Jeff Barfield , Luke & Jenna
Dodd herself stopped promoting Father ’ s Day in the 1920s while she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago . When she returned to Spokane in the 1930s , she picked it back up again and raised awareness at a national level , according to Wikipedia .
Mother ’ s Day became a national holiday in part because of the support of retailers such as florists , confectioners and greeting card companies — and the Wannamaker department store that backed Anna Jarvis from the beginning . Father ’ s Day also had support from trade groups that hoped to benefit , such as the makers of ties , tobacco pipes and other traditional gifts for fathers . Their efforts redoubled during the Great Depression , according to an article at History . com , and during World War II advertisers argued that celebrating Father ’ s Day was a way to honor American troops and support the war effort .
“ By the end of the war , Father ’ s Day may not have been a federal holiday , but it was a national institution ,” the History . com article said .
The fears of commercialization were well-founded .
“ Since 1938 she [ Dodd ] had the help of the Father ’ s Day Council , founded by the New York Associated Men ’ s Wear Retailers to consolidate and systematize the commercial promotion ,” the Wikipedia article said . “ Americans resisted the holiday during a few decades , perceiving it as just an attempt by merchants to replicate the commercial success of Mother ’ s Day , and newspapers frequently featured cynical and sarcastic attacks and jokes . But the trade groups did not give up : They kept promoting it and even incorporated the jokes into their adverts , and they eventually succeeded . By the mid-1980s the Father ’ s Council wrote that ‘(…) [ Father ’ s Day ] has become a Second Christmas for all the men ’ s gift-oriented industries .’”
It was in 1966 — more than 50 years after Mother ’ s Day was proclaimed — when a proclamation from President Lyndon B . Johnson designated the third Sunday in June as Father ’ s Day . The day was made a permanent national holiday six years later when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972 .
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