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. 

The Pilot Ejected

 

On this day in 1964, Gene Roddenberry's original draft of the first Star Trek pilot, "The Cage," was released. NBC reportedly called it "too cerebral", "too intellectual", and "slow with not enough action." Apparently having some faith in the concept, the network commissioned a second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before." The series struggled for ratings its entire run, not becoming iconic until the movie franchise was well underway. The USS Enterprise was under the command of Captain Christopher Pike, played by noted film actor, Jeffrey Hunter, seated far left above. Illogically, Leonard Nimoy plays a rather emotional Spock but the first officer was played by Majel Barrett, known as Number One. Much of the footage from "The Cage" was later incorporated into season one's two-parter episode, "The Menagerie" (1966). Hunter bowed out of any future episodes to concentrate on his movie career, which ended tragically in 1969 by a brain hemorrhage and subsequent fall down a three-stair set of steps at his home, fracturing his skull. The same year the Star Trek series was canceled.