Biography
Burr Giffen was born in Rockford, Illinois. When he reached the age of 4, he moved to Des Moines, Iowa where his father Marvin Q Giffen, was successful in the wholesale furniture business. Burr was noted without an occupation in the 1905 Iowa Census and soon left for New York City. [3]
In 1910, he was working for the ad agency Wagner and Field (established Nov. 1908). [2] Giffen says he got the inspiration for the drawing at 3 A.M., sat down on his bed and rapidly sketched the little boy with a tire over his right shoulder and a candle held in his left hand. Simultaneously, he coined the slogan: "Time to Re-tire." [4]
The sketch was an instant hit with the Fisk Rubber Co., which a few years earlier had introduced its first pneumatic automobile tire. It appeared nationally in Life magazine in 1911. [5]
Norman Rockwell was one of the artists who illustrated the Fisk tire boy, which allowed him to be creative.
Over the decades, the tousle-haired, sleepy-time boy appeared on every Fisk car and truck tire, in ads, on all stationery, booklets, posters, TV slides, calendars, tire store displays and even on clock faces.
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