WOW "drinking from a firehose" is right---A guy could get lost in that stuff 
And I did! Needed a couple of hours to stop my head from spinning before I climbed in my Arrow and headed home. Here's a quick item I put together for a newsletter about one particular letter I found in the stuff I looked at:
Last week I had the pleasure of digging through material at EAA’s archives on Steve Wittman, beginning research for the biography I have the honor of writing about him. I got a chuckle out of one item in particular.
Steve’s first race airplane was Chief Oshkosh, which he flew in races during the 1930s. He won or placed in many of these events and both he and the airplane became well known. Unfortunately Chief Oshkosh was significantly damaged after a forced landing during one race. Steve eventually rebuilt it, but by the time he was done with the work he had made so many modifications that he felt it wasn’t the same airplane, and renamed it Buster. Buster went on to have a distinguished racing career in its own right before being retired.
In 1953 Steve donated Buster (formerly Chief Oshkosh) to the Smithsonian Institute. This event was well-publicized, and Steve received complementary letters from many local residents and businesses. The Oshkosh Brewing Company, makers of infamous “Chief Oshkosh Beer,” sent Steve a note congratulating him on his racing achievements and the honor of having the plane displayed in a national museum. After two paragraphs of overdone flowery complements, the company wrote “In order to cement more closely, the honor that will come to the City of Oshkosh through your action, may we suggest that the name of your plane be changed back to its former ‘CHIEF OSHKOSH’ name? We feel that this name is more representative than its present name, and would bring a greater sense of prestige to all of the people in this City.”
Not to mention a free advertising campaign for the company’s product! The more that things change…
Topic: Life Through Your Camera (Read 814190 times)
