Teen-Age Gallup

In Chicago, some retailers think they now know that high-school students prefer colored toothpaste, eat three times as many candy bars as their parents, heed Lifebuoy's "B.O." slogan oftener than Ivory's "It Floats." This and other sales-stimulating information is the merchandise they buy from Chicago's newest pollster: pollster" jive-jumping Eugene Gilbert, president of Gil-Bert Teen Age Services.

Already grossing $250 a week after three months in business, Gene Gilbert last week began to widen his paying exploration of teenagers' buying habits. He appointed representatives in Indianapolis and New York, said he would open offices in 28 other cities, and incorporate.

Gene Gilbert decided months ago that there was an unworked market in the bobby-sox and rolled-pants public-opinion field. Said he: "I figured if the advertisers wanted to spend money for the teen-age market, they should know what the kids want." For his key workers he appointed the "Joe Guns" (most popular students) of Chicago high schools as "research supervisors," gave them 75-c- an hour to poll students. He now has a staff of 350 adolescent aides and a pert, blonde fashion director, 18-year-old Shirley Rappelt.

Marshall Field & Co. paid Gilbert $650 to learn the clothing preferences of 7,700 high-school boys (gabardines & denims, single-breasted suits, two-tone sport coats). Next, the Joseph Shoe Salon, which once employed Gene as a part-time clerk, paid him $500. He found out where bobby-soxers bought their shoes and why. Other firms ordered surveys on chewing gum, cosmetics, perfumed soap.

Tall (6 ft. 1 in.), dark and hefty (192 Ib.) Gene learned organization and promotion at Senn High School, running clubs and parties. A hip operation kept him from athletics and made him a 4-F. Hep to the kid mind as well as to business, he is still popular at Senn, where he graduated in 1944. He visits the school at least once a week, checks new fads, styles. Having done all right without a college education, he now has no intention of getting one.

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