Hard Landing (81 page)

64.
ferocious statewide election: Burr 9/16/93 interview.

65.
became a father:
Ibid
.

66.
dirty and bad:
Burr 9/17/93 interview.

67.
his arms flailed: Burr 9/16/93 interview.

68.
One weekend:
Ibid
.

69.
windowless building: Life in the Blue Barn was described by many of the people who worked there.

70.
full partnership: Burr 9/16/94 interview.

71.
visit to Alvin Feldman:
Ibid
.

72.
yesterday’s news: Based on an interview with someone familiar with the relationship.

73.
Frank was the godfather: Burr 9/16/93 interview.

74.
“feel despicable”:
Ibid
.

75.
“Frank, great news”:
Ibid
.

76.
$10 million in mutual aid: Footnote 7,
Texas International Airlines 1975 Annual Report
.

77.
“needed the strike”: Burr 9/16/93 interview.

78.
South Padre Island: Sall, “Marion Lamar Muse.”

79.
sparing nothing in the effort: Coats 6/9/94 interview; O’Donnell 6/9/94 interview; Fallows,
Texas Monthly
, Dec. 1975.

80.
didn’t … carry U.S. mail: Kelleher 10/14/93 interview.

81.
dozens of Harlingen residents: Barron 4/26/93 interview.

82.
funeral director: Coats 6/9/94 interview.

83.
passengers from Mexico: “Business Soars Where Airline Flies,” by Del Jones,
USA Today
, Sept. 17, 1993.

84.
Southwest University: Coats 6/9/94 interview.

85.
Gatling Gun Gitner: J. Arpey 9/8/93 interview.

86.
started his career: O’Donnell 6/9/94 interview.

87.
eager for the acceptance: Many accounts have suggested that Lorenzo had an impulse to slash fares from the time he came into the airline industry. By contrast most informed sources say that Lorenzo, desirous
of the approval of his peers, was a reluctant price cutter, particularly in his early years of controlling Texas International and, later, Continental. In several years Lorenzo’s annual letter to the stockholders of Texas International emphasized the virtues of fare increases.

88.
special on permanents: O’Donnell 6/9/94 interview.

89.
Flying back to Houston:
Ibid
.

90.
as much as 600 percent: “Texas International Air Plans Discount Fares on Seven Routes in March,”
WSJ
, Feb. 11, 1977.

91.
Surveys showed: “Super Saver Swells Discounts,” by David M. North,
Aviation Week
, Feb. 20, 1978.

92.
“chickenshit fares”: Apr. 26, 1978, internal report by Donald Burr and Edwin Cathell, Texas International Airlines.

93.
not
 … an argument: “Texas International Asks 50% Fare Cut on Selected Flights,”
WSJ
, Dec. 16, 1976.

Chapter 3: Network Warriors

1.
“Be ruthless”: R. L. Crandall, address to marketing meeting, Aug. 2, 1988.

2.
“crunch our competitors”: Remarks by R. L. Crandall to Sabre Travel Information Network, Apr. 23, 1988.

3.
he inspired fear: Crandall 4/23/93 interview.

4.
black wings: Crandall speech to marketing meeting, Inn of Six Flags, Dallas, Feb. 25, 1981.

5.
Crandall loved bridge: Plaskett 8/31/93 interview.

6.
misuse, and grammatical lapses: Becker 9/3/93 interview.

7.
tools hung precisely: Crandall 4/23/93 interview.

8.
“drives her batshit”:
Ibid
.

9.
“When I was born”: Crandall 9/1/93 interview.

10.
Robert Lloyd Crandall: Crandall provided most of the details of his life and career in interviews. Additional facts were compiled from a number of other significant in-depth treatments, including D. Reed,
American Eagle;
“Frequent Flier,” by Paulette Thomas,
Avenue
, Summer 1988; “Battle of Titans,” by Bridget O’Brian and Judith Valente,
WSJ
, Oct. 10, 1989; “Bob Crandall Soars by Flying Solo,” by Kenneth Labich,
Fortune
, Sept. 29, 1986; and “American Rediscovers Itself,”
BW
, Aug. 23, 1982.

11.
His father was rescued: Crandall 4/23/93 interview.

12.
a fat boy: Crandall 6/13/94 interview.

13.
A decent fistfight: Crandall 4/23/93 interview; Thomas,
Avenue
, Summer 1988.

14.
how fast he could ring: These and other details of Crandall’s early working life were described in the Crandall 9/1/93 and 6/13/94 interviews.

15.
“noted for arguments”: Barrington High School
Arrow
for 1953.

16.
“They sold the shit”: Crandall 9/1/93 interview.

17.
C. R. Smith had agonized: The story of Sabre’s birth was detailed in the Hopper 4/22/93 and 10/13/93 interviews and, among other published sources, in Serling,
Eagle;
Bashe,
IBM’s Early Computers;
“Airline Automation: A Major Step,” by C. E. Ammann,
Computers and Automation
, Aug. 1957; “American Airlines Automates Reservations for the Jet Age,” by Arnold E. Keller,
Management and Business Automation
, Jan. 1959; and “The Sabre System,” by R. W. Parker,
Datamation
, Sept. 1965. A number of unpublished monographs, bulletins, and other internal records
of
American Airlines and IBM were also used, including “American Airlines’ ‘Sabre’ Electronic Reservations System,” by W. R. Plugge and M. N. Perry, circa 1962, and “American Airlines, Inc., and The Teleregister Corp. Present the Magnetronic Reservisor,” circa 1952.

18.
“reservations theory”: Wolfe,
Air Transportation Traffic and Management
, page 495.

19.
20 separate communications:
Ibid.
, page 503.

20.
a grand contraption: D. G. Copeland, R. O. Mason, and J. L. McKenney, “SABRE: The Development of Information-Based Competence and Execution of Information-Based Competition,”
IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
, 1995; Ammann,
Computers and Automation, August 1957
.

21.
nicknamed Girlie:
Ibid
.

22.
“unfavorable proportions”: Plugge and Perry, “American Airlines’ ‘Sabre’ Electronic Reservations System.”

23.
Blair Smith: Copeland,
IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
, 1995; Bashe,
IBM’s Early Computers
, page 517.

24.
14,000 … computers of any kind: “On Line in Real Time,” by Gilbert Burck,
Fortune
, Apr. 1964.

25.
“space age brain”: “SABRE: A Plane Seat—Presto!” by Ted Ward,
New York Post
, Sept. 15, 1964.

26.
“new mechanical monsters”: Copeland,
IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
, 1995.

27.
Passed over: D. Reed,
American Eagle
, page 16.

28.
lost its way: Crandall 9/1/93 interview.

29.
succeed … Marvin Traub: D. Reed,
American Eagle
, page 43.

30.
exquisitely boring: Crandall 9/1/93 interview.

31.
“fast-paced, high-risk”: quoted in “Competitive Anger,” by Suzanne Loeffelholz,
Financial World
, Jan. 10, 1989.

32.
succeeded by … Spater: Spater is profiled in Serling;
Eagle;
and in “Goodbye to Robin Hood?”
Forbes
, Feb. 15, 1968.

33.
the most erudite: Wheatcroft 2/24/94 interview.

34.
dinner invitation: The account of American’s Watergate finance involvement is based largely on “Memorandum of American Airlines Regarding Campaign Contributions During 1971-72,” Aug. 20, 1973, and “Prosecutive Memorandum Re American Airlines,” to Archibald Cox from Thomas F. McBride and John G. Koeltl, Watergate Special Prosecution Force, Oct. 9, 1973. These documents and others were obtained from the National Archives under the Freedom of Information Act.

35.
terra incognita: Quoted in Lucas,
Nightmare
, page 174.

36.
nudge from C. R. Smith: Smith’s involvement is detailed in “Memorandum of American Airlines,” Aug. 20, 1974. The report of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, page 448, says that Spater obtained the $5,000 checks “from a friend.”

37.
“five in cash”: Quoted in “Memorandum of American Airlines,” Aug. 20, 1973.

38.
spared from criminal charges: “Three Firms’ Plead Guilty on Campaign Gifts,” by Paul E. Steiger,
Los Angeles Times
, Oct. 18, 1973.

39.
“brightest young financial men”: Quoted in Serling,
Eagle
, page 439.

40.
Casey’s … apartment: Crandall 9/1/93 interview; D. Reed,
American Eagle
, page 106.

41.
Casey was looking: Lloyd-Jones 3/10/94 interview; Serling,
Eagle
, page 443.

42.
a planning exercise: “Industry Appraises American’s Marketing,” by William H. Gregory,
Aviation Week
, Sept. 2, 1974.

43.
purposefully contentious: Crandall 9/1/93 interview.

44.
terminated within days: Baker 6/10/94 interview.

45.
tightest possible connections: Crandall, text of presentation to the American Airlines board of directors, June 18, 1975; Presentation to 1976 Management Meeting, undated text.

46.
1,000 cathode ray tubes: Hopper 10/13/93 interview.

47.
top data processing executive:
Ibid
.

48.
William A. Patterson: “There’s More Than One Way to Run an Airline,” by Perrin Stryker,
Fortune
, Feb. 1961.

49.
remote and confrontational: Luce 8/26/93 interview.

50.
Keck’s standing sank: Luce’s downfall and Carlson’s hiring are described in Johnson,
Airway One;
Carlson,
Recollections of a Lucky Fellow;
“Sic Transit Gloria: George E. Keck Found United Air Lines’ Skies Could Turn Unfriendly,” by Todd E. Fandell,
WSJ
, Sept. 11, 1972; “How a Hotelman Got the Red Out of United Air Lines,” by Rush Loving, Jr.,
Fortune
, Mar. 1972; and “Losses Spark Shakeup at United,” by Laurence Doty,
Aviation Week
, Jan. 4, 1971.

51.
going down the drain: Luce 8/26/93 interview.

52.
hidden agenda:
Ibid
.

53.
one of Gleed’s close friends: Carlson,
Recollections
, page 249.

54.
Carlson was fresh blood: Carlson’s background and turnaround moves were detailed in interviews with Ferris and others who knew him; Johnson,
Airway One;
“A Life of Hard Work and a Stroke of Luck Aided Edward Carlson,” by Todd E. Fandell,
WSJ
, Oct. 18, 1971; and Loving,
Fortune
, Mar. 1972.

55.
self-described hero-worshiper: Carlson,
Recollections
, page 215.

56.
“Ready Eddies”: McAnulty 2/25/94 interview.

57.
186,366 miles: Loving,
Fortune
, March 1972.

58.
born with verve: The account of Ferris’s background is based primarily on interviews with him and people who knew him well. Additional details were obtained from “Winning His Wings: United Airlines’ Ferris Sets Expansion Plans, Alarms Carrier’s Rivals,”
WSJ
, Mar. 2, 1979; “Foodservice Career Profiles: Richard J. Ferris,” by James R. Myers,
Cooking for Profit
, Aug. 1967; “Friendlier Skies? United Airlines Hopes Pilots’ Vote This Week Will Be Turning Point,” by John Curley,
WSJ
, Aug. 10, 1981; and “Friendly Skies over Pacific: How United Did It,” by Carol Jouzaitis,
Chicago Tribune
, Apr. 7, 1986.

59.
his father had scraped: Letter, Jesse W. Ferris to Dick Ferris, Aug. 28, 1957.

60.
Ferris … landed: Ferris 6/7/94 interview.

61.
Rocker Four Club: Ferris 5/27/93 interview.