Clipper, Vol. 3, No. 4, September 1955

              YOL. 3, NO. 4
Published by and for PAA Employees at N. Y. and Washington, D. C. System General Offices
SEPTEMBER 1955
IHC Takes Over Cuba's Nacional
Operation and management of the Caribbean’s biggest hotel the 550-room Hotel Nacional de Cuba in Havana was taken over by Intercontinental Hotels Corporation on August 1.
This brings the IHC total to 12 hotels it operates in Latin America. IHC, a subsidiary of Pan American, now has properties valued at approximately $55,000,000, with a total capacity of 3600 rooms.
IHC will operate the Nacional for a newly formed Cuban corporation, Corporación Intercontinental de Hoteles de Cuba. IHC of Cuba is owned jointly by Cuban business interests, IHC, and the American Securities Corporation.
The Nacional, owned by the Cuban government, opened in 1930 at a cost of more than $6.500,000 and has since
been operated under a 60-year lease from the government. IHC of Cuba has acquired the leasehold from a Webb & Knapp syndicate in New York.
Laid out on a 13-acre elevation overlooking the Gulf of Mexico and the city of Havana, the hotel site was originally a fortress. Each of the 550 rooms faces outside. Its outdoor facilities include a cabana club, two olympic-size swimming pools, tennis courts, putting greens, solaria, and tropical gardens.
IHC, which gives a 50 per cent discount on rates to PAA employees, has additional hotel projects in various stages of planning, design and construction under way in Curacao, Salvador, Sao Paulo, and Guatemala. The hotel in Curacao will be completed by the end of 1956.
Picnic for
Washington Offices
The employees of our Washington, D.C. Sales, Operations and Executive offices will hold their annual picnic on September 11 at Merlin’s Country Club in Maryland. The picnic will afford the employees a preview of the Club since it has not opened yet. It has a swimming pool and tennis courts as well as the golf course. Plenty of food, refreshments and the softball "game of the year” are awaiting the eager employees. On the committee are Dot McGrade, Jean Keenan, Aline Kraus, Dave Me-Aninch and Joan Partridge.
Carol To Ankara
Carol Koch, of Industrial Relations, leaves this month to be secretary to Captain Sam Miller in Ankara, Turkey, with the Technical Assistance Program.
Jo Ozimek, formerly of Atlantic Division Accounting, has taken Carol’s place at L.I.C.
Nonstop New York — Ciudad Flights Authorized
The company has received a permanent certificate from the CAB to fly nonstop between New York and Ciudad Trujillo, capital of the Dominican Republic.
Service is expected to begin October 12, Columbus Day, with three round-trip flights weekly, using Super Six Clippers. Flying time between New York and Ciudad Trujillo will be reduced from 9 to 6 hours using the new route. Formerly, passengers between the two cities had to detour by way of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
With the new route, Ciudad Trujillo becomes an important center on PAA’s world-wide system. With direct service to New York, connections can be made for flights to Europe and the Middle East. Also, passengers from Ciudad Trujillo can fly directly to Caracas, Venezuela, where they can pick up flights to the East Coast of South America and via Panama down the West Coast.
SECOND ANNUAL COMBINED FUND DRIVE BEGINS NEXT MONTH
Josiah Macy, Jr., Assistant Secretary of Pan American, has been appointed Chairman of the 1956 Annual New York Charity Fund Drive which will kick off early in October.
This will be the second annual combined drive to raise funds for the American Cancer Society, American Red Cross, Cerebral Palsy, Greater New York Fund, March of Dimes, the Heart Fund and the
Salvation Army.
FIFTH ALL-CARGO FLIGHT ADDED
Pan American World Airways has added a fifth all-cargo flight between the United States and Europe.
The plane, a four-engined C-54, leaves Idlewild Airport, New York every Friday morning at 6, making stops at London and Frankfurt. Returning, the plane will leave Frankfurt on Wednesdays stopping in London on its way back to New York. Flag stops will be made in Boston on the eastbound flight and at Shannon, Ireland, on the westbound flight.
Other Pan-American all-cargo flights leave Idlewild on Saturday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings at 6, serving Shannon, London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Nuremburg and Stuttgart.
In addition to its 10 weekly all-cargo flights across the Atlantic — more than any other carrier — Pan American also carries cargo in its passenger Clippers that operate between the United States and Europe on a weekly schedule of 116 flights.
COMMUNION BREAKFAST SET FOR OCTOBER 2
Representatives from all major scheduled airlines in the New York area have concluded plans for the Sixth Annual Communion Breakfast of St. Theresa’s Aviation Guild, to be held this year on Sunday, October 2.
His Eminence, Francis Cardinal Spellman, will officiate at the Mass and Communion, at 8 O’clock in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Breakfast will follow at 9 O’clock in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
Mary Lyons, of System Personnel, is Pan American’s representative on the interline committee handling arrangements for the Breakfast. Tickets priced at $4, will go on sale within a week. A list of ticket representatives, and further information will appear in notices on bulletin boards later this month. Prof. Godfrey Schmidt, of Fordham Law School, and Bishop Lane, of Maryknoll will be the speakers.
Otto Steiner Succumbs
Otto Steiner, of the ticket counter at 80 East 42nd Street, passed away on Friday, August 26. Otto was a victim of Hodgkin’s Disease and had been receiving blood from the company’s New7 York Blood Bank periodically. Otto came to Pan American in 1952.
This will be the only fund campaign of the coming year and follows last year’s very successful campaign which raised over five and a half thousand dollars, far exceeding the total raised previously in individual campaigns for the seven organizations.
Contributions will be voluntary and may be made in one lump sum or in pledges permitting the company to deduct contributions of $5, or more, in four equal installments beginning with the last paycheck in October. Contributors, as last year, may specify the way in which they want their donations to be allocated to any one or more of their favorite charities listed, or they may allocate the entire sum to be divided according to last year’s percentages for the charities.
The drive will include all employees of the System General Offices in New York City, the New York District Sales Office and Intercontinental Hotels Corporation.
A booklet with detailed information pertaining to the drive will be distributed to each employee and volunteers will conduct a desk-to-desk campaign for direct contributions or pledges.
Mr. Macy is working with a committee including Virginia Croghan, Office Services; Martin Maloney, Building Service; Liane Lunny, IHC; Warren Leary, Services of Supply; Reggie Reid, NYDSO, Stan Ver Nooy, Traffic & Sales; Tony Marcel, representing the Skyline Club, Muriel Richards, representing the BRC, and Disbursement Manager George Butkier, GAO.
Mr. Macy has set the goal to pass last year’s total of contributions and feels that New York-based employees will be generous in their desire to help those less fortunate than themselves. He hopes that more departments will reach the 100% participation achieved by Tax Department, Personnel, Chrysler Telephone Room, Public Relations and Traffic & Sales—Chrysler, in last year’s drive.
HALLOWEEN DANCE PLANNED
Betty Evans, GAO-Tab’s chairman of dances for the Skyline Club, says that the Club will sponsor a Halloween Dance on Friday, October 28. This dance will kick off the Fall-Winter season of Skyline activities.
Members are urged to set that date, October 28, aside for an evening of fun. Further details will follow in the October CLIPPER.