FORBES ASIA
FORBES@100
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: NEW YORK TIMES CO/GETTY IMAGES; PICTORIAL PRESS/ALAMY; LYNDEN PIONEER MUSEUM/ALAMY; ROGER VIOLLET/GETTY IMAGESDuring our centennial year, we’re unearthing our favorite covers.
FAST-FORWARD
With a Whimper, Not a Bang
1927: “Sears, Roebuck’s retail stores are
doing extremely well,” enthused Julius
Rosenwald, the company’s president.
“There will probably be further
extension as demand arises.”
2017: Sears hasn’t turned a profit since- The onetime retail behemoth has
closed 180 stores in the past fiscal year
amid a six-year sales slump.
Wheels Up: June 15, 1927
AMAZING ADS
Epic Electric
In antiquity the million-strong
army of Persian ruler Xerxes
represented great power. Now
GE marketed its new steam
turbines as the modern symbol:
According to GE, they had the
strength of 2 million men.NOTABLE AND
NEWSWORTHY
Vino e Il Duce
In a typically windy speech,
Benito Mussolini addressed a
topic that had long occupied
the attention of American
politicians: temperance.
He opposed it, saying, “If
reasonable doses of alcohol
were very harmful to human-
kind, humanity by this time
would have disappeared.”AFTER BAD WEATHER delayed him several days, Charles
Lindbergh took to the skies from Long Island’s Roosevelt
Field the morning of May 20, 1927. The 25-year-old aviator
traveled 3,610 miles in 33.5 hours to complete the world’s
first solo nonstop transatlantic flight, touching down in the
Spirit of St. Louis on French soil the following evening. In
a rush to greet him, tens of thousands of people pushed
past soldiers, policemen and steel fences like exhilarated
fans storming a football field.
Less than a month later, the implications of his
flight were clear. “Lindbergh’s significance to business
seems greater than that of any mercantile or financial
magnate on either side of the Atlantic,” Edward
Marshall wrote. “Afte r Lindbergh we shall have
transocean air mail. We have done little... with
air transport of passengers. For a long time it has
been said to be on its way. Now it will come.”
So it did. Just weeks after Lindbergh’s flight,
a former Navy pilot, Juan Trippe, formed the
company that would grow into Pan Ameri-
can Airways. Within the year, Pan Am had
become the first U.S. airline to operate an
international air-mail service, connect-
ing Key West, Florida, to Havana, Cuba.
Then, on January 9, 1929, it launched
its first international passenger flight:
a 56-hour journey from Miami to
San Juan, Puerto Rico, with stops in
Belize and Nicaragua.SIGN OF THE TIMES
Power to the People
During the home-appliance boom,
houses across the country had
accumulated 9.9 million electric
irons, 4.3 million vacuum cleaners
and 3.2 million toasters—and
they all needed juice. Said Frank
L. Dame, president of the North
American Co., one of the largest
utilities: “There is no agency
at present in existence other
than electric power which can
be made the better means of
furthering prosperity, of furthering
production, of increasing wages
and shortening the hours of labor.”34 | FORBES ASIA DECEMBER 2017BY ABRAM BROWN