Undercover Artists

Like the model T Ford and the Sears, Roebuck catalogue, B.V.D.s are part of U.S. folklore. Not many citizens know that the initials stand for "Bradley, Voorhees and Day," but everyone knows they stand for men's underwear. Last week the famous trademark took the biggest step in its 75-year history. The $47 million-a-year B.V.D. Industries, Inc., which operates seven knitting mills and factories in the U.S., Canada and South Africa, sold the trademark and its retail sales force to New York's Onyx-Superior Mills, Inc.

Last week's sale marks the first change in ownership of the trademark since Textile Tycoons Charles and Abraham Erlanger bought it from its original owners in 1908. The Messrs. Bradley, Voorhees and Day were Manhattan manufacturers of ladies' and gentlemen's undergarments, were well known for their B.V.D. Spiral Bustle ("The only Bustle made that will not Break Down"). But the Erlangers made B.V.D. probably the best-known initial-trademark in the world when they introduced a revolutionary type of one-piece men's "athletic underwear." Later, they brought out two-piece models as well. Loose-fitting and comfortable, B.V.D.s were a sensational improvement over old-fashioned bulky underwear. Plugged by its catchy slogan, "Next to myself, I like B.V.D. best," sales hit an estimated peak of 7,200,000 pairs a year in the mid-'20s. The lean & lissome males in B.V.D. ads (see cut) became as familiar as the Arrow Collar Man.

B.V.D. sparked another style revolution in the '30s, when its publicity stills of Olympic Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller in B.V.D. bathing trunks helped start the fad of topless swimming trunks for men. With the late Cinemactress Jean Harlow as a model, B.V.D. helped start the trend toward skirtless, one-piece bathing suits for women. But in 1934, Hollywood dealt men's underwear a near-mortal blow. In It Happened One Night, Clark Gable took off his shirt, and revealed that he wore no undershirt. Sales of men's underwear in the U.S. dropped 40% in a single year.

B.V.D. and other underwear makers soon made up the sales deficit by switching to shirts and shorts, pajamas and other garments, but the classic B.V.D. one-piecer never hit its old stride again (last year U.S. males bought only 720,000 pairs). The Erlanger interests concentrated more & more on their basic spinning, weaving and finishing operations in the South, this year decided to get out of the retail business altogether.

They found a willing buyer in . Onyx-Superior Mills, freshly merged this month from two old-line textile firms. By pumping new advertising into the old B.V.D. name on its line of underwear and sports clothes, Onyx-Superior thinks it can boost its sales by $2,000,000 this year. The new owners will keep right on making the classic one-piecer.

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