 37 coun tries, in 10 languages. Who carries on this mammoth task? Is there a corps o f well-paid workers at the home base, assisting Miss Pe terson? Alas, no. With only one full time assistant in the office receiving a missionary’s salary, Miss Peterson herself directs this impressive organi zation, together with 450 volunteer and two part-time workers. Alfred Dickson, a Los Angeles laun dry owner, is one o f these zealous volunteers. Chairman o f the Los An geles committee, he has had numerous thrilling experiences in leading people to Christ through the distribution of posters. Because 75% o f southern Califor nia’s population never enter a church, it is a most effective way to get the Word o f God to thousands o f lost souls as they ride on buses and cars. Interested friends in various capaci ties joyfully do their part. Every month a doctor’s wife in a small Il linois town places posters in the fol lowing places: two city buses, a Page Seven
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