Above / Pictured more than 20 years ago at an annual “Old Timers Party” in New York City, Jerry Della Femina and Ron Travisano are the creative team who began building a wonderful place to work on Madison Avenue back in 1967. Yesterday, Feb. 23, 2025, on “Today,” Willie Geist remembered “a life well lived” with a wonderful tribute to my former employer, Ron Travisano. Ron died January 21, 2025, at the age of 86. (PN File Photo)
On Sun., Feb. 23, my sister-in-law in Denver sent news that one of my former employers had died on Jan. 21, 2025. We had not heard, so we deeply appreciated her kindness in letting us know. A fitting tribute was featured on Today.
In the past, we’ve written about our first “real” job in New York City at Della Femina, Travisano and Partners that began in 1969. Back then, the two-year-old ad agency was known as Jerry Della Femina & Partners. At first I worked for two men who ran the creative department, Bob Giraldi and Dick Raboy. Recognizing my desire to become a copywriter, trade ads became my entry into writing ads for accounts such as Westclox, Blue Nun, Sea & Ski Lipsaver and the AutoTrain. The most fun ads were for WNBC-TV 4 that appeared in TV Guide.
With fewer than 25 employees in ’69, the young business was a place where I began baking personalized cakes for fellow staff members, a habit that led co-workers to encourage my opening a cake business. Somehow in December 1974, Creative Cakes opened on Manhattan’s Upper Eastside.
That first December, Della Femina, Travisano & Partners quickly became one of Creative Cakes’ most-frequent repeat customers with a huge cake that included the name of every employee along with likenesses of Jerry and Ron. A corner of that sheet cake is pictured here.
Ron enjoyed coming up with creative ideas for cakes, too, such as Jerry’s birthday cakes, one of which is pictured way below in an earlier post.
For years, the small-and-always-growing ad agency purchased cakes to represent products they advertised such as Teacher’s Scotch and Blue Nun. In fact, they even purchased a plane ticket and hired a courier to deliver a cake shaped like a package of Meow Mix to Ralston Purina after their commercial had received such award-winning acclaim.
Ever since we moved to Naperville in 1993, another framed memory and now-faded Polaroid taken in the early 1970s, has been sitting on a shelf in our bedroom. Oh! The memories!
Our heart goes out to Ron’s family. His autobiography, The Mickey Mouse Trap Searching for Applause, is a treasure. —Stephanie Penick, PN Publisher
UPDATE, Aug. 26, 2021 / Today we received news from former DFT&P co-worker and creative writer, Frank DiGiacomo, that our longtime friend, Mark Yustein, had died at age 83. Mark had kept in touch for years via emails and his photos of family and wildlife, continually connecting us with our rich past of working in New York City. Heartfelt condolences to Mark’s wife Jacquie and his family.
UPDATE, July 22, 2020 / Separated by 822 miles and more than four decades, today brings back fond memories of my first real creative job in Manhattan with wonderful folks from New York and New Jersey as we send best wishes for another happy birthday to Jerry Della Femina, a time when all businesses are facing the challenges of COVID.
On June 30, 2020, an email message arrived from former DFT&P co-worker and art director Mark Yustein noting that Ron Travisano had written his memoir. Several days later, our copy of The Mickey Mouse Trap Searching for Applause appeared at our doorstep. Oh, my gosh! The forward by Jerry Della Femina, followed by Ron Travisano’s personal and honest stories are a collection of heartfelt memories that brought to life laughter, love and many other reasons thousands of creative types could hardly wait to get to work every day.
Considering everything that’s happening in the business community right now, connecting with longtime friends and memories that have inspired a lifetime of faith, hope and can-do creativity was just what we needed. We are forever grateful.
Happy Birthday, Jerry Della Femina
Original Post, July 22, 2013 / In his weekly column last Wednesday, PN Publisher’s former employer, (m)ad man Jerry Della Femina, reminded loyal readers about his birthday on July 22. He was born in 1936.
“I’m having a birthday next Monday,” he wrote in Jerry’s Ink as co-publisher of the The Independent, a regional weekly newspaper based in East Hampton, New York. “I don’t like birthdays. But I guess they’re necessary because it’s God’s way of telling you you’re still alive.”
The man of many memorable words went on with a witty rant about age, happiness in general with smart technology, and the specific way he is happiest celebrating his birthday. He wrote he will “find the biggest glass in the house, fill it to the top with McCallan Scotch and take it to bed, where I will ponder tomorrow, which, as the cliché goes, is naturally going to be the first day of the rest of my life.”
What he failed to communicate when he wrote his column was the possibility that the Royal baby could arrive on his birthday.
During the early, early morning of July 22, many of us Americans awakened to news flashes that the affectionately watched “Great Kate Wait” is coming to an end. The Duchess had gone into labor and shortly after 6AM in Paddington, she was admitted to St. Mary’s Hospital, accompanied by Prince William. Followers in Britain and the around the world have joined crowds in London outside Buckingham Palace and at the hospital to wait for the historic announcement from the Duchess of Cambridge and her husband.
Folks can find the news about the future king online.
Back in Naperville, I wonder if this creative man— known as the “Madman of Madison Avenue” in the early days of his boutique advertising agency, a name now often credited as being the inspiration for the popular award-winning television series, Mad Men—will address the shared birthday in his next column.
Coincidentally , in June, my Daily Herald column featured a photo of a Della Femina birthday cake, one of many special-occasion cakes I had baked for the wonderful folks at Della Femina, Travisano & Partners when I worked there for nearly four years in the early 1970s.
At right / In the early 1970s, Ron Travisano and all of Jerry’s ad agency friends surprised him with a luau birthday party on the 14th floor of the 17-story Standard Brands Building located at 625 Madison Avenue in Manhattan. Before Creative Cakes opened for business in 1974, your PN publisher/editor designed the cake in his likeness.
A few years later for Jerry’s 40th birthday party held at Ron Travisano’s home in New Jersey, Ron and friends ordered a cake designed to resemble a packed-full medicine cabinet, complete with likenesses of Geritol, one of the agency’s accounts. The birthday greeting said, “Dear Jerry, You’re finally old enough to be what you always wanted to be: Sick. Happy Birthday.”
Harry and Mary rhyme with Jerry
Today I’m imagining Kate and William could name a baby boy Harry, rhyming with Jerry. Or they could name a baby girl Mary.
One thing I know for certain. Whatever name Kate and William choose, their child will be named after Jerry Della Femina.
As my now 90-year-old dad used to jest to all of us youngsters, girl or boy, “Yes, you were named after Thomas Jefferson—because you weren’t named before him.”
Here’s to a healthy and happy baby in Great Britain and to all newborns welcomed to the world on this day.
And with much appreciation, here are best wishes for another bunch of birthdays to Jerry Della Femina, a man of caring ways and thoughtful inspiration for many creative types that goes way beyond Mad Men.
—Stephanie Penick
Editor’s Note: While royalties are on our mind… To further locally connect with the New York agency behind many ad campaigns, one of Della Femina, Travisano’s most memorable campaigns comes with a jingle that everyone seems to know. Not only featured in commercials and in movies, the jingle has been making its rounds on the Wrigley Field organ this 2013 season. “Meow Meow Meow Meow… Meow Meow Meow Meow… Meow Meow Meow Meow… Meow Meow Meow!”
