For Every Room in the House: The Story of Armstrong Cork Co. in Print, Radio and Television

Manufacturing linoleum at the Armstrong plant in Lancaster, circa 1930.
LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive

In 1860 Thomas Morton Armstrong, a young son of Scots Irish immigrants from Londonderry, in what is now Northern Ireland, used $300 he had saved from his job as a shipping clerk to purchase a small cork-cutting shop in Pittsburgh. The company was originally named for Armstrong’s business partner, John O. Glass, who suddenly died in 1864. Armstrong’s brother Robert purchased Glass’ share and the company became Armstrong, Brother & Co. During the Civil War, Armstrong made cork stoppers for the Union Army, receiving official praise for fulfilling its contracts at the agreed upon price and with superior product. This publicity helped the company receive a large pharmaceutical contract after the war, laying the groundwork for national distribution and recognition, as well as an opportunity to explore the insulating properties of cork. Armstrong manufactured cork stoppers from the bark of cork trees that grew primarily in Portugal, Spain and northern Africa.

Let the Buyer Have Faith

Armstrong also pioneered the concept of branding by stamping “Armstrong” on each cork, offering a written guarantee of quality, and adopting the motto “let the buyer have faith” at a time when “let the buyer beware” was more the practice. In 1895 several cork manufactures agreed to come under the Armstrong corporate umbrella to form the Armstrong Cork Co. The combined organization operated out of what had been the Lancaster Cork Co. facility along New Holland Avenue in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

As Armstrong Cork continued to grow, the company needed to find a way to utilize the cork dust — or cork flour as it came to be known — produced as a by-product of the manufacturing process. To solve the problem, the company decided to add linoleum flooring to its product line, as cork flour was a key ingredient in the linoleum manufacturing process, and to construct a second plant in Lancaster to accommodate production. The new plant opened in 1908 and was an immediate success — so successful, in fact, that the company moved the general offices from Pittsburgh to Lancaster in 1929.

Although Armstrong continued to rely on the housing and construction markets for most of its profit during the first half of the 20th century, the company also saw the value in diversifying its operations by adding the production of glass bottles to its packaging division, entering the consumer products field with the addition of a liquid wax plus detergent that cleaned and polished floors at the same time and promoting do-it-yourself installations of ceilings and floors. Responding to changing consumer demands and tastes, Armstrong continued to develop new types of resilient flooring and entered the carpet manufacturing business and interior furnishings market in the late 1960s as well as the ceramic-tile business in the late 1980s.

To reflect its growing international operations and a departure from a reliance exclusively on cork and cork-related products, Armstrong Cork Co. became Armstrong World Industries in 1980. In 2016 Armstrong Flooring Inc. separated from Armstrong World Industries, allowing the parent company to focus on the manufacture of commercial and residential ceiling and wall systems as well as insulated building panels for floors, walls and roofs.

A linoleum ad from The Saturday Evening Post, September 1, 1917.
LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive

Flooring as Fashion as Well as Function

When Armstrong Cork turned to the manufacture of linoleum in the new Lancaster plant, the company also decided to institute a national advertising campaign to help promote its new product. The advertising was designed to promote linoleum as a flooring solution, not just a floor covering, appropriate for every room in the house, not just the kitchen and bath. The result was a full-page advertisement promoting “Armstrong’s Linoleum For Every Room in the House” that appeared in The Saturday Evening Post in September 1917 and in The Ladies’ Home Journal in November of that same year. The page cost the company $5,000.

To help promote linoleum as a decorating accessory, Armstrong produced flooring pattern books “to enable every linoleum merchant to have the complete Armstrong Line always before him.” The company established a Bureau of Interior Decoration under Art Director Frank Alvah Parson, founder of the Parsons School of Design in New York City, and hired Hazel Dell Brown as an in-house interior decorator. Through letters, clinics, booklets and film, as well as the use of decorated “idea rooms,” Brown provided potential customers with information and ideas on home planning and design.

Introducing Quaker-Felt Rugs

In 1925, seeking to offer consumers a lower-cost product, Armstrong expanded its flooring line to include felt-backed rugs in addition to the burlap-backed linoleum already in production. Similar in appearance to linoleum, felt-base took its name from its core — rag felt saturated with asphalt. To help sell the new product to consumers, Armstrong called its new felt-based product Quaker-Felt Rugs, in an effort to associate the product with Pennsylvania and the perceived Quaker values of thrift, simplicity and cleanliness. Then, in 1927, Armstrong introduced a new lacquer finish they called Accolac that improved wear, provided an attractive sheen, and better protected the face against damage.

As part of the advertising campaign, Armstrong chose the Quaker Girl as the personification of those values. The company featured the Quaker Girl in various newspaper and magazine advertisements and other promotions designed to appeal to children as well as homemakers, including dolls and coloring books featuring Betty Jane, introduced as the Quaker Girl’s “little friend.” By the mid-1960s, advances in technology and changing consumer tastes, including a growing preference for carpet, meant that Quaker printed felt-base flooring ceased to be produced.

Julia Black as the Quaker Girl on a Quaker Rug broadside, circa 1938.
LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive

Radio Days

Perhaps influenced by the success of local Pittsburgh radio station KDKA in making one of the country’s first commercial broadcasts in 1920, Armstrong instituted a radio advertising campaign of its own to help promote the sale of Quaker Rug Floor Coverings. On Friday, September 14, 1928, Armstrong Quakers Evening at Home, a weekly half-hour broadcast featuring the Armstrong Quakers vocal group backed by an orchestra, made its debut on the NBC radio network. Including both Lois Bennett as the Quaker Girl and Mary Hopple, a professional radio and opera singer, as an integral part of what would eventually become an octet, the program was initially heard on 17 stations. Introductions and commercials by the Quaker Girl featured different Quaker Rug patterns and used descriptive language to help the listener visualize the panoply of available colors and patterns. The success of the program was immediate — in 1929, one single broadcast resulted in more than 24,000 requests for Quaker Doll cutouts, and by 1930, the program could be heard on 32 stations.

In 1931 the program format was expanded to include topical speakers, the first being Lowell Thomas who on April 10, 1931, described “The Proposed Submarine Expedition to the North Pole.” (Later that year, Sir Hubert Wilkins attempted to reach the North Pole by submarine but without success. Incidentally, the first submarine to reach the North Pole was the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS Nautilus in 1958.) Despite the popularity of the new format, Armstrong canceled the program at the end of the year as the effects of the Great Depression continued to worsen.

After a hiatus of several years, Armstrong Cork reentered the broadcast field on March 4, 1938, with the radio drama The Heart of Julia Blake. Broadcast three times a week, the daytime serial was designed to appeal to the homemaker. Featuring Rosaline Greene as the Quaker Girl and including commercials sung by the Armstrong Quakers, the program highlighted a different Quaker Rug pattern each week, using descriptive language to help the listener visualize the available colors and patterns. “Brought to you by the makers of Armstrong’s Quaker Rugs,” each 15-minute episode dramatized the adventures of Julia Blake, “a young woman struggling successfully against seemingly impossible odds.” Despite the success of the program, Armstrong ended the run of Julia Blake in favor of a new half-hour format. The last broadcast of the program occurred on September 26, 1941.

Burgess Meredith at the microphone during a Theatre of Today broadcast.
LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive

Armstrong’s Theatre of Today

October 4, 1941, marked the debut of Armstrong’s Theatre of Today, a half-hour radio program featuring a five-minute introductory news presentation followed by a dramatic performance based on some aspect of the news. The program was recorded at CBS Radio Theatre in New York City and broadcast every Saturday at noon. The last broadcast of the program occurred on May 22, 1954.

Armstrong’s Theatre of Today opened each broadcast with the Quaker Girl announcing, “It’s high noon on Broadway!” followed by announcers George Bryan reading the news and Tom Shirley introducing the subsequent dramatic presentation. The Quaker Girl, played by Elizabeth Reller or Julie Conway, also read the commercials. The episodic dramatizations that followed the initial newscast featured the best-known stars of film and theatre and included such noted performers as Burgess Meredith, Helen Hayes, Ray Milland, Dorothy McGuire and Vincent Price.

Within three years the program was broadcast on 105 stations, the largest half-hour daytime hookup ever used in radio up to that time. More important from Armstrong’s point of view was the close association the public made between the show and its sponsor. When listeners heard the Armstrong Quaker Girl’s familiar opening words and the drama that followed, they thought — and bought — Armstrong linoleum and Armstrong Quaker-Felt Rugs.

Armstrong Circle Theatre was produced by Talent Associates Ltd. Pictured here in this 1955 photograph by Gary Wagner are, left to right, Jacqueline Bobbin, script editor; David Susskind, executive producer; and Bob Costello, associate producer.
LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive

Armstrong Circle Theatre

As America entered the 1950s, television began to be seen as an advertising medium with even greater potential than radio. Armstrong entered the world of television programming on Tuesday, June 6, 1950, with the launch of Armstrong Circle Theatre (1950–63). Throughout its 13 seasons, the anthology series featured a variety of original docudramas, dramatic presentations of true stories that dealt with contemporary issues, challenges or events. Taking its cues from the successful Armstrong’s Theatre of Today radio program, the television show included a host/narrator, commercials promoting various Armstrong products, and many of the established and rising stars of the day. As a corporate anthology series, the program shared many of the same features as other well-known contemporary “television playhouse” programs including Kraft Television Theatre (1947–58), Philco Television Playhouse (1948–56) and Texaco Star Theater (1948–56).

Produced by Talent Associates Ltd., Armstrong Circle Theatre debuted as a weekly half-hour program on the NBC television network. For the 1950–51 season, the series finished in the Nielsen ratings at number 19, the only time the program finished in the Nielsen top 20. The program aired every Tuesday from 9:30 to 10 p.m. from June 1950 until June 1955. Texaco Star Theater, one of the earliest anthology series programs, finished as the top-rated primetime television series of the season.

Beginning with the September 1955 season, Armstrong Circle Theatre expanded to a one-hour format, alternating every four weeks with three other anthology series, the show still airing on Tuesdays, but from 9:30 to 10:30 p.m. Beginning with the 1957 season, the program switched to the CBS television network, where it alternated weekly with The United States Steel Hour. On CBS, the program aired on Wednesday evenings from 10 to 11:00 p.m. The final broadcast of Armstrong Circle Theatre occurred on August 28, 1963.

Nelson Case served as the first host/ narrator of the program, typically introducing each episode with the words, “Good evening and welcome to Armstrong’s Circle Theatre.” Actress Kay Campbell served as spokesperson, introducing commercials advertising various Armstrong products targeted to female viewers. Program host/narrators for the half-hour version of the program included Nelson Case (1950–51), Joe Ripley (1952–53), Bob Sherry (1953–54) and Sandy Becker (1954–55). Case proved to be an ideal choice to get the program off to a successful start. Already a popular radio broadcaster for NBC in New York, Case was also an experienced announcer whose credits included radio programs as well as musical broadcasts headlined by such well-known bandleaders as Wayne King, Ray Noble, Phil Spitalny and Guy Lombardo.

Telly Savalas starred in “House of Cards,” an Armstrong Circle Theatre docudrama exposing the destructive nature of compulsive gambling, July 22, 1959.
LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive

Believing that the significance of the topics being presented to the viewing public would be enhanced by having a news anchor serve as host/narrator, NBC engaged John Cameron Swayze for the expanded one-hour format from the fall of 1955 until the series moved to CBS in the fall of 1957. A press release at the time of his hiring touted “Swayze’s keen knowledge of current events, his warm and friendly approach, and above all his sharp sense of what is prominent in the news makes him uniquely suited to the task of interpreting stories that appear on Armstrong Circle Theatre.” When the program moved to CBS, Swayze was replaced by anchor Douglas Edwards who served as host/narrator until the fall of 1961, when he was replaced with former ABC news reporter Ron Cochran, who was in turn replaced by actor Henry Hamilton for the final season.

The docudramas presented by Armstrong Circle Theatre covered topics of contemporary interest ranging from espionage and the history of Soviet-style communism to the advances being made in public health and technology. The program also tackled important and often controversial topics associated with societal challenges such as poverty, alcoholism, gambling, crime, and medical and insurance fraud. The program not only showcased contemporary stars but provided opportunities for future stars as well. Some of the familiar names appearing on the program included Jackie Cooper, James Dean, Patty Duke, Grace Kelly, Jack Klugman, Cloris Leachman, Walter Matthau, Darren McGavin, Elizabeth Montgomery, Leslie Nielsen, Telly Savalas, Martin Sheen, Jack Warden, Gene Wilder and Joanne Woodward.

The realistic portrayal of contemporary issues, challenges and events on Armstrong Circle Theatre earned the company accolades from a variety of community and social service organizations, including the American Cancer Society in 1962 for its “significant contribution towards bringing life-saving facts to the public” in presenting “Patterns of Hope—A Story of Cancer Research.” Armstrong also received an “Award of Honor” one year earlier from the Social Work Recruiting Committee of Greater New York “for outstanding documentary dramas on health and welfare problems” and “the role of community institutions and professionally trained, skilled social workers in resolving these problems.”

Patty Duke starred in an Armstrong Circle Theatre episode highlighting the work of the St. Joseph’s School for the Deaf in the Bronx, New York, September 30, 1959.
LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive

By the early 1960s, escalating costs associated with producing a network television show coupled with increasing regulatory oversight by the federal government meant the end of the Golden Age of Television and the era of original television dramas developed and sponsored by companies like Armstrong. When the company made the decision to focus on television rather than radio in the 1950s, television was clearly a medium of tremendous potential; however, as viewers multiplied so did costs as consumers began to expect more elaborate production values and episodes to be filmed in color rather than in black and white.

Increasing competition between networks and between the television and film industries also allowed stars to demand more money for their services. When the television networks took over responsibility for programming in 1963, Armstrong refused to completely abandon television as an advertising medium. Instead, the company turned to sponsorship of various network-affiliated television shows, a series of television movies based on adaptations of classic Broadway shows, and commercials featuring well-known television personalities targeted to specific market segments designed to keep the Armstrong name in the forefront of the minds of consumers.

Comedic talents Fred Gwynne and Imogene Coca promoted the Armstrong Ceiling Watchers’ Society, circa 1963.
LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive

As Seen on TV

With the final broadcast of Armstrong Circle Theatre on the CBS television network on August 28, 1963, the company became the major sponsor of The Danny Kaye Show, a new variety show starring the multitalented Danny Kaye, singing and dancing his way through comedy skits and monologues with the assistance of various semiregular guests, singers and dancers. Premiering on Wednesday, September 25, 1963, the program aired on CBS for four years — Armstrong serving as sponsor for the first two years. In addition to airing commercials on The Danny Kaye Show, Armstrong consumer products were advertised on several daytime television programs. The commercials featured a number of different advertising strategies coordinated with retail point of purchase displays, including the popular Ceiling Watcher campaign featuring two well-known television personalities, Fred Gwynne and Imogene Coca. At a height of 6 feet, 6 inches, Gwynne was a natural choice as the spokesperson for the Ceiling Watchers’ Society “Look Up!” motto. The selection of Coca as spokesperson reflected an important marketing development — the growing influence of women as decoration became an increasingly important factor in selecting ceilings.

During the 1965 summer hiatus of The Danny Kaye Show and with Armstrong agreeing to serve as sponsor, CBS decided to rebroadcast episodes of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, starring Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo and Desi Arnaz as her husband Ricky. The follow-up to I Love Lucy (1951–57) originally aired on CBS as 13 black-and-white one-hour specials between 1957 and 1960. Famous guest stars appeared as themselves in each episode, including Milton Berle in “Milton Berle Hides at the Ricardos” and Red Skelton in “Lucy Goes to Alaska.”

When The Danny Kaye Show switched from black and white to color broadcasts in the fall of 1965, Armstrong decided to end its sponsorship of the show and instead enter the era of color television by sponsoring two different programs simultaneously: Gidget, a situation comedy about a young California girl who loves to surf, and The Big Valley, a western chronicling the adventures of the Barkley family in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

Gidget, starring Sally Field as Gidget and Don Porter as her father, premiered on ABC on Wednesday evening, September 15, 1965, at 8:30 p.m. The half-hour program was immediately followed by The Big Valley, an hour-long action drama starring Barbara Stanwyck and introducing Lee Majors. An interesting notation on a script for the pilot found in the Armstrong Archive and dated September 9, 1964, notes, “Family name changed from Butler to Barkley.” Although Gidget only aired for one season, The Big Valley continued to air for four seasons.

In 1966 Barbara Stanwyck won an Emmy Award for her starring role as Victoria Barkley, the Barkley family matriarch, in The Big Valley, which Armstrong sponsored for the show’s four seasons.
LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive

With the cancellation of Gidget in January 1966, Armstrong turned to sponsoring Code: Blue Light, a half-hour espionage series featuring Robert Goulet in his first dramatic role. Premiering on Wednesday, January 12, 1966, at 8:30 p.m. on ABC, Goulet plays David March, an American journalist who pretends to defect to Nazi Germany during World War II. In reality, March is a double agent working for the United States government. The last of 17 episodes aired on May 18. Goulet then returned to his Broadway musical and recording star roots, even starring in a series of network television movies sponsored by Armstrong in the late 1960s.

The 1966–67 television season was a busy one for Armstrong as the company advertised its products on three weekly in-color shows — The Big Valley, That Girl and The Monroes, a one-hour western that lasted only one season — as well as the first of four television musicals, all adaptations of classic Broadway shows. The first of these programs was Brigadoon, a story about a magical Scottish village that appears only for one day once every 100 years. Starring Robert Goulet, the 90-minute television special was first broadcast on ABC on October 15, 1966, and rebroadcast on March 6, 1967. Armstrong quickly followed up on the success of Brigadoon with Carousel, first broadcast on May 7, 1967, and also starring Robert Goulet; Kismet, first broadcast on October 24, 1967, and starring José Ferrer in his only televised appearance in a Broadway musical; and Kiss Me Kate, first broadcast on March 25, 1968, and again starring Robert Goulet.

Featured songs in Kiss Me Kate, a play within a play, include “Another Op’nin’, Another Show” and the lyric “It’s curtain time and away we go!” Original cast recordings from these shows helped to attract retail traffic to stores selling Armstrong floors and ceilings. Brigadoon, for example, sold over a half million records at $1 per copy. As part of the promotion for Kismet, a story set in ancient Baghdad about a poet who charms his way into a harem, Armstrong conducted a series of drawings among its various product line distributors for the opportunity to appear as a cast member in the production. Sweepstakes winners were given a three-day, all-expense-paid trip to Hollywood where the show was taped.

A veteran of Armstrong Circle Theatre and The Phil Silvers Show, Paul Ford appears here as Armstrong’s Ceiling Doctor.
LancasterHistory, Armstrong Archive

In place of The Monroes, Armstrong sponsored The Legend of Custer, another western that only aired for the 1967–68 television season. Beginning in 1969 Armstrong sponsored several one-hour film documentaries included in The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. In February 1970 Armstrong ended its sponsorship of the program (although it would continue for several more years), deciding instead to focus their advertising dollars on magazine advertising campaigns as well as television commercial messages targeted to specific audiences. One such television campaign featured veteran actor Paul Ford as the “Ceiling Doctor” in the role of a “physician” who prescribes remedies for sick ceilings.

In 1973 Armstrong introduced a consumer do-it-yourself television campaign for installing ceilings and floorings, again featuring Fred Gwynne. In these 30-second commercials, mostly geared toward local audiences, Gwynne would snap his fingers to show how an “average” family could install an Armstrong ceiling or floor as a weekend or Saturday morning project. Each “I did it myself” commercial spot allowed a local Armstrong dealer to add their name at the end of each commercial. Gwynne also appeared in a similar campaign advertised as “Easy Does It” for place-and-press floor tiles and at-home ceiling installations.

Although the skyrocketing cost of television sponsorships had forced Armstrong to rethink where they put their advertising dollars in the 1970s, the company never lost faith in the power of television as an advertising medium, continuing to explore opportunities for someday returning to network television. That someday arrived in 1981, when the company sponsored a series of big-name specials featuring Anne Murray and Loretta Lynn as well as The Tonight Show Starring John Carson 19th Anniversary Special. Now rebranded as Armstrong World Industries, the company also unveiled a new advertising theme to build brand awareness and to reinforce its image as a maker of products designed to turn houses into homes — “so nice to come home to.” The 1983–84 season also marked Armstrong’s foray into cable television by sponsoring two 13-week series of home decorating shows called Design for Living.

In the late 1980s Armstrong produced a series of commercials centered on the “so nice to come home to” theme. The television landscape had changed and Armstrong along with it. No longer limited to one network or obligated to devote resources to costly one-time specials or television sponsorships, Armstrong instead purchased commercial time on broadcast and cable networks of their choice at a time of their choice and during a program of their choosing. For Armstrong, this meant national exposure to a variety of demographics on primetime shows like The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Matlock, Cheers, Newhart, and Murder, She Wrote, as well as morning news programs and sporting events. Although TV provided the added benefit of entertaining as well as informing, Armstrong continued to partner with the renowned New York advertising agency of Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn Inc. — the same firm that had created Armstrong’s first national advertising campaign in The Saturday Evening Post in September 1917 — to advertise in national, regional and general interest print publications targeted to specific markets or designed to also reach customers on a broad scale.

The Future of Advertising

Radio and television, along with traditional print media, helped shape consumer tastes for most of the 20th century. Although they are still components of advertising promotions and campaigns, the internet and social media platforms have created new opportunities for dictating marketing strategies and driving sales, while at the same time allowing consumers to enjoy content at a time and place of their choosing. As Armstrong reaches for the future, the company can draw inspiration from its past — a legacy of producing and sponsoring top-rated radio and television shows featuring popular personalities, memorable moments and innovative programming.

Further Reading

Armstrong Cork Co. The Armstrong Book of Interior Decoration. New York: Macmillan, 1962. / Brown, Hazel Dell. Go Ahead and Decorate. Lancaster, PA: Armstrong Cork Co., 1951. / —. New Ideas for Old Rooms. Lancaster, PA: Armstrong Cork Co., 1942. / —. New Ideas in Home Decoration. Lancaster, PA: Armstrong Cork Co., 1929. / —. Rooms to Remember When You Decorate. Lancaster, PA: Armstrong Cork Company, 1944. / —. The Story of the Five Dream Kitchens. Lancaster, PA: Armstrong Cork Products Co. Floor Division, 1937. / Faubel, Arthur L. Cork and the American Cork Industry. New York: Cork Institute of America, 1938. / McMahon, James D., Jr. “Armstrong and Lancaster: From Floor to Ceiling.” The Journal of Lancaster County’s Historical Society 122, no. 3 (September 2022): 256–279./ Mehler, William A., Jr. Let the Buyer Have Faith: The Story of Armstrong. Lancaster, PA: Armstrong World Industries Inc., 1987. / Moore, C. Eugene. How Armstrong Floored America: The People Who Made It Happen. Lancaster, PA: Lancaster County Historical Society, 2007. / Samuel, Lawrence R. Brought to You By: Postwar Television Advertising and the American Dream. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001.

James D. McMahon Jr., Ph.D., is curator and director of collections at LancasterHistory and an instructor in American studies at Penn State Harrisburg, where he received his doctorate in 2015. He has served as site administrator for Landis Valley Village & Farm Museum, director of the Milton Hershey School Heritage Center, and curator and director for the Hershey Museum. His publications include three books and numerous articles on Hershey. His previous article for Pennsylvania Heritage, “Sure to Attract Much Attention: The Advertising Genius of Milton S. Hershey,” appeared in the Fall 2020 edition.