Martin Solow

Martin X. Solow, 71, An Advertising Writer

"Published: August 15, 1991"

Martin X. Solow, an advertising writer who played a major role in broadening the use of Yiddish words in mainstream American advertising, died on Tuesday at Southampton Hospital on Long Island. He was 71 years old and lived in Sag Harbor, L.I.

He died of a heart attack, his son Steven said.

In 1964, he created the character of the "Beloved Herring Maven" for Vita Herring and, in radio commercials that ran for five years, helped establish "maven" as an accepted synonym for "expert" or "connoisseur."

Mr. Solow, who was born in Brooklyn, graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., in 1942. After serving in the Army during World War II and then editing newspapers published by the A.F.L.-C.I.O., he became assistant to the publisher of The Nation magazine in 1953.

In 1956, he switched to advertising. He established two small agencies in New York, Solow-Wexton and Durfee Solow, and later served as copy chief of the Kenyon & Eckhardt agency, as well as president of two advertising trade associations, the Copy Club and the Chinese Gourmet Society.

In addition to his son Steven, of Cold Spring, L.I., Mr. Solow is survived by his wife, Rita; two other sons, Peter, of Woodstock, N.Y., and Michael, of Auburndale, Mass.; a daughter, Ellen, of Roslyn Heights, L.I., and six grandchildren.

Source: New York Times Obituary