The Gold Medal Man

With a burst of pride, Firestone Plastics Co. Inc., a subsidiary of Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., last week announced that it had been awarded the Fashion Academy Gold Medal Award. The reason: "Firestone's Velon [a new plastic fabric] accents its economy . . . with distinctive beauty of design and unique color styling." Many a businessman and consumer who have seen the words "Awarded the Fashion Academy Gold Medal" spread across millions of dollars of advertising space, had cause to ask: Just what is the Fashion Academy Gold Medal Award?

The Best. The award is the creation of Emil Alvin Hartman, 57, founder and director of Manhattan'sFashion Academy. Now 34 years old, the Academy has about 100 students studying dress designing and allied subjects (tuition for the course: $2,520) in an ornate, five-story Fifth Avenue building, decorated more like a Renaissance palace than a school. In the past 17 years Hartman has handed out awards to about 50 companies for "exemplifying the best in American design." Sample winners: Ford, Motorola, Ronson lighters, General Electric (for a plastic furniture covering), Kaiser-Frazer, Elgin, Parker, United Air Lines (for its Mainliner interiors), Packard, the Chicago Tribune (for "being inspirational to students of design").

Many so honored have shown their appreciation by contributing to the Fashion Academy's scholarship fund. The Ford Motor Co., winner in 1949 and 1950, sent Hartman a check for $25,200 to pay for scholarships. Motorola, Elgin and other winners have also become donors to the scholarship fund.

No Mackerel. Hartman first began giving awards in 1928 when he gave the best-dressed women award to women in public life, theater, radio, movies, etc. From the "best-dressed," it was a short jump to the gold medal. In 1934 Cinemogul Walter Wanger won the first one for his "fashion-consciousness" in making pictures. From then on, Hartman gave them at the rate of about one a year, but after World War II he started handing out medals the way the Army distributes the Bronze Star.

Hartman picks the company to be honored himself, with an assist from his Academy staff. He does not empanel a formal jury to cover all industry, or even see every product in a single field. "We don't lay the products out side by side like mackerel," says he. "We don't have to." Hartman says he knows a good design when he sees one, makes his selection from what he sees.

To businessmen who raise an eyebrow at his scattershot method of picking winners and his acceptance of scholarship contributions, Hartman answers: "The awards have no commercial end. I should actually be subsidized by manufacturers, but I'm not."

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