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_The long-suffering public went along with billboards and
singing commercials; they tolerated half a dozen sales
pitches in a half-hour radio or TV show; they suffered
stoically through the "hard-sell" and the "soft-sell." But
when the hucksters turned the wild blue yonder into a vast
television screen, they howled----_
GET OUT OF OUR SKIES!
By E. K. JARVIS
On the first cloudy day in November, Tom Blacker, the shining light of
Ostreich and Company, Public Relations Counsellors, placed a call to a
shirtsleeved man on the rooftop of the Cannon Building in New York City.
His message brought an immediate response from the waiting engineer, who
flicked switches and twirled dials with expert motions, and brought into
play the gigantic 50,000-watt projector installed on the peak.
In his own office, Tom paced the floor in front of the three-window
exposure, watching the heavens for the results.
They weren't long in coming.
The eyes came first. Eyes the size of Navy dirigibles, with pupils of
deep cerulean blue, floating against the backdrop of the gray cumulus.
The long lashes curled out almost a hundred feet from the lids. Then the
rest of Monica Mitchell's famous face appeared: the flowing yellow
locks, the sensuously curved lips, parted moistly from even white teeth.
From chin to hairline, the projected image above the city was close to a
thousand feet in diameter.
Then, as if the floating countenance wasn't alarming enough, the ruby
lips began to move. Monica's sweet-sultry voice, like the first
drippings from a jar of honey, overcame the city sounds, and began
crooning the syrupy strains of _Love Me Alone_. Which happened, by no
coincidence, to be the title and theme song of Monica's newest epic.
[Illustration: Monica's image--plastered across the heavens--stopped
traffic in all directions.]
It was a triumph. Tom knew it the moment he looked down at the crowded
thoroughfare eighteen stories beneath the window. Traffic had come to a
more than normal standstill. Drivers were leaving their autos, and hands
were being upraised towards the gargantuan face on the clouds above.
And of course, Tom's phone rang.
* * * * *
Ostreich's big scowling face was barely squeezed within the confines of
the visiphone screen. He said nothing intelligible for two minutes.
"Relax, Chief," Tom said brightly. "I've been saving this as a
surprise."
Ostreich's reply was censorable.
"Now look, D. O. You gave me _carte blanche_ with this Mitchell babe,
remember? I figured we really needed a shot in the arm for this new
picture of hers. The receipts on her last turkey couldn't pay her
masseurs."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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