In 1948 Dan Robbins was a young artist back from the war, and Max Klein was an entrepreneur looking to make his fortune in do-it-yourself tchotchkes. Klein’s business, the Palmer Paint Company of Detroit, made washable paint sets for kids (varnished designs that could be painted, wiped off, and repainted), and he hired Robbins to draw pictures for the line. But Klein aspired to reach a much broader market. Soon he was prodding Robbins for an idea that would appeal to older people. Under this pressure, Robbins says, he started to think about something like a coloring book for adults. “For about a year I just couldn’t come up with anything. Then one day I remembered hearing about Leonardo da Vinci, how he used to give his students and apprentices assignments that were numbered patterns. I thought, well, that’s interesting, he gives them numbered assignments, they block in all the particular colors. What if we did the same thing–give them numbered patterns but also give them the paint to do it?” Eureka: paint-by-numbers.
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It took them a year to get the product, by then branded Craft Master, to the marketplace. When they did, no one would buy it. Distributors and dealers thought it was too complicated. “We were unsuccessful almost the entire first year,” Robbins says. “Then, in the spring of 1951, we took the sets to a toy show in New York. Max had made a deal with the Macy’s toy buyer. Max said, ‘I’ll pay for an ad in the New York Times if in turn you’ll give us some demonstrating space in the toy department during the show. We’ll bring in our paint sets and sell them to you on a guaranteed-sales basis.’ They didn’t know that what he meant by guaranteed sales and what they meant by guaranteed sales were two different things. We had a couple of sales reps in New York. Max called them in and gave them each 250 dollars. The sets were $2.50 apiece. And he said to them, ‘I want you to give this money to every friend, every relative, anybody you can find. I want them to go in and buy these sets.’ After two days we checked back at Macy’s, and the sets were selling like crazy. Word got around that Macy’s had a hot line. Before the show was over, we were getting calls from dealers and distributors.”
Robbins returned to Oak Brook and wrote a book, Whatever Happened to Paint-by-Numbers? He’ll sign it at a reception from 6 to 9 tonight at Right-On Futon, 1184 N. Milwaukee, where an exhibit of paint-by-numbers art continues through May 17. Maybe he’ll tell the story of how embarrassed he was when he ran into his high school watercolor instructor early on and had to confess that he was making a career of paint-by-numbers. Then maybe he’ll mention that the Smithsonian is considering a 50th anniversary exhibit next year.
