Your Rental Needs May Vary

Avis Airlines Rent-A-Car System was founded in 1946 by Warren Avis (1915-2007), an owner of an automobile dealership in Detroit. He had the idea of providing car-rental services at airports, astutely believing air travel would quickly become more popular than rail travel. They were the first car rental business to be located at an airport, opening two locations at Willow Run Airport near Detroit and at Miami Airport in Florida. He established branch operations across the United States over the next few years and became the second-largest car rental company in the country by 1953. 

In 1962, their corporate slogan, "We're only No. 2. We try harder," was a positive campaign to compete with the number one competitor, Hertz. Today, Avis is a provider to the commercial segment, serving business travelers at major airports internationally, and to leisure travelers at off-airport locations. Avis featured General Motors vehicles during the late 1970s, but Ford vehicles were showcased prior, as the above 1958 advertisement proves. Other popular brands comprise their fleet today. Avis has been owned by a number of other companies, along with several periods of being a public company.

Executive Leasing Company and its fleet of seven vehicles were founded eleven years after Avis by Jack Crawford Taylor (1922-2016) in St. Louis, Missouri.   Taylor was a naval aviator during World War II, serving on the USS Enterprise. In 1969, he would rename the company Enterprise Rent-A-Car to honor the aircraft carrier and reflect his personal values and leadership philosophy. The company focused on city-based rentals rather than competing with airport-centric rental firms for persons needing a rental while their own was being repaired. A wise strategy that helped the business grow steadily.

Their iconic "e" highway logo was introduced early on, but went through a few color and design changes before settling on their classic green and black color scheme. In the early 1970s, the "We'll pick you up" tagline was introduced, a unique service that became a trademark of their customer-centric approach. This service, along with partnerships with auto repair shops, helped Enterprise build a strong city-based "neighborhood" network. The leadership has been passed down through generations of the Taylor family. Enterprise eventually embraced Avis's airport innovation in the early years of the twenty-first century after acquiring the Vanguard Car Rental Group, National Car Rental, and Alamo Rent-A-Car brands to its portfolio. 

Hand Me That Wrench

For the 1946 Convair XB-36 prototype, the two main landing gear tires were the largest aircraft tires Goodyear ever made, weighing 1,320 pounds each. The tricycle landing gear setup was used for all larger aircraft at the time, but the immense weight of the largest bomber ever built restricted its landing to just three runways nationwide. That changed with the second pre-production bomber, the YB-36, with the invention of a 4-wheel bogey design with smaller tires, distributing the weight evenly, allowing the plane to land on any major runway. With a few exceptions, this became the new standard for all future large aircraft. Constant upgrades throughout its career were made to keep pace with the speed of the era's aeronautical advancements. The most visible change was the adoption of a new, raised canopy for better pilot visibility, first used on the YB-36. 

Note: The B-36 was the United States Air Force's first true intercontinental bomber, entering Air Force inventory in 1948 and remaining active through 1958. The final flight of the bomber was in the Spring of 1959, delivered to the United States Air Force Museum at Dayton, Ohio for permanent display. Three other B-36s remain in American museums. 

Sensitive and Quirky

Sian Barbara Allen (1946-) is a former American actress whose television work was her claim to fame. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award as New Star of the Year for her performance in the film, You'll Like My Mother. Still, it was in television where she was a readily available guest star throughout the 1970s, including roles in made-for-television movies, including Scream, and Pretty Peggy, opposite Bette Davis. She was perhaps best known for her sometimes quirky or emotionally sensitive roles with sad, downturned eyebrows.

Allen appeared in two episodes of the popular TV series The Waltons, 1973 as Jenny Pendleton, an early love interest of John-Boy Walton. A short list of her television appearances was The Incredible Hulk, Ironside, a particularly humorous role on The Rockford Files (above), Alias Smith and Jones, Bonanza, Kojak, Columbo: Lovely but Lethal, Adam-12, and Hawaii Five-O. After her appearance on L.A. Law in 1990, she retired from acting.

A Reel Character

 

George Winslow (George Karl Wentzlaff 1946-2015) was an American child actor of the 1950s, noted for his deadpan expression and slow, monotone delivery, belying his young age. Though hard to justify, he was nevertheless nicknamed "Foghorn." The Los Angeles native broke into the entertainment business on Art Linkletter's radio program, People are Funny. When asked his name the youngster said: "George Wentzlaff, but I'd rather be Casey Jones." Cary Grant heard the show and was impressed, which led to Room For One More (1952) and more famously as the leader of young Indians giving Hugh Marlowe a mohawk scalping in Monkey Business the same year, also with Grant. He was the scene-stealer opposite Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). With brilliant Howard Hawks comedic casting, Wentzlaff played Henry Spofford III, Monroe's young admirer. His lines about her possessing a "certain animal magnetism" or confronting her with, "Are you a burglar?" are the most charming moments in the film. He had another fine turn in the comedy Mister Scoutmaster (1953), where he traded barbs with Clifton Webb's character. After fifteen acting credits, "Foghorn" retired from show business in 1958 at age 12. He finished school and served in the Navy during the Vietnam War.

A Movie Star's Premiere

 

On this date in 1946, The Killers premiered. The American film noir stars Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner in her career booster, Edmond O'Brien, and a host of B-movie stalwarts. The opening scene is one of the most captivating in noir history. Under the footsteps of two assassins, Charles McGraw and William Conrad is Miklós Rózsa's pounding theme. The "dum-de-dum-dum" motif would soon be adapted as the Dragnet theme by Walter Schumann. Although the same notes were used, Rózsa's theme had a faster tempo with no rests. 

Partly based on the 1927 short story of the same name by Ernest Hemingway, it centers on an insurance detective's investigation via flashbacks into the execution of Lancaster's character by the two aforementioned killers. In this respect, not unlike a Columbo or Monk series, the viewer sees the end at the beginning. 

Note: Not many get top-billed in their screen debut, but Lancaster or his contract pulled it off. 

World War II Unofficially Continues

On this date in 1946, Step by Step had its full US premiere. It is a rare good guy role for Lawrence Tierney as a Marine veteran. His love interest and co-star, Anne Jeffries, works as a secretary for a senator on a case of national security. The suspenseful drama deepens when three German spies infiltrate the senator's house, knocking him unconscious, bind and gag Jeffries, leaving behind a murdered associate. Jeffries is rescued by Tierney who both met earlier during more pleasant circumstances. However, they both become the chief suspects in the senator's beating and the associate's murder. While attempting to elude authorities and the spies, they become convinced the Germans were unable to find a top-secret document that implicates them and others as spies. Rest assured, they locate the documents in the nick of time.

House of Horrors (1946)

 

On this date in 1946, House of Horrors had its US premiere. The most notable stars were Robert Lowry and Virginia Grey who were [over] shadowed by Rondo Hatton as "The Creeper." A struggling sculptor saves Hatton from drowning, taking the disfigured man into his care. The artist makes him the subject of his next sculpture but critics denigrate his work so he plans to eliminate any differing opinions by having the Creeper attempt to kill them all. The artist's unfaithful behavior does not sit well with Hatton for his final comeuppance. The lightning coming from The Creeper's eyes is offered only for the gullible.

Though normal-appearing when he was young, Hatton's unusual facial features developed during the early 1920s, the result of acromegaly, a syndrome caused by a disorder of the pituitary gland. Though he acted occasionally in the 1930s, his most unique place period was in the 1940's horror films under shadowy lighting. The film's release was about a month after Hatton's death by a heart attack due to his condition. It was his next to the last film. 

The Cutting Edge of Power Mowers

 

REO built the first lightweight personal power lawnmower but the engine was not quite so powerful as this advertisement suggests. REO ran a series of humorously illustrated advertisements suggesting mowing was fun for everyone at any age. One's dad or grandfather may have been the proud owner of these first-generation, self-propelled mowers. 

REO got its name from the initials of Ransom Eli Olds, involved in many enterprises in and around Lansing, Michigan until his death in 1950. Reo Motors became well-known for its trucks, supplying many trucks and engines during World War II. Reo started the Lawn Mower Division in 1946 with the common push-type reel mower and slapped an engine on top to create a power mower. But by the early 1950s, the mower industry was rapidly changing to the rotary-blade mower, which was much cheaper to produce and easier to operate than the reel-type unit which Reo continued to sell, hurting sales for the next few years. Reo eventually marketed a rotary mower, but their design was a mechanical disaster. In 1954 Reo sold their lawnmower division to Motor Wheel Corporation of Lansing, and continued the Reo line. But the "writing was on the wall" and Motor Wheel sold their entire Reo line to Wheel Horse Products in South Bend, Indiana in 1963. Wheel Horse continued the Reo line for several years before dropping the Reo name.