{"id":4459,"date":"2013-05-02T08:30:03","date_gmt":"2013-05-02T13:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/?p=4459"},"modified":"2015-03-19T14:01:52","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T19:01:52","slug":"throwback-thursday-the-quad-cities-usa-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/2013\/05\/02\/throwback-thursday-the-quad-cities-usa-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Throwback Thursday: The Quad-Cities USA Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

While adding items to our Ephemera collection, we found brochures for the Quad Cities U.S.A. campaign—and we couldn’t resist sharing!<\/em><\/p>\n

________________<\/p>\n

\u201cA typical Quad-Cities resident lives in one community, works in another and shops in a third city. It\u2019s urban, but also rural; it\u2019s Midwestern, but not small town; it\u2019s sophisticated, but casual; it\u2019s quality within quantity; and most of all, it\u2019s friendly.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Quad-Cities U. S. A<\/i>. promotion campaign began around 1980 when a local radio station wanted to promote our area. The Quad-City Development Group coordinated the program with help from local advertising, public relations agencies and industries.<\/p>\n

One of the major purposes of the campaign was to promote unity and identity among the collective residents of the several cities that had merged geographically over the last century.\u00a0 It was hoped that this sense of interdependent community would help promote the Quad-Cities as a place with the benefits of small town life and the advantages of the big city.<\/p>\n

So, what are the \u201cQuad-Cities\u201d? <\/b><\/p>\n

Officially, the counties of Scott (Iowa) and Rock Island & Henry (Illinois) make up the Davenport-Rock Island-Moline, Iowa-Illinois Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area, DRIM-SMSA.<\/p>\n

But practically speaking, the Quad-Cities is the label for fourteen neighboring municipalities: Davenport, Bettendorf, Eldridge, Panorama Park and Riverdale in Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline, East Moline, Milan, Silvis, Coal Valley, Carbon Cliff, Oak Grove and Hampton in Illinois.<\/p>\n

So why aren’t we called the Tetradeca-Cities?<\/b><\/p>\n

In the beginning, we were the \u00a0Tri-Cities:\u00a0 Davenport, Rock Island, and Moline.<\/p>\n

There are several theories about why “Quad” was added to our name:\u00a0 Bettendorf finally grew up enough to join the party; a road atlas made a mistake and it stuck; or someone noticed that there were a lot of cities inside the quad<\/i>rangle created by Interstate-80 and Interstate-280.<\/p>\n

But whatever the real reason, as more towns and cities were absorbed, it became clear that it would be extremely inconvenient to upgrade our collective name every few years.<\/p>\n

So we didn’t.<\/p>\n

What happened during the campaign?<\/b><\/p>\n

The Quad-City Development Group brought the creative talents and funds together for the project. Over $500,000 in Public service air time and advertising space went into the campaign as well as many hours of perception research and concept development.<\/p>\n

Some of the taglines used in their brochures include:<\/p>\n

\u201cQuad Cities USA \u2013 Where the World\u2019s Busiest Highway Meets The Heartland\u2019s Mightiest Waterway\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Where The \u2018Father of Waters\u2019 meets \u2018The Mother Of Invention\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Where Urban Lifestyle And Rural Beauty Sing In Harmony.\u201d\"QCUSA\"<\/p>\n

A stylized \u201cQ\u201d to symbolize the union of cities was designed by the Deere & Company visual communications department, and a film mirroring Quad-Cities industry, lifestyle, recreation and agriculture was produced by Forward of Illinois Productions, of Morton.<\/p>\n

There was even a song commissioned to convey “the upbeat spirit of our metropolitan life.”\u00a0 Charlie Teague, of Warren, Anderson, Litzenberger & Teague, Inc., wrote the lyrics and Bob Jenkins Associates, of Chicago, composed the music.<\/p>\n

But it wasn’t all fun and games.\u00a0 Several serious incentives were offered to businesses considering relocation or opening branches in the Quad-Cities—or even transporting their goods through what was advertised as a “personal Port of Entry and Foreign Trade Zone.”<\/p>\n

That’s pretty cool! You wouldn’t happen to have a copy of that Quad-City theme song around?<\/b><\/p>\n

We have a copy on 7 inch vinyl in our collection, which we’ve digitized and posted on another blog post<\/a> for your listening pleasure. We also have a brochure with the lyrics in our ephemera files.<\/p>\n

Lyrics:<\/span>
\nI know a place
\nWhere there\u2019s work to be done
\nWhere there\u2019s room for me
\nand who I want to be.
\nSomewhere I can do the things
\nI\u2019m good enough to do.
\nWhere I can build my tomorrow.
\nWhere I can live with the eagles.
\nFly with the eagles and be free.
\nQuad Cities U.S.A.
\nLookin\u2019 better every day
\nQuad Cities, you\u2019re the place I want to be.
\nI want to be.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a river
\nA stream that works while it plays.
\nA road through history
\nDown to the shining sea.
\nThis mighty, rollin\u2019 river,
\ntells me that I\u2019m home
\nWhere I can build my tomorrow.
\nWhere I can live with the river
\nFlow with the river and be free.
\nQuad Cities U.S.A.
\nGrowin\u2019 stronger every day
\nQuad Cities you\u2019re the place I want to be.
\nI want to be.<\/p>\n

On this good land
\nThe seasons flavor my life.
\nAnd it\u2019s good to know
\nOf things that live and grow.
\nI can raise my family
\nWhere the good life\u2019s gonna be.
\nAnd I can build my tomorrow.
\nWhere I can live on the good land
\nGrow with the good land and be free.
\nQuad Cities U.S.A.
\nGrowing better every day
\nQuad Cities you\u2019re the place I want to be.<\/p>\n

Where I can live with the eagles,
\nFly with the eagles and be free.
\nQuad Cities U.S.A.
\nLookin\u2019 better every day
\nQuad Cities, you\u2019re the place I want to be.
\nI want to be.
\nI want to be.<\/p>\n

(Posted by Cristina)<\/em>
\n_______________________________<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

McGowan, Susi. “Quad Cities USA.” Home & Away (AAA Iowa Motor News), 1982: 16f-16i.<\/p>\n

“Quad Cities USA: Looking Better Every Day.” Davenport, Iowa: Quad City Development Group, 1982.<\/p>\n

“Quad Cities USA: The Connection.” Quad-City Development Group, 1988.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While adding items to our Ephemera collection, we found brochures for the Quad Cities U.S.A. campaign—and we couldn’t resist sharing! ________________ \u201cA typical Quad-Cities resident lives in one community, works in another and shops in a third city. It\u2019s urban, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[397,1410,310,987,988,989,877],"class_list":["post-4459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-history","tag-ephemera","tag-local-history","tag-music","tag-quad-cities","tag-quad-cities-usa-campaign","tag-throwback-thursday","tag-tourism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXc-19V","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4459"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6043,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4459\/revisions\/6043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/sc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}