During the early 1980's there was a story in the Wall Street Journal
about a college student who used his computer to come up with all the
1-800 telephone numbers that were words.  He then called AT&T and
requested those #'s for service and resold the telephone to
businesses.  The most famous sale was 1-800-FLOWERS.  I WANT TO LOCATE
A COPY OF THE ORIGINAL STORY.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 15 Apr 2004 06:42 PDT

Hello garmish-ga,

I'm pretty sure I found your story in the WSJ, but before I post an
answer, there're two things to clarify:

1).  The article from the early 1980's is about a young man who
dreamed up the idea of selling 800-numbers that are words, and was
amassing a collection of such numbers.  However, I saw no mention of
his using a computer program to generate the words, nor was
800-FLOWERS mentioned in any context (indeed, the comment by
bobbie7-ga suggests this name arose from another route all together).

2).  I can provide you details of the article (title, date it
appeared, brief excerpts) but I can't post the full article since it
is copyright-protected.

Shall I post the information I have as an answer to your question?

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by garmish-ga on 15 Apr 2004 14:49 PDT

Yes, that sounds like the story.  IF you could provide part of the
article and the date of publication I could get it from the WSJ.

Here ya go:


WALL STREET JOURNAL
29 November 1982


WISCONSIN ENTREPRENEUR DREAMS OF ANAGRAM PHONE NUMBER EMPIRE



MADISON, WIS.--GREG GRISSWOLD HAS 500 TELEPHONE NUMBERS AND WOULD LIKE 4,500 MORE. 

FOR EXAMPLE, THERE IS 1-800-437-7439. IF THE LAST SEVEN ARE CONVERTED
TO THEIR CORRESPONDING LETTERS ON A TELEPHONE DIAL, IT READS
1-800-HERSHEY.

GRISWOLD FIGURES HERSHEY FOODS CORP. MIGHT PAY $2,500 OR MORE FOR
MARKETING SERVICES BASED ON ACCESS TO THAT ANAGRAM.

HE HOPES NABISCO BRANDS INC. WILL WANT 1-800-622-4726, WHICH IS
1-800-NABISCO. HE HAS ALSO HAD 1-800-THE ROCK WAITING FOR THE
PRUDENTIAL INSURANCE CO. OF AMERICA AND 1-800-THE BULL FOR MERRILL
LYNCH & CO...


...GRISWOLD'S COMPANY, CALLED CIPHEREX CORP., WOULD DO ALL THIS ON A
GRAND SCALE. IT WOULD NEED ABOUT $10 MILLION FOR A BUILDING AND
EQUIPMENT AND ANOTHER $40 MILLION TO $70 MILLION WOULD BE NEEDED TO
SEE THE COMPANY THROUGH ITS EARLY YEARS, GRISWOLD FIGURES.

==========

The rest you'll have to get from WSJ.

Let me know if you have any questions about this.



pafalafa-ga 


search strategy:  searched commercial databases for WSJ articles
containing [ 800 toll-free ]

Great!  That was the article I was looking for.

Hello Garmish,

I located a law case regarding 1-800-flowers number.

Excerpt:

"When Madison Truck Brokers subscribed to an incoming-toll-free number
in 1976, at&t assigned it 800 356-9377 at random. Madison Truck
Brokers and its successor Capitol Warehousing Corporation used the
number in their transportation business until 1982, when they expanded
into floral
delivery. William Alexander thought that 800-FLOWERS would be the
ideal toll-free number for a florist--and someone typing that sequence
on a phone's keypad will reach 800 356-9377.

Alexander approached Curtis Jahn, the owner of Capitol Warehousing, with a
proposal to test-market floral sales via the 800-FLOWERS number. Jahn and
investors recruited by Alexander organized 800-Flowers, Inc., a Wisconsin
corporation, to explore the idea and, if events justified, to run a national
flowers-by-phone business."
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=7th&navby=case&no=012999

Could this information be somewhat related to your question?

Thanks,
Bobbie7