Rickenbacker Eddie

Eddie Rickenbacker Letter to General Groves of Manhattan Project
  Typed Letter Signed, to Leslie R. Groves Jr., November 19, 1962, New York, NY. 1 p., 7.25" x 10.5".  Very good.
  Excerpts
"First, let me say that it was a happy occasion to have the privilege of meeting you and having a short visit at the Banshees luncheon. Joe Willicombe of King Features Syndicate sent me a copy of the photograph taken on the occasion, and I am enclosing same with the hope that you will autograph it and return it to me so that I may add it to my collection of wonderful men."
  Historical Background
The Banshees was a King Features Syndicate institution. It was a luncheon club descended from an event started in the 1920s in conjunction with the annual convention of the American Newspaper Publishers Association. Attended by publishers, editors, famous newspapermen, and stars of the King Features Syndicate, the Banshees luncheon was held in New York City and each year awarded a "Silver Lady" statuette to the outstanding newspaper artist of the year. On November 1, 1962, Fred Laswell received the 16th annual award for his creation of the Barney Google and Snuffy Smith comic strip.
 
  Eddie V. Rickenbacker (1890-1973) was born in Ohio to Swiss, German-speaking parents. He left school after the death of his father in 1904 and found jobs to support his family. He pursued any job related to automobiles and became a car salesman in Texas and Arizona. He became well-known as a race car driver before World War I. When the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, Rickenbacker joined the United States Army and left for France. Despite his lack of education, he became an engineering officer at an Aviation Instruction Center because of his mechanical abilities. During the war, he flew approximately 300 combat hours, with a total of twenty-six victories over enemy planes and highly defended observation balloons, an American record until World War II. He received the Distinguished Service Cross a record eight times. After the war, he published his memoirs and founded an automobile company in 1920. The company went bankrupt in 1927, and Rickenbacker bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which he operated until World War II and sold in 1945. He opposed President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal as socialistic. He managed the merger in the 1930s that formed Eastern Air Lines and purchased the company in 1938. From 1935 to 1940, he scripted the popular comic strip Ace Drummond, drawn by Clayton Knight. After nearly dying in a commercial plane crash in February 1941 and months of recovery, he strongly supported the British before American entry into World War II. He visited the Soviet Union in 1943 to offer advice on American planes the Soviets had received and to gather information. After the war, he lived in New York City with a winter home in Florida. He was forced out of his position as Chief Executive Officer at Eastern Air Lines in October 1959, and resigned as Chairman of the Board at the end of 1963.
  Leslie R. Groves Jr. (1896-1970) was a United States Army General with the Corps of Engineers who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II. Born in New York to a Protestant pastor who became an army chaplain, Groves graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1918 in a course shortened because of World War I. He entered the Corps of Engineers and gained promotions to major by 1940. In 1941, he was charged with overseeing the construction of the Pentagon, the largest office building in the world, with more than five million square feet. Disappointed that he had not received a combat assignment, Groves instead took charge of the Manhattan Project, designed to develop an atomic bomb. He continued nominally to supervise the Pentagon project to avoid suspicion, gained promotion to brigadier general, and began his work in September 1942. The project headquarters was initially in the War Department building in Washington, but in August 1943, moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He and physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer selected the site in Los Alamos, New Mexico, for a laboratory, and Groves pushed successfully for Oppenheimer to be placed in charge. Groves was in charge of obtaining critical uranium ores internationally and collecting military intelligence on Axis atomic research. Promoted to major general in March 1944, Groves received the Distinguished Service Medal for his work on the Manhattan Project after the war. In 1947, Groves became chief of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project. He received a promotion to lieutenant general in January 1948, just days before meeting with Army Chief of Staff Dwight D. Eisenhower, who reviewed a long list of complaints against Groves. Assured that he would not become Chief of Engineers, Groves retired in February 1948. From 1948 to 1961, he was a vice president of Sperry Rand, an equipment and electronics firm. After retirement, he served as president of the West Point alumni association and wrote a book on the Manhattan Project, published in 1962.
Ex. Leslie Groves Family, Christies Auction.

 
 

WE PROVIDE IN-HOUSE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE.