ON THE ROAD TO DUBROVNIK #55

Our road to Dubrovnik started in Amsterdam, where Rudy and I boarded a KLM flight to Zagreb, in what used to be Yugoslavia, in the days of Tito. Our plan was to rent a car in Zagreb and drive through the Dinaric Alps to Dubrovnik, which is located on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. The Dinaric Alps are not anywhere as high as the Swiss Alps, but are a continuation of the Swiss Chain. Zagreb is now the Capitol of Croatia, very near the Slovenia boarder.

Since KLM was paying for renting the car, it was decided that I would drive, a decision that I should have given a little more attention to. The route took us through what is now Bosnia Herzegovina. I would have to say that I certainly had driven on better roads, as this one twisted and turned through the mountains. I have always considered myself a good driver, but these roads had no guard rails; on top of this, it was raining. The car would slip and slide, and we came close to a nasty drop into the valley below. Finally we came upon a roadside restaurant that didn't look too bad, (and I needed to get my breath back); I pulled in so we could get a bite to eat. Neither Rudy nor I spoke Croatian and this was a very modest, local restaurant. When we walked in, all conversation stopped, as the locals stared at this couple of tourists. We managed to get a menu, which unfortunately had no English or Dutch subtitles. We had no idea what we were ordering, so we just pointed to an item that looked like it was something we thought would sure suit our purpose.

Lesson number one: never order anything that you have no idea of what it is. It ended up that we had ordered wild boar head. The plate that was put before me was one half of a boar's head, complete with one ear and one eye, which seemed to stare at me. The ear still had hair on it. I have to give Rudy credit, because he ate his. I'm sure the cook probably enjoyed mine, as I just left it on my plate. We had changed some money in Zagreb, so we paid the amount shown on the menu, left a more than a generous tip, and took our leave. We heard a lot of laughter as the door closed behind us. Thankfully, Rudy agreed to take over the driving. I'm sure that I had given him some white hair on a few of the curves, when I was driving.

It was late afternoon, when we arrived just outside Dubrovnik, since you cannot drive into the city, we checked into a local hotel on the outskirts. I don't recall the name of the hotel, but I remember that it was modern and had no doubt been built after World War Two. I was happy to see that it was a hotel that catered to the international trade. We had single rooms that were very comfortable, and had dinner in the hotel restaurant, that had an English menu. Walking around the hotel after dinner I was surprised to see that it had a casino; the casino was owned by the owners of Hurrah's Club in Reno Nevada. I'll tell you more about that later, we retired early as we wanted to see the city in the morning.

Dubrovnik was a city built during the Middle Ages. We learned that it achieved a great deal of its growth and development in the 15^th and 16^th centuries, when it was a major seaport and a center of trade; it was walled, to protect it from the constant threats by the Ottoman Empire and by Venice. There is no vehicle traffic within the city; the narrow cobblestone streets are lined with small shops and many quaint open air restaurants, that serve wine and local liquor to patrons at small tables outdoors, and in tree lined squares. The town is built on a hill; some of the streets are quite steep, others lead down to the sea and the old fortresses. Rudy had chartered an Epirotiki Line cruise ship that would carry the Auto Owners group between Dubrovnik and Naples. The cruise would go down the Adriatic coast, around the boot of Italy, into Naples. We were not able to see the ship, as Dubrovnik was not a port where it regularly called, except when on a charter basis. After a full day of walking and exploring, we retired to the hotel. Rudy wanted to visit Sveti Stefan the following day as he was considering adding this historic city as a day trip for the group while they were in Dubrovnik.

Sveti Stefan lies south of Dubrovnik, on the central part of Montenegro Adriatic coast line. It is a small island with a 15^th century fortified village named after Saint Stephen. It was built to defend against the Turks and eventually became a haven for pirates. The island coast line is only about 2 miles in length, but is connected by a narrow isthmus to the mainland. Nearby, on the mainland, there were two pink, sandy beaches. It was well worth the drive, and Rudy did include it as a day trip on the A. O. itinerary.

Back at the hotel, I found a note from someone at the casino who wanted to see me. I don't remember his name, but he was the Casino manager. I noted from the On the previous evening I had noticed that the casino was not very busy, and when I made my way to the meeting, there were only a handful of people at the tables. The manager was interested in why we were visiting the hotel, noting that I was with KLM. I told him it was an exploratory trip and that we were looking at the facilities with the possibility of bringing in some charter flights. At that point he wanted to know if I could promote gambling trips from the USA to the hotel and casino. If I could do that, he would pay me a commission of 25% of whatever amount of money the charter members lost. I was a little taken back by the offer, and told him that it was not anything I would be interested in doing, so he upped the offer to 50 %. I guess they were desperate to get players in that casino. I thanked him for his offer, but promoting that kind of business was not in my job description.

On the following day, Rudy and I drove back to Zagreb. We were to take a Yugoslavian Airline flight to Rome. That will be the next chapter of this saga.

 

 

 

 

 

THE BIG SALE #54

I was making good progress on my visits to the Regional Sales offices. As expected, the sales staff was reluctant to approach a potential charter client as they had never had any training in this aspect of air transportation. Thinking back to my years with Eastern Airlines, I recall a time when I was approached by someone who wanted to charter an Eastern aircraft and asked me how much it would cost. When I inquired from the company, I was told that the cost would be much higher than the per seat cost for a normal ticket. Eastern was missing out on a great revenue opportunity; they often had aircraft available that they could have been sold on a charter basis. They just didn't see this as a market. I guess that's just one more reason why they are no longer in business.

K.L.M. saw whole aircraft charters as a new market; I was fortunate to now be in charge of this market in the U.S.A. I started to set up a series of sales meetings and invited the regional offices sales staff to come to New York and participate. I created a "Charter Sales Manual" with the instructions on procedures, copies of typical charter contracts, and C.A.B regulations. I also had the agreement of Tubby Walker to spend an hour at each session to discuss C.A.B. regulations. The most important rule at that time was that all the passengers must have the same affinity, such as all participants actually being employees of a single company or members of the same clubs or organizations. It was not beneath the C.A.B. to send an inspector to the business, club or organization to check on the validity of the membership.

While I was District Manager in Detroit, I had been in contact with Auto Owners Insurance Company. They wanted to have a sales contest among the agents who sold their insurance policies, so they asked me to suggest a program that would involve a flight to Europe and a one week tour. I didn't handle hotels, land arrangements, etc, so I brought in Rudy Postmaa of Emhage Tours. Rudy was a good friend who had handled several other land tours for me; I knew his arrangements were always excellent. Rudy was a graduate from the University of Michigan. His family owned a large travel agency in Amsterdam, so after graduation, Rudy decided to stay in Michigan and open a branch office of Emhage Tours. This tour company still exists today under the name of Image Tours.

Rudy called me in New York and told me that Auto Owners had made a decision on an Itinerary by which we'd fly into Dubrovnik, in Yugoslavia, stay there for two nights, then board a cruise ship and cruise for two nights to Italy; they would then spend a couple of days in Naples, go up the Apian Way to Rome for three nights, and then fly home. This would make a total of 10 nights, including the overnight flight to Dubrovnik. Auto Owners was requesting a total of seven back to back charters. They wanted to charter the new Boeing 747 that carried 200 passengers. With a total of 1,400 passengers, this was the largest charter sale KLM had ever had up to that time. I flew to Amsterdam for consultation with the people in the Charter Department. Looking at the itinerary, there was a question as to whether the 747 could land in Dubrovnik. The single runway was just the minimum required. We brought in KLM's Chief pilot who decided that he wanted a test flight to be sure it was going to be adequate. The test flight was set up for the following day. I was granted permission to go along. We had several other passengers from various departments that went along. When I had been talking with the Chief Pilot I was telling him that I had a private pilot's license and, a one time, had wanted to get a commercial license. However, when I went in for the medical tests, they found that I was "shade blind" and could not get a commercial license. I'm not color blind, as an example, I can't see the difference between dark blue and black. You can imagine how happy I was when the Captain invited me to sit in the jump seat; the jump seat is a small hinged folding seat between the pilot and co-pilot. It was an unexpected privilege that I remember even today.

The test flight was without incident and, although the landing and takeoff used up the entire runway, the chief pilot gave his approval for the charter flights. I took the time to visit Emhage Tours in Amsterdam and met with Rudy's father. He was a retired teacher who used to organize student groups who then travelled throughout Europe. (My daughter Karen had been on one of their European student tours and she had a great time). Upon retirement, he decided to make tourism a business. It really took off and he had over twenty employees, both administrative and tour conductors. Upon return to New York, I spoke to Rudy and gave him the good news. He told me that Auto Owners wanted me to come to Michigan for a meeting.

Rudy and I met with Ralph Moulton, President of Auto Owners, and Max Tanner, their Vice President. I gave them the KLM flight schedule I had worked out. The first charter would be one way to Dubrovnik. This group would then travel via the land and cruise itinerary to Rome. The next charter would be from Rome to Detroit to bring the first group home. This charter from Rome would then pick up group two and take them to Dubrovnik, and so on. In other words the first charter would be one way, as would be the last charter that would bring the final group home. The other charters would be full in both directions. In this way Auto Owners would only have to pay for two empty legs at the empty leg rate. The other five would be at the full charter rate.

Rudy then went over the details of the land arrangements. Ralph Moulton wanted to add a gala dinner in Rome. The C.I.G.A. Excelsior hotel in Rome, where all the groups would be staying, had a special Roman theme dinner where all the participants dressed in robes, etc as they did in early Roman days. The hotel would provide all the material needed for the participants to make a costume. Rudy said that he would set this up. Auto Owners was very concerned that this program goes without any problems. The passengers were going to be the top producers for them and any unwanted problems would reflect on Auto Owners. Both Rudy and I assured them that both of us would check and recheck every detail including a dry-run to be sure everything went smoothly. I told them about the flight I had been on to Dubrovnik to check out flight procedures and airport facilities. They were pleased about that and said that if this proved successful, they would plan for more such programs.

Upon leaving Auto Owners, Rudy suggested that the two of us go over the entire itinerary together. I told him that I would have to clear it with the home office. When I got back to New York I spoke to Fritz Kielman about the importance of the Auto Owners business and that I had the promise of even more business if this program I had set up went off well. I asked him for approval of a pass for Rudy and his permission for me to accompany him. It was no problem, Fritz knew that Rudy was becoming one of KLM's top producing agents and he also wanted to see more traffic from Auto Owners.

In the next blog I will tell you about our trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A NEW JOB TO LEARN #53

Before I could relocate to New York, I had to prepare the Detroit office for a new District Manager. Everything had to be inventoried; if there were any differences between the inventory that was given me when I took over and what I was passing on to the new manager, it would have to be explained. All moneys and the blank ticket stock on hand had to be accounted for. After all that, the incoming manager then had to sign his acceptance of the office.

I was happy to learn that the new manager was to be Wolter Witholt; Wolter was a Dutch employee who I had met several times; we had even participated together in a sales seminar in Holland. Wolter was being promoted from being a Sales Representative. An interesting fact about him was that he had been a freedom fighter, in Holland, during the war. Often he had to smuggle guns between resistance groups who were fighting the German occupation troops in his country. He was a young boy who would many times ride his bike past the German occupiers with a rifle stuck down his pant leg. I don't know if I would have had the same courage.

When Wolter arrived, we spent a few day together, out in the field, meeting travel agents and commercial accounts. Wolter also needed to find a place to live. I showed him the small home that I had in the suburbs and he agreed to rent it from me when I left. I got a big surprise when the Dutch Immigrant Society said that they wanted to give me a farewell dinner in Grand Rapids. I had become quite close with this organization over the five years I worked with them. At the dinner, John Witte presented me a gold watch, with a suitable inscription on the back. I still own the watch; it no longer runs, but I have kept it anyway.

With all the events in Detroit taken care of, I had to find a place to live in New York. The other two years previously spent there, were on a temporary basis, and KLM had paid my hotel bill. Now, I needed to find an apartment, hopefully near the office. After much searching, I settled on a single bedroom apartment on Park Ave and 34^th Street. It looked out on Park Avenue and was on the 20^th floor. The apartment had a good sized living room, a bedroom and a small but adequate kitchen. Once I brought a few items from Detroit, it was very comfortable. The rent was $210.00 per month, which back in 1971 was expensive; I would bet that today, if you could find it, it would rent for a thousand or more.

With accommodations settled, I was happy to get started in my new position. I took the time to spend several hours meeting with my staff on an individual basis. Fortunately, I had a passing relationship with all of them as I had met them all at one time or another, during the previous two years I was in New York. During the first days, I also visited with Tubby Walker, the Company's attorney who had been a CAB executive prior to joining KLM. I told Tubby that I wanted to work closely with him to be sure we conformed to all the regulations. The last thing I wanted to do was cost KLM their landing rights. I had a good deal of experience working with charters, but the industry was growing and new rules and regulations were being made on a regular basis. Tubby acquainted me with all copies of CAB rulings and changes in their regulations. I found this to be very helpful. Tubby Walker was sure to call me to his office and discuss any new things that he believed I should know. Over time we became good friends, and we often lunched together.

Since Fritz Kielman, KLM's USA head, wanted to expand charter sales, I felt that it was important to visit each office to determine their ability and understanding to go out and sell charters in their districts. From the questions that came from the field, our staff felt that our sales people shied away from selling charters as they sometimes were afraid they didn't have enough knowledge. I could appreciate that, as I recalled the learning curve I had in the beginning. I was also getting calls from District Managers asking me if I could make a joint call on a potential client in their district, who wanted to charter an aircraft. I decided to sit down and make a schedule to visit every office. I asked Margret, my secretary, to call each manager to see when they would be available to sit down with me. I wanted to be sure that they had all their staff available, as its one thing to sell a charter and another important part of it was to provide the entire backup needed by the client.

For the time being, the district meetings would have to wait. I received a call from the Charter Department in Holland asking me to come to Amstelveen, where the head office was located, to discuss charters from the USA. I ended up spending more than a week in Amstelveen. Europe was far ahead of the USA when it came to Charters. Every year, the foreign airlines participated in "Inclusive Tour Charters". The foreign airlines did not have to operate under CAB rules when flying in Europe; they operated under I.A.T.A., which is the International Airlines Transportation Association. When you fly a foreign airline to Europe you are subject to IATA rules, they are quite different regulations for chartering an aircraft in Europe.

The home office of KLM is a very modern four story building. Close by, at Schiphol Airport is the maintenance center. I had an opportunity to tour the center. All employees are dressed in spotless white overalls and the whole facility is so clean you could eat off the floor. There is every conceivable facility for tearing down and rebuilding jet engines, x-raying wings and everything else that a maintenance facility has to do. It is very impressive and makes you feel very safe when you're on a KLM aircraft.

I digressed a bit from the reason I was on this visit, but I would also like to mention my visit to one of the most impressive buildings, which was where the aircraft scheduling was located. When your aircraft are flying over the entire world, you have to know exactly where each aircraft is, when it is due for maintenance, checks etc. You also have to keep track of the crew members and where they are, and how many hours they can fly. This is done inside a large circular building which represents the world wide routes. Every flight was represented showing where it starts and where it stops. It shows the exact routes, the stops it makes, even what connecting KLM flights are out of each city. It's a little like a Chinese jig saw puzzle, but the people working in there knew exactly how it all works. It was a little amazing.

While in Amstelveen I was pleased to meet Ad Asselman, one of the local managers in the Charter Dept. I had met with Ad in Detroit, when I had asked him to come to Detroit and go with me to the D.I.S. to discuss their plans. They wanted to increase the number of charters for their members and I thought it was important to bring in one of the staff from Holland. It was nice to see him again; we spent several days together. Ad was very helpful in introducing me to many of the Dutch charter staff that I would be working with in the future. I was very pleased with all that I learned and the people I met. As I left Holland, I felt that I was going to enjoy my new job. We were entering the jet age and KLM was ordering the new 747 jet aircraft for the long haul routes. The nine hour flight from New York to Amsterdam with a fuel stop in Ireland would be cut to six hours nonstop. The future looked very bright.

BACK TO THE “BIG APPLE” #52

KLM's offer to promote me from District Sales Manager in Detroit, to U.S. Charter Sales Manager in New York, came as a bit of a surprise. It's true that I had done well in Detroit; in 1965 when I arrived in that city, sales were a little less than one million dollars per year. Now, in 1971, our sales were running around eight million per year. When I proposed changing KLM's location from downtown Detroit to the suburbs, the other international airlines in the city told me that my idea was crazy; however, it was less than a year later when they were all trying to leave the downtown area.

On a personal level, my life left a lot to be desired. The family had moved up to Island Lake, near Rose City, in mid Michigan, too far to commute from, so I purchased a small two bedroom home in the Detroit suburbs, and once again, I could only be with the family on weekends. It was like the two years I spent in the home office in New York, when I had to commute by air to Connecticut, on the weekends. From a work perspective, I loved what I was doing. Aviation, tourism and the whole travel industry seemed to be in my blood. I was aware that my line of work was not conducive to a normal family life; and I was pretty lonely at times. I was missing much of my children's growing up. It was really nothing that I had planned. I was just following where life led me. When I met my future wife in Miami, I was working in the airline industry, so this lifestyle wasn't something I started after we were married. Perhaps it had something to do with my early childhood? I can't remember what might be described as a "normal" upbringing. Some people are born and raised in the same home all their life, go to school and get a job in the same location. I knew people in New Jersey, who had never visited New York City. I had a friend in Providence, Rhode Island, who had never travelled outside of Providence and was perfectly happy to live life in one spot.

If you have been following my blogs, you'll remember I was raised by my mother during the depression years; we had moved several times, then off to boarding school, off to join the Canadian Army, plus my teen years spent in Alberta, and so forth. About the closest thing to a family life was when I lived on the Buckwell ranch, in Macleod. If you read my Mother's story about her life and her service in the RCAF during the war, you will notice her love of travel, too. I'm sure my love of flying came from my Uncle Albert, who was a "bush pilot" in Northern Canada and Alaska. In any event, my life was what it was, and I can't go back and change it. Nor would I want to.

Getting back to the new job offer, I talked to Helen about the offer and, as I suspected, she was not a happy camper. She was enjoying her life at the lake and thought that at some point I would retire to the lake house. She had no desire to move to New York. I had an appointment with Fritz Kielman, Vice President and General Manager of KLM in the USA. I told Helen that I was going into New York the following week to discuss the new position, and that we should wait until I had all the facts.

On the following week I met with Fritz Kielman in New York. Kielman explained to me that as U.S. Charter manager I would be responsible for the operations of all charter flights originated from U.S. cities. This also included all the paper work and filings with the Civil Aviation Board for any flights originating outside of KLM's certificated cities; I would also have to make sure all charter flights conformed to C.A.B. regulations, plus work closely with the Holland aircraft scheduling department. Another responsibility was to oversee the issuing of contracts for signature of the entity wishing to charter the aircraft, and verifying that they conformed to the C.A.B. charter rules and regulations. I would have a staff that would handle all the paperwork, help with the cost and collection of charter prices, and handle any other regulations. My office and staff would be located at 609, 5^th Ave, in New York. The Charter Department already had a staff of eight employees. I would be replacing the charter manager, who had been recalled to Holland. Kielman said that he was offering me this position due to the extensive experience I had in handling the numerous charter flights from Detroit. He particularly wanted me to expand charter sales from the U.S.A. by using my experience to train all the sales people in the U S. stations on how to sell charters; it was of the utmost importance that they understood all the rules and regulations of the C.A.B. in this regard.

I would work closely with the legal department, headed by Tubby Walker, who had a great reputation in the airline industry as he had been a former C.A.B. officer. It was very important for a foreign air carrier like KLM to adhere to USA air regulations as established by the Civil Aviation Board. If these regulations were broken or circumvented, the air carrier would be subjected to fines and even, possibly, the loss of USA landing rights.

The salary turned out to be a substantial increase over what I had been making as a District Sales Manager. Since I would be doing a great deal of travel between the U.S.A. and Holland, I requested to be classified as an "A" employee so that all my company travel would be First Class. I am 6'3 and I was not going to spend endless hours flying over the North Atlantic in the smaller seats of economy class. Kielman said that "A" class was only for Dutch employees; however, he would give me a First Class classification that would permit me to fly first class. This would carry over to all flights including any carriers. The Interline Department would be advised that any of my flight passes on KLM or other airlines would be as a KLM executive entitled to fly First Class. I also requested a resettlement amount to cover my transfer expense. I got everything I asked for, now I had to learn what the family was going to say?

Back at Rose City, I told Helen and the family that I wanted this promotion and that traveling to Rose City from New York every weekend, instead of from Detroit, would make very little difference. With the annual passes I would have on domestic airlines I could fly to Tri-Cities, in Michigan, and then drive for about 45 minutes to Rose City. I had requested that I keep my company car from Detroit, and that had been approved; I could keep it parked at the Tri Cities Airport. To make a long story short, after long conversations, I accepted the promotion.

Now, my goal was to make the new position as successful as possible.

The years slip by #51

1967 had been a good year for KLM, in Michigan. Revenue was at an all time high; we had a new office, and added an additional salesman. It also had some bitter memories: the murder of Dick Robinson and his family and the suicide of Joe Scolara. How fragile and uncertain life can be.

During the next few years KLM continued to do well. Our office grew to a total of nine people; we had an amazing number of charter flights for the Dutch Immigrant Society, Chrysler Corp, and numerous other organizations. I made three more trips to Europe and a couple of trips to Curacao and Aruba in connection with Chandris Cruise Lines who were working with KLM on Caribbean cruises out of Curacao. Actually, that was the birth of the cruise industry as we know it today. Aside from the transatlantic ships from New York to Europe, there were no cruises like we know them now.

Chandris came to KLM with the idea to station a ship in Curacao. KLM who flew scheduled flights to Curacao could offer a package tour that would combine round trip air via KLM and a six night cruise on Chandris. I don't recall the name of the ship, but it carried several hundred passengers. Later on, they added a second ship that had been the private yacht of the Aga Kahn. It could carry about 40 people. I thought it would be great if Chandris, as part of its marketing plan, would give me about ten cabins and I would offer the District Sales Managers of our domestic airlines in Detroit a complimentary cruise for them and their wives. KLM would grant them passes to Curacao, and Chandris would offer the cruise. Chandris jumped at the idea and gave me ten complimentary double cabins, not on their larger ship but on the small, former private yacht.

I wish I had seen the Aga Kahn's yacht before I offered a cruise to my domestic airline friends. When we got to Curacao and boarded the ship we found the cabins very small, with upper and lower births. So small, that one person had to step outside the cabin while the other got dressed. The toilets and showers were very tiny. The dining room and small casino along with an equally small library took up the rest of the ship. Chandris had done a good job of refurbishing, but it was more suited for Greek Island cruising for students rather than the American market.

We cruised several islands and regardless of the ship's size, everyone was having a great time. We were enroute to Caracas which was the last stop before returning to Curacao, when the ship encountered engine problems and we lost the air conditioning. Then, on top of that the toilets started to back up and the odor was not pleasant. We limped into Caracas about 8 hours late and the Captain informed us that the ship would have to stay in Caracas for repairs. Chandris provided hotel rooms and our KLM office in Curacao made arrangements with Venezuelan Airlines to provide Complimentary tickets back to Curacao.

Helen, who had worked in the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, took us on a short walking tour of the city. None of us enjoyed seeing armed military men on almost every corner. Helen said that this was very common in Caracas as they were there to stop any uprising against the government; I guess that's Parr for foreign dictatorships?

The old yacht was taken out of service and not used again. Incidentally, Chandris still exists today; it is a much larger cruise line that now sails under the name of "Celebrity Cruises" you may have seen their ships with the large X on the funnel. They have eight luxury ships; the largest are the Eclipse, the Equinox and the Solstice which carries over 3,000 passengers, a far cry from the Aga Kahn's old yacht.

On a more personal basis, Helen accompanied one of my European groups through Europe, Karen went on a student tour in Europe and Kathy started Michigan State College. Helen decided that she wanted to move to a more "country like" setting, away from Detroit. Because we had a log cabin on Island Lake, just outside Rose City, she thought that we should build a year round home up there. It was too far for me to commute, so I bought a small house in Detroit and commuted up to the lake on Friday night, and back to Detroit on Sunday night. Not much of a family life, but it was good for the children.

Building the home on Island Lake was not the easy job it should have been. We had a local contractor who lived at the lake. He was a disaster. Living in St. Clair Shores and building a home 200 miles away left our contractor on his own, and he took advantage of it. Delay after delay blamed on rain or some other excuse. Finally, I drove up to the lake and confronted the contractor. When we met in his small office I accused him of lying about weather delays and said that I wanted to know what was going on. In an unbelievable move, he opened his desk drawer and put a revolver on his desk. I asked him what he expected to do with a gun, and he said he did not intend to let me assault him.

The man was crazy; yes, I was angry, but in no way did I threaten him. I told him that the house had to be finished in 30 days or I would sue him. He had been paid in full and I expected him to complete the house. He did complete it and then declared bankruptcy. He had large unpaid bills for supplies at the local lumber company and they took him to court. I was called to testify that I had paid him for the lumber. He was found guilty of misappropriating funds and was sentenced to a prison term. In spite of all the problems, it was a very nice house.

It was not long after that, when I was summoned to New York by KLM and offered the position of Charter Sales Manager for North America. It would require a move to the New York office, and of course I would have to go through additional training in Amsterdam where the world wide aircraft scheduling was all done. I told them I was flattered by their offer but I would need a few days to consider the offer. Changes, Changes… It would be a big promotion.

 

BACK IN THE GOOD OLD U.S.A. #50

I would like to add a few last words on the Impresario Performing Arts Tour, as mentioned in the last blog.

Travel is a dream that I have always had. Ever since I was a very little boy, I always wanted to see what was down the street, across town, or around the world. I never expected to have the opportunity to fulfill those dreams. Circumstances presented themselves, allowing many of those dreams to come true.

Although I expressed disappointment about the Impresario tour, it was with the participants, not the journey. Russia, in the late sixties could be pretty dismal, compared to America or any other place outside the "Iron Curtain". In many ways, however, it was a fascinating country. Children would come up to you and ask for chewing gum, but if you tried to shake hands with them, they would slap your hand away. I guess they had been pretty well brainwashed about the American capitalist enemy. Lenin Square in Moscow is immense. Russian visitors stood in line for hours to go through Lenin's Mausoleum. Our Russian Intourist guide took us to the front of the line and yelled at the others in line to let us in. We got a lot of dirty looks, but they let us in. Inside the immense rotunda was the body of Lenin, propped up in his coffin looking like a wax body. You could only spend about one minute for the viewing. No cameras were allowed; you were relieved of cameras as you entered, and were returned when you came out. At the far end of the square was the St.Basil church, with its impressive onion shaped domes; to the right was the entrance to the Kremlin, surrounded by its massif walls. We toured the Kremlin and were fascinated by the architecture. Looking at Russian history under the Tsars, you have to marvel at the fact that, although the Tsars' were disposed of, the Russian people kept what they had built. Another example of this the Winter Palace, in Leningrad, with its beautiful fountains, gardens, and canals, built by Tsar Nicolas the Great. The paintings in the Palace came from all over Europe, especially from Holland, where Nicolas lived and studied for some time.

I just thought that I would add the above, as I didn't want to leave the reader with the impression that the Impresario tour was terrible. It was far from that; the many performances we attended were beautiful and the cities we visited were full of old world art, architecture and for the most part, friendly people. I just wish our tour members could have been nicer.

Upon my return to work, I still had to find a new location for our office. I had also promised to have lunch with Joe Scolara, Dick Robinson's assistant. I was hoping that Dick's murder had been solved. Joe's admission to me that he was the chief suspect was certainly unsettling. I gave Joe a call and he asked me to meet him at the old Impresario office. The offices were in a one story building in Southfield, Michigan. Arriving at the office, I was greeted by Joe Scolara. He then went over the Robinson family demise and said the police had no leads, and were still interrogating him as the chief suspect. He thought the reason for this was because he had no alibi for the time when the murders occurred. He had been attending the Michigan Fair all that day but couldn't recall anyone he knew, who could say they saw him there. Additionally, he served as a Special Forces member during WWll and therefore had a great deal of experience with weapons. He swore up and down that he had nothing to do with the murders.

He told me that the reason he wanted to see me at their old offices, was because he owned the building and wondered if I would like to rent it for KLM. He knew that I wanted to get out of Detroit. To make a long story short, I sent the details and a picture of the building to my New York Home Office and got a "go ahead" to rent it. It was well suited to our needs. It was a small building containing three private offices, a reception area and a large conference room which we converted into a reservations and ticket office open to the public. In the back of the building was ample space for parking. The nicest part was that it fronted on Southfield Road which was a main road out of Detroit, to the suburbs. We had a nice sign out front proclaiming "The K.L.M. Building".

After moving in, Joe Scolara stopped by several times to visit. On one visit, he suggested that we have lunch together at that great Dutch restaurant in Windsor. On the way back, he surprised me by saying he hoped U.S. Immigration didn't ask him to open his trunk (we were using his car) as he had a rifle in the trunk. I don't know if he was joking or serious. In any event, we were not asked to open it. That was the last time I ever saw Joe. He had a small office in downtown Detroit, where he was working and his mother was helping him. One day, she went out for lunch, and when she returned, the door was locked and there was a note on the door telling her not to come in, but to call the police. When the police arrived, they broke down the door and found that Joe had committed suicide. He left a note saying that he was a thief and had stolen money from Dick Robinson, but he was not a murderer. To my knowledge, the police never solved the case. I imagine that not having any more leads, they just closed the case hoping the murderer was dead.

For me, I was happy the year was pretty well over. I got us out of Detroit even though it took me more than twice as long to get to the office every day. I had increased the KLM revenue for the year by over another million dollars. The sad part of the year was the losing of a friend, making the year less happy as it could have been. Overall, I felt good, but could not help wonder what the next year would bring.

 

 

 

 

THE IRON CURTAIN # 49

The lasts few weeks in September 1967 remain in my mind, even after all these years. With meetings in Chicago, corporate visitors from Holland in town, the murder of the Robinson family, and Luke Asjes departure for Amsterdam, pretty well had my mind in a whirl.

One humorous incident among all the problems also comes to mind. It has to do with my visitors from Holland. After all their meetings with the Dutch Immigrant Society to learn the way we handled all their charter flights, I thought that it would be nice to offer them a nice lunch before they had to board their flight back to Amsterdam. There was a wonderful Dutch restaurant in Windsor, Canada. It was just across the border in Ontario and many people from Detroit had lunch there quite often. It served some wonderful Indonesian food, and it was only about a ten minute trip, through the tunnel into Canada. There were few formalities at the border; the Canadians had no check point as you passed in, however, U.S. Immigration Police stopped all cars and checked all drivers on their way back into the States.

I must have been in La la land because I completely forgot that I had taken Dutch Citizens across into Canada. We were about halfway through our lunch when it dawned on me that we had to go through American Immigration to get back into Detroit. I don't know what kind of trouble I was going to get my guests in, but they had to catch a flight that afternoon and we didn't have time to be delayed. Having gone through this process many times, I knew that the U.S. Immigration officer usually just stuck his head in the window and asked "if I was a U.S. citizens. I'd say yes, and he would wave me through. I explained to my Dutch friends about my problem and asked them to just say "yes" when asked if everyone was a U.S. citizen. We got to the border, we were asked the question and I said yes. Then, from the back seat, came a very loud and definitely Dutch "Yah". I held my breath, but luckily he waived us through. I don't think it's that easy today; Homeland Security would have us all in jail.

So now it was September 28^th and I was standing at the American Airlines gate at Idlewild Airport, awaiting the arrival of my 36 passengers booked on the Impresario Performing Arts Tour. We were all booked on KLM's evening flight to Amsterdam, where we spent two nights exploring the sights, sailing on the famous canals, and visiting the Rijks Museum. A concert by the Amsterdam Philharmonic and a visit to Volendam were other highlights of our stay. From Amsterdam we flew to Warsaw, for more tours and a concert. Then it was on to Moscow. I had been in Moscow in 1961, with a group of KLM managers on a familiarization tour of Eastern Europe. I really hadn't had any great knowledge of Eastern Europe, just a taste of it. From that experience, I knew that in those times, people in Eastern Europe didn't have a lot of wealth. I had explained that to the participants during our meetings back in Detroit. I told them to leave any fancy clothes and fur coats at home. Unfortunately, my advice didn't sink in. They all came dressed in fancy furs and jewels as if they were going to attend the grand opening performance at the Met. Our Intourist host or guide was a wonderful Russian lady who spoke perfect English and didn't leave our side for the three days we were in Moscow. We attended several concerts and a performance at the famous Bolshoi Theatre. The immense red velvet curtain, emblazoned with the Hammer and Sickle symbol, was pretty impressive. The performance was a ballet, and arrangements had been made to have a special luncheon with the performers the next day. The next morning was free and I told the group I would have a bus waiting for them at eleven A.M. outside the hotel to take them to the luncheon.

At 11:A.M no one was there. I started to call their rooms, when a couple of them showed up. They said the others were still getting ready. By 11:30 I was going crazy, The Intourist guide said that we had to go. I said that we couldn't go as only half the people were on the bus. Then the ones on the bus started to complain and said lets go leave them behind. By the time we all got to the hall where we were to have lunch, the Russian performers were leaving. I pleaded with them to stay, but all they said was in Russian and it didn't sound too complimentary. The Intourist guide was very apologetic to our people who really didn't deserve an apology. The luncheon had been set up beautifully with crystal glasses, flowers and more; it looked like something out of a movie set. The tour members couldn't understand why the performers left. I didn't want to say it was because they thought we were a bunch of ugly Americans, but that's what it was. The cold war was still on at that time.

The rest of the tour was not much better; it was like herding a bunch of sheep. I had one woman who was always lost. If I told everyone that the bus was outside to the left, she would go to the right. I would count heads on the bus and she was always missing. I would find her wandering around looking for the bus. This happened time and time again. There was another woman who wanted to have the window open in her room, at night. Because all rooms were double occupancy, it ended up that I had to switch her around with others until I found another lady who didn't mind the open window. So it went through Leningrad, Budapest, Prague and finally our farewell dinner in back in Amsterdam. One thing I forgot: when we left Russia, their Immigration Control officers searched my entire group. One lady had some Russian rubles; the officer said it was against the law to take Russian money out of Russia. When she said it was just a souvenir, the officer suggested she spend it in the gift shop. The women threw the rubles on the floor and said she didn't want any dirty Russian money. They all laughed at her. Another lady had a Rosary in her purse and a letter from her son, who was a priest. They took both items, several officers took the items into a back room, and it was about thirty minutes before they returned the items. I don't know why, but they didn't ask me to open my suitcase.

I have escorted a number of groups through Europe, Eastern Europe, and Africa, but I am happy to tell you that I have never had to endure such a group again.