HISTORY MATTERS
The Newsletter Publication of NWA History Centre, Inc.
8101 – 34th Ave., So. – Bloomington, MN 55425
(952) 997-8000 – Ext. 8-6102
Vol. 2 - No. 1 March, 2004
ASK AND YOU SHALL RECEIVE
Within a few days of mailing our last newsletter, we received several calls regarding the game, "Cameroon"” There were a couple of offers to donate one of the games, even one reported to be new and unopened. The only caveat was that its delivery would have to wait until, “We can get up to the lake next spring after the snow melts.”
We were also informed that it wasn’t a game distributed on the early Orient flights, but rather was associated with the establishment of “Regal Imperial Service” in the mid 1950’s. Diligent research found an article about the game in the "Northwest Airlines News" for December 1957. The article goes on to say the game is a resurrection of an old oriental game consisting of ten dice. The game was enhanced by jumbo sizing the dice and using red and blue markings with the colorful company compass logo on the “ace”. Development and marketing was a joint venture with Custom Displays of St. Paul. The game, included a handsome light brown shaker, product of Hong Kong and a set of rules and scorepads printed by the GO Print Shop. The bottom of the shaker has Northwest’s insignia and the words, “Fly the Best, Fly Northwest”. The game was made available by mail order to employees, passengers and friends for $4.50.
HEY! – HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT “BIG JIM”?
Over the years the company has been fortunate to have a great number of outstanding, innovative and inventive employees. Not the least of those was Big Jim LaMont, a true pioneer, not of just the airline but of aviation and for that matter flight itself. Jim was the company’s first Superintendent of Maintenance.
With the recent 100 th anniversary of the successful Wright Brothers first flight, it seemed appropriate that we recall the contributions of our own true aviation pioneer. The following is a reprint of a column written by Gareth D. Hiebert who wrote a column for the St. Paul Dispatch under the name “Oliver Towne”. The column was originally printed in that St. Paul newspaper on the eve of a testimonial dinner held for Big Jim about fifty years ago.
“I went out on Edgerton Street the other day and talked with the man who made the airplane a practical machine. His name is J. B. (Jim) LaMont, “Big Jim”. I would be presumptuous if I said I discovered Big Jim. He has made good newspaper copy for more than 50 years. Yet, out of deference to all the others, nobody has come out and said that it was Big Jim and nobody else who made it possible for the airplane to develop into more than a gadget. I did not go out to find that information. There were other reasons why. For one thing, it seems to me that a man owes it to himself to go out and meet Big Jim at
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