With a tilt of her heel and a spark in her laugh, she waved goodbye to the driver and paused at a nearby newsstand to pick up a pack of Denton Chewing Gum™. As heiress to the Denton Chewing Gum Empire, DeeAnna Denton™ felt it her obligation to always carry a pack in her purse.

     “You going to actually chew that stuff?” a handsome bystander in a tilted blue fedora commented as he give Miss Denton a thorough once over.

DeeAnna dismissed his comment with a simple, yet cool, “Yes…and you, sir should mind your own business.” She then glided away in her cherry red silk suit into the bustle that was Madison Avenue of the 1950s.

     It was no small feat that DeeAnna’s father, George Denton, had built his sprawling company on a single product, but he often knew how to be in the right place at the right time, and he always kept a close ear to his daughter’s clandestine, but sharp, observations about the candy industry. So much so that rival Jupiter Candy Company™ felt a sharp decline in mint sales because of Denton’s positioning. DeeAnna would hold her own, though…greeting candy rival heiress, Janet Harcourt, at Park Avenue galas and soirées in the Hamptons with smiles and stunningly sumptuous fashions. DeeAnna shared her father’s taste for only the best, and her wardrobe deliciously displayed that to society.

     On that same fateful day to be so rudely and publicly admonished for consuming her own company’s product, DeeAnna Denton™ later joined her father at Seasons on Park for lunch…only to be introduced to a guest with a familiar tilted blue hat. DeeAnna broke into a cool and sophisticated smile as she was introduced to Max Martin, the now-nervous ad executive at Wyland & Reeves Advertising Agency™, joining George Denton to sign a new contract worth a king’s ransom.

     DeeAnna Denton™ sparkled to her father, and confidently returned the introduction with a flat, “We’ve met.”

     Responding to George’s gesture at her chair, DeeAnna giggled silently inside – she thought acidly of Mr. Martin’s earlier comment about her gum…and the fact he had one of the most charming smiles in Manhattan.