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Moonlight in Duneland:
Marketing the South Shore Line in the 1920s
Stephen G. McShane

MEMO
To: Britton I. Budd
From: Samuel Insull
Date: 1924

I want to take up traction in Northern Indiana. Please investigate and report.1

With that brief memo, Samuel Insull launched what William D. Middleton has observed as a “massive reconstruction program” that is without parallel in interurban history.2 Indeed, the story of the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad, otherwise known as the South Shore Line, is one of the great sagas in the history of the Hoosier State during the 1920s. Later known as “The Little Train That Could,” the South Shore Line continues today as an essential transportation system, linking thousands of Hoosiers with their livelihoods in downtown Chicago.

The South Shore Line’s phenomenal success between 1925 and 1929 was one of those points in time when a number of factors came together in the right place and the right time, not the least of which was its marketing and advertising campaigns. Before examining that “heady time,” it is important to give a brief history of the South Shore Line.

On 2 December 1901 a group led by James B. Hanna incorporated a new interurban, the Chicago and Indiana Air Line Railway. Two years later it implemented service between East Chicago and Indiana Harbor, a distance of 3.4 miles. (The history of East Chicago, which now includes Indiana Harbor, is itself a fascinating one—the two parts of town may as well have been two separate worlds. East Chicago became known as the “Twin City.”)
In 1904 the road’s name changed to the Chicago, Lake Shore and South Bend Railway, as the owners reconfigured the railroad. In 1908 service began between Hammond on the west and South Bend on the east. Finally, limited service to Chicago was inaugurated in 1909. Unfortunately, there was a catch: Chicago-bound passengers had to switch trains at Pullman, and later Kensington, to make the final leg of the journey via the Illinois Central. Limited through-service to Chicago in 1912 helped somewhat, but not enough to make the Lake Shore profitable for most of its life.

There were, however, some bright spots. The Lake Shore Line offered excursion trains and other sorts of leisure travel. The line advertised the Dunes and the amusement park at Michigan City. The Prairie Club of Chicago became a regular user, sponsoring frequent trips to Indiana’s Dune country. In addition, the Lake Shore owned a park at Hudson Lake, with weekend cottages and picnic grounds. In 1910 an eleven-car “picnic train” took fun seekers from Pullman to Hudson Lake. And, of course, the line could count on loyal Irish fans to pack a train for weekend football action at Notre Dame.

In the end, though, ridership on the Chicago Lake Shore and South Bend Railway declined steadily. The growth of the American “Car Culture,” along with the lack of a streamlined connection to Chicago, worked against the railroad. Maintenance on cars, wire systems, and track fell off noticeably in the early 1920s, and it looked like the end of the line had finally come.

And then came that simple memorandum from Insull to Budd in 1924. The next year the Midland Utilities Company, the umbrella for a number of Insull interests, including the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee and the Chicago Aurora and Elgin, purchased the Lake Shore and promptly renamed it the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad. Insull recruited Budd, president of the Chicago, North Shore, and Milwaukee, to head up the South Shore Line, and Sam Insull, Jr., became an executive vice president. Together they created “Insull’s Super-Interurban,”3 as Middleton termed it.

During the next two years Midland Utilities poured resources into upgrading the South Shore Line, including:
new track and roadbed
new signal system
new station in South Bend, and upgrades for other stations
new passenger coaches, with rich mahogany woodwork and mohair velvet seats
new freight locomotives
expanded schedules with more trains
parlor and dining cars

In addition, the company initiated the Shore Line Motor Coach service, connecting railroad passengers with destinations in Michigan and Indiana. The most significant occurrence, however, was an agreement with the Illinois Central for trackage rights to the Randolph Street station in Chicago, giving the South Shore Line direct passenger service to downtown Chicago. Last, but not least, the line began an intense marketing/advertising campaign to boost ridership.

All of this investment and planning worked. Ridership increased dramatically, from 1.5 million passengers in 1925 to more than 3 million by 1929. It was a super-interurban indeed.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the elements of the marketing campaign during the mid to late 1920s. South Shore Line staffers used techniques learned while upgrading the North Shore Line earlier, including flooding the local newspapers with stories and ads, depicting events and/or destinations via the South Shore Line. The ads emphasized speed and comfort and focused on trips to Chicago as well as trips toward South Bend. There were window displays in stations announcing special events and attractions (especially the Indiana Dunes), billboards and electric signs, and a miniature exhibition of the South Shore Line, accurate to the finest detail.

A monthly magazine called South Shore Lines was available in stations, on the trains, and by mail. This publication contained information on services, such as the Shore Line Motor Coach, as well as updates on the railroad’s projects or happenings in the Dunes. The staff also churned out folders, booklets, brochures and films, featuring the South Shore Line’s services and attractions. The Indiana Dunes and the Indiana Dunes State Park were pushed heavily in these publications. The railroad worked with the State of Indiana and the Dunes Purchasing Board to enhance the park. Insull donated $25,000 to the park and also loaned money for improvements such as a hotel and bathhouse. He even planned a spur line on donated land for the park’s entrance. That line was never built, but it would have followed present-day Indiana Route 49 to the park gates.

The Outing and Recreation Bureau and the Own Your Own Home Bureau department were created to take charge of most of the promotional products for the railroad. The Outing and Recreation Bureau provided information on vacations and resorts and made all the arrangements for clients. The Own Your Own Home Bureau promoted homesites along the South Shore Line (more about that effort in a moment).

The climax of these publicity efforts, however, was the series of colorful posters depicting the “fun-in-the-sun” places along the route, especially the Dunes and the Dunes State Park. These posters were exhibited in stations and on “L” platforms in Chicago, enticing the viewer to travel to beautiful spots along the South Shore Line. The poster art covered topics such as the four seasons, special events, destinations, Christmas, or general, romantic views of northern Indiana.

In producing our book, Moonlight in Duneland, my coeditor, Ron Cohen, and I located thirty-eight original posters. There are probably more out there, since it is estimated that the railroad produced posters on a monthly, or even bimonthly, basis between 1925 and 1929. Indeed, the railroad described its “monthly and bimonthly posters” in its application for the Coffin Medal in 1929. That would mean roughly sixty posters may have been part of the series. We’ll have to keep looking!

I’d like to go into a brief discussion of the power of poster advertising and perhaps surmise why the South Shore Line (and the North Shore Line for that matter) launched this poster series. In the 1920s the poster was seen as a valuable marketing tool, for it “delivers a message at a glance.”4 A railroad man explained:

In the foreword to the 1927 Annual of Advertising Art, which included the South Shore Line poster Homeward Bound, W. H. Beatty stated: