President Romney issued a Proclamation declaring today “Smiles Day.”
“The new day honors Harvey Ross Ball
Today we celebrate the birth of a true American entrepreneur. Mr. Ball improved our word by inventing the smiley face. In 1963 the iconic design was created for State Mutual Life Assurance Company of Worcester, Massachusetts . A merger had resulted in low employee morale. In less than ten minutes the smiley face was complete and the company’s friendship campaign began. They handed out 100 smiley pins to employees whose job was to smile while using the phone . The More than 50 million smiley face buttons had been sold by 1971!”.
Ball made all of $45 for his design.