Morris Hite always had a good sense of humor.
Morris Hite was
born in Anadarko Oklahoma in 1910. He grew up with his maternal
grandparents. At a very young age, his mother dies of tuberculosis.
Morris' father and uncles owned a bank. However during a draught, the bank
went under. The brothers pooled their money in one last effort to salvage
their economic status in an oil drilling scheme. When that didn’t pan
out, Morris’ father went to Oklahoma for work. Later it is mentioned
that Morris moved to Oklahoma City when he was a teenager to be closer to his
father. Even after losing his mother and losing a father that was around
all the time, Morris was an upbeat, curious, and intelligent child.
When he was younger, one of his chores was to milk the cow.
He then decided that he could sell the portion that he and his
grandparents couldn’t use. He
even had regular customers. Morris
instinctively knew what his customers wanted.
Many years later he would talk about the things that he learned from the
cow.
Lesson
1:
Forbearance, understanding, and forgiveness.
This from the cow’s tail, which hit Morris
in the face regularly. Morris also
said that the tail taught him to “concentrate on the job at hand and not to be
distracted by moment of discomfort”
Lesson
2:
Encouragement
“A
pat on the fanny gets you further than a kick in the butt”
Lesson
3:
Persistence Pays Off
Morris also said “you learn from milking
that the last stripping yield the richest cream.”
Lesson
4:
Keep the Client Content
“I learned that the customer always comes
first”
At 15 he went to Arnette Athenaeum near the
University of Oklahoma. Here he
worked on filling mail orders, running the printing presses and sweeping. Here
he found a copy of Printer’s Ink, an advertising and trade publication.
Morris had found his calling. He
dropped out of high school after 10th grade, but this didn’t stop
him from continually learning. He was hired on at
the Oklahoma City News.
By 16, Morris Hite was promoting movies.
His job was to sell tickets. He was always good at getting a little
attention for his clients. For one of the theaters, he dragged an old broken down
airplane from a deserted base to the theater when a pilot movie was out, it
definitely got the towns attention.
In his 20s he ran his own advertising agency in
Oklahoma. The depression had him
selling boxing tickets to events to make ends meet. He saw opportunity his next opportunity in Dallas.
In 1937, he was hired by Tracy-Locke.
He said in his interview that he could draw a little and sell a lot.
He was right.
After he came to Dallas in 1937, he had already made a name for himself in
Dallas. When reflecting back on his first meeting with Dr. Pepper, he said
that after he told them that most of what they were doing was wrong, they called
Locke and ask that "that young man never come back again." This
worked out well for Locke, because it allowed Morris to focus on other accounts, including Haggar.
Locke put so much effort into Dr. Pepper that he soon retired after they
lost the account.