On January 1, 1950, Continental Airlines was little more than a glorified local airline. The backbone of the fleet was made up of 12 dependable Douglas DC-3s, while five twin-engine, pressurized Convair 240s, dubbed ‘Skystreamers’, were the company’s ‘heavy metal’ airliners.
Continental was considered a trunk air carrier, but its route map gave a different impression. Instead of flying long-haul routes between major cities with 4-engine airliners like its contemporaries, Continental’s DC-3 ‘Gooney Birds’ hopped their way across Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, serving places like La Junta, Dodge City, Hobbs and Big Spring. The Las Vegas on Continental’s network was the one in New Mexico – not Las Vegas, Nevada.
CONTINENTAL’S ROUTES IN 1950
The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), which oversaw every facet of a certificated airline’s operation, had not been very generous with Continental. The airline’s premiere route was its non-stop between Denver and Kansas City, a 539–mile segment flown with Convairs.
By the end of the decade, all of that would change. Still under the strict supervision of the CAB, Continental ended 1959 as the envy of the industry – one of the nation’s proudest airlines, flying Boeing 707s from Chicago to Los Angeles and giving the other carriers in the market (American, TWA and United) a run for their money. This transformation came about through determination, planning, and a perfectionist’s ideas about good service.
MEET BOB SIX
The man responsible for the airline’s metamorphosis was a big guy from Stockton, California, named Robert (Bob) Forman Six.
A SOUTHWEST PUDDLE JUMPER
With its 1950 advertising slogan, “Fly the Blue Skyway”, the company’s scheduled flights landed at 28 airports, most of them serving small and medium-sized cities. Its headquarters were located in Denver. A recent award from the CAB had given Continental permission to serve Las Cruces, Raton, Socorro and Hot Springs in New Mexico. This was hardly the big time. The citizens of Hot Springs voted to change the town’s name to Truth or Consequences as the result of a television game show contest.
Despite its size, Continental was a consistent profit-maker. Bob Six was a perfectionist who demanded professionalism and the highest standard of service from his employees. He knew that his primary tool for winning customers was to offer them the best service they had ever received. With the company’s good reputation, he began his series of strategic moves to truly push Continental up into the ranks of the major carriers.
EXPANSION THROUGH INTERCHANGE
Continental’s first strive toward becoming a major player involved the cooperation of other airlines. With the CAB’s approval, on May 20, 1951, the first single-plane service between Houston and Los Angeles was offered with a DC-6 operating over the routes of Braniff (Houston – San Antonio), Continental (San Antonio – El Paso), and American (El Paso – Los Angeles). The crews of each carrier operated the DC-6 over their respective segment. Referred to as the ABC Service (American-Braniff-Continental), Continental leased two DC-6s from American as part of its contribution to the interchange.
In an unexpected boost for Continental, Braniff soon pulled out of the three-way agreement. The CAB responded by authorizing Continental to extend its own system from San Antonio to Houston to fill in the gap left by Braniff’s exit.
INTERCHANGE WITH UNITED
In 1953 – in another shot at a wider market through the interchange program – Continental teamed up with United Air Lines to offer through service from Tulsa and Wichita (on Continental’s network) to Portland and Seattle (on United’s), via the junction point of Denver.
Two of the aircraft carrying Continental’s colors westward were brand new 50-passenger Douglas DC-6Bs, ordered in 1951 for the interchange services.
THE PIONEER MERGER
Pioneer Air Lines was a local service carrier operating in Texas and New Mexico. The airline had gotten into financial trouble when it replaced its DC-3 fleet with larger Martin 2-0-2s. The CAB refused to increase the subsidy it paid to Pioneer for serving small cities just because the company had purchased larger airplanes. Pioneer then scrambled to find DC-3s once again to replace the Martins. All of this maneuvering had sunk the airline into debt and merger with another carrier seemed the only way out. Continental offered to be the merger partner.
Taking on the route system, the debt, and the DC-3s of a feeder airline would not seem like a logical move for a trunk carrier hoping to expand into busier markets. But Bob Six saw the potential in adding Pioneer’s routes to Continental’s system. It would give Continental entry into Dallas, Ft. Worth, and Austin, Texas – all of which were stations on Pioneer’s system. Six guaranteed that he would take every Pioneer employee into Continental’s ranks.
On April 1, 1955, the effective date of the Pioneer merger, Continental added 15 airports to its network along with a bunch of DC-3 Gooney Birds.
A BROADWAY STAR
Bob Six had a fascination with show business. His good friend, Leland Hayward, was a theatrical agent in Hollywood and New York, and a producer of Broadway plays.
In September 1951, Hayward invited Six to dinner in New York on the occasion of the first anniversary of the long-running Broadway play, Call Me Madam, which Hayward had produced. At that dinner, Bob Six met Ethel Merman, the star of the show. They were married in March 1953 in Mexicali, Mexico.
Six brought his bride home to Denver where the local society mavens were thrilled to have a Broadway star in their midst, married to the president of one of their two hometown airlines (the other was local service carrier, Frontier). As if Six himself, who was referred to as a “character”, did not generate enough publicity for the company, his new wife, known for her feisty personality, brought added attention to Continental Air Lines.
But Continental was about to get even more attention as Bob Six’s wish to make his airline a significant player in the U.S. air transport industry was about to come true.
THE DENVER SERVICE CASE
The Denver Service Case, which the CAB had initiated in 1952, would determine not only which airlines could fly from Denver to Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco in competition with United, but other issues as well, including non-stop rights from Chicago to the West Coast.
When the Board handed down its decision on November 14, 1955, the industry was stunned. Not only was Continental given permission to fly from Denver to Los Angeles and to Chicago, but also to operate non-stop from Chicago to L.A! With this single announcement, Continental Air Lines was transformed from a regional carrier into a true trunk airline.
NEW ROUTES, NEW AIRCRAFT
The first aircraft type ordered for the new routes was the Douglas DC-7B. Five of the big propliners would be delivered in 1957. In what must have seemed an unusual move to observers, the DC-7Bs would be outfitted in an all-Coach configuration.
Continental’s next choice was the British-built, turboprop Vickers Viscount. Six’s evaluation team selected the advanced model 812, with more powerful engines and greater seating capacity than the 700 series. Continental’s Viscounts would be outfitted in a 52-passenger, all-First Class configuration with deliveries slated for 1958.
Finally, for an aircraft to operate the non-stop service between Chicago and Los Angeles, the company selected Boeing’s 707, the first of the US-built turbojet airliners to take to the sky – an aircraft type that most in the industry thought Continental was too small to operate. The 707s, with both First Class and Coach cabins, were scheduled to come on-line in 1959.
GOLD CARPET SERVICE
Beginning in the fall of 1956, Continental’s marketing team started to advertise the new ‘Gold Carpet Service’ that passengers would be receiving aboard Continental’s DC-7B ‘Club Coach’ flights.
To quote Continental’s 1956 annual report: “On April 28, 1957, Continental will inaugurate the finest and most luxurious ‘Club Coach’ service available between Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles. The service will be extended to Kansas City early in July 1957. All flights will be operated with the world’s finest and fastest airliner, the Douglas DC-7B, equipped with RCA Electronic Weather Avoidance Radar for the comfort of the passengers. The cabins of these Continental Club Coaches will be compartmentalized and have stag smoker lounges in addition to spacious five-seat lounges. The cabin interiors will be fabulously finished and upholstered in soft, warm colors. The new low cost fare service will feature reserved seats and, at the option of the passenger, refreshing cocktails and hot ‘Country Club’ meals, with choice of four entrees, served at moderate extra cost.”
TREAT COACH PASSENGERS BETTER THAN EVER
The idea was to treat Coach passengers better than they had ever been treated before so that they would fill up the new planes and the company would make money on a high volume of low fares.
According to American Aviation magazine, passengers boarding one of the new DC-7Bs at Chicago-Midway would “walk on a gold carpet bordered by gold stanchions and use steps of anodized gold under a canopy of blue fiberglass.” Arriving passengers would see carpet-lined baggage carts attended by ramp crews wearing white kid gloves. “Two hand-set clock faces [are] installed on the baggage carts, one showing the airplane’s arrival time, the other showing the time the baggage was delivered.” The goal was to deliver bags in 10 minutes or less.
VISCOUNTS FOR FIRST CLASS
Next came the Viscounts, ready to introduce Continental’s version of ‘Gold Carpet’ First Class service to those traveling between Chicago, Kansas City, Denver and Los Angeles. With interiors designed by Charles Butler and Associates, Continental advertised their new turboprop aircraft as the ‘Viscount II’.
On May 28, 1958, Ethel Merman christened the first Viscount and Continental’s British birds took to the sky. The airline now advertised that it was “First in The West with Jet-Power Flights”. Continental’s marketing and its growing reputation for excellent in-flight service drew the crowds so well that, after four months of Viscount operations, the airline had captured more than 43% of the First Class market on flights out of Denver to both L.A. and Chicago, and about 30% of the First Class passengers traveling between Kansas City and L.A.
FROM GOONEY BIRDS TO GOLDEN JETS
On June 8, 1959, Continental became the third U.S. domestic airline to operate its own jets in scheduled service, after American and TWA, both of which had also ordered the 707 (National Airlines had actually operated the first domestic jet service, but it was with a 707 leased from Pan American).
When Bob Six placed his order for 707s, he knew that he would be able to beat United Air Lines inaugurating jet service in the Chicago – Los Angeles, Chicago – Denver, and Denver – Los Angeles markets because United had ordered Douglas DC-8s, which would not be available until September.
By the time 1959 ended, Continental had truly become the gold standard against which other carriers had to compete. The company’s new advertising campaign carried the theme: “The Most Experienced Jetline in the West.” That was a far cry from “The Blue Skyway”, an airline which operated only DC-3s and Convair 240s. Bob Six had done an amazing job in the course of a single decade.
EPILOGUE
Bob Six divorced Ethel Merman in 1960, and the following year married actress Audrey Meadows, star of Jackie Gleason’s television show, The Honeymooners. Everyone seemed to agree that Meadows was a much better match for Six. They seemed to be the perfect couple and stayed together until his death in 1986.
