Twenty-one Years to Build

One Prudential Plaza (formerly known as the Prudential Building) is a 600-foot-tall, 41-story structure in Chicago completed in 1955 by the architectural firm Naess & Murphy, and constructed by the George A. Fuller Co. It is categorized as an International Style building, a response to move away from the ornate architecture of the 19th century. The general public did not warm up to the bland concrete slab style at first. 

The building served as headquarters for Prudential's Mid-America company, and was the tallest structure in the city at the time. It was built on real estate air rights, the area above the Earth's surface, over the vast Illinois Central Railroad yard, eventually paving the way for today's Millennium Park to the south. Offset atop the building was a mast that served as a broadcasting antenna for Chicago's WGN-TV. The building was home to the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Publishing after leaving Tribune Tower in July 2018. The Tribune moved out of One Prudential Plaza and relocated its offices and newsroom to the Freedom Center at the beginning of 2021.

It was the city's first downtown skyscraper in twenty-one years and included a must-see observation deck. It was reported that 1.5 million people visited the deck in its first three years of existence. The building included two restaurants: Stouffer's Gibraltar Room, located off the lobby, and Stouffer's Top of the Rock on the 41st floor. The novelty of viewing four states on a clear day succumbed to taller buildings erected near it, making Lake Michigan the only distant view. The Top of the Rock closed in 1976, and the Gibraltar Room in 1982. 

The original 200-foot Prudential signage was red and used a bold sans-serif font in capital letters. Very easy to read even from some distance. The replacement sign was a blue serif font, including a modernized Gibraltar logo. Being distanced from the building's surface, it cast a confusing drop shadow and is nearly impossible to read on sunny days. The blue signage will eventually be removed by the current owners, Wanxiang America Real Estate Group, for Prudential began moving out of the original building and its newer, 61-story skyscraper in 2024 to smaller confines directly west along the Chicago River.  Not being removed (above) will be the Rock of Gibraltar, a 65-ton, 30-foot-high two-dimensional carving on the west side of the original building, designed by artist Alfonso Iannelli.

Unique Across America

Cadillac was famous in the 1950s for its slogan, "Standard Of The World." Disregarding styling, overall quality, or the intended customer, the Nash Ambassador might have used a similar slogan based on their innovations that were "Unique Across America." Regarding the advertisement above, my research focuses on the Nash Ambassador after their complete restyle for 1952 in celebration of Nash's 50th anniversary. The design looked like nothing else on the road. Interpret that any way you like. 

The 1954 Ambassador was the first American automobile to have a front-end, fully integrated heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning system. While other manufacturers in America at the time offered A/C on some models, their air conditioning units were driven by a large and heavy, trunk-mounted expander and heat exchanger that carried the air into the car via clear plastic tubes and out through ceiling-mounted vents. Nash's unit was inexpensive, compact, fit under the hood, and could either circulate fresh or recycled air. Other innovations can be found in the ad above.

The aero-designed 1955 versions, above, now had the "Scenaramic" wrap-around windshields and an entirely new smooth front-end styling featuring a new oval grille that incorporated the headlights. The front fenders featured raised wheel arches contrary to what was a Nash trademark since 1949. For 1956 the Ambassador models featured a re-styled rear with larger round taillights sitting atop a large chrome "pedestal." The models were offered in a variety of two- and three-tone color schemes. The 1957 models were the first cars equipped with vertical "quad" headlights in the front fenders. Way before Pontiac started this trend some eight years later.

The Ambassador would be completely redesigned for 1958, with increasingly awkward and busy styling. The Nash marque would be dropped to become the Rambler Ambassador and by the fourth generation, would be known as AMC Ambassador. The Ambassador line from 1963 through the Sixties was one of the more attractive automobiles on the market from a design standpoint, though nothing groundbreaking when one considers the "Big Three" designs. The AMC Ambassador models would struggle on until 1974. Except for a few select models, it was the beginning of an ugly decade for all American automotive designers.

A Special Daughter

Special K is an American brand of breakfast cereal introduced to the United States in 1955 by one of their food kitchen researchers, Jimmy Harris. As the father of seven boys, he was pleasantly surprised by the birth of one daughter, Kathleen. He called her his "Special K." Since "K" was the first letter in the Kellogg's logo, the company allowed him to use the name for the new cereal. The general public might think the "K" simply stands for the special cereal from Kellogg's. 

A Man of Value

 

Tom Bergeron was born of French Canadian and Irish descent in 1955. He became a popular radio DJ, playing comedy records along with music and offbeat interviews. One of his first jobs on television was as host of a local game show. Bergeron was always on the move. He landed in Boston's giant, WBZ radio, where he remained through the Eighties. His national television work in the Nineties lead to hosting duties of Hollywood Squares from 1998 to 2004 for which he won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show Host in 2000. Bergeron had already been host of America's Funniest Home Videos since 2001. He remained there for another fourteen years. He also overlapped duties as host for Dancing with the Stars from 2005 to 2019. Among this non-stop pace, Bergeron had time for acting, appearing on Star Trek: Enterprise and the mystery series, Castle, among others, sometimes as himself. Bergeron is destined to be in demand for many more years.

Operation Teapot

 

On this day in 1955, a Convair B-36H assigned to the 4925th Test Group (Atomic) at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico dropped an atomic weapon from 42,000 feet over the Nevada Test Site, Area 1. Operation Teapot was authorized by President Eisenhower on 30 August 1954. This series of fourteen shots proof-tested a broad variety of fission devices with low to moderate yields. The bomb detonated at 36,620 feet with an explosive force of 3.2 kilotons. The bomb was parachute-retarded to slow its fall so that the bomber could escape its blast effects. Because of the altitude of the explosion, there was no significant fallout. The airdrop was a Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory high-altitude test of an air-to-air missile warhead. It was the only parachute weapon drop ever conducted at the Nevada Test Site.

Though the B-36 was the only aircraft in the USAF inventory capable of carrying the largest atomic weapon at the time, this Teapot test, Shot HA (high altitude), used a 125-pound warhead encased in a 1,085-pound ballistic case.

First Accurate Atomic Clock

 

On this day in 1955, Louis Essen and Jack Parry, at the National Physical Laboratory in the UK, invented the first accurate Caesium-133 atomic clock. It was capable of accurately recording time to the second, falling behind only one second every for an estimated 300 years. The atomic clock is simply a laboratory apparatus that keeps time. In 1945, Columbia University physics professor Isidor Rabi suggested that a clock could be made from a technique he developed in the 1930s called atomic beam magnetic resonance. Modern atomic clocks, like the NIST-F2, invented by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado, are capable of telling the accurate time down to the second for an estimated 100 million years. Close enough.

Brainiac details HERE

Be Careful Spending Your Million

 

On this date in 1955, The Millionaire anthology series premiered on CBS. Produced by Don Fedderson and Fred Henry, it explored the ways that sudden and unexpected wealth changed life, for better or worse. The episodes were more often dramatic than comedic. The premise is lifted from past Hollywood movies, 1932's If I Had A Million perhaps the earliest. The series opened up endless story variations. For viewers, it was a Hollywood who's who of guest stars wanting to be on the popular five-season hit. 

The stories revolved around those given one million dollars from a benefactor who insists he remains anonymous. The benefactor was John Beresford Tipton (voiced by character actor and voice artist, Paul Frees) who was never seen with the exception of his outstretched arm to give the cashier's check to Michael Anthony, his executive secretary. Tipton died a few years prior so the stories were told in flashback, as if from Anthony's case files. There might be stipulations on how the money should be spent. It was Anthony's job to deliver that check to its intended recipient. The character is rarely seen after this. Michael Anthony was played by veteran character actor and radio and television announcer, Marvin Miller (above). 

Series profile here

A Study to Harness Nuclear Power

 

On this day in 1955, at Carswell Air Force Base, Fort Worth, Texas, the single Convair NB-36H Nuclear Test Aircraft, serial number 51-5712, made its first flight. The NB-36 was built to test the shielding requirements of an airborne nuclear reactor and to determine the effects of radiation on aircraft systems. The reactor did not power the aircraft. The NB-36 made 47 flights with a total of 215 hours flight time. In the late 1940s engineers began working on an aircraft that could be powered by a nuclear reactor. The reactor would heat air to provide jet thrust, rather than burning fuel and air to do so. A 60-megawatt reactor was envisioned. Based on the test results, the entire project was canceled and the plane was scrapped at Fort Worth in 1958.

Mach 1 Without a Jet

On this day in 1955, North American Aviation production test pilot George F. Smith took off from Los Angeles Airport (known today as LAX) for a test flight of the new F-100A Super Sabre. Climbing to 35,000' over the Pacific Ocean it quickly became apparent something was seriously wrong. The flight controls were heavy, and then there was a hydraulic system failure that caused the Super Sabre to pitch down into a dive. Smith was unable to regain control of the F-100. As he ejected, the force of the windblast knocked him unconscious. Estimates are that he was subjected to a 40 G deceleration. Being the professional he was, he read the instruments: the Machmeter indicated Mach 1.05 (785 miles per hour) and the altitude was 6,500 feet. Smith was unconscious for six days, then awakened to blindness in both eyes. After four surgeries and seven months in the hospital, he recovered and returned to flight status.

Flight by American. Home by Hertz.

 

The Hertz Corporation, originally known as Rent-a-Car Inc., was founded by Chicago, Illinois native Walter L. Jacobs in 1918. Within five years, his fleet generated annual revenues of approximately $1 million. John D. Hertz, owner of Yellow Truck and Coach Manufacturing Company, developed an interest in the brand, purchasing the company in 1923. It was then renamed Hertz Drive-Ur-Self System. 

After three years of ownership, John Hertz sold the rental car brand to General Motors Corporation. Under their ownership, the company opened its first rental car location at Chicago's Midway Airport in 1932, introducing the first one-way rental plan in 1933. Hertz repurchased the brand from General Motors in 1953 through his other company, The Omnibus Corporation, which he renamed The Hertz Corporation.

The 1955 illustration is by cartoonist and illustrator, Austin Briggs (1908-1973).