Would Capt. Bligh Approve?
Fuel makes the Navy go, but the modern sailor does not fight on fuel alone.
When Navy aircraft carriers head off to sea, soft drinks are the largest commodity aboard ship, next to fuel, according to Navy officers. With 5,000 sailors and aviators, an aircraft carrier’s crew can consume 10,000 or more cans of soda pop every day.
“It’s easy to underestimate the importance of little things like soft drinks or a dish of ice cream to the morale of the crew,” notes an officer aboard the carrier Ranger.
Gets Bang Out of Balloons
Could be that all you’ll remember about the GOP convention is all those balloons. For that, you can thank Treb Heining who, along with a dozen employees, dropped 200,000 of them in New Orleans.
Not everyone was thrilled. “The sound of popping balloons at the convention was deafening--pop, pop, pop! You couldn’t hear it over television. The Secret Service didn’t exactly get along with us,” Heining says. “They don’t like that sound.”
As owner of L.A.’s Balloonart by Treb, Heining has been arranging balloon spectaculars for 11 years. He’s done Super Bowls and the opening ceremony of the ’84 Olympics.
Heining’s firm already holds the outdoor record for a balloon drop, according to the Guinness Book of World Records--about 1.4 million released at a Cleveland fund-raiser in 1986. This balloon mania earned the company more than $1 million in revenue last year, Heining says.
He’s a Fast Learner
The Boy Scout motto “Be Prepared” took on a new dimension when David Castellon, an editorial assistant for BusinessWeek, learned how to play poker just three days before entering the Diamond Jim Brady Charity Poker Tournament.
The scene was the Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens, whose business is legalized card gambling. Castellon was among a contingent of some 40 media folk who played alongside movie and television stars in the kick-off event.
Each player was allowed a coach, and with some expert assistance, Castellon finished first among the press, winning $1,500 prize money, a trophy and a Diamond Jim Brady jacket.
But Castellon says he’s still not entirely clear what beats what in poker.
From Madison Ave. to Films
Joe Pytka is making his move--from the little screen to the big screen.
Pytka, a 49-year-old acclaimed director of television commercials, is about to direct his first feature film. Pytka wasn’t available for comment, but a spokeswoman confirmed that the Venice-based director will begin work this fall on a film called “Let It Ride,” a story about a compulsive gambler on a winning streak.
Actor Richard Dreyfuss will star in the movie for Paramount Pictures.
Pytka has won the advertising industry’s Clio and Cannes awards for his commercials. He directed a number of Pepsico ads featuring pop singer Michael Jackson and actor Michael J. Fox. He is also known for his Apple Computer and John Hancock Mutual life Insurance Co. commercials.
