The caption below the picture reads: Here's Doc Savell, "mike" in hand, standing before his panel truck which is equipped with a loudspeaker system.  The truck was used last spring to advertise Savell's chicks and merchandise at a time when chicks were moving slowly.  The promotion stunt got quick results - another incident, among many, to illustrate why Doc Savell's hatchery business has prospered through the past few years.
 

How Ex-Farm Youth "Weathered" Depression and Achieved Success


From the magazine, Dr. Salsbury's Lab & Field Notes - August 1947

The story of V. W. (Doc) Savell is a typical American tale of a young man who started in business with only a few borrowed dollars, bolstered his investment with confidence and ambition and hard work, and finally achieved success after suffering a setback which would have stopped a less determined individual.

His Savell Hatchery near Philadelphia, Miss., is situated on a 200-acre farm where there are housing facilities for 5,000 laying hens and a hatchery building big enough to accomodate a 200,000 egg capacity business.  Right now the hatchery's capacity is 60,000, but Doc and wife Mary have plans for increasing that to 100,000 next year.  This substantial layout is the fruit of Doc's early ambitionand many years of hard work.

Doc was born and reared on a Neshoba County farm, one of several children of an old pioneer family of that section.  The Savells lived comfortably enough, but only by dint of hard work by all members of the family.  When Doc finished high school, he decided that there must be a better way to earn a living than by following a plow in the Mississippi hill country.  Besides, there wasn't enough land to go around among all of the growing Savell family.

Doc's father was able to loan his son enough money for a modest start, so Doc entered the mercantile business.  The young businessman was doing well enough until the depression came along, wiping out his business along with the bank accounts of the many people who owed him money.  That should have sent Doc scurrying back to the farm.  Instead, he paid off his own obligations, borrowed the required capital, and started all over.

Shortly after re-establishing his general merchandise store, Doc became interested in the hatchery business - something that was comparatively new in his community at the time.  The idea of selling baby chicks appealed to Doc so strongly that he set up a small hatchery and operated it as a sideline.  As time moved on and his business grew, he decided that his real future lay with the hatchery.  And so he sold his general merchandise store, purchased a farm on the outskirts of Philadelphia, and went into hatchery work on a larger scale.  Since that time the Savells have built a beautiful new home, a new hatchery building, and several laying houses.

An incident which is typical of Doc's enterprising ways occurred this past spring.  The weather was bad and Savell's chicks were moving slowly.  So Doc outfitted a panel truck with loud speaker equipment, hired a glib-tongued high school youth, and sent him on a tour through the neighboring country and towns.  The speakers blared forth with hillbilly music and the message that Savell's hatchery had good chicks for sale at reasonable prices.  The stunt sold Doc's chicks and lots of other merchandise, including Ren-O-Sal and many other Dr. Salsbury's products.

Above, V. W. "Doc" and Mary (Tingle) Savell look over a Savell's Hatchery chart.  Below, V. W. Doc Savell driving a Savell's Hatchery panel truck.

Both pictures were taken in October 1947.