A Fan’s Notes

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Write Post-it story, ASAP.

In the forgettable 1997 movie “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion,” Lisa Kudrow attempts to pass herself off as successful by telling her classmates at their 10th reunion that she invented Post-it Notes. In her dream sequence, Kudrow’s character reels off the formula for the adhesive invented in 1968 by 3M Co. scientist Spencer Silver that made Post-its possible.

For a brief moment, she has fooled her classmates into believing she created the greatest office-supply product of the 20th century and beyond. She’s a star.

Talk to lady at Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing.

Post-it Notes (now available in 27 sizes, 56 shapes and 50 colors) is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month.

“It’s pretty boring, but my favorite size is the old rectangle shape. Yellow,” says Judy Schuster, a spokeswoman at 3M in Minnesota. “I write myself notes all the time. I stick them on my wallet because I know I’ll be picking up my wallet to buy coffee. I guess I’m a slow learner,” she says.

“I remember when I used to put them in my husband’s lunch box,” she adds, wistfully. “I still leave notes for him--and I still sign them with ‘love.’ ”

Mention hymn bit.

The history of Post-it Notes is a textbook case of science-meets- serendipity.

Originally called Press and Peel notes, the product was hatched in a lab and became only a mere “business tool” around the shop at 3M, Schuster says. The earth didn’t move for anyone until 1980, when the product was introduced nationwide.

In 1975, seven years after Silver created the water-soluble adhesive, a 3M scientist named Art Fry had a revelation. One day at church, the little pieces of paper he used to flag the week’s hymns kept falling out. Fry remembered Silver’s adhesive, the one that sticks but isn’t too sticky, and hadn’t yet found a reason for being.

Fry applied the adhesive to the back of his bookmarks. Stickage ensued. Later, while writing a report, Fry used his sticky place keeper to mark his page. He discovered he could write on the sticky paper. And this was a handy thing.

Boise Blitz. Funny.

Fry reworked his invention, which 3M would call a “repositionable note.” At first, he passed it out to colleagues, one pad per person. He took careful notes on the number of pads used each year.

“They became hopeless addicts,” says Fry. Why? “You get an idea, you jot it down. Immediately, it’s saved, and your mind can go on to other things.”

The public initially responded with all the enthusiasm one would shower on, say, the “low-tack adhesive” that Silver had invented. In 1978, 3M mounted what it still calls the “Boise Blitz.” The notes were handed out by the thousands to the fine folks of Boise, Idaho--the first Post-it capital of the free world. Boise fancied the notes--but it was only Boise, after all.

Fortune 500 companies were the next target audience. Remember Lee Iacocca? He loved the 3-inch-by-5-inch pads and wrote 3M to tell them so. This amounted to what they call in the business “good publicity.” The Press and Peel notes went national in 1980, and a decade later, the name was changed to Post-it.

“I had full confidence it would be a nice-sized business,” Fry says, “but I had no idea it would be in every office practically through the world.”

Don’t forget business cards.

The robust Post-it product line--Post-it Easel Pads, Post-it Pop-Up Dispensers, Post-it Self-Stick Bulletin Boards--also includes Post-it personalized business cards. Rather than using that underrated invention called the paper clip, Post-it lovers can just stick their business cards wherever the spirit moves them.

3M makes Scotch tape too.

Hey, it’s the 75th anniversary of the first masking Scotch tape! It’s also the 70th anniversary of the first transparent Scotch tape! Where’re the celebratory feature stories about these home and office staples? Where would we be without Scotch tape? Try wrapping gifts with Post-its, mister.

Call inventor. Royalties?

“I had a Post-it note from my wife that you called,” says Art Fry, now 68 and semi-retired from 3M.

Everyone, we suppose, wants to know if Silver and Fry got rich off the invention and lived happily ever after. Rich? No. The company owns the product. Proud? You bet. With 22 patents to his name, Silver retired from 3M in 1996. Fry--who still gets together with his old colleague--lives in Minnesota and publicly speaks often and fondly of the sticky bookmark that became the world’s niftiest note pad.

Finish Post-it story.

Double-check Iacocca spelling.