In the twentieth century’s Golden Age of Advertising, many ad men (and a few women) called Lake Bluff home. Calvin Gage was among those riding the train from Lake Bluff’s depot into downtown Chicago every weekday morning, dressed in suit and tie. As a research executive at Leo Burnett, he wasn’t engaging in three-martini lunches (his was a more sober crowd), but his accounts did include blue chip clients such as Kellogg, Oldsmobile, Nestle, Pillsbury, Green Giant, Starkist and others, and his tenure coincided with infamous Madmen of the day like Lake Bluff’s Draper Daniels, after whom Don Draper in the 2007-2015 “Mad Men” TV show was modeled. In 2022, Cal himself was interviewed for WTTW-TV’s “Real Mad Men of Chicago” special.
Now 96 years old and living at Lake Forest Place, Cal remembers the decades he worked at Burnett and lived in Lake Bluff with clarity and fondness. It was an era that’s almost unrecognizable today – a time of landline phones, one-car families, manual typewriters, pencil sharpeners, and bulletin boards.
Now he wound up at Burnett: Operating on a tip from a friend, Cal cold called the agency and was hired as a research analyst in 1955. He retired in 1984 as senior-VP-director of research.
One of the benefits: A random moment in an office hallway changed Cal’s life. On Fridays, Burnett posted notices on a bulletin board of employee birthdays and anniversaries. While reading the board one day in 1958, Cal met a research analyst named Margaret Borchmann, aka Marge. Her cubicle was across from his and he had seen her walking to the pencil sharpener from time to time, but they had never chatted. They realized their birthdays were two days apart – hers Feb. 12 and his Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day. They agreed to a joint celebration and on Feb. 13 dined at a Greek restaurant near the Burnett office in the Prudential Building. By June they were engaged; in September they wed.
How they wound up in Lake Bluff: Cal and Marge lived in an apartment in Evanston for two years, then they bought a small house in Highland Park for $25,000 when Marge was expecting their first child. On summer nights the young family could hear music from Ravinia, which they loved (who wouldn’t?!), but in time they needed a bigger house within walking distance to a train station.
An account exec at Burnett named Bob Williams talked about what a wonderful place Lake Bluff was. Cal and Marge visited once and were sold. This was 1962. They selected a West Terrace model from Chicago Construction for $33,000, and a short time later moved into their new home. After seven years, they moved to a house they had designed on west Blodgett Avenue, opposite the southern border of Tangley Oaks. Marge volunteered with many organizations, enjoyed serving as adult director of the 1978 Lake Forest High School talent show, and was active in the Lake Bluff Woman’s Club. Their son Andrew and daughter Carolyn attended public schools – Andrew, in fact, went to all six public schools: East Elementary, Central School, West Elementary, Lake Bluff Junior High, plus Lake Forest High School West campus and East campus.
What they loved about Lake Bluff: They loved a lot of things – the safety and freedom their children had; the small downtown filled with just about everything you needed — pharmacy, hardware store, A&P grocery, music store, Bill’s Market, White’s Variety, an antique store, a gas station. They loved their friends especially.
Cal and Marge met many of their friends through Grace United Methodist Church. In 1963, Minister Bob Crocker proposed a young couples’ group for the growing number of families moving into town and joining the church. Named Questers, the club had more than 30 couples, and Marge and Cal were its first co-presidents. Many members became lifelong friends.
Questers met monthly on a Saturday evening in members’ homes. Meetings blended socializing with serious programs and fun activities – and they usually extended past midnight.
“We planned meetings that would achieve a balance between sociable and intellectual stimulation, between spectator and participation, and a freshness of variety that would sustain interest,” says Cal. “And we believed it would be desirable to inject some elements of humor and lightheartedness to round out the evenings.”
Why they left Lake Bluff: In 1984, Cal and Marge purchased a 60-acre property in rural New Hampshire that was half wood, half meadow, and had a 200-year-old post-and-beam farmhouse in need of a total renovation. When Cal retired from Burnett, they moved to Marlborough, population 2,000, and turned the house into a Bed & Breakfast, with Marge working as general manager. They brought memories of Lake Bluff and more: the renovation included cabinets from the Lake Bluff Children’s Home. Cal and Marge operated the B&B from 1985 to 1993, then decided it was time to slow down some more.
Why they moved back home: The couple thought of staying in New Hampshire. They considered moving to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. In the end, they decided to come home. In fact, it was very easy to relocate back to Lake Bluff, because many of their Questers friends were still here. The Gages bought a place in Armour Woods and happily lived there for 30 years. “It was a good house, a good neighborhood, a good life, and we had a good garden,” Cal recalls. Two years ago, they moved to Lake Forest Place, into a first-floor unit with a patio and space for Marge’s garden. They still see friends from Questers.
The years that Cal spent at Leo Burnett were considered the Golden Age of Advertising. For Cal and Marge, you could say their life together in Lake Bluff and beyond has been golden.
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Here are names of several people who lived in Lake Bluff and worked at Leo Burnett during Cal’s tenure from 1955-1989. If we missed anyone let us know!
Huntley Baldwin, Jackson Brown, Mel Brown, Draper Daniels, Mary Francoeur, Ed Freeman, Cal Gage, Marge Gage, Phil Gayter, Bill Hare, Lary Larsen, Walter Maes, Cathy McKechney, Gil Mickels, Mike Miles, Rob Nolan, Phillip Ross, Bill Sertees, Jack Smith, Jack Stafford, Dick Stanwood, Catherine Askow Thompson, Nancy Voorhees, Don Weber, Bob Welke, Mike White, Bob Williams, Ken Wright, Bill Youngclaus, John Zeeman.