Convair, Volume 1, Number 1, September 1, 1948 Page: 2 of 8
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Page 2
CONVAIR
Wednesday, Sept. I, 1948
President's Message
To All Convair People:
It is with a great deal of pleasure that I address you
through the first issue of our reborn newspaper, which
will be published every other week.
I want to emphasize that this paper is for everyone in
the company and not for glorification of a few individuals.
It is our own paper, for everyone from top management
to the newest member of Convair.
Through it we have a means of communication with
each other, for it isn’t possible for me to go through the
plants and meet you personally as often as I’d like,
although I will do the best I can in that connection.
Frankly, I hope the paper will be highly instrumental
in welding us all into a well-informed, hard-fighting team
which will produce the best aircraft in the world. I hope
it will be a means of making Convair the best place to
work in the industry. We can’t attain either of those
goals, without, as a matter of course, attaining the other.
We have a staff of capable and experienced newspaper
men running the office of this publication. They have
promised me that they will “play the news straight.” They
tell me they have discovered, through the sensible and
valuable suggestions received in the recent questionnaire,
that the average person in Convair is well above the aver-
age “man on the street” in intelligence. This bears out
what I have discovered in many years of participation in
the aircraft business: smart, far-sighted, quick-thinking
people just naturally gravitate into it and stay with it.
So, I am sure you join me in looking forward with
a great deal of anticipation to future issues. Convair man-
agement will provide the paper with as complete state-
ments of plans and developments as it is possible to
release under the governmental restrictions and security
measures with which we work. We all know that these
restrictions are proper and necessary for our national
security.
OH-ING AND AH-ING—And no wonder. Mrs. J. R. Skelton,
center, Ft. Worth, shows off $1,000 diamond ring, part of a $20,000
jackpot she won on, radio quiz program. Left is Loretta Upton,
right, Lucille Hayden.
The editors have assured me that they would like to
have you write to them about anything you read which
you do not understand, which you like, or with which you
find fault.
I am sure you will cooperate with your plant reporters
and your local editor to provide us all with the kind of
newspaper we need and want.
Best wishes for a successful publication.
Sincerely,
LA MOTTE T. COHU
President and General Manager
$20,000 Guess a Cinch For
Ft. Worth Indian Expert
Tom-toms were beating out the
native Indian rhythm of a dance
to the Sun God when the radio
announcer in New York City put
in a telephone call to Mrs. John-
nie Russell Skelton to find out if
she could identify the tune being
played — and win herself more
than $20,000.
son sedan, house trailer, $3,500
mink coat, a $1,500 radio-televi-
sion-phonograph combination and
a cruise to Cuba for two.
Mrs. Skelton went to work at
Convair Ft. Worth Nov. 9, 1942,
and has worked continuously
since that time.
His Little Ones
Make Big Total
Now the next move is up to
Homer.
Some time ago Paul Ferrara,
diminutive met-
.yEjtoWqfc al fitter in
ijf • Dept. 136 at
it I San Diego
• ^ (welding and
V W ■ plating), had
V submitted sev-
f*' • % ~ } eral suggestions
01 \'™~/ and received
Ferrara small sums in
the Suggestion
Award program.
Then Homer Bender,, also a
metal fitter and a close associate,
made Paul look like small pota-
toes. Bender came up with an
award of $82.
“I told Homer if I got enough
small ones I’d pass him up,” Fer-
rara recalled. “And I did, too—
only it took seven suggestions to
do it!”
Ferrara started off almost a
year ago by suggesting a Plexi-
glas guard for hand grinders for
which he received $5. This was
followed by recommendations for
changes which would save break-
age of door frame brackets dur-
ing work on L-13 fuselages,
which netted him $7 and $16, and
three other _ suggestions which
brought $5, $10 and $45. The
latter involved use of a dolly to
move the fuselages instead of
manpower.
Ferrara has been with Convair
eight years. He is married, has
two children, Cora Ann, 12, and
Jimmy Lee, 10, and lives at 2969
Broadway.
SWEATERS, BRACELETS
Sweaters, glasses, bracelets,
rings, gloves, pins and hundreds
of other items remain unclaimed
in the “Lost and Found” cabinets
of the Employee Service section.
Employees who have lost objects
in the plant are invited to inquire
in person or telephone Extension
4278 at Ft. Worth.
SOLD OUT—In the first 31 hours of operation at Convair San
Diego, candy machines such as these sold 7,157 bars. The inno-
vation, put in operation last month, is also being considered for
Ft. Worth. Profits from cigarettes and candy go toward employee
recreation and welfare activities. J. P. Ruiz, metal bench assembler,
watches while Paul Worsley, Don Peterson, and Glenn Cretser of
Davidson Bros, vending machine firm, unload.
Foremen's Club Changes Name
It’s not the Foremen’s Club any
more in San Diego. It now is the
Management Club.
Members made this decision at
their August meeting presided
over by President A. Vernon.
Floyd B. Odium, Convair board
chairman, was a guest.
Members rejected a move to
make retiring presidents auto-
matically members of the club
board. Speakers during the eve-
ping included D. C. Whitworth,
achievements committee chair-
man, and Fred Nipper, member-
ship chairman, who introduced
new members. Herbert Rubot-
tom, program committee head,
introduced Roy Ashe, master of
ceremonies for an Experimental
Dept, program of songs and danc-
ing staged by Leo Denny.
Art Thursam came close to
stealing the show by singing
“Somebody Stole My Gal,” play-
ing his own guitar accompani-
ment.
The announcer didn’t know it,
but he was telephoning a 'Con-
vair Ft. Worth Division em-
ployee Who is part Indian—and
who for years had known the
tune as “Sun Dance.” For her,
it was a cinch.
The result: she was declared
the winner of the $19,000 jackpot
on the “Stop the Music” program
for identifying the “mystery mel-
ody.” Other prizes totaled more
than $1,000.
Mrs. Skelton admits that the
excitement was too much for her:
she failed to show up for work
the next day at her usual spot in
the payroll section of Accounting
(Dept. 9-1).
“I got 78 telephone calls the
first day — and an armload of
mail from people I didn’t know,”
she relates. “So I came back to
work the next day in self-de-
fense.”
How does it feel to be a “Stop
the Music” winner?
“It’s just like a birthday or
Christmas every day!” said Mrs.
Skelton.
First two she actually received
came about two weeks after the
fateful telephone call of Aug. 8:
a $1,000 U.S. Security Bond and
a diamond ring valued at $1,000.
Winning the $20,00 0 has
forced Mrs. Skelton, a newly-
wed, to change her plans. She
was married July 24, 1948, to
Herbert J. Skelton. Shortly
after, he was transferred to
Houston, Tex., and Mrs. Skel-
ton planned to join him there
immediately.
“Now I’ve got to stay in Fort
Worth until this prize business is
all settled,” she said, “and it
looks like it may take up to six
months.”
Among the major prizes: Hud-
Bomb Load Tripled
Tremendous bomb load of the
B-36 is clearly indicated by com-
parison with the B-29. The B-36
can haul 72,000 pounds of bombs,
the B-29 only 20,000.
BEFORE TAKE-OFF—First Convair-Liner to leave the U. S. is
inspected by Stanley Brogden, Brisbane writer (wearing hat), and
Geoffrey Thompson, photographer, right, while J. J. Williams,
Convair asst, foreman, shows "orange peel" cowl. Both Aussies are
aboard ship on, flight home. This is first of five Convair-Liners
destined for service with Trans Australia Airlines.
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Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation. Convair, Volume 1, Number 1, September 1, 1948, periodical, September 1, 1948; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1117962/m1/2/?q=%22~1%22~1&rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth.