A HARD DECISION MADE #63

C.I.G.A's desire to employ me came as a surprise. I honestly believed that our earlier conversation was just that, a conversation that would not lead to an offer of employment. In a way I was a little sorry that it had come to this. I felt very much at home in the airline industry and I don't believe I would have looked at making any career changes. However, since the offer came unsolicited and included a substantial salary increase, along with the fact that I was very familiar with the nineteen hotels that made up the chain, it was a very interesting offer.

I had a few questions that needed answers, such as length of the employment contract and provisions for salary increases based on production and cost of living. I called Dr. Scialenga in Italy and we discussed the contract terms. It was decided that the length of the contract would be for 3 years and renewable every 3 years. There had been no salary adjustments for cost of living. I asked that a cost of living increase be added each year, based on the U.S. cost of living index. He agreed that this would be added. There were also productions bonuses that we still needed to sit down together and set targets for. Everything seemed to be in order, but I was having difficulty in making up my mind. I decided to consult with Charles Bulterman, who held an important executive position with KLM and had become a very good friend, someone that I was sure I could trust. His stepfather was Albert Plessman, the founder of KLM. It was Charles brother Dolf, who had prompted me to test for a position with KLM. Dolf was the District Manager for KLM, in Boston.

Charles prompted me to stay with KLM; he said that I had a secure position with the company, that from his personal knowledge, I was well liked and very well trusted. He said that KLM could not match the financial offer of C.I.G.A., but who knew what the future might hold. After a couple more sleepless nights, I called Alberto Scialenga in Italy and told him that I would accept C.I.G.A's employment; he said that he would make plans to join me at the law offices of DeFalco and Field in New York a few days later, to sign the contract.

A few days later, Charles asked me to join him and his wife for dinner; I guess he had been talking to his wife about my leaving KLM. I did join them for dinner and, as expected, they wanted to convince me to stay with the company. He informed me that the head of the Reservations Department was leaving and that he thought they could combine the Charter Department and Reservations Department with me as its head. I felt like a traitor when I informed Charles that I was going to leave and later, I gave him my letter of resignation. He took my resignation as a personal betrayal and our relationship more or less ended. I was very sorry for this as I liked Charles very much. He had always been a good friend. Word of my leaving spread very quickly. Tubby Walker, Luke Asjes, and many others came to my office to tell me they would miss me, but that they wished me the best of luck. I had given two weeks' notice. Just about a day or two before "D" day (departure date) KLM surprised me with a farewell party. There must have been about one hundred people in attendance. Several District Managers flew in, most home office personnel, all my charter staff, and even Fritz Kielman, head of KLM U.S.A. attended. They presented me with a set of crystal cocktail glasses and a card signed by all the head office staff in the USA and even a few from Amsterdam.

Perhaps, if I had known about the Reservations Manager leaving, I might have stayed. However, I had decided to leave, and for better or for worse, I was now stuck with my decision.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE PREASURE BUILDS #62

Although I felt that I would not hear from C.I.G.A. again, after my conversation with Alberto Scialenga, I couldn't help but think about it. I guess you would say that I was somewhat flattered by our conversation. That didn't last long; Tubby Walker, KLM's legal head, called me and asked me to accompany him to Washington, where the Civil Aviation Board was going to hold hearings on relaxing some of the rules regarding the chartering of aircraft. With the increased capacity of the large jet aircraft it was not easy to charter an aircraft to a company or group and expect them to fill over 200 seats. The airlines wanted the C.A.B. to allow "Split Charters", the idea being that the seat capacity affinity could be split between two companies or groups. Each group would still have to have an affinity, but you could charter one half of the aircraft to each one. The legal departments from each airline, and Charter Managers like me were in attendance. All were in favor of the rule change. The C.A.B. agreed and would issue a rule change.

As soon as I got back to New York, I advised all our stations of the change, and asked them to contact all their travel agents in their district with the news. I personally contacted a number of travel agents with whom I had a personal relationship in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Michigan. It was only about a week later that one of my old Connecticut agents called me to ask if he could charter a 747 aircraft on the split charter basis. After checking with Tubby Walker, who said that it was OK to do it, I told the Agent to go ahead. I called George Emory, the Hartford DSM, to set up a meeting with that agent and that I would go with him to take the charter contracts for signature. You will recall that George Emory had taken over my job in Hartford, when I went to Detroit.

At the travel agency, I asked to be shown the documentation that would guarantee that the two groups, the "John Boyle Society" and the "Polish American Club", were legitimate affinity organizations. The last thing I wanted was to have a C.A.B. investigator check after the fact and find any cheating on their membership. Satisfied that they were legitimate, I had the agent sign the charter contracts. A few weeks later, the charter departed out of Hartford.

It was just a few days later, upon my return to New York, that Fritz Kielman, the V.P. of American Operations, stormed into my office and demanded to know why I had operated a split charter without his permission. I was quite taken back. I had never had to have his permission to do my job, and said so. He said that this charter was the first one to operate under the new rules and that KLM, as a foreign airline, did not want to be the first to do so. I told him that I had no idea that this was his wish. As far as I knew, KLM had every right to perform a charter once it was approved by the America Civil Aviation Board. He said that it was a matter of courtesy to the American flag carriers that they are the first to fly under the new rules. (Although I didn't say so, I felt pretty good that I was able to be the first.) I had cleared it all through Tubby Walkers office and had his OK, so I guess Tubby didn't know either.

Just a note, Fritz Kielman was a Dutchman through and through. He was a big game hunter and often hunted with Prince Bernhard, husband of the Dutch Queen. As many times as I flew across to Holland in First Class on the same flights as Fritz Kielman, he never invited me to sit with him. That's very much European. I had already observed in Amsterdam, at the home office, that if a small group of employees were waiting for an elevator, they would get into the elevator by rank. If the President was there, he would board first. The rest, boarded according to their management level in the company. That's just the way it was.

It had been almost two months since I spoke with Alberto Scialenga, from C.I.G.A. and I assumed that he no longer had any interest in pursuing what we had discussed during our dinner. Therefore, it came as quite a surprise when he called and asked that we have dinner again. He had to return to Rome after our last dinner together and was just now getting back to New York.

I had already made arrangements to fly down to Aruba for the weekend. The manager of the Aruba Caribbean Hotel had invited me. This was one of my favorite hotels in the Dutch Antilles. I was flying down on Thursday and would not be back until Monday. Alberto agreed that we should meet on Monday evening after my return, to New York.

I had a great time in Aruba. The beach at the hotel was beautiful; it was called Miami Beach, but the similarity stopped there. The sand was snow white and the water as clear as the deep blue sky. The water was very salty as the Island got its drinking water from a desalinization plant. The salt was then returned to the sea, which led to very high buoyancy; it made swimming easy. The beach was rimmed with native Divi Divi trees, a unique tree to the ABC Islands, where the tree top lays horizontal to the ground in the direction of the prevailing winds. The beach was dotted with multi colored umbrellas to provided shade and "Beach Boys" stood by, ready to bring you a cooling drink or an extra towel. It was hard to leave all that beauty and get back to the reality in New York. Now that I was alone in New York, I tried to get away to Florida or the Dutch Islands as much as possible. Curacao Island was another Dutch favorite; I remember even today, the great time we had when I took the Kathy, Karen and Kirby there in the 1960's.

Dinner with Alberto was quite more than I had anticipated. He wanted to hire me to be President and Director of Marketing for their C.I.G.A. American Division. I would open an office in New York and staff it with reservations agents and sales staff. Later on, we'd open offices in Chicago and the West Coast. Eventually, they planned to expand into South America. The salary he offered was about $20,000 more than I was making at KLM. We talked about office budgets, contracts, expenses, and more. We spent more than four hours together with questions and answers. I left him with the promise that I would give it every consideration. Since he was returning to Italy the next day, he gave me his telephone number in Rome and said that he would be back in about two weeks. He wanted to know what I thought of his proposition. I told him that it certainly was interesting, but I needed time to think it over very carefully, as I would be giving up 13 years seniority with KLM and almost 40 years in aviation, which made me feel that I had a level of job security with KLM. I felt that I had grown up in the industry as it went from 21 seat DC-3's to giant Jets carrying 200 and more passengers.

I had a very sleepless night that night, and many more to follow.

TRAVEL CONTINUES, BUT CHANGE IS IN THE WIND #61

I hope you enjoyed reading the last blog about my trip to the Philippines, but let's get back to 1973. It seemed that my travels became more, rather than less; Amsterdam seemed to have become my home away from home, as I was there almost every week. Fortunately, being able to fly first class made it very easy. K.L.M.'s Royal Class was one of the best, if not the best, of all the North Atlantic carriers. I flew most of them at one time or another as they gave me first class passes when I requested them. K.L.M. gave all Royal Class passengers a small miniature Delft China Dutch house filled with gin. There was a complete collection of about thirty. We often had people call, asking where they could purchase a house to complete their collection. They were never for sale; a person had to actually fly Royal Class to get one. When I left KLM I had about 50 or 60 of the houses. I believe Kathy has some of them and I still have some as well. They have become a collector's item, and I have never tried to sell any of them. Sixty houses represented that many flights over the North Atlantic, not counting all the ones I had taken on other airlines besides KLM.

The Dutch people that I met over the years were outstanding. Many times, while I was in Holland, I was invited to their homes for dinner, and I got to meet their families. The Dutch, KLM employees I worked with in the USA, became friends that are still friends even today. It was unlikely that I could get a promotion to a higher position than the one I currently held, because all higher positions were traditionally held by Dutch employees. Still, I enjoyed my job and was very happy with what I was doing. Little did I know that there might be changes ahead.

In 1974, I received a phone call from Tony DelBalzo of C.I.G.A. Hotels. He said that he and Dr. Alberto Scialenga were in New York, and would like to see me. I was surprised to hear from Tony as I had not heard from him for a couple of years. I made a date with them to meet that evening at their hotel, for a cocktail.

That evening, over our cocktails, Dr. Scialenga was very warm and friendly, recalling the Auto Owners incentive groups and the importance of that business to C.I.G.A. Hotels. Soon, he got down to why he wanted to meet with me. He said that C.I.G.A. was very unhappy with H.R.I. (Hotel Representatives International), the firm that represented them in the U.S.A. They had decided that the solution was for C.I.G.A. to form a U.S. Corporation to handle all marketing, reservations, and sales in house. Their long term plan was to expand the hotel chain into North and South America. In conversations with some of their top hotel managers and a few of their travel industry friends, my name had come up several times as someone who could accomplish that plan. He told me that a couple of other names were on the list and he wanted to speak with them, but for now, he just wanted to know if I had any interest in becoming part of the project. I told him that I was very happy with KLM and enjoyed a good reputation with them and the travel industry. He said "That's why we're interested in you". I said that my interest would depend on a lot more information. I might be interested, depending on what C.I.G.A. would propose. He said: "I'll take that as a yes, and I will be in touch with you in a week or two after speaking with the two other prospects. Right now, let's have dinner together at Romeo Salta's". We had a great dinner and I must say that Alberto was an interesting dinner companion. He was married, had three boys; two of them were in a Military school, and the other was just a couple of years old. Alberto spoke perfect English and had worked in the USA at one time. He was the European Marketing Manager for the entire C.I.G.A. Italian chain of nineteen super deluxe hotels. I liked him very much from working with him in Rome on the Auto Owners Incentive trip. However, to be truthful, I didn't expect to hear from him again.

 

REMEMBERING PHILIPPINE AIRLINES #60

I was sitting at the computer thinking about the next Blog, and wondering what I would write. Then, I recalled that my daughter Karen had suggested that I write about some of the trips I had been on. So, here's one I took to the Philippines, in 1968.

Philippine Airlines and KLM had an agreement that the two airlines share routes and aircraft. Some of KLM's aircraft were painted with the Philippine Airline logo on one side and the KLM logo on the other. I recall that this caused quite a commotion at the Detroit airport, at one of our arrivals there. One of our charters was returning from Amsterdam and the control tower gave KLM permission to land. They had no idea that the KLM aircraft was painted with the Philippine logo on the other side. When the aircraft turned around at the end of the landing, to taxi to the terminal, the control tower went crazy. They had no idea how a Philippine Airlines jet had landed at Detroit without permission, and where was the KLM aircraft? It caused a lot of concern. When the tower finally figured it out, they wanted to kill me for not telling them. Problem was, I had no idea of the paint job either. I informed the companies to please have the pilots inform the tower, on all future flights, that they had a dual paint job.

Back in July or August of 1968, Philippine Airlines and KLM had decided to give a familiarization tour to the Philippines for some key KLM Sales Managers. The trip would be to Manila for three days, then on to the mountain city of Baguio for two days, and then to Hong Kong for three days. There were twenty selected participants. Stig Edgrig, KLM's Tours Manager, was our leader on the trip. Besides me, there were District and Regional Managers and a few of our top District Managers. It was a great trip, as P.A.L. had pulled out all the stops. In Manila, in addition to an intensive city tour, we explored the countryside. We took a boat trip to Corregidor to see where our troops had made a futile last stand against the Japanese in WWII. We entered the tunnels built in many areas throughout the island. On the outside, we saw all the old, rusted cannons that pointed out to sea. The main problem with them was that they could only shoot straight ahead; they had no way of turning the guns right or left. The Philippine, British, and American troops that were captured on Corregidor were taken on the infamous "Bataan Death March". When MacArthur returned to retake the Island, the Japanese occupiers took refuge in the many tunnels. They refused to come out and surrender, so the American troops just bulldozed the entrances close. They say that for several weeks you could hear the gun shots as the Japanese committed suicide rather than surrender. Not a very pretty story.

The President of P.A.L. invited us to his home for a gala dinner. I would call it more of a palace. You could sit at least fifty people in the dining room. What a contrast to the poverty we saw around Manila. I had noted the number of children who were carrying old empty five gallon containers that they would fill with water, and then carry them home. That was, no doubt, the family's water supply. I saw that they all seemed to be smiling and laughing with each other. I mentioned that fact to our host, to what he answered: "That's because they are happy with their lives". You couldn't help but make comparisons between the opulent life style of the wealthy and the way the rest of the people lived. Their homes were all walled in, surrounded by beautiful gardens, and cared for by many gardeners, maids and household workers. Our host thought it very funny when he secretly set off some firecrackers under the table. In some ways, the Philippines were a little child like.

During one of our tours in the countryside, I saw a family in a field cutting rice with some sort of interesting wooden cutting tool. I asked the driver to stop so I could take some pictures. One old man came out of the rice paddy and asked our driver if I wanted to take his picture. I took some pictures and had the driver ask the man if he would sell the wooden tool. He agreed and I gave him five dollars. The driver was a little dismayed; he said that was more than the old man could make in a year. No wonder the old guy was happy.

We flew on an old DC-3 P.A.L. aircraft up to the mountain village of Baguio. I noted that the pilot had a large telephone book that he sat on so he could see out the windshield. We also learned that the mountain jungle we flew over still had tribes that were head hunters; they lived their lives without ever seeing a white man. That made us all hope that the old DC-3 was in good working order. The USA had built a large Military field hospital and recovery center in Baguio. This was separated from the nearby village. The village was very interesting; you would see villagers shopping at open air markets; there were bamboo cages with live chickens for sale. Several people had live chickens hanging from their waist by a string. Because they had no refrigeration, the chickens were carried home live, killed, and eaten for dinner. The most modern structure in the village was an orphanage, and must have been built after the war. The orphanage was run by nuns and the children all seemed well cared for. They sold handmade wood items in a little gift shop. I purchased several carved wood Madonna images, to bring home as gifts. Returning to Manila that night on the same old DC-3, we again stayed overnight at the beautiful Manila Hotel that had been our home for the previous three nights. The next day it was off to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong was an exciting place to visit. It was here that the U.S. sent their military personnel for leave during the Vietnam War; it was a shopper's paradise. The first night we were taken to the famous Floating Restaurant in Aberdeen Harbor. It was decorated with Cantonese red lanterns, gold swirling dragons and traditional Chinese motifs. Of course, fish was the main menu. On the side of the restaurant, there were fish pens; the waiter would use a net to pick out a live fish and show it to you for your approval, before cooking it.

On the following day, we were taken back to Aberdeen Harbor to see the hundreds of small fishing junks, tethered together to form a living communities of Chinese people. We were told that almost every morning the authorities would patrol the waters and pick up the corpses of people who had died during the night. Families living on the junks had little money to pay for burials, so they just rolled the deceased into the sea, for the authorities to take care of. I understand that in the very poor areas of the city, they just left the dead by the side of the road.

Our hotel was just outside Kowloon Park. I could look out the window in the morning and watch throngs of people doing their morning exercises. It was well known in Honk Kong that you could order a suit in the morning and wear it that night. Several of us decided to purchase a suit. The tailor came to our rooms with samples of fabric; once selected and a price determined, the tailor would take your measure; at noon they would be back for a fitting, and about five PM they delivered the final product. The fabric was mostly British fine woolens, and the fit was great. I had mine for several years. There were many small shops where craftsmen carved beautiful chests or worked in silver or gold. I purchased a large round brass tray that could be made into a table or hung on the wall. I gave it to Kirby, just last year. In one small shop they printed "Funeral Money". This was placed in the coffin to assure the dead person had money on their arrival in heaven. Another market sold gold fish, I'm sure there was nothing you might want, that you couldn't find in Hong Kong.

On the third day in the area, I took the Catamaran boat to Macau, the former Portuguese colony on the border with China. It is a very picturesque town built by the Portuguese, but later harbored several different nationalities. Most people go to Macau for the Casinos, which were packed with Chinese gamblers. I contributed a few dollars to their economy and then walked up a road to the Chinese/Macau border, where the armed Red Guard kept watch. I was told that the Chinese often pushed their citizens, who were sick or infirm, across the border at night, so they didn't have to care for them. At that time China was closed to tourism, so I didn't cross the border. One thing that I did note was a very large Levi's factory very close to the border. I imagine that was to employ cheap Chinese labor. It's been going on for a while, I guess.

The following day we boarded our P.A.L. jet to SanFrancisco, and then, on to New York.

 

 

 

NEW YORK, NEW YORK #59

January in New York can be pretty cold, and 1972 was no exception. On top of that there was a work dispute with the garbage collectors; trash was building up along with the winter snows. New Yorkers, however, seem to take everything in stride. I guess I could now classify myself as a New Yorker. Remembering back to the 1940's when I was in the Canadian Army, and visited New York for a day. I was so impressed when I viewed the city from the top of the Empire State Building, to which I had hoped to return some day. There is a difference between being a one day visitor and a full time resident. As a resident you have to cope with realities of day to day living in a cosmopolitan city of millions of people. Although I had been living in New York for several years, it was on a part time basis and I could escape the city with my business travels and weekends at home. Now New York was to be my full time home. Fortunately, I could still escape on business and I would take full advantage of being able to do so.

It was time to catch up on the District Office visits that I had promised to Kielman, the big boss. Unlike the assistant regional manager's job where I was only involved in the Eastern Regional offices, I now had the additional offices that made up the USA organization. The main stations for charters were New York, Boston, Miami, Detroit, Chicago, and the West Coast. There was no reason why all stations couldn't get charter business, and I wanted to prove that Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte and other smaller districts could sell charters too. My plan was to reach out to our largest producers first and then get to the others, as soon as possible. The main stations only produced two or three charters per year, except for Detroit, that was producing about fifteen per year. So, the potential was great.

In the first few months, I made calls on our main stations and spoke to all their managers and staff. Even though they were producing, their knowledge was still limited. It was very apparent that my idea of writing a sales manual had become even more important. I decided to complete the manual, prior to visiting more cities. I had phone contact with them all, and knew all the managers from meetings and seminars that we had all attended in the past. In the next couple of months, between meetings in Amsterdam every couple of weeks, I was able to complete the manual. Over the next few weeks I invited each manager to assign one of their staff to become the charter expert in their office, and send that person to an indoctrination meeting in the New York office. I set up dates in New York for several meetings and invited Charter Managers from the Netherlands to attend and contribute to the success of the training sessions. Each attendee was given a copy of the manual to take back to their station.( I keep in touch with a number of my old friends in KLM and they tell me that even after all these years that old manual is still in most of the offices.)

I was combining the meetings in New York with field visits to some of our smaller sales offices. I recall our Sales Representative in Charlotte, NC. His nick name was Johnny Mac. He was a good old southern boy. He was a great salesman and everybody loved him. I would accompany him on some of his sales calls; we would drive in his company car in which he had installed a special horn that blasted "Dixie". I didn't know of the horn until one day we were travelling a country road to the next sales call, when I saw a young black boy, walking along the side of the road ahead of us. As we approached the boy, Johnny Mac hit the horn. That young man must have jumped five feet in the air. I must admit that it was pretty funny but I told Johnny Mac that the horn had to go. It was not in keeping with the KLM image. I still remember Johnny Mac, as I'm sure others do, as a great salesman and a fun person to be with. Whenever I got to Charlotte, he would invite me to dinner at his home. He had a very nice wife and a couple of boys. I don't know if he ever took out the horn. I never asked him.

 

GOODBYE ITALY, HELLO NEW YORK #58

It was good to be back in my office in New York, and in my own apartment. I was hoping that I could stay put for awhile. I loved to travel and hoped to do much more, but, it's always good to have a place of your own, a place where you can put your feet up and just relax. I guess it's more than just an apartment; it's a sanctuary from the everyday stress of schedules, deadlines, and budgets.

The office staff seemed happy to have me back; of course, I had to prepare reports and expense accounts for the Auto Owners' trip. Money wise, the trip was not that expensive for the company. Transportation did not cost anything as all the airline travel was on free passes. Hotels were all complimentary, as were a lot of meals. The major expense was on car rentals and a few meals. Rudy Postmaa, who traveled with me, paid all his own expenses. With all reports, both written and orally completed, I was turning my thoughts to the district offices and the charter manual that I was writing for them.

Although I was in New York during the week, I was commuting back and forth to Michigan every weekend that I could. I had missed a couple of weekends during the Auto Owners trip in May of 1971. So I was trying to make up every weekend that I could. Helen had been very angry that I was missing some weekends, especially the two in May. I decided to take a couple of weeks off and take care of some building projects that she wanted to do at Island Lake in Rose City, Michigan.

The home at Island Lake was built on a hill overlooking the lake. Helen wanted a series of stairs and landings leading from the house down to the lake. It would also be a good idea to build a large deck out the side of the house and a large shed to keep the snowmobiles. Kirby was an avid snowmobiler in winter and fisherman in summer. Anyway, I took the days off and built the decks, stairs and shed. Still, relations at home were not good. Except for the two weeks, I saw very little of my children. It seemed that they had gotten used to my not being around, and had things going on in their lives that kept them busy every weekend that I was there. I missed them very much. It was New years Eve 1971/72, when I was at Island Lake. Helen and I got into a serious argument over my work, and this led to our separation and later divorce.

Looking back over the years, Helen was never happy over my leaving EasternAirlines for KLM. She was of the opinion that when you joined a company, you stayed with them until you get a gold watch and retired. That was her life experience with her family. Her father had a job and worked there most of his adult life until retirement. I take full responsibility for our breakup. My work had developed into something that Helen and I had not anticipated; she was a good mother and a hardworking homemaker. I'm sure she never anticipated my many days away, where she would have to be both mother and father to three young children. Looking at my children today, she did a good job, and I will always be thankful to her for that.

1972 didn't start off too well from a personal point of view; I wouldn't be a commuter to Michigan any more. I would settle in New York. Life is sure funny, it can up and bite you when you least expect it. In any event, I had my job and a place to live. I drove down to the KLM Detroit office and turned in the company car; I wouldn't need that any more. Fortunately, it was New Years day so I just left the keys, along with a note that I did not need the car any more. I was happy that I didn't have to speak with anyone. I took a taxi to the airport and flew back to New York.

 

 

ROME, THE ETERNAL CITY #57

After visiting and working in Naples, Rudy and I drove north and accessed the modernized section of the Appian Way to Rome, at Capua. The original Appian Way, was built in 312 BC to move the Roman Armies South, parts of which are still in use today and have many important historical landmarks. All of Italy is full of history going back many centuries before the birth of Christ. Although Rudy and I were going to Rome to finalize the arrangements for the Auto Owners groups, I was certainly going to take time to explore more of the city. I had been to Rome in the summer of 1962, when I had spent a couple of days there with the family on a European vacation, including Holland and Greece.

The drive to Rome took us along the coast and through the Appian Mountains. It took us about five or six hours before arriving in the city and driving down the Via Vittorio Veneto to the famous Excelsior Hotel. We were happy to learn that the hotel was providing us with a two bedroom suite. Shortly after checking in, we received a phone call from Antonio Del Balzo, who identified himself as the Sales Manager for the Excelsior; he was welcoming us to the hotel and invited us to dine with him that evening. We met that evening in the cocktail lounge. Del Balzo had brought along Dr. Alberto Scialenga, Director of Marketing for CIGA Hotels. After a cocktail, we had dinner in the dining room. I was a little amazed how the staff attended us, even the chef came to the table to be sure we were happy with what he had prepared. Dr. Scialenga spoke about the history of C.I.G.A. Hotels and about how many American guests stay at his hotels. They were represented by H.R.I., a large firm in New York, and had booked a few groups from some of the U.S. travel agents that I knew. He was a very interesting gentleman who had travelled a great deal in the States. He was very likeable and I was sure that he liked his job very much. He made us both seem very welcome. Del Balzo, on the other hand, seemed happy to let Alberto do the talking. After our very special dinner, Rudy made an appointment with Del Balzo for the next morning to discuss the needed rooms and agree on a rate. We were talking about fourteen hundred people, so Rudy was expecting a very reasonable rate.

I left the hotel negotiations to Rudy as it was up to him to give Auto Owners a land package price, per person. I had already given them my price for the KLM charters. I wanted to visit the Le Grand Hotel, the sister hotel to the Excelsior. Although the Excelsior was a deluxe category, the Le Grand was even a more traditional, old world, luxury property that catered to the very wealthy, titled and celebrated clientele. They never took groups, no matter how important they were. I met Sr. Mario Miconi, who I found out also managed the Excelsior. He arranged to have one of his staff show me the hotel. I spent about two hours visiting rooms, suites, dining rooms and sitting rooms. I even got to visit the back of the house, kitchens, and housekeeping. At the time, Richard Burton and Elizabeth were staying at the hotel with all their cats. Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet them. I was very impressed with the property, I'm sure the artwork and oil paintings alone were worth a small fortune.

After a coffee and snack at a sidewalk café, I went to St. Peters and spent the rest of the afternoon admiring this great Basilica's art treasures. I even got into the Vatican treasury which is open to the public. I have no idea how many millions of dollars are represented by the gifts from all over the world, for centuries, to the Popes. They were comprised of gold statues, bejeweled vessels, paintings and art; some had been gifts from the very poor, some from the wealthy or from world leaders. I also managed to get down into the catacombs under St. Peters, where a number of Popes are buried. There was so much to see, so much to learn. From St Peters I took a taxi to Trevi Fountain, where I tossed in a coin to assure my return to Rome. When I got back to the hotel, Rudy told me of his visit with Del Balzo and the rate he had obtained. It was not as low as he wanted but he felt that eventually he could get it down and would later make some calls from his office when he got home. In the mean time he had his blocked room space. We had dinner at a local restaurant on the Via Veneto, a night cap at the hotel bar, and retired. On the following day, we would take a flight to Amsterdam and a connecting KLM flight to New York.