The Postcard
A postcard that was published by D. Constance Ltd. of Littlehampton. The card was posted in Worthing using a 4½p stamp on Tuesday the 6th. August 1974. It was sent to:
Miss D. Comley,
22 Battle Close,
Speen,
Nr. Newbury,
Berkshire.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Tuesday.
Dear Dot,
Hope you and your
mother are alright and
that you are not working
too hard.
It is a lovely day, it just
suits me to sit in the
garden.
Love from Phyllis."
A Terror Attack at LAX
So what else happened on the day that Phyllis posted the card?
Well, on the 6th. August 1974, the bombing of the Pan Am terminal at Los Angeles International Airport killed three people and injured 36, including a priest who had to have a leg amputated.
The time bomb had been placed in a locker by Yugoslavian-born American terrorist Muharem Kurbegovic. It exploded at 8:10 in the morning.
Kurbegovic, who was born in 1943, was also known as The Alphabet Bomber because of his alleged plan to attack places in an order that would make an anagram of Aliens of America. "A" for airport, "L" for locker, etc.
He later disputed this, and stated that:
"My objective is to undermine and
erode the foundation of Western
Civilization, which is the Holy Bible".
He was motivated to plant the bomb after being charged with masturbating in a dance hall. Although he was found not guilty, the arrest record resulted in his inability to get a business license for a dance hall, and it also affected his application for American citizenship.
This resulted in a personal vendetta against a judge and the commissioners, which grew into demands for an end to immigration and naturalization laws, as well as any laws about sex.
Kurbegovic's trial was delayed for years on the grounds of mental incompetence. He chose to defend himself at his trial, and frequently did odd things such as claiming to be the Messiah, and having outbursts at the judge and prosecutors.
He was convicted of 25 counts of murder, arson, attempted murder, possession of explosives, and exploding a bomb.
In August 1987, Kurbegovic was denied parole, after claiming he was infected with AIDS by prison officials.
The Death of Robert C. Berger
Also on that day, Robert C. Berger died at the age of 46 during an attempt to make the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a balloon.
An hour after Berger took off from Lakehurst Naval Air Station, his helium balloon disintegrated over Barnegat Bay in the U.S. state of New Jersey.
Berger had reportedly never flown in a balloon before.
An Explosion in Washington
Also on the 6th. August 1974, a tank car filled with ammonium nitrate exploded in a railroad yard near Wenatchee, Washington.
The explosion killed two people and injured over 60 others.
Ever Carradine
The day also marked the birth in Los Angeles of the American TV actress Ever Carradine.
Carradine was the daughter of Susan Snyder, a horse trainer's assistant, and the actor Robert Carradine.
She is known for her roles as Tiffany Porter and Kelly Ludlow on the ABC television series Once and Again and Commander in Chief, and as Naomi Putnam and Janet Stein on the Hulu original series The Handmaid's Tale and Runaways, respectively.
The latest movies in which Ever Carradine has acted are Adolescence and Frank vs. God.
Gene Ammons
The 6th. August 1974 was not a good one for Gene Ammons, because he died on bone cancer on that day at the age of 49.
Gene was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.
Henry Jacques Gaisman
The American philanthropist and inventor Henry Jacques Gaisman also died on that day, at the age of 104.
Henry Jacques ("Jack") Gaisman, who was born on the 5th. December 1869, was an American philanthropist and inventor of a type of safety razor, the autographic camera, and over one thousand other patents which benefited common items such as swivel chairs, men's belts and carburetors.
-- Henry Jacques Gaisman - The Early Years
Henry's father, Jacques Gaisman (né Geissmann), was an immigrant from Dornach, a village near Mulhouse, France who fled worsening political pressures, and immigrated to New Orleans in 1852. His parents Sarah and Jacques married in Memphis, Tennessee in 1864.
Henry J. Gaisman was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the youngest of four children. His father, Jacques, died in Memphis during a Yellow Fever epidemic when Henry was three years of age.
After his father's death, his mother, Sarah, moved the family to Cincinnati, where Henry spent some of his early childhood trying to help support his family by working as a newsboy.
At the age of 9 Henry invented a medium for street car advertising. Unable to afford the lengthy schooling required to study mechanical engineering and chemistry (his first interests), he left school at the age of 13 in order to work various odd jobs.
At the age of 16 he invented the glass-enclosed bulletin boards commonly used in hotel lobbies. He then worked briefly as a leather worker, then a leather dealer, and in 1894 moved to New York City, where he sold his first financially successful invention, a belt that wouldn't slip.
-- The Safety Razor
Later, he invented the safety razor, an invention which would allow him to develop into a wealthy businessman despite never completing his formal education.
His safety razor was patented in 1904, and was initially sold by the Auto Strop Safety Razor Company, a competitor to razor blade manufacturer Gillette Safety Razor Company, founded by Mr. King C. Gillette.
When Mr. Gaisman found similar technologies in the Gillette razors, his company sued the Gillette Razor Corporation for patent infringement, which Gillette resolved by merging with Auto Strop.
When Mr. Gaisman came on board at the Gillette corporation, he found financial reporting errors which shook investor confidence and briefly caused the Gillette stock to drop.
When Mr. Gillette eventually died at the age of 77, Mr. Gaisman went on to become the leader of the Gillette Razor Corporation.
In 1914, he also developed the autographic camera, a process where photographers could write small notes on the edge of their negatives.
The rights to this process were purchased by George Eastman (of Eastman Kodak) in 1914 for the sum of $300,000.
After Henry's razor blade patent ran out in 1921, he continued to develop newer razor blade technologies in an effort to protect his patent.
On the 21st. November 1922, he applied for a new patent on a newer razor technology with a double-edged safety blade that would fit into the Gillette handles, but the Gillette blades would not fit into his newer handles. On the 28th. June 1927, he was granted the patent for this newer "Probak" razor, and in 1928 he founded the Probak Razor Corporation.
-- Henry Jacques Gaisman's Personal Life
The Business Week magazine of the 26th. November 1930 described Mr. Gaisman as:
"Of medium height, of benign mien. He lives
in a Park Avenue apartment in a state of contented
batchelorhood [sic]. He has voiced doubts as to
whether any woman could live with him. The doubt
applies to unconventional working habits and not to
personal disposition.
If he gets an idea in the middle of the night there is
no more sleep for him. Like Gillette, Gaisman is an
incurable inventor. Also like Gillette, Gaisman
possesses a quality notoriously lacking in most
inventors – shrewd executive ability."
In 1932, at the age of 63 and still a bachelor, he moved from his Park Avenue apartment home to Hartsdale, NY after purchasing 106 acres (0.43 km2) of land from George Christiancy, former U.S. Minister to Peru and stockbroker.
Shortly thereafter, he purchased 16 acres (65,000 m2) of adjacent undeveloped land from the Healy estate, the neighboring A.P. Theobald estate, and a tract from the Kuzmier estate, giving him a total of 136 acres (0.55 km2) along Ridge Road in Hartsdale.
Henry retired from the Gilette Safety Razor Corporation in 1938, at which time he was reputed to be worth more than 25 million dollars.
In 1948, while in Mt. Sinai hospital for routine medical care, he met Catherine ("Kitty") Vance who was a 29-year-old nursing supervisor and native of New Rochelle. Four years later, on the 18th. April 1952, at the age of 82, he married Catherine, then aged 33.
Initially, the couple considered selling their land to Westchester County to build a new site for the Westchester Community College.
However, the couple changed their plans before the deal could be completed, and despite County threats to take the land through condemnation, he and his wife Catherine passed the title for their land to the New York Archdiocese in 1957 for $600,000, with the provision they could live on the estate as long as they wished.
The Westchester Community College was eventually built on the 364-acre (1.47 km2) John Augustine Hartford estate on Grasslands Road in Valhalla.
In 1971, at the age of 101, Mr. Gaisman was quoted as saying:
"I don't think that what anyone does is
worth too much attention. I like to know
what's going on. I want to be alive."
Mr. Gaisman died in White Plains in 1974, and was laid to rest at the Gates of Heaven cemetery in Hawthorne. His wife continued to live on the estate until 1995, when she moved to Connecticut to live near her family.
On the 1st. May 2010 she suddenly died at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York at the age of 91. She was laid to rest beside her husband.
The estate in Hartsdale was used as a home for retired Catholic nuns, and has since been purchased by the town of Greenburgh, where it has been turned into a nature preserve. Retired nuns continue to live on the estate today.
Robert Rounseville
Also on that day, the American stage actor and tenor Robert Rounseville died of a heart attack at the age of 60 while teaching a singing class in his Carnegie Hall studio.
