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by Mick Doherty The current calendar year is proving fertile ground for historians and sociologists to "look back" at what's changed in recent history. The 60th anniversary of "D-Day," recently passed, and the fast-approaching return of the Olympic Games to its country of origin in Greece are just two examples of key "anniversary" events driving the news. This ongoing series of articles on Jetnet looks back at the top headlines in Flagship News, the "paper of record" for AA since 1939. This edition revisits an even half-century ago, June of 1954 ... a year when Bill Haley and the Comets were "Rockin' Around the Clock," when a British physician named Roger Bannister burst through the seemingly unbreakable four-minute mile barrier and when "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien was at the top of the charts ... as a book, not a movie. Dateline: June 3, 1954
Competition is Ended by Centralized Flight Division The President's Trophy program, competition among American's pilots and crew members and in existence for the past 10 years, is being discontinued. it was announced today by Walter W. Braznell, Director of Flying Operations. At the same time, Braznell revealed that the trophy itself is being permanently awarded to the Los Angeles and San Francisco bases, as the only three-time winners ... The trophy was awarded to the region whose crews rated the best on such phases of airline flying as overall crew proficiency, flying safety and strict observance of flight regulations. News Brief: "For the second time within two months, American Airlines set a record for passengers carried out of one city by one airline in one day when 5,414 passengers were boarded from airports in the New York area on Friday, May 28." More stories: "The Love Field Players" acting troupe, led by chief agent Ray Willis, presented "Give the Customer the Complete Story" (apparently, no pickles were involved -- yet) ... Speaking of acting, LGA-based "stewardess" Marianna Crone made her CBS-TV debut on "Danger" ... A two-page black-and-white photo centerspread featured AAers lounging around an Acapulco poolside in the latest swimsuit styles of the day ... Readers met the "Internline Bridge Club" in Knoxville ... LAX lead mechanic Al Horowitz received kudos for his consistent ability to find "simple solutions to those vexing problems" in order to save the company money
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Also in the United States, the celebrated "Brown vs. Board of Education" outlawed segregation in public schools ... The first issue of a new periodical called Sports Illustrated rolled off the presses; there's no confirmation that a newsstand operator outside the Hotel Sherman in Chicago called it a "good looking little magazine" ... It was a good year to be born if you wanted to be a talk-show host (Howard Stern, Oprah Winfrey) or a comedic actor/writer (Ron Howard, Jerry Seinfeld, Matt Groening of "The Simpsons") ... "Rings" wasn't the only popular "Lord"-titled book as William Golding's "The Lord of the Flies" also, ah, flew up the charts ... but the Nobel Prize for Literature went to a fella named Hemingway, for penning the prose entitled "The Old Man and the Sea." Dateline: June 17, 1954
Captain Fred J. Shaw took on the title of flying lawyer on June 9, the day he was awarded an L.L.B. degree from N.Y.U. On the same day student Shaw received national recognition when he was announced as one of 17 students among the thousands studying law in this country to be selected by the Justice Department for possible positions under its program "Get the Best" ... Shaw will have an opportunity to work as an assistant to U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell, if he desires. News Brief: "AA will now have three round-trip nonstops by DC-7 between New York and Los Angeles." More stories: Akron wiped out its local "modern" record of 33 flights without a delay by recording a remarkable 166 consecutive flights, "including one extra section" without a delay ... American Airlines advertising ranked in the top 10 of more than 11,000 entrants at the Art Directors Club Show ... A new AA ticket counter with nine positions for ticketing and two for handling baggage -- aided by a newfangled "baggage conveyor" -- opened in the south lobby of Washington National ... A two-page black-and-white photo centerspread featured "Toronto -- A Gateway to Canada," including pre-clearance of U.S. customs introduced by AA ... June wasn't yet recognized as "National Safety Month," but the back page photo of Fred Kittrell wearing shattered safety glasses that saved his right eye made the point pretty clearly. Classified Ads:
Got AA memories of 1954? -Mick Doherty |
