ADVERTISING: Heretic in the House

The success of Will Calloway Grant, 36, of Chicago, is the current sensation of the U.S. advertising business. Few weeks ago one rival ad salesman grew so envious that he started a rumor that Grant Advertising Inc. owed its vertical rise in gross billings to such dubious practices as taking split-commission contracts.* Grant's answer was typical—and, as usual, irritating to the rest of the secretive advertising world: last week an auditor was going over his books right back to the day when he got his first account. Grant then blandly—and publicly—suggested that...