Thundering Herd & We, the People (Merrill Lynch nicknames)

Merrill Lynch & Co. financial services company has been known as both the “Thundering Herd” and “We, the People” since at least 1948. In the 1940s, Merrill Lynch merged with other financial companies, adding their names to the end of the company name (for example: Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith). So many names were added that the company was dubbed both the “Thundering Herd” as “We, the People” (from the first line of the United States Constitution) in jest.
   
In 1971, Merrill Lynch began its famous “Bullish on America” advertising, and the “thundering herd” became illustrated as a herd of bulls.
 
Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, has trademarked “Thundering Herd” for its sports teams since 1961.
 
   
Wikipedia: Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MER TYO: 8675) is a global financial services firm. Through its subsidiaries and affiliates, the company provides capital markets services, investment banking and advisory services, wealth management, asset management, insurance, banking and related financial services worldwide. Merrill Lynch is headquartered in New York City, and occupies the entire 34 stories of the Four World Financial Center building in Manhattan. Plans were announced on 14 September 2008 for Bank of America to acquire Merrill Lynch, if approved by regulators and shareholders of both companies.
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Merrill Lynch rose to prominence on the strength of its brokerage network (15,000+ as of 2006), sometimes referred to as the “thundering herd”, that allowed it to place securities it underwrote directly. In contrast, many established Wall Street firms, such as Morgan Stanley, relied on selling groups of independent brokers for placement of the securities they underwrote. Until as late as 1970, it was known as the “Catholic” firm of Wall Street. The firm went public in 1971 and has since become a multinational corporation with over US $1.8 trillion in client assets, operating in more than 40 countries around the world. In 1978, it significantly buttressed its securities underwriting business by acquiring White Weld & Co., a small but prestigious old-line investment bank. Merrill Lynch is best known for its Global Private Client services and its strong sales force.
 
Merrill Lynch—Our History
1971
After years of planning, Merrill Lynch goes public, the second Big Board member to do so, but the first to have its shares listed on the exchange.
During a baseball World Series that saw the Pittsburgh Pirates edge out the Baltimore Orioles, Merrill Lynch introduces its “Merrill Lynch is bullish on America” ad campaign in a television commercial.
1973
To provide more flexibility, the firm becomes the first in the securities business to adopt a holding company format, with Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. as the parent and Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith as the operating subsidiary.
1974
Symbolizing growth, strength, optimism and confidence, the Bull logo is introduced and becomes the trademark on which all of the financial service subsidiaries of Merrill Lynch & Co. will be identified.
         
Time magazine
“We the People”
By HP-Time.com
Monday, Mar. 08, 1948
Who are the speculators in Wall Street and on the commodity exchanges? Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane, known to Wall Street as “We the People,”* last week announced that the speculators were indeed “We the People.” The world’s biggest securities and commodities brokerage house thought it had enough information in its files (150,000 customers) to correct the Truman Administration’s impression that commodity speculators were a small bunch of cold-eyed moneybags profiting on human misery. 
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* And also as The Thundering Herd, All This and Fenner Too, the Bureau of Missing Persons.
 
Time magazine
Grass-Roots Broker
By HP-Time.com
Monday, Feb. 14, 1949
Though brokers moaned that expenses were so high they could hardly earn their carfare, the nation’s biggest brokerage house last week turned in a rosy annual report. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane (variously known to gagsters as “We, the People,” “The Thundering Herd,” “All This and Fenner, Too”) did 9.4% of the round lot (blocks of 100 shares) trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 1948, and 12.9% of the odd-lot (less than 100 shares) business. 
     
Time magazine
We, the People
By HP-Time.com
Monday, Oct. 15, 1956
To Wall Streeters, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane, the world’s biggest brokerage house, has long been known as “We, the People,” “The Thundering Herd,” “Bureau of Missing Persons.” A supermarket of finance with 104 partners in no cities, Merrill Lynch handles everything from commodities to 10% of all trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Founder Charles Edward Merrill always took the gags as a compliment.
 
29 September 1957, Bridgeport (CT) Post, pg. A17, col. 1:
Take a look at a customer’s room or “board room” of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane, biggest brokerage house in the world and called facetiously “We the People” or “The Thundering Herd” because of its lengthy title.
     
11 January 1961, New York (NY) Times, “Winthrop Smith, Broker, 67, Dead,” pg. 48:
Behind the Facade of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Beane, known in the financial district as “We the People” or “Thundering Herd,” Mr. Smith worked toward twin objectives: to tkae Wall Street to Main Street, and to allay popular fears of security trading.
 
6 January 1964, New York (NY) Times, “Continued Trend to Mergers Expected in Brokerage Houses,” pg. 109:
Merrill Lynch, which operates 153 offices in this country and abroad and employs 2,300 account executives, continued its policy of growth from within the firm. Known on Wall Street as “the Thundering Herd,” the firm accounts for more than 12 per cent of all round-lot trading on the Big Board and for 20 per cent of the odd-lot volume.
 
13 May 1964, New York (NY) Times, pg. 67:
But oddly enough, the biggest house in the business—Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc.—has not one nickname but two. To the investing world it is known both as “The Thundering Herd” and “We, The People.”
 
1 September 1964, New York (NY) Times, “Pierce, Of Merrill Lynch, Is 90” by Richard Phalon, pg. 49:
“The Thundering Herd,” a not always affectionate reference to Merrill Lynch’s partners, or “We, The People,” as it is sometimes known, is the result of the 1940 and 1941 mergers that first brought Merrill Lynch and Pierce and later Fenner & Beane together.
 
19 November 1964, New York (NY) Times, pg. 61:
Merrill Lynch, sometimes called “the Thundering Herd” because of its size and importance, has made it clear that it strongly opposes mandatory service charges.
 
17 October 1982, New York (NY) Times, “On Language” by William Safire, pg. SM16:
Thirty years ago, I interviewed Charles Merrill for The New York Herald Tribune, and wondered why there had been no comma between Merrill and Lynch, when there were commas between those names and the rest of the “thundering herd,” as the long list of names came to be called. “Merrill Lynch was my company,” he replied, “and then we aded the other guys.”
 
(Trademark)
Word Mark THUNDERING HERD
Goods and Services IC 025. US 022 039. G & S: clothing, namely, t-shirts, sweat shirts, caps, hats, visors, pants, socks, shorts, uniforms and ties. FIRST USE: 19610900. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19610900
IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: education and entertainment services, namely, providing courses of instruction at the university level; educational research; arranging and conducting athletic events and tournaments, educational and entertainment exhibitions, educational conferences, live performances and festivals. FIRST USE: 19610900. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19610900
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
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Filing Date March 18, 2002
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Published for Opposition October 22, 2002
Registration Number 2674805
Registration Date January 14, 2003
Owner (REGISTRANT) Marshall University Foundation, Inc., The CORPORATION WEST VIRGINIA 400 Hal Greer Boulevard Huntington WEST VIRGINIA 25755
(LAST LISTED OWNER) MARSHALL UNIVERSITY STATE AGENCY WEST VIRGINIA ONE JOHN MARSHALL DRIVE HUNTINGTON WEST VIRGINIA 25755
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