January 1, 1970

Introduced by Richard M. Langworth

Joyce C. Hall, who with his brothers founded the Hallmark Greeting Card Company in Kansas City, was the unassuming Midwesterner who brought Churchill’s paintings to the attention of Americans. Hall met Churchill after the ‘Sinews of Peace’ speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri in 1946. Two years later, reading Churchill’s book, Painting as a Pastime, Hall asked the statesman if he might use some paintings on his famous greeting cards. ‘That’s a good firm. Make a deal with them’, Churchill told his private secretary. The project began in 1950. Mr Churchill expressed great curiosity about the business, but was anxious about what would happen if the product didn’t sell. Joyce Hall said he wouldn’t have to worry about that. Hall also made Sarah Churchill his moderator in the television show best known as the ‘Hallmark Hall of Fame’, and sponsored major exhibitions of Churchill’s paintings in North America.

Read the full article, here: ‘”When You Care Enough”: Joyce Hall and Hallmark’s Churchill Connection’, by Susan and Philip Larson, in Finest Hour 137, Winter 2007-08, scroll to page 20.