Evelyn Y. Davis: A 1967 Assessment

Jim Patterson note: An April 1967 column on my longtime partner and wife Evelyn Y. Davis, the Queen of the Corporate Jungle. See my bionote at end.

It's Busy Season For Evvie

HER NAME is Evelyn Y. Davis, of New York City, dah-Iing, and although she announces herself as an "editor and publisher" (of a pamphlet about stockholders meetings), that is just a byproduct of her full-time career of being the complete publicity seeker.

But if there seems a madness to her method, there apparently is also a reason: She says it's the most effective way of accomplishing her purpose.

That could be debatable; so could the purpose Itself. True, she is a stockholder (mostly 10 or 20 shares) in 60 major U.S. companies; true, she attends as many annual meetings as she can manage; true, she asks questions she says are pertinent to the care and feeding of her investments.

But you come away from an Evelyn Y. Davis performance groggy and reeling, with the feeling you've been watching one of the world's dedicated limelight-lovers in action, and that that is her sole reason for being.

AS YOU KNOW, THIS IS THE SEASON FOR annual stockholder meetings. Kodak had one, you may recall. (Evvie doesn't include Kodak among her holdings, which is probably just as well. I doubt that the corporate world is ready for two such confrontations at one setting.) But she was on hand for the General Dynamics meeting in the Sheraton Hotel on Wednesday.

She was representing, for herself and six other people, 738 shares. The noise she makes is slightly out of proportion to the total of 10 million shares, but that deters Evelyn Y. Davis not a whit.

The pop of a flashbulb in the distance is like a trumpet calling the garrison to arms. Evvie literally glows when she comes within range of a camera. And if there is a camera on the premises, you can bet she will come within range of it.

You get the feeling she might yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater just to attract attention.

The loser, the fellow on Evvie's right, seemed like a mild-mannered young man. He even got up and spoke later, disagreeing good-naturedly with Evelyn Y. Davis. "Well," she promptly rebutted, "you wouldn't have bad the nerve to stand up if Evelyn Y. Davis hadn't been here and started things."

She could have been right at that, for she does '-' bring out the debative tendencies.

 * * *

SHE COMES ON STAGE LIKE A CROSS between Gloria Swanson [as Norma Desmond] in "Sunset Boulevard" and an interviewer at the Inquisition. She has the abrasive qualities of a blacksmith's rasp when she really bears down, although she is not without a sense of humor and has polished her act to the point where she does not belabor an issue, but goes on to fresh points.

She does all this in the interests of stockholders who, EYD is convinced, are afraid to speak their minds. So she, as the self-annointed one, does their speaking for them.

And while most stockholders in the audience twist and fidget in the acute embarrassment that accompanies an extrovert' s attention-grabbing maneuvers, some do derive a bit of satisfaction.

"She asks questions I'd never dare ask," admitted one man. "She's so brash she makes you feel like you've been caught reading somebody else's mail. But she does keep them on their toes."

* * *

SHE WAS ON HAND HALF AN HOUR BEFORE - the meeting was to begin, waving to people she knew, talking with people she didn't. She has a German accent. Or maybe it's French. At any rate, it's European. She acquired her first stock (Safeway ' Stores) in 1954 when she lived in Washington.

She is a nice-looking woman who is a working charm girl. It is not easy to be a charm girl when you are wearing a green helmet, but Miss Davis was getting away with it. She will not divulge her age, and I would be the last to put a lady on the spot, but I might bet she is on the back nine, as a golfer could say, although she looks youthful enough and she does seem to thrive on her steady diet of corporation executives.

They tolerate her (what else can they do?) but you can see them mentally gritting their teeth, and nodding pleasantly, and restraining themselves when they would no doubt like to flat pass her into the wings.

She rushed up to a reporter she recognized and shouted "Dah-ling! It's so NICE to see you! You look divine! How do you like my helmet? And this dress?" She swirled provacatively. "I stopped traffic. because everyone enjoys watching a glamorous woman."

She talks about half an octave higher than anyone else, a characteristic that is apt to send you climbing the walls if she is talking with you in what you assume to be a private conversation. There is no such thing as a private conversation on EYD's part; she speaks for the whole world to hear. It usually does.

SHE HAD STAKED CLAIM ON* THE FIRST SEAT in the second row. so as to be handy to whatever spotlights might turn up. "These four nice men here," she said, pointing to four Xerox employees who are GD stockholders, "drew straws to see who would have the honor of sitting next to me.

Source: Bill Beeney, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, April 28, 1967

Jim Patterson notes: Note the dismissive and sexist language used by the columnist. He never mentions her questions at the meetings only her “abrasive” and “brash” questioning. It was EYD’s view that any woman who dared ask questions would be considered “brash” and “abrasive,” but she didn’t give a damn.

In the 1980s/1990s when I cautioned her on some of her questions, she used the Clark Gable line from “Gone with the Wind.” She’d say, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” She was speaking about the controversy surrounding some of her questions and the response from CEOs or Board Members.

Mrs. Davis was Dutch not German. She famously never lost her European accent. Mrs. Davis spoke loudly because she was largely deaf. Beeney notes EYD is a “nice looking woman.” That was never enough for EYD. She wanted to be described as “glamorous,” “elegant,” “fabulous,” “gorgeous,” “brilliant” and “beautiful,” to name a few of her favorites. She knew reporters would not use those words, so she used them herself and was satisfied when reporters quoted her using them.

Corporate presenter Jim Patterson was contributor, partner and husband of Evelyn Y. “Queen of the Corporate Jungle” Davis. His presentations include “Solid Gold You,” “My Life with the Queen of the Corporate Jungle,” and “Corporate Advocacy the EYD Way.” He also introduces the 1956 film “The Solid Gold Cadillac,” the film that inspired Evelyn Y. Davis for a career of corporate advocacy. He also panels on corporate governance. For availability [email protected]