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wrote. "Finding the perfect sound for this segment of youth
– experimenting, preparing, and discovering – is where it
all began."
Miller's informal history of a television family is woven to-
gether in a tapestry of individual stories. They tell of last-
minute decisions and brainstorming sessions behind the
songs, records and marketing campaigns.

He said many song and album concepts happened organical-
ly, like the collaboration behind The Partridge Family Album.
My father, The Music Agency President Jay Leipzig, came
The payments up with the album's title. Art Director Mary English drew
gold letters on a red scrapbook to create the album cover.
"There were no computers then," English said.
family album Wesley J. Farrell, son of record producer Wes Farrell, found

By Dale S. Laszig life lessons in his father's greatest hits. "His work on the
Partridge Family was but a small part of his catalogue, but
DSL Direct LLC it always stood out to me as remarkable – and in so many
ways underappreciated – music," he wrote.
ome sons and daughters feel called to follow
their parents' professional path; others try it and Yesterday's fantasy, today's omnichannel
decide it's not their thing. The payments busi- Miller describes the 1970s as a shopper's paradise for
S ness can be tough, even for the most dedicated Partridge Family fans, who could find toys and trinkets
merchant level salespeople (MLSs). But even a brief foray bearing the images of favorite cast members. "In the pre-
into a family business can have enduring beneficial reper- Internet era, the only hope of getting close to a favorite ce-
cussions in a person's life. lebrity was through fantasy – realized, if not through teen
magazines, then by an endless supply of merchandising,"
Relatives who try your trade, but then move on, take a piece he wrote. "The Partridge Family operation was so huge it
of you with them. It may be your work ethic, favorite saying was nicknamed 'the merchandising machine.'"
or ability to laugh at setbacks. Sometimes it's the small
things that make the biggest impressions. Imagine the same fans in today's omnichannel environ-
ment, taking selfies with favorite cast members, posting
I have a wooden board and T-square from my days as a online reviews and directly engaging with stars on Twit-
summer intern at my father's advertising agency, The Mu- ter and Instagram. They'd buy tickets and merchandise on
sic Agency. The tools of the trade have changed, but these their smartphones. Mobile apps would alert them to last-
simple props take me back to my first days as part of a minute concert seating. Virtual reality headsets would be a
team. The music business was booming in the seventies, next-best option for sold-out shows.
and whether I was answering the phone, creating a back-
ground doodle for an album cover, typing a letter to a rock Payments, like the music industry, is competitive, collab-
star or proofreading my father's liner notes, I was thrilled orative and multifaceted. Its regional and global confer-
to be part of it. ences are filled with talented individuals who share their
personal stories in The Green Sheet and other industry trade
Years later, I found my way into merchant services. I hard- publications. Sales engineers, business analysts, product
ly thought about that first job until a few years ago, when designers and marketing directors all have a place in the
Johnny Ray Miller called. He was writing a book about the payments family album.
Partridge Family, for whom my father's agency had played
a supporting role. In subsequent interviews, I realized how As retailers grapple with the complexities of commerce en-
the agency had shaped my career and life. ablement, scores of payments experts provide them with

Experimenting, preparing, discovering advanced technologies, solutions and marketing to help
them engage with their customers. The Internet and mobile
Miller's When We're Singin', funded on Kickstarter and web may provide a greater audience, but merchants still
published in December 2016, blends my reminiscences rely on humans to convey the right marketing message and
with others who worked on the group's TV show, albums, mix.
concert tours and merchandising. "The Partridge Family
captured an audience from the tail end of the baby boom-
er generation and the early edge of Generation X," Miller

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