Four-Minute
Men
Visuals
weren’t the only approach the government used to sell Liberty Bonds. They had
salesmen in the flesh, as well.
The so-called “Four-Minute Men” were a masterful collaboration between
the Committee of Public Information and local volunteer groups.
 |
| A poster promoting the Four Minute Men. Courtesy of Library of Congress. |
Initially
proposed to Committee of Public Information (CPI) director George Creel by a stranger named Donald Ryerson, the
idea was initially to have a respected member of the community speak during the
four minutes it took to change silent movie reels at a movie theater. During
that time, a slide explaining that the man would be speaking for four minutes
was projected on the screen, and declared approved by the CPI.[1]
While
the organization was not exclusively aimed to sell bonds, it did spend almost
four of the program’s 17 active months during the war doing precisely that.[2]
Like the posters advertising the Liberty Loans, the Four-Minute Men were
generally positive and fact-based in the beginning, focusing on the impressive
achievements of the American people and the needs of their allies. As time went
on though, instructions from the CPI became more colored with negative
depictions of Germans, and atrocity stories were greatly encouraged.[3]
