Amuser vos clients, c’est en faire des clients sérieux ! — L’Officiel du cycle, 16 June 1951, How a Cycle Dealer Can Organize a Gymkana with Scored Tests, First Part

From L’Officiel du cycle, du motocycle et du camping, 16 June 1951, N° 17, page 27: boxed article: Amuser vos clients, c’est en faire des clients sérieux; how a cycle dealer can organize a gymkana (pedestrians, cyclists, motorists) with scored tests and prizes, to be continued. The title, headings, captions and lists are transcribed as printed; the text is summarized in Ebykr’s words, and the page images carry it in full.

— Page 1 —
AMUSER VOS CLIENTS
C’EST EN FAIRE DES CLIENTS SÉRIEUX !

— Page 2 —
[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. With a little imagination, spirit and the help of some friends, every dealer can organize a gymkana. Gymkanas can be varied without end and aimed at children, young people or even older people, and it is for the dealer to find the surest way of reaching a possible clientele. There are gymkanas for pedestrians and for motorists; between the two, the motorcycle, the bicycle, the roller skate and even the scooter can make up gymkanas of every kind. A dealer who has extended his cycle business to camping gear, toys and sporting goods can vary the games with the tastes of the moment, with the articles he most wants to sell and with the season in which he can run one of these amusing games. At the time of departures for camp, for instance, when customers are ready for the joys of camping, he can hold a foot race in which each runner carries his own pack on his back; such a race, full of snares, would amuse not only the runners but all their friends.]

[Ebykr summary, continued. The same kind of race can be run for cyclist-campers and, in many circumstances, for cyclists alone. The interest of this gymkana lies in resourcefulness rather than speed. The simplest way to organize a family and friendly gymkana is to charge the entrants a fee, which will cover the cost of one or more prizes for the winners, to give each entrant a running number and, on the day, at an agreed place and hour, to send the “combatants” into the “arena”. This arena may be open country, a beach or even a quarter of the town, always quiet on Sunday. As an example of the snares to offer the starters, the first is that each receives in an envelope a short itinerary to follow, in which a monument may be indicated by a date, a bridge by its number of arches, a street by its exact width, a shop by the first name of its owner, the town hall]

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[Ebykr summary, continued from the left column. The itinerary clue goes on: the town hall or a door is indicated by its number of windows, without counting all the puns that certain place names, crossroads and the like suggest. The second point is that each place on the itinerary to be guessed is a stopover where an official hands each competitor an envelope holding a further test, of which these are some examples.]

A) Le verre d’eau plein à garder en main jusqu’à la fin du gymkana. Ce verre d’eau est vidé à l’arrivée dans une éprouvette graduée.
B) Dresser complètement sa tente avec une certaine orientation obligatoire et refaire l’empaquetage.
C) Entrer dans un café et ingurgiter une pleine assiette de macaronis.
D) Se déchausser et traverser une mare.
E) Donner papier, ficelle, épingles avec lesquels le concurrent devra se confectionner une coiffure qu’il placera sur la tête et gardera pendant toute l’épreuve.
F) Faire allumer quatre bougies posées sur une table jusqu’à ce qu’elles soient toutes les quatre allumées.

(A suivre)

[A boxed text article in two columns inside a ruled black border, with a heavy rule along the foot. The title AMUSER VOS CLIENTS stands across the head in large slanted capitals, and the subtitle C’EST EN FAIRE DES CLIENTS SÉRIEUX ! in smaller upright capitals beneath it. The left column opens with a large initial A followed by small capitals, and the paragraphs run in roman type with indented first lines. In the right column the tests are marked with italic capital letters A to F, and the closing words “(A suivre)” stand at the lower right in italics. No drawing, photograph, signature or agency mark appears.]