 |
Western Electric &
The Bell System
A SURVEY OF SERVICE
Edited
By Albert B. Lardella
Published by Western Electric Company, 195
Broadway, New York, N.Y.
Ó1964 Western Electric Company, Incorporated
Before clicking on the links at the end of this
page that lead you to the Microsoft Word or the text form of this book, you
might want to read this interesting true story submitted by Ted Compton
on one of the authors of this book
that Ted personally knew. Here is what Ted had to say:
"I knew Al
and was working with him in Western Electric's Public Relations department at
195 Broadway in New York when the book was written and Al subsequently became
the only guy - certainly the only 'management' employee - that in my 15 years
with the company I ever knew to be fired.
It was a prize assignment, writing a book like that, and Al poured his heart
into it for a year or more - a long time, at any rate. As the project neared
completion he came to think he should get a byline for his effort - partly for
the glory of it, and partly because, if he ever decided to look for another job
he darn sure wanted that book in his portfolio. He took his request to the head
of the PR Division and was turned down. (PR flacks didn't get bylines. Period.)
But "no" was not exactly the answer Al wanted to hear, and so after the book's
final galley proofs had been approved and the book was ready to go to print he
took it upon himself to add the following rather cryptic sentence:
'Moreover, regarding audio breakthroughs in all respects, dependable engineering
let life's activities have impact surprising by one's ordinary knowledge.'
The
sentence appears beginning on line 1374 in the text version (or, searching for
the word 'moreover', it's the third occurrence). The
first letters of the words in the sentence spell out 'Mr AB Iardella his
book.'
Unbeknownst to Al, just as he was committing his little act of subversion the
boss suffered a change of heart and okayed the 'Edited by' credit as it appears
on the final book and as you show on your website.
Al, of course, had no chance to take his 'signature sentence' back out.
It wasn't long after the book was released that somebody ran across the sentence
and started wondering what the heck it meant. Inquiries were made. The story was
uncovered, and Al got bounced.
And, I might add, became a minor legend in the PR division."
- submitted to this website by Ted Compton
This book was scanned and converted into an ASCII (text) file and also a
Microsoft Word 97 document file. Please choose one of the two formats from
the links below.
We Offer Personalized One-On-One
Service!
Call Us Today at (651) 787-DIAL (3425)
|
