MUSINGS OVER COFFEE BEFORE SANTA'S ARRIVAL!

In the "Lost In Space Department": Dudley Moore and Cleo Laine recorded a fun Jazz LP in 1982. I wish I had never rid myself of that LP. It was fun. Two friends who were once lovers then friends years later finally made good on getting together with a bass player and creating a fun LP. I can't find it anywhere. The story is, that as old friends they had talked for over 20 years of going into the recording studio. Well, we all know about "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". But to their credit, they did it. Dudley on keyboards with Ray Brown, bass. Incidentally, I was in traffic at a stop light. It is generally assumed that morons plaster bumper stickers to painted plastic bumpers whereupon removing said sticker also removes the paint, right? Nevertheless, the sticker on the car ahead of me said "We've been to Hell and we Love It!" A closer look at their license plate frame revealed the existence of Hell, Michigan. I'm skeptical.

I do plan on driving through the areas of town during daylight and taking photos of cool buildings--many abandoned for decades with those old painted-on-brick billboards of defunct soft drinks and beer. This is a very old city.

I have my gifts all wrapped as of last night. Just thought I'd throw that one in here!

Next week I am planning a return trip to North Carolina and it looks like Author Kathryn Magendie and I will meet! Another BLOG BUD!! Don't worry I'll have photos for you when I get the software to upload them.

I realize this sounds a bit lame, but I can't wait until December 26th when I can start using my New Day Timer! New Year, New Life! In fact, when my parents became engaged, my Dad held off for a January wedding and said (in Bulgarian of course) "New Year, New Luck". Exactly! My wish for all of you!!!

Anyone remember when radio broadcaster Art Bell signed off the air on his overnight radio show on Extra Terrestrials and didn't return for three days? The New York Metro Strike led me to figure this one out. Either he took a spin with the B-52's in a flying saucer or his Agent held out for more moolah. Me thinks the latter was the case! In either event, it was always wild to hear this guy interviewing phone callers with such questions as "Did you make physical contact with the aliens when the saucer landed outside?" Questions I should have used on bad dates! Sad, I know.

I once had a rejection letter from a network years ago who said there were "no appropriate matches" with my background. I responded sincerely and asked if there were any "inappropriate" matches? They never responded. How rude! Sort of like Woody Allen asking that woman out for a date when he says: "What are you doing Saturday night?" She says "Committing suicide". He nods soberly then asks, "What about Friday night?"

I've listened to Sarah McLachlan's"Afterglow Live" CD as I ran around town and it was wonderful. Speaking of live concerts, did any of you happen to catch the PBS film of the week-long "Cream" reunion with Eric Clapton, Jack, Bruce and Ginger Baker at London's Royal Albert Hall? Outstanding! I couldn't turn it off!!

In recent weeks, I located a small shop that sells vintage audio equipment. It was fun to see older Sansuii, Marantz and JBL gear. They also sell VHS movie tapes at $3 each--I acquired "Memphis Belle" and for $5 I acquired "The Great Escape". What a cast!

Finally, I've saved several of those plastic half-gallon skim milk containers to saw off the tops and place a candle in base of sand to light up the front of the property for the 24th and 25th (a tradition in this neighborhood). I'll amend this BLOG and otherwise alert the Media if any of the 5 rejected Playmates from Hugh Hefner's mansion show up at my door; I caught his Guest role on "The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch". As several of you have weighed in here, not exactly a riveting show. Hef's down to three Playmates now: ages 25, 31 and 20 respectively. Billed as "Secrets from The Grotto" (there were none). I turned off the television and crashed out.

Ciao for now!

LETS TALK ARCHITECTURE!

As a young boy, some of my fondest memories were taking long walks with my Dad and his brother Norman, my Uncle. We'd look at homes under various phases of construction and I'd listen to them conversing with such passion about costs and quality. It's no wonder then that New York and Miami fascinates me with such a variety of commercial buildings and more to the point, it's diverse architectural styles. Now before you peg this as another Pan Am BLOG (which it is not) any architectural school that is worth it's salt will mention the Chrysler Building (where Pan Am was housed until 1963), the Empire State Building, the Flat Iron Building, Rockefeller Center and yes, the former Pan Am Building. So, you see, this Blog is really about imagination. Here's a neat story for all you lucky New Yorkers.

Around 1960, a big office building project was really being talked up. This building was unlike anything in the world. It was going up just North of Grand Central Station at the foot of Park Avenue. Interestingly, it would "straddle" the New York Central (now the Metro-North) Railroad tracks underground. It would become the biggest office building in the world! Erwin Wolfson was promoting the huge building and he had Juan Trippe in mind to, hopefully, get Pan Am interested in becoming the anchor tenant. Ever the genius, Trippe wanted the building turned 90 degrees on its axis; he also wanted the leasing price reduced with 30 foot tall letters atop the building that spelled out PAN AM that lit up in bright white at night and one more item-----an equity stake in the building. Trippe got most of what he asked for with the exception of the signage----the letters were built 15 feet in height! People were said to either love the building or hate it. Personally, I've yet to see a Trump property match the beauty of it's lobby and floral arrangements. And the concrete casting outer vertical panels to me actually symbolize beauty and strength. I even took an elevator ride to the 46th Floor and convinced a nice receptionist to let me stand at the window to look out at the Manhattan skyline as Pan Am executives did every day for 28 years. It was awesome.

By cotrast, building security guards barely let me wander into the Chrysler Building lobby nearby. But how lavish it is!

The now closed Terminal 5 at New Yorks JFK Airport is the world-renowned TWA Terminal designed by Eero Saarinen and remains today incredibly beautiful with its bird-like symbolism and cavernous styling. Saarinen once said, "All the curves, all the spaces and the elements right down to the shape of the signs, display boards, railings and check-in desks were to be of a matching nature. we wanted passengers passing through the building to experience a fully-designed environment, in which each part rises from another and everything belongs to the same formal world". Sadly, after American Airline's purchase of TWA in 2001 Terminal 5 was closed as it was so modernistic that upgrades were difficult. JetBlue plans to demolish part of the structure and reopen a new section by 2008. Otherwise, the future of the building is anyone's guess as a hotly debated topic has included suggestions for restaurants or a convention space.

In Chicago, I was able to get "up close and personal" with the cylindrical-shaped twin parking garages at the center of the downtown Marina Complex where actor Steve McQueen filmed his last movie, "Hunter' in 1980. A dangerous stunt requiring a car driven by thugs to drive off one of the circular garages and plummet hundreds of feet into the Marina below was included in the film.

In Cincinnati, Union Terminal is regarded as one of the world's most beautiful art deco train stations in the world with an arched concrete dome structure 200 feet in height with multiple glass frontage reminiscent of an old tube radio set. Inside the terminal, a tiny newsreel theatre where train commuters could keep up on progress of World War II remains in pristine condition. In the center floor area, a columnar clock still provides the time. But the towering rotunda contains a virtual rainbow of semi-circular colors. Architect Weinhold Reiss commissioned mosaic tiles no bigger in size than your thumb nail to be cemented together to create murals depicting freshly painted masterpieces of the industrial evolution of the region from Riverboats to Trains. These expansive murals include the now-defunct Baldwin piano factory, meat packing plants, tool and die plants all along a lengthy concourse leading to train platforms. Taxi's and buses would enter one side of the terminal and proceed underground along a C-shaped route where they emerged on the other side of the building at street level. Further below, one could have their car valeted for weeks while its owners took vacations. By the time they returned, the cars were serviced with oil changes, lube jobs and patched intertubes (used during this time period of the 1940's inside tires). The interior lighting fixtures of the Terminal are all silver steel, combined with marble rest rooms and waiting rooms with circular overstuffed leather seating and wooden telephone booths.

Yes, Architect Phillip Johnson, creator of the President John F. Kennedy Memorial Plaza in downtown Dallas and the all glass Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California is impressive, as is the famed Art Deco District of Miami Beach where smaller boxy-rooms of the Leslie Hotel or the Madison once gave immigrants a sense of prestige with their marble lobbies. The bright hues of Pink, Red, Blue, Aqua, Yellow and Green accenting detailed exteriors along Collins Avenue is nothing short of remarkable. It tickles the heart that strong imaginations and big dreamers who created the 1,453 foot tall Sears Building or the Transamerica Occidental Insurance Building in Chicago now pale in comparison to today's glass and steel structures of monotony. As actress Sela Ward remarked in her biography "Homesick", no shopping mall ever really inspired her. I would have to second that sentiment.

Last week, in a fine bookstore, I became caught up in a book on a defunct past-time in America: The Drive-In. The book featured nationwide Drive In's of a wide variety of designs.

There's simply no way to capture Gothic style cathedrals and even a basic overview of American landmarks in a mere BLOG. As such, I'm necessarily omitting Los Angeles and many other fine cities and towns but here's my point. No matter where you live, take a walk one day and observe the textures, colors, spires, cables, columns, roofs, steps, doors, windows and see if you can capture with a disposable camera buildings of interest to you and "feel" what the creators, the architects had in their hearts and souls. As the late Jack Lemmon states in Blake Edwards' comedy film "That's Life" where he plays a renowned architect, "Hell, even the materials themselves can symbolize a thing of beauty for God sakes!."

In closing, when I was a kid, I once "borrowed" my father's Kodak "Brownie" camera and took photos of abandoned gas stations near my Grandmother's home in Detroit. Only after my father picked up the developed film at a dime store did he express an "Ohhhh!" and I was the identified culprit who snapped pictures of old gas pumps with the wooden colored marbles that once twirled in the spyglass while the gas station attendant filled up a car with gasoline! Maybe that's why Antique Malls thrill me. They do what architecture is destined to do--whether the subject at hand is a commercial office building, a church, theatre, hotel or apartment building. The challenge and joy is to create a special feeling within and/or make an artistic statement!

MEMORIES: PAN AM 1927-1991

Yesterday, on this BLOG SITE I posted an emotional story about the end of an American institution that grew up along side of this country and it's development. Pan Am aided the United States in it's most desperate hours of World War II, The Korean War, Vietnam and The Persian Gulf War. If you haven't had a chance, please go back ad read the editorial loaned to me from the good people at The Miami Herald. Today, I'd like to share just a few quotations from the people of Pan Am.

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MARY GOSHGARIAN: Mary held the position of "Clipper Skipper". Whenever Pan Am carried a high profile personality from Burt Reynolds to Roger Moore, Sophia Loren and her husband Carlo Ponti or Julio Iglesias, (to name just a few) Mary was assigned to greet them at the Gate and guide them to their next connecting flight or limousine. I became friends with Mary over the telephone by sheer luck in January, 1991 and we've been close friends ever since. She worked with Pan Am from 1956-1991 and is Manager of the spectacular MIAMI AWARE Store in Florida where Pan Am memorabilia is sold. Incidentally, AWARE is an acronym created in 1974 for "Airmen Worried About Remaining Employees". Today, Mary is truly the face and the spirit of Pan Am.

"You know Michael, we're all volunteers. And not a day goes by where people don't ask me 'Why do you do this?' I tell them the truth. First of all, Pan Am was the most wonderful job I ever had. It was a wonderful company and I can't do enough for them. We were just ordinary workers, but when you said you were with Pan Am, you were treated like royalty. I made so many friends all over the world. If I went to Thailand now, just to give you an example, I'd know just who to call. I mean that's how close we were. I met Burt Reynolds once. I went down to the gate to meet the flight and he was the last one off. I said , "Burt Reynolds!. My first cousin Val Avery made a movie with you". A year later, I met him again at the gate and as he was walking into the airport he looked at me and said, "Oh, here's cousin Mary!" What a memory. But the store is open Monday through Friday 11 am to 3 pm (1-305-871-1028). And you should see the people who visit from all around the world. Asia, Europe, especially Frankfurt where we had a base and London of course, the Middle East, Latin America, South America, Central America, Africa, China, New Zealand, the Caribbean, oh my goodness-- just all four corners of the globe!. And once in a while they walk in and just get overwhelmed with the merchandise and the memories start up and they start crying and we say. "Oh, please. Now you're getting us started' and we have to get our hankerchiefs out. And they tell me how much they miss us. That makes it so special for me".

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JEFF KRIENDLER: From 1968-1991 Jeff Kriendler held a variety of positions with Pan Am ascending to Vice President of Corporate Communications. Throughout the 1980's to the end, Jeff was the face and voice of Pan Am.

"The company was the Queen. Without going into all the historic 'firsts', Pan Am was a pioneer. It was absolutely number one worldwide in commercial aviation. I had so many memories, as I had the opportunity to travel on White House charters. I flew with Jimmy Carter, with President Reagan, with George Bush Sr., to Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield. I flew with George Bush on Thanksgiving Day to Dhahran. I flew on a number of international trips, and on presidential campaigns. I had the occasion to fly with heads of state, presidents, kings, many inaugurals--so many exciting things that occurred in my life because of my association with Pan Am, including the great honor of traveling with Mother Teresa of Calcutta".

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PETE RUNNETTE: Today, Pete is the President of the Pan Am Historical Foundation. A former Navy aviator, Runnette spent 21 years with Pan Am. He was Managing Director of Pan Am's Berlin-based IGS (Internal German System) for five years and Vice President of Pan Am's Atlantic Division in London with the additional responsibilities of worldwide marketing and sales as Senior Vice President of Marketing.

"Our website is www.PanAm.org. We have thousands of files of materials at the University of Miami Richter Library. However, they don't have all of the resources that they would like to be able to catalogue and make those available to researchers and scholars. So, we'd like to be able to supplement their funding wherever we can. How do we get our children interested in it? That's what we're working on right now, trying to come up with more of a forward-looking agenda that has some appeal, not just historically to young people today but something that is related to the current environment. And I think there's a lot of different ways to do that."

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Authors Note:

I would like to close now with a final word from Captain Mark Pyle as he looks back and captures for so many of us, the afterthoughts of "The World's Most Experienced Airline" and our nation's "Chosen Instrument", PAN AM:

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CAPTAIN MARK PYLE: Pilot of Pan Am's Last Flight on December 4, 1991:

"I think I would best describe Pan American as a elegant, majestic lady who in the years of her Glory was very beautiful. And then towards the end of her existence, when she wasn't so beautiful anymore she was put up at auction--similar to how a slave would be put up to auction. And she was stripped of her clothing, one garment at a time. The Pacific, The Shuttle, The Atlantic, The Pan Am Building (at 200 Park Avenue in New York City), the insurance company, the hotels (The Inter-Continental Hotel Chain was founded by Pan Am)--one garment until she stood there essentially naked. But before they could sell the final piece and auction her off, she simply died of shame and embarrassment. An elegant lady now of history. And that thought has stuck with me---what a grand lady she was in her time".

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Authors Final Note: For current information on the Pan Am Historical Foundation, tax deductable membership opportunities and procedures for donating historic materials, please contact :

Pan Am Historical Foundation

P.O. Box 747

Bethpage, New York 11714-0747

Email: foundation@panam.org

ON THIS DATE: PAN AM 1927-1991

THE FOLLOWING EDITORIAL IS USED BY PERMISSION AND COURTESY OF THE MIAMI HERALD (C) 1991 FOR WHICH THIS AUTHOR IS EXCEEDINGLY GRATEFUL. ON THIS DATE IN 1991, AT 9 AM, THE NEW YORK OFFICES OF PAN AM OPENED-- AND CLOSED AN HOUR LATER. ALL NIGHT, BROADCASTER LARRY KING KEPT INTONING IN BETWEEN PHONE CALLS ON HIS TV SHOW, INCREDULOUS, "PAN AM OUT OF BUSINESS". IT DEFIED THE KEN OF HUMAN IMAGINING. THIS IS DEDICATED TO EVERY MEMBER OF THE PAN AM FAMILY WHO PROUDLY FLEW THE SKIES OF THE WORLD WITH CLASS, INNOVATION AND DIGNITY.

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PAN AM: THE COUP DE GRACE Herald Staff
DELTA AIRLINES didn't rise from a crop-dusting service to a major carrier by making dumb decisions. Indeed, aviation's insiders have regarded Delta as one of the world's best-managed airlines. Wall Street plainly agrees.
Yet even the smartest businesses suffer awful, even cruel, lapses in judgment. That occurred on Tuesday when Delta abruptly canceled a deal to help Pan Am fly out of bankruptcy. Yesterday, unable to obtain interim financing, Pan Am folded.
This was a bitter blow for Pan Am's customers, suppliers, and creditors. Worse, it was devastating news for Pan Am's 9,000 employees and for South Florida, where 6,000-plus employees were based. Aside from the economic calamity, patterns of air travel have been disrupted.
The sense of betrayal is great because all of the other pieces of the rescue had fallen into place -- despite daunting bankruptcy-court deadlines. Pan Am's unions had ratified sacrificial concessions. Creditors had approved an ambitious but workable plan emphasizing routes to Latin America, with Miami as Pan Am's new headquarters and operational hub.
Yet Delta was unpersuaded. Said spokesman Clay McConnell: "Once the business plan was formulated, a careful study of it led us to make this painful decision." Why? Slow business and Pan Am's large losses this fall played a role. So did a surge in fuel prices. Yet the decisive factor, he explained, was Pan Am's "poor bookings for travel in the future."
Pan Am never got a fair shot at future bookings. Nobody checks into a hotel that has a wrecking ball outside. And savvy travel agents are disinclined to book round trips to Rio on what some think might be a failing airline.
Moreover, Delta's Atlanta-based managers, in deciding that Pan Am is worth more dead and dismantled than alive and flying, undervalued Pan Am's "franchise" in Latin America. The region's reviving economy and its strong links to Miami promised better days ahead had Pan Am survived.
Granted, blaming Delta alone for Pan Am's demise would be unfair. Pan Am's earlier management left a trail of bad decisions. Even so, it was Delta that intervened at the pivotal moment, when Pan Am still might have been saved. It was Delta that picked Pan Am's cherries for itself. It was Delta that, having promised to nurture the withered tree, chopped it down instead.
In the long and sordid history of corporate double-crosses, Delta has earned a chapter, if not a whole book. In an anguished, futile letter to Bankruptcy Judge Cornelius Blackshear, the lawyer for the Pan Am Creditors Committee, Leon Marcus, described Delta's conduct succinctly:
"They love to lie and it shows!"

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CAPTAIN MARK PYLE FLEW PAN AM'S LAST SCHEDULED FLIGHT FROM BARBADOS TO MIAMI ON DECEMBER 4TH, 1991 PILOTING A BOEING 727-200 NAMED "CLIPPER GOODWILL". I'D LIKE TO QUOTE FROM CAPTAIN PYLE HIS RECOLLECTION OF THAT FATEFUL DAY: "When they said it's over, this was something that we had prepared for years at Pan Am. Anyway, in my case it had been eleven years that my family had wondered from month to month how long the airline would last (after the merger with National Airlines). And even though emotionally I was mentally prepared, I found myself emotionally unprepared as I'm sure everybody else did. But we were overwhelmed with the sense of loss, and the ladies on the flight--the Flight Attendants were overwhelmed with a sense of grief--almost immediately tearful. Everyone with their own thoughts--private thoughts. Mine of course ran the full gamut from, 'Wow! It really happened', even though we knew it would and finally did to 'Where do you go?', 'What do you do?'---and all the way to the sense of enormous loss and a historical airline like Pan American was allowed to fall into the abyss. And then as we approached Miami of course we were told by the company radio frequency that we used ---"PAN OP"--we called it--our operations people told us that we were the last ones. And at first I thought 'they must be joking'! Someone, one of my friends had landed before I did--just making some kind of a joke of the day. And then my engineer assured me and with tears in his eyes that we were the last flight. And the tower said 'Could you do a low pass?' Well, I haven't done that since the Navy, so to me this was fun if nothing else--one last fun with the airplane. So, having briefed the passengers so they would know what to expect we flew down Runway 12--Runway One-Two at about a hundred feet and with flaps at 15 (degrees) and about a hundred and eighty knots, nothing too spectacular. I would have liked to come in at two-hundred and fifty and smoked the other side of the runway. But I didn't want any fear amongst the people--any more than they would have to have. So, we just did a very easy non-chalant low pass and over the field, pulled up and came back around for a landing. And I think that all of us in the cockpit were doing fairly well with our emotions until we saw the fire trucks lined up and the Emergency vehicles and the Pan Am ground crew people and the airport personnel and policemen and everyone else lined up to greet the airplane. And in my own case, I had no tears, although certainly emotionally shell-shocked. No tears, until they fired the water canons over the airplane in a final salute to everyone that had ever flown in a Pan Am airplane as far as I was concerned. At that moment our crew represented everybody who had ever flown in this uniform, and in these "Clipper Ships". And I don't mind telling you, at that moment it was difficult to get to the gate --and everybody in the cockpit had 'smoke in our eyes'--I guess that's a macho term for what happened and I said 'Guys, just don't let me ding the wing tip, help me get this thing to the gate' because I couldn't see very well. Quite emotional. And probably will remain etched in my memory for a long time I would think".

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TOMORROW'S FINAL POST ON THIS STORY WILL INCLUDE A FEW POINGANT RECOLLECTIONS FROM THE PEOPLE OF PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS. PLEASE JOIN US!