Awards

In 1965 the Mayor’s Committee coordinated the efforts to enter the All America City contest sponsored by the National Municipal League of New York City and Look Magazine for Citizen Action in a Community. President Theodore Roosevelt founded the contest and in 1949 Chief Justice Brandeis started giving the awards. Look Magazine joined in sponsorship in 1952 and in the April 1965 issue wrote an article on Green Bay. Mr. Walter Zahn and Mayor Roman Denissen made the city’s presentation before a distinguished jury, headed by Dr. George Gallup of the Gallup Poll, in San Francisco. The city won the award and received congratulatory telegrams from President Lyndon Johnson, Wisconsin federal senators, Governor Knowles, and had a write-up in the Congressional Record. Green Bay was the first Wisconsin city to receive the coveted award.

On April 4, 1965, Mayor Dennisen lost the election to Mayor Tilleman. On May 15,1965 the city, in conjunction with the Armed Forces, held a big parade. Thirty-five thousand people watched from the streets and it was followed by a banquet at the Elks Club. Mr. Harry Maier of the Green Bay Press-Gazette was Master of Ceremonies with Congressman John Byrnes as one of the speakers. Mr. Fred Bauer of Look Magazine spoke on what it meant to be an All America City. He then gave the All America flag to former Mayor Denissen who then handed it over to Mayor Tilleman. The flag was displayed from an upstairs window at city hall, but one night it was stolen.

Mrs. Ralph Curtis Smith was one of twenty people from the U.S. invited to a seminar sponsored by Reader’s Digest and the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Company of New York. Mrs. Lyndon Johnson met them in the Rose Garden at the White House and knew of all their projects. They were given tours of Washington D.C. and Secretary Udall gave them a banquet. The J. Walter Thompson Advertising Company put out ads promoting Green Bay.

Mrs. Smith was then invited to President Johnson’s White House Conference on Natural Beauty, sponsored by Lawrence Rockefeller. Eight hundred people received invitations along with 200 observers. There were three days of meetings, luncheons in the State Department dining room, and they were twice entertained at the White House. Green Bay’s work was written up in the report “Beauty for America, Proceedings of the White House Conference on Natural Beauty”

The committee was then invited to enter the National Keep America Beautiful, Inc. contest and sent Mrs. Smith as their representative. In October 1965, Green Bay won the award and Mayor Tilleman received the inscribed sterling silver bowl from Mrs. Lyndon Johnson. It was at this time that the committee added “Beautiful” to its name. The National Keep America Beautiful, Inc. organization is a voluntary group with 65 of the foremost industrialists and labor leaders in the US on their advisory board. Thirty advertising firms also gave their time gratis to make America cleaner and more beautiful. Green Bay received a tremendous amount of free advertising.

After winning the National Keep America Beautiful Award, Mr. Schnabel, a wealthy insurance man from Texas, whose hobby was cleaning up San Antonio, came to Green Bay to give the city the Jeweled Broom and in turn the city held a big luncheon for him.

When Mr. Ray Scott of the Columbia Broadcasting Television Company came to Green Bay to telecast the Championship Packer-Cleveland Brown game, Mrs. Smith persuaded him to read data on Green Bay. The city received special recognition from the Housing and Home Financing Agency, the Urban Renewal Administration, the National Conservation Foundation, and the Health and Welfare Department. That recognition helped Green Bay get Urban Renewal money for its downtown redevelopment.

Governor Knowles held a three-day conference on Natural Beauty in Waukesha, WI and the city won the City Achievement Award, which was accepted by Mr. Leslie Andrews, Chairman of the Mayor’s Committee. After that the Mayor’s Committee won an Honorable Mention Award for Green Bay in the National Clean-up, Paint-up, Fix-up contest in Washington, DC. Over seven hundred delegates from across the United States attended this event.

Mr. Andrews helped get parking lots paved to reduce dust. Mr. Olejniczak helped get fifty litter cans put in the stadium parking lots for game days. The Press-Gazette published the costs of cleanup after Packer games so taxpayers would know how much littering costs. Neighborhood Pride Groups helped out also. Under the chairmanship of Gordon Morrison, the committee received the Distinguished Service Citation for litter prevention activities in 1970 from Keep America Beautiful.

Cartoons by Harold Elder of the Green Bay Press-Gazette