Highlights From a Silver Anvil Awards Ceremony and Gala in 1972

Fifty years ago, on May 18, 1972, PRSA presented its annual Silver Anvil Awards during a gala in New York. Here’s an account of the evening from PRSA’s monthly magazine, the PR Journal.

“Not only prestige and recognition come to the PR profession through the Public Relations Society’s annual Silver Anvil Awards program. It also provides members and students with a ready reference source for study of some of the most successful PR programs.

This was emphasized at the Society’s glittering 28th annual Silver Anvil Awards banquet at the Plaza Hotel in New York. The program was conducted by the Society’s Honors and Awards Committee, headed by W. Howard Chase, vice president, public affairs, American Can Company. Paul M. Lund, chairman, judges panel, and vice president, American Telephone & Telegraph Company, joined with Chase in presenting the awards.

In total, there were 20 winners that judges selected from 245 entries in a variety of categories. The recipients included the special-events planning for the dedication of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library at the University of Texas, a program to substantially reduce automobile thefts in the St. Louis metropolitan area, and an international relations campaign outlining the removal of 13,000 tons of toxic chemical munitions from Okinawa Island to storage sites elsewhere.” 

PRSA hosts the 2022 Anvil evening on May 19 in New York.