Milton Reynolds was an American entrepreneur and industrialist who introduced the Reynolds Rocket, the first commercially successful modern ballpoint pen sold in the United States. His career also included sign-making equipment, wartime promotional products, aviation publicity, and investment in the Mexican pharmaceutical company Syntex.
Background
Milton Reynolds was born Milton Reinsberg in 1892 in Albert Lea, Minnesota, where his father worked as a threshing-machine salesman. He left high school before graduating and entered commercial life as an automobile salesman and, by the age of twenty, an independent tire dealer.
Reynolds changed his surname from Reinsberg to Reynolds during his business career. His financial fortunes repeatedly rose and fell: he became a millionaire by 1918, lost his wealth and became bankrupt within four years, and later experienced additional bankruptcies before rebuilding his business career in Chicago.
Education
Reynolds left high school without graduating and did not attend a university. His professional development came through sales, independent trading, manufacturing ventures, and practical experimentation with commercial products.
Career
Reynolds moved to Chicago in the early 1920s and became a stock-market speculator. The 1929 crash nearly destroyed his finances, after which he acquired a small printing operation and developed it into Print-A-Sign, a business producing commercial signs and equipment for their manufacture. The company built on the growing importance of standardized retail signage and included Reynolds's invention of a promotional “talking sign” designed to attract customers to merchandise.
During the Second World War, Reynolds operated several businesses, including the importation of silver cigarette lighters from Mexico. In 1945, while traveling in Buenos Aires, he encountered a ballpoint pen associated with László Bíró. Reynolds returned to the United States, developed a gravity-fed ink system that differed from Bíró's capillary-feed design, and founded the Reynolds International Pen Company.
The Reynolds Rocket went on sale at Gimbel Brothers in Manhattan on October 29, 1945, for $12.50. Gimbels had ordered 50,000 pens, and the product attracted intense public demand; Reynolds's company reported sales of more than $5.6 million and after-tax income of approximately $1.6 million during its first three months. The rapid entry of Eversharp, Eberhard Faber, and other manufacturers led to patent litigation, falling prices, and the collapse of the initial ballpoint boom by 1947.
In 1947, Reynolds sponsored an around-the-world flight to publicize his pen business. He purchased and modified a surplus Douglas A-26 attack bomber, hired William P. Odom as pilot, and accompanied the flight as navigator, with T. Carroll Sallee serving as engineer. The aircraft, named the Reynolds Bombshell, completed the approximately 20,000-mile journey in about 78 hours and 55 minutes, although the mark was not recognized as an official record because the route differed from the established course and prior authorization had not been obtained.
After selling his pen business, Reynolds returned to manufacturing machinery and signs and later relocated to Mexico. He became an early investor in Syntex, a Mexican pharmaceutical company whose steroid research contributed to the development of oral contraceptives. He died in Chicago in 1976, and his body was returned to Mexico for burial.
Achievements
Reynolds developed and introduced the Reynolds Rocket, the first commercially successful modern ballpoint pen sold in the United States. Its October 29, 1945, launch at Gimbel Brothers helped establish the ballpoint pen as a mass-market writing instrument.
He created the Print-A-Sign commercial sign-making business and developed a promotional “talking sign” for retail stores, contributing to the standardization of point-of-sale advertising equipment.
In 1947 he sponsored and participated as navigator in the Reynolds Bombshell flight, which circumnavigated the world in approximately 78 hours and 55 minutes with pilot William P. Odom and engineer T. Carroll Sallee.
Reynolds was an early investor in Syntex, a Mexican pharmaceutical company whose steroid research contributed to the later development of combined oral contraceptives.
Personality
Contemporary descriptions portray Reynolds as an aggressive and resourceful salesman who repeatedly pursued new commercial opportunities after major financial reversals. His business career was marked by risk-taking, rapid product development, and highly public promotional campaigns.
Interests
Aviation and international travel.
Connections
Reynolds married Edna Loeb in the early 1920s; she died in 1952, and they had two children. In 1953 he married Manuela Selas and later relocated with her to Mexico.
Wife:
Edna Loeb
Married Reynolds in the early 1920s; she died in 1952. They had two children.
Wife:
Manuela Selas
Married Reynolds in 1953, after which the couple relocated to Mexico.
References
The New Yorker, “The Amphibious Pen”
Describes Reynolds's acquisition of the Print-A-Sign operation, his earlier business reversals, and the rapid development and commercialization of his ballpoint pen.
1951
TIME, “Tempest in an Inkpot”
Reports the launch of the Reynolds ballpoint pen at Gimbel Brothers, the scale of the initial order, and the commercial and legal controversy surrounding the product.
1945
TIME, “Advertising: Double-Barreled Feat”
Documents Reynolds's sponsorship of the Reynolds Bombshell around-the-world flight with William P. Odom and its use as a promotional campaign for his pen company.
