Myra Janco Daniels Is Unstoppable

Those who watched the rise of Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts, however, know Myra J. Daniels is unstoppable.

Daniels credits her personal success at the Philharmonic to both "business savvy" and a genuine "love of arts." She smiles and says she could compare her current occupation to "promoting a big package line."

She echoes that observation through a popular story from her earliest years in Gary, Indiana. At age four, she was introduced to the world of business through her grandmother, a real estate agent who was "way ahead of her time."

Daniels' grandmother encouraged the youngster to start her own business with a roll of pennies, keeping track of her transactions. After a matter of time, she was to give back the investment, with interest.

Daniels decided on a business selling party favors. She enlisted the help of an older boy who walked by her doorstep every morning. "I got Hedgewood to find out who was having parties at school," Daniels recalls, "and that was my first market research."

At one point Hedgewood walked out on the job because he found out he wasn't being paid as much as Daniels paid herself. But he eventually came back, and the business continued for another two years or so. Daniels "retired" from the business with $700 in savings - no small change at the time.

Not Your Average Advertiser

Daniels shares another story of her business career, beginning from her early college years. She excelled in her studies at Indiana State University, serving as editor of the school newspaper while making the Dean's List and working as an advertising copywriter at a leading Terra Haute, Ind., department store. She moved up from the copywriter job to the position of assistant to the store's president. Her wage jumped from about $7 a week to $10,000 a year -- quite a salary at the time.

While earning her master's degree, she decided to strike it our on her own, opening her own advertising agency in Terra Haute. To travel between the city and accounts in Cleveland and Chicago, she took up flying.

In the 1950s Daniels became a rising star in the Chicago advertising scene. Despite the corporate climb, however, she maintains she did things her way. When offered a position as president, for example, she declined because she said she wasn't ready. She also found time to pursue a doctorate, becoming an associate professor of marketing at Indiana University. She was a tenacious exception in what was still a male-dominated world. "It was in an age when women were supposed to be typing or writing copy," she reflects, "but never in top management."

In the 1960s, Daniels became involved with packaged goods, looking for the brightest talent in the industry. She knew of the cream of the industry, Draper Daniels, the man behind the Jolly Green Giant, Sunkist Tuna and the Marlboro Man.

After Draper Daniels bought her company, Myra Janco became president, the only woman in the United States to hold such a title in a major advertising agency. She later became Myra Janco Daniels. The agency dealt with major accounts such as Beatrice Foods and Colgate, Daniels says, without losing its focus. "It was a great team we had going," she reflects. "We were able to say no to clients. If we didn't want to do it, we didn't do it. It was the account and the ideas that mattered, not the bottom line."

The Start of a Musical Relationship

Daniels was exposed to the arts from a young age -- her father played the violin and her mother sang opera. She studied classical dance for 12 years and music for 10 years. During her busy advertising days, however, she had limited time in which to become involved with large-scale projects.

After selling the agency and the death of her husband in the early 1980s, Daniels became involved in the arts through a local chamber orchestra she saw perform on Marco Island with friend Mary Ellen Hawkins.

The two learned that the orchestra was in need of some help -- "They wanted some place to play because they rehearsed so much." Hawkins volunteered Daniels for the job.

Daniels became involved first by writing a brief marketing plan. Then she did a direct response campaign, looking through a telephone book and randomly marking every few residential numbers with a red dot. One of the numbers happened to belong to Frances Pew Hayes -- as in the Pew Foundation.

After speaking to the lady at some length about the arts and gradually learning who she was, Daniels was able to secure a contribution. "She said she'd give twenty-five. I thought $25 -- what a waste of time," Daniels says with a playful gleam in her eye. "It ended up being $25,000. A week later, we got another $25,000."

The push for a bigger, grander Philharmonic Center came about in 1986. Pew donated another $2 million with the understanding that the community would have a professional orchestra in a suitable orchestra hall -- no high school auditoriums. With Daniels at the helm, the project went full steam ahead.

"I did it my way," Daniels says. "I visited other operations and did a feasibility study and plan. I never thought it would get this complex."

The fundraising efforts were intense. Westinghouse Communities donated six and a half acres in the upscale Pelican Bay neighborhood just off U.S. 41 north of Pine Ridge Road. Corporations gave large donations. The state gave grants. A full-page Naples Daily News advertisement brought in $2 million in donations.

Every brick, every seat and every piece of carpet that went into the Phil could be sponsored by small donations. In a popular local flashback, a young boy offered his savings of $1.29 to buy a $100 brick. Daniels accepted, but left him a dime.

Three years later, in November 1989, the 90,275 square-foot Philharmonic Center was completed at a cost of $19.7 million, plus an additional $1.5 million for administration. The first season consisted of 120 shows, plenty of press coverage and an overall feeling that Naples had come of age culturally.

No Debt, No Regrets

The Philharmonic today operates on a budget of $15 million per year with total assets of approximately $53 million. Approximately 435 events, including parties and lecture series, have been scheduled this year. Of 180 stage shows, 158 were sell-outs -- the average capacity is 89 percent. Sixty percent of tickets are sold in packages, Daniels says, making the Phil a "hold out" from the temptation to sell by the show.

Daniels credits a great deal of the Philharmonic's success to a carefully-balanced mix of offerings targeted at an audience described as "well-heeled, well-educated and mostly retired." Dance, musicals and even light cou