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King-Size Necessities. With more money to spend (personal income rose to $343 billion v. $326.9 billion in '56), the U.S. spent more of it ($280 billion) than ever before on a shopping list of modern-day necessities that included 6,400,000 TV sets, 4,000,000 phonographs and hi-fi sets, 5,308,000 automatic washing machines, dryers and ironers and a big budget for fun. Example: nine years ago Detroit Auto Dealer Everett Kircher raised $100,000 to install a ski lift on Boyne Mountain in Michigan. Today Boyne Mountain has a heated swimming pool, private golf course, two snowmaking machines and a second ski lift near by. Hotels and motels are jammed, and the whole area is booming. "It's better than a plant," says local banker Robert A. Campbell, whose deposits rose $1,000,000 to a total of $6,500,000 during the year. "The dollars just spread out to every phase of the local economy."
To the great joy of consumers, "list price" became almost a meaningless phrase in 1957. Stores, big and little, shaved prices to meet competition, notably that of the discount houses. But price alone was no guarantee of success in 1957's hotly competitive marketplace. With more choice than ever before, customers shopped for style as well. While G.M. slipped back from 51.5% to 44.4% of the auto market, Chrysler's jet-finned new models jumped from 15.4% to 19% of the market, and Ford's crisp styling apparently nudged it ahead of Chewy into the No. 1 sales spotlight for the first time since 1935.
The emphasis on price and style was a major preoccupation for the host of new men moving up to top rank. At year's end Westinghouse, whose "Shape of Tomorrow" pushed its sales of major appliances up 15% v. a 4% drop for the industry, rewarded Executive Vice President Mark W. Cresap Jr., 47, one of "Shape's" prime movers, with the presidency; longtime Boss Gwilym Price remained chairman. Every industry looked for new competitive talent. To exploit new markets at home, John L. Burns, 49, took over at Radio Corp. of America as Frank Fosom neared retirement; with more exploration abroad, William Whiteford stepped up to replace Gulf Oil's retiring Boss Sidney A. Swensrud. And when General Dynamics Chairman John J. Hopkins died, the man who moved in to tie the corporation's many divisions together was Frank Pace, 45, onetime U.S. Budget Director and Secretary of the Army. Even Madison Avenue admen, whose accounts were swimming back and forth like salmon, changed their lures. At year's end Ben C. Duffy, president of Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn and probably the best-liked man along Madison Avenue, decided to retire after a long illness. His heir: Charles H. Brower. 56, a top idea man, who lost the $8 million Revlon account in September, said he would "just go out and get eight new $1,000,000 accounts," has already caught $4,000,000.