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THE BILLBOARD MADONNA by Elleston Trevor

THE BILLBOARD MADONNA

By

Pub Date: March 15th, 1961
Publisher: Morrow

America this time for Trevor and Madison Avenue at that -- and the cross purposes of two advertising campaigns (one for a new car and all its possibilities, the other for safety in driving) that set an agency at odds. Young Curtis Miller knows he is the hit-and-run driver who has killed Grace Random and is the dedicated worker on a ""Drive with Grace"" billboard project, while the agency must accommodate to the desires of the automobile company and push the new Century as the fastest car ever. Curtis' necrophiliac guilt draws him to the Random family, to pursue Grace's sister and to argue for the safety drive against the demands of the car company. The head of the agency on a tightrope throws in his weight when his daughter is in a car crash -- and his holdout against threats resolves the issues against Curtis' incipient hysteria and the dissolution of the firm. Here, with the ""pan shots"" of the office itself, are the individuals -- who will, or will not, hold to a course of action; here, too, is a catalyst with an obsession that results in a showdown. An attention-getter, this with its avenue-ease is a polaroid of publicity practices.