Jack Morton Worldwide

Company history

Jack Morton Worldwide, as it is known today, was named after its founder, Irvin Leonidas "Jack" Morton who was born in 1910 on a tobacco and cotton farm in Newport, North Carolina. Morton eventually earned his high school diploma at the age of 22 and moved to Washington D.C. and enrolled in The George Washington University while supported himself by working at Western Electric dispatching sound engineers to movie theaters.

While attending George Washington, Morton joined a fraternity, became a member of the interfraternity council, and soon began booking bands for fraternity dances. The bands then asked Morton to represent them in other venues in Washington. Morton printed up business cards for Jack Morton Orchestras, using the fraternity house payphone and his Western Electric office for messages.

After a short stint as a refrigerator salesman, Morton started booking bands to fraternities and sororities in Washington under the name of Jack Morton Enterprises (later changed to Jack Morton Productions). He later began booking orchestras in hotels, resorts, and night clubs in the Washington area.

1940's

After World War II the business expanded beyond the Washington area with the opening of additional offices in New York and Chicago. Large corporations were now looking to redesign their conventions to attract and entertain customers and employees, not just to do business. The new hotels now had banquet and meeting facilities with sound systems that were ideally suited to host the conventions that trade and professional associations. During this time the modern business convention was emerging and large corporations began to see conventions as a good place to do business. American businesses would expand the scope and scale of the events they organized for their customers and employees with world class entertainment from radio and Hollywood. Jack Morton Productions produced events and trade shows for corporations like Johnson & Johnson, General Motors and industry associations like American Trucking Association using entertainers such as Lawrence Welk, Bob Hope, George Burns, Jack Benny, and Red Skelton.

1950's

Starting in the 1950s, Jack Morton Productions expanded to produce entire conventions and promotional events in major cities around the United States. The American Trucking Association was his first big convention client and the trade group stuck with Morton for 35 years;

1960's

In the early 1960s, William I. "Bill" Morton, the son of Jack Morton, joined the company and helped to expand the company into the area of audio-visual productions and changed the name of the company to Jack Morton Productions (JMP). It was during this time when JMP became a full-service corporate communications agency, producing entertainment programs, training programs, audio-visuals, and video conferences for a variety of corporations and trade associations.

1970's

By 1977 Bill Morton had become Chairman and CEO, with offices opened in San Francisco (1972) and Atlanta (1976). During this time, the company grew to include capabilities including planning, exhibits and environments, themed attractions and multimedia.

1980's

Offices opened in Detroit (1987), Los Angeles (1987), Boston (1990) and Minneapolis (1990) and the company began to shift its focus from an entertainment production company to a full service creative agency.

1990's

In April 1998, the holding company, Interpublic Group, bought Jack Morton Company for a stock transaction that according to the Wall Street Journal was likely worth more than $50 million.

2000's

In 2000 Jack Morton acquired about 40 percent of rival Caribiner International, Inc. assets, paying $90 million for its events and communications division, which included the staging of sales meetings, events, and exhibits.

Later in 2000, Jack Morton Company renamed itself as Jack Morton Worldwide rather than take on the Caribiner name.

Bill Morton retired in 2003 after more than a quarter-century of leading the company his father founded.

In recent years Jack Morton Worldwide has added capabilities in areas such as: print, television, digital, public events (Special Olympics, 2004 Summer Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies); exhibits; digital media; content marketing; broadcast design (The Colbert Report, ESPN Sports Center); and more focused markets like Latinos.

Major events

Offices

Jack Morton has offices in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Norwalk, Princeton, San Francisco, London, Düsseldorf, Dubai, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney; as well as an affiliate in São Paulo; and field offices in Alpharetta, Naperville, Thousand Oaks, Danbury, and Irving.