ABSTRACT

This chapter describes how his contemporaries perceived Page and the ways Arthur W. Page is remembered by professionals and scholars today. The analysis allows Page to describe the process of public relations in his own words, while comparing his words to work at American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) and to the ways he was described at the time and is remembered today. The Great Depression of the 1930s constituted a major challenge to the financial policy. He is one of the most frequently cited practitioners in the historical scholarship of public relations and he figures prominently in the history chapters of public relations textbooks, serving as a model for good corporate public relations. It concludes that, although Page was admired during his own time and is considered one of public relations great men today, one's memories of his legacy are selective, overlooking his views about public relations, particularly the primacy of operations in the public relations process.