Others Who Influenced the Century
The Times’ Oct. 25 special issue on the 50 figures who most influenced business in this century brought a torrent of reader responses. Here is a sampling:
I have to acknowledge an omission that seems so obvious. Los Angeles is known as the entertainment capital of the world. Movies have always been produced here as well as recordings of popular music. “Lights, camera, and action” is the famous cliche.
Well, who gave us the first two of those three words? How about Thomas Edison?
Where would any business in the world be without lights? Where would Hollywood be without the motion picture and the phonograph? Edison was the first to create a movie studio.
BRENT KUSZYK
Tujunga
* Nikola Tesla was the discoverer of alternating current, as well as the real inventor of the radio (not that fraud Marconi whom you incorrectly gave credit to in your piece).
GEORGE HOYT
Silver Lake
* I think Albert Einstein’s work influenced business this century as much or more than anyone included in your list.
MARVIN FEIN
Newport Beach
* Dr. Robert Oppenheimer. His creation ended World War II, created the Cold War (which kept war out of Europe for 50 years), was the reason for the arms race, pumped countless billions of dollars and rubles into the military-industrial complex of the U.S. and USSR’s economies, not to mention creating the nuclear power industry.Is Sam Walton a more influential figure?
ALEX GERSH
Mission Viejo
* In the introduction of “The 50,” nuclear weaponry (but not nuclear power) is listed as one of the 11 selected items produced in the last 100 years. However, neither the list of 50 nor the list of 25 honorable mentions includes any person or group associated with the arrival of the Atomic Age. Frankly, I think that you made a major boo-boo.
ROBERT E. SPENGER
Fullerton
* As soon I read that you put Ted Turner in front of Bill Gates, I stopped right there. How could you possibly think that Turner has more influence on our everyday life than Bill Gates?
JOE COZZO
North Babylon, N.Y.
* Willis Carrier--inventor of air conditioning. Computers would not be able to operate without controlled humidity and temperature. Also human comfort of working in air-conditioned offices affects productivity. The South would not be what it is today without air conditioning.
BOB LENTZ
Fullerton
* Howard Hughes was one of America’s truly great aviation pioneers, test pilot, movie producer and financier, to mention only a fraction of his achievements.
BRUCE STRATTON
Los Angeles
* I find it inconceivable that you did not list Glenn Curtiss. He was truly the Henry Ford of aviation.
JACK CARPENTER
San Juan Capistrano
* I believe that Lockheed’s late Clarence L. “Kelley” Johnson should be included somewhere. After all, his planes were flying at Mach 3 before others thought it possible. Stealth technology originated in his “Skunk Works.” And that philosophy of management has been a model for others.
MAGGIE SMITH
Sherman Oaks
* You rated Michael Milken as No. 7. The methodology used by Milken was totally abhorrent, allowing your paper to open up old wounds of investors trampled by the hobnailed boots of junk bonds.
So repugnant was the extent of Milken’s grip on the financial community, he was also able to hoodwink the financial community as a fiscal Svengali who had a magic slate for riches. Due to the fact that he amassed a substantial fortune, he was able to mitigate the prison sentence he deserved.
Your article on him, unfortunately, provides a certain degree of credibility to his accomplishments.
HOWARD SPIELBERGER
Palm Desert
* Michael Milken? Howard Jarvis? What in the world are they doing on your list? And no woman higher than No. 38--in fact, taking three women at that point to equal one man? And you expect us to take this seriously?
BONNIE COMPTON HANSON
Santa Ana
* You missed a big one--Malcolm McLean, the developer of container shipping. This development revolutionized shipping worldwide and turned Los Angeles into the largest port in the U.S.
And I understand the reasoning for William Mulholland as honorable mention, but Los Angeles has ground water to support perhaps 50,000. Without him, L.A. might have the national significance of Barstow, making “The 50” list irrelevant.
JIM DUKE
Santa Monica
* I was surprised the inventor of the photocopier didn’t make your top 50 people who influenced business in this century. It’s hard to imagine what business would have been like in the last 40 years without the Xerox--and it was invented by a graduate of Caltech, Chester Carlson.
BRICE FIALCOWITZ
Santa Ana
* What were you thinking leaving out Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin? Without whom you might not be alive or able to walk?
LAUREN KAYNE
Saugus
* I’m sorry Marie Curie didn’t make the cut. At the time of her greatest accomplishments she was truly a pioneer.
LOIS Di SANTO
Pasadena
* Vladimir Lenin, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr., Deng Xiaoping, Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug? . . . Why not Goofy? I thought I’d stumbled into the comics section. Have you given up on the idea that any serious people still read the Los Angeles Times?
KIM JORGENSEN
Los Angeles
* Harry Truman is my choice. He stopped the railroads and steel. He dropped the bomb to end the war. He went to Korea. He had one crisis after another but never gave up. The Marshall Plan was his idea. How many went to college on the GI bill?
MARY E. NUNEZ
Apple Valley
* I can’t help wondering why leaders from the agricultural sector were not included. Since 1900, the U.S. has moved from a primarily rural, agrarian society to a predominately urban society. This alone signifies one of the most rapid and dramatic changes over the history of human civilization. This shift could not have occurred without the amazing developments in agricultural production and practices.
JIM BURTON
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, N.C.
* You state that Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug founded the National Organization for Women. That is not accurate. Betty Friedan and 27 others founded the organization. Steinem and Abzug had important roles, but not as founders or activists in NOW.
JEAN STAPLETON
Communications coordinator
NOW chapter
Los Angeles
* It was neither David Sarnoff nor his engineer, Vladimir Zworykin, who invented the television. The U.S. Patent Office awarded the priority of the television invention to Philo T. Farnsworth. RCA basically couldn’t prove they came out with the invention first.
KEVIN THAM
Singapore
* The small reference and picture of W. Edwards Deming hardly indicates the great contribution of this great production genius and his total quality management theory. Deming’s contribution caused competitive efforts that brought us much finer quality in automobiles.
GEORGE HAGEMAN
Solana Beach, Calif.
