An insider’s story of the rise and fall of
Canadian Airlines Under-capitalized, inflexible employment contracts, hostile government policies, volatile energy prices and economic upheaval
MY LIFE AND TIMES AT CANADIAN AIRLINES 1968 -1997 As told by a former Senior Vice President and Chair of the Council of Canadian Airlines Employees SID FATTEDAD F.C.G.A.
An Insider’s Story of the Rise and Fall of
Canadian Airlines
2 ~ Warfleet Press
Copyright 2015 Christopher Best All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the publisher or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopywrite.ca, 1-800-893-5777 Warfleet Press 1038 east 63rd Avenue, Vancouver, B.C., V5X 2L1 www.warfleetpress.com All photos from the collection of Sid Fattedad Cover Photo: DC-10 aircraft, The Spirit of Canadian, 1994 Sid Fattedad returning from Victoria, 2005 Cover design by Christopher Best Text design by Christopher Best Edited by Dr. Robert S. Thomson Printed and bound in China Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Best, Christopher 1949 An Insider’s Story of the Rise & Fall of Canadian Airlines The Sid Fattedad Story ISBN 978-0-9868793-1-9
CCAE Reunion Dinner - October 25, 2008 PHOTO RIGHT: BACK ROW: Jim Moynham, Spencer Dane, Sid Fattedad, Gary Boardman, Ian Morland, Sy Rosenman FRONT ROW: Bill MacAuley, John Dunlop, Bill Farrall, Dave Park
Sid Fattedad & Larry Nelson
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword......................................................................................9 Introduction..........................................................................................13 Chapter 1:
Growing up in Hong Kong, early memories of Canadian Pacific Airlines and passage to Canada ......................19
Chapter 2:
The long way round to getting hired at Canadian Pacific Airlines ............................................................31
Chapter 3.
The early days and some memorable stories...............37
Chapter 4.
Becoming “CP Air” and expansion fever.....................47
Chapter 5.
The strike of 1973 and poor financial results for a few years.............................................................................53
Chapter 6.
Orange is beautiful but only in the land of cherry blossoms and Watson Lake.........................................63
Chapter 7.
“The People’s Airline – better known as “Air Bus”.....67
Chapter 8.
Norfolk Broads – how I came to be nicknamed Kato..73
Chapter 9.
A brief mention of philanthropy among our people in uniform.........................................................................79
Chapter 10.
Some recollections of being head of corporate accounting and world-wide accounting operations......83
Chapter 11.
The “Kremlin” protocol................................................97
Chapter 12:
How ten tamales drove Colussy into flirting with buying
6 ~ Canadian Airlines
out Wardair. The follies of the McKinsey inquisition...................................................................105 Chapter 13.
A Tour Company with a difference............................111
Chapter 14. The arrival of Don Carty and the beginning of the end of CP Air............................................................117 Chapter 15.
The Carty era – the consolidation of Canadian aviation.......................................................................123
Chapter 16.
On becoming a niche player – or Shetzen’s folly.......127
Chapter 17. The land of the rising sun......................................... 131 Chapter 18.
FASB and how we lost the company..........................135
Chapter 19.
PWA – the takeover of CP Air and the emergence of Canadian Airlines...................................................139
Chapter 20.
Some funny things about a backwards take-over.......143
Chapter 21.
Wardair – finally and sadly!........................................149
Chapter 22.
Lessons for bad times - how and how not to improve the bottom line............................................................155
Chapter 23.
Pacific Division - the best of times, in spite of it all.159
Chapter 24.
Despite Colonel Rabuka’s coup – we kept our flights going into Fiji!................................................173
Chapter 25. Reader’s Digest, Black Monday, Glenfiddich on the beach with the future Supreme Court Justice.......193 Chapter 26. Bangkok inaugural, “the Sheriff of Patpong” and the
Canadian Airlines ~ 7
Loy Krathong festival...............................................201 Chapter 27. The Quality Movement leads to a promotion and moving to Calgary – a case of the glass half full or....207 Chapter 28. Prime Minister Mulroney visits the Far East. Pushing our luck at the Peace Arch border crossing..215 Chapter 29.
Leaving Canadian Airlines.........................................219
Chapter 30.
Gulf War drives Canadian into the arms of the enemy and the saga begins....................................................221
Chapter 31.
The birth of the Council of Canadian Airlines Employees (CCAE)...................................................237
Chapter 32.
The CCAE years and “the Order of the Salmon” – the glory of a fabled company’s employees..............235
Chapter 33.
How bureaucrats and politicians behaved.................261
Chapter 34.
It was never easy – being directors on the Board of PWA/CAIL.................................................................271
Chapter 35.
The party at BC Place in 1994 – a night to remember in my old age..............................................................283
Chapter 36. Foresight is often regarded as crystal ball gazing.......287 Chapter 37.
Christmas dinner in a Crandall and Carty run airline..........................................................................291
Chapter 38.
The end of my involvement.........................................295
Chapter 39.
To our customers..........................................................297
Chapter 40.
In retrospect and some final thoughts...........................303
8 ~ Legacy Carriers
Postscript...........................................................................................309 Footnotes....................................................................................311 Appendix............................................................................................315 Glossary...................................................................................335 Index.................................................................................................339
Foreword
Some readers of this book, particularly ex CAIL employees, might still bristle over the financial sacrifices they endured during the employee rescue project of Canadian Air. They might be annoyed to read the caption “inflexible employment contracts were part of the mix that went into the failure of CAIL.” The term “Legacy carrier” is often used to refer to the cost problems of some well known names like Air Canada but that is not a finger pointing exercise against employees of those airlines. The work rules, wages and pension arrangement that hindered cost-cutting flexibility in times of sudden economic downturn, were negotiated by their
10 ~ The Canadian Aviation Industry
employers and union representatives in the time before fuel prices were more than 35% of total operating costs and world economies became tightly interlinked and recessions became global in nature. The “legacy cost” that has had the most significant impact on Air Canada has been unfunded employee pension liabilities and we all know that those pension promises were made so long ago that their original assumptions such as life expectancy and long term investment returns have gradually worked against the employers’ ability to fund the costs especially when capital markets tank like they did in the financial crisis of 2008 and the tech wreck at the beginning of the millennium. These are very large issues for legacy airline employees but non existent challenges for new low cost competitors who do not have similar contracts or pension benefit arrangements. I want to also point out that during the period from the early 1970’s till the beginning of the CAIL/ Air canada merger saga in 1992, there were innumerable episodes of layoffs and cutbacks in which fellow employees lost their jobs. Management and union employees were furloughed as a result of the difficulties visited on the airline industry, not the least of which were the continuous parade of economic upheavals and recessions (nine of ten post WW II recessions were preceded by oil price spikes). Not only did oil price hikes affect aviation industry expenses, the resultant economic contractions lowered revenues making these recessions a double whammy on airlines. Another often overlooked feature of the airline industry is the fact that
FOREWORD ~ 11
airlines rank dead last in terms of return on invested capital when compared to the value chain of industries involved in the aviation industry. This means that everyone up and down the value chain in the aviation industry found a way to make more money than the airlines they served. Median returns on invested capital for the period 1996 to 2004 for various value chain industries within the aviation system were as follows: 1) CRS (reservations business) - 24% 2) Leasing companies
- 13%
3) Ground handlers
- 13%
4) Fuel suppliers
- 11%
5) Freight forwarders
- 11%
6) Aircraft manufacturers
- 9%
7) Travel agents
- 9%
8) Caterers
- 8%
9) Airports
- 6%
10) Maintenance
- 6%
11) Airlines
- 3%
Source: IATA Study titled: Investing beyond oil and gas in the air transport sector, by Dr. Charles E. Schlumberger of the World Bank.
12 ~ A Honking Good Time
It is my sincere hope that this book does not stir up feelings of resentment between the employees of Air Canada, CAIL, CP Air, Wardair, PWA, Eastern Provincial, Nordair, Gemini and all the regional carriers. The aviation industry in Canada has a great deal to be proud of for its role in knitting our great country together over the past century. The journey has not been without its twists and turns, intrigue and politics, competition and rivalry. Such are the characteristics of capitalism and commerce and is bound to continue as the future unfolds.
Introduction:
Another name for this book could have been “A Honking Good Time” and for a good reason – it is about my life and times at Canadian Pacific Airlines that started its life with a Canada Goose image on its tail and ended its life with a rejuvenated Canada Goose design on its tail. In between these two images, the airline went through multiple corporate logo changes and this book tells the story of that journey from one man’s point of view. Many people have asked me to write such a memoir of my life with Canadian Pacific Airlines (later known as Canadian Airlines International, CAIL and over the years I have asked myself “What good would this do?” Many books on the subject have been written by authors who having combed through myriad documents and interviewed untold numbers of protagonists have written in great detail about the drama that was Canadian Airlines International. Peter Spigott’s superb
14 ~ Kai Tak Airport
“Wing Walkers” details the history and the legend of CAIL. Wayne Skene’s “Turbulence” gives more details about the trials and tribulations of the industry. We surely don’t need more books about rising costs and declining yields per RPM or the lengths to which the Canadian government will go to protect the interests of its baby, Air Canada, at the expense of tax-payers and shareholders. What convinced me to put pen
to paper to pay tribute to a great company is the fact that the great
brand and spirit of Canadian Airlines has refused to fade. In the minds and hearts of a great many Canadians, especially western Canadians, CP Air and its subsequent incarnation, CAIL, was a brand that attained near immortality. And many former Canadian Pacific Airlines people will never believe that fate dealt the right card when PWA turned up out of the blue to take it over. I want to dispel the notion – that it was a black hat (PWA) white hat (CP Air) affair. Almost every time I talk to anyone about airline travel, the subject of CAIL comes up with the lament “It’s never been the same since Canadian Airlines”. The magic and the mystique of Canadian Airlines survived what its many erstwhile owners did to it, and what some brilliant and not so brilliant managers did to it, and what the treacherous politicians did to it and finally, what some of its unions did to it. The magic of Canadian
Canadian Airlines ~ 15
Airlines survives because of its people and how they stayed together in spite of it all to nurture their “family”. To those who still fly and work in airplanes and hangars and airports and offices of Air Canada and any other airline today, I say – keep flying because it is in your blood to conquer time zones and bridge continents and I hope you will keep the “joie de vivre” and “esprit de corps” that was so special. The DC-10 aircraft that bore the signatures of employees was aptly named “The Spirit of Canadian.” I am also writing this book for the simple reason that I made a promise once upon a time to myself to tell the story as seen through my own eyes. This will inevitably mean that the book will reflect my own biases and beliefs. That cannot be helped. This book is about what I saw and felt. If any part of the book offends anyone, I assure you that no malice is intended. I am a confessed aviation junkie and proud of it. You have to have spent time near those giant flying machines as they spooled up their engines to taxi onto the active runway and then, with full throttle, lift themselves into the sky, before you can appreciate the sense of awe and wonder at being part of the miracle of flight. You have to have sat a dozen times behind the captain’s seat on approach to Hong Kong’s Kai Tak airport looking at the checkerboard on a hazy night and grip the back of his seat when the aircraft banks at a perilous angle, seeking the runway that suddenly jumps into view (from the top of the windscreen) at the
16 ~ Canadian Airlines International (CAIL)
last second. You have to have flown through thunder storms and seen St Elmo’s fire flashing across the windscreen on approach to Don Muang airport in Thailand. And finally, you have to have been with the cabin crew who improvised mid-flight by using empty bottles to unplug toilets on a long 14 hour trans-Pacific flight. Yes, Av Gas and other fumes get in your nose and in your hair and you never can forget the sensation. Along with a host of people who have helped me with this memoir, I am hoping to capture for posterity some of the views, impressions and actual experiences surrounding the story of Canadian Airlines International (CAIL). It will be almost inevitable that personal biases and beliefs will be presented, but it is not my intention to distort or impugn the reputations or intentions of people who were involved. In fact, I want to state up front that never did I ever believe there were bad people in this play – they were all well-meaning and were to greater or lesser extent part of the fabric of the legend. I have also weaved in stories of some of the airline’s employees and their aspirations, hopes and achievements that paralleled the story of Canadian Airlines. I will tell some stories of “Rahul Bhatia,” our man in India who is now the proud owner of Indigo Airways in India and was voted Indian entrepreneur of the year in 2011. There are others: Franz Metzger our man in Narita; Manob Song Im, our man in Bangkok;
Canadian Airlines ~ 17
Jimmy “the Greek” Melidones, the Icon of YVR; Dave Solloway, our wandering Asia hand who literally blew off his hand in Thailand, Tony Buckley, whose kids grew up speaking Japanese, and many others who may find themselves revealed in these pages. To each of those mentioned and others who may feel they should have been highlighted, I extend my grateful thanks for their friendship and help along the way. When I left Canadian Airlines International at age 48 in January 1992, after 24 years of service to the company, I had no suspicion that I was opening a door to the most tumultuous, energizing and difficult three year period of my life. In fact, soon after I retired I headed off to Europe with some airline diehards from the “Norfolk Broads” days (that’s part of the story) to “conquer” the Canal du Midi in the south of France. I had no thoughts of business or the challenges the airline faced. When I left in January 1992, the airline was deep in talks with American Airlines to sell them a stake to financially stabilize the company. Looking back, I suspect that the Gulf War and the ensuing oil price spike and recession did not help the efforts of Rhys Eyton and Kevin Jenkins. Joss [1] played a part here as it did many times in CAIL and CP Air’s history. In the fullness of time as we look back on the AMR saga, the irony of its own inevitable entry and passage through the Chapter 11 purgatory in 2012 should remind us all that none of the big US carriers had a silver bullet that could slay the awesome destructive power of something called “low cost carrier.”
18 ~ Kowloon City
Never in my wildest imagination would I have believed that the events that would unfold from 1992 to 1995 would so change Canadian aviation and the lives of so many of my friends at CAIL. But I found myself thrust into an adventure that took me to the very depths of intrigue and treachery, the very best of sacrifice and camaraderie and most importantly a chance for me to serve my fellow CAIL employees that has garnered so much goodwill and kindness shown towards me even to this day. I am often touched beyond words by the courtesies shown to me by airline employees on my travels. After all, it isn’t often that one is recognized, let alone welcomed by employees twenty plus years after leaving a company. My only regret is that I can’t remember all their names even though I remember their faces. And so, with grateful thanks to all the employees of CAIL and its predecessor and constituent companies, I dedicate this recollection of one man’s journey in the life and times of Canadian Airlines International. I hope you will enjoy reading this as much as I have enjoyed reliving these stories and reconnecting with old friends.
Chapter 1 ~ Growing up in Hong Kong, early memories of Canadian Pacific Airlines and passage to Canada
Before Kai Tak airport became renowned for its runway jutting into Kowloon Bay, it was a favorite fishing hole for me in 1954 when I was just ten years old. Kai Tak airport sat right next to the infamous Walled City and in order to get there I used to stroll along Boundary Road that skirted Kowloon City and the Walled City within it. My mother, bless her heart, always reminded me not to go wandering into the Walled City, a noisy, filthy den of inequity, and especially never to eat the food from the “dai pai dong” - street food stalls. But true to my adventurous ways I always detoured into Kowloon City to experience the smells, tastes and sounds of old China - brisket noodle soup, salted fish, dried cabbage, and pickled thousand year eggs became familiar and comforting things for me. I didn’t know it at the time but there was also the occasional cloying sour-sweet waft of air that comes from smoking that
20 ~ Nancy Kwan
tar-like substance from deep inside the opium dens of the Walled City. Sometimes on weekends I would take my jerry-rigged bamboo fishing pole along with some red worms for bait to sit on the rocks at the side of Kai Tak airport for hours waiting for the guppies to bite. I still remember vividly how one particular aircraft captured my attention and imagination – “Canadian Pacific” was written along its fuselage. I wondered what the country called Canada was like and I often dreamed about going there one day – but at that age those thoughts were fleeting, especially when the guppies were biting and there was fun to be had. At that time I was unaware of the fact that Canadian Pacific Airlines was running a highly profitable air service shuttling a constant flow of Chinese refugee migrants who were sponsored by their relatives in Canada, “the golden mountain uncles”. My parents found me to be the most challenging of their five children and although I often worried them with my frequent long absences from the house they gave me nothing but freedom to explore. Looking back, this freedom to roam was probably what turned me into a bit of a wanderer with a nosey interest in everything. It also eventually brought me to Canada in 1968. I was born in Guilin, China in 1944. My father’s background was
Chapter 1 ~ Hong Kong ~ 21
Persian, my mother’s Chinese. They had escaped from Hong Kong when the Japanese overran it in December 1941. My parents returned to Hong Kong in 1946 and picked up their life from where they left off – he being an import-export merchant and she being the tai-tai with a growing brood of children. We lived in the posh suburb of Kowloon Tong in a walled compound at No.18 Dorset crescent and had amahs, wash and cook servants, a driver, several gardeners and chickens. Our house had an annex that served as living quarters for Mr. Dewhurst, an ex-pat Englishman who was the company secretary of my father’s trading firm and I learned early from him how toast is to be made and how marmalade is spooned. Dewhurst was my first exposure to “Gwei-Lo”(a foreigner) I remember the stereotypical striped suspenders that he snapped while reading the South China Morning Post at breakfast. I went to junior school at Kowloon Tong School and spent my childhood frequenting the Kowloon Tong Club, a retreat reserved for the well-off of the era. My brothers and I cavorted happily in the playground where we made friends with Nancy Kwan of “Suzie Wong” fame. Nancy was a Eurasian girl whose Chinese father and English mother produced a strikingly good-looking girl who later turned into an international star and celebrity following her Suzy Wong role opposite William Holden. In my pre-teen years, I frequently made off with my father’s 22 caliber rifle up to the hills footing Lion’s Rock for the purpose of target
22 ~ The Kontinentals
practice in which the targets were earthenware burial pots filled with the bones and ashes of villagers. It caused my mother no end of consternation when I used to come home brandishing a femur bone or two with great pride while the dogs went crazy! Lovely red Irish Setters, the pair of them! I attended middle school at St. Francis Xavier’s College (SFX) in Shamshuipo in Kowloon and nothing remarkable happened there except for the fact that Bruce Lee (of Kung Fu fame) was my classmate for a few years. SFX was run by Marist brothers whose teaching philosophy seemed to be that corporal punishment was the best way to ensure that children paid attention in class and save them from the curse of scholastic failure – (Well, at least that was what I thought). Accordingly, the many canings at the school helped me to pass the standard examinations that entitled me to graduate from middle school with the HK School Leaving Certificate in hand. Bruce Lee was quite a colorful character in school and his most famous deed was a boxing match with Brother Edward, a big brute of a man who was more than twice the size of Lee. Our whole class was treated to a most entertaining bout in which Lee came out unscathed while Brother Edward was thoroughly thrashed! Sweet revenge for all the boys and Bruce Lee was a school hero after that. I left SFX after passing the standard exams and joined King George V School (KGV) to write the UK General Certificate of Education. KGV was an
Chapter 1 ~ Hong Kong ~ 23
amazing experience for me because for the first time in my life, I was thrust into an environment where students of every imaginable colour, race and religion mingled in friendly harmony and where corporal punishment was a last resort! That was important! I think that in the three years that I spent at KGV I became comfortable with the idea that different nationalities should not be a barrier to peaceful co-existence. However, I must admit that in spite of the peaceful and harmonious routine the usual amount of teenage scraps and competition went on such that my teenage years were interesting indeed. There are so many stories from that era that they could fill another book. From 1963 to 1966 a group of KGV school friends and I formed a rock and roll band that became quite famous in Hong Kong. Known as the Kontinentals we were young men with musical talent that was probably more imagined than real but somehow we became the top band in Hong Kong. We had our very own weekly TV program and great fun was had by all. My best memories of our stint at stardom include being opening acts for the Kinks, Manfred Mann, Lulu, Chubby Checker and many other rock stars of the day. Sadly it all ended when our lead singer, Anders Nelsson, had to enroll in the Swedish military and other members of the band also left to pursue post secondary school educations or careers. In those days almost none of my group of ne’er do wells thought of college after high school. I was persuaded by my then
24 ~ KPMG
girlfriend’s father, Bob Baker, who was Corporate Secretary at Hong Kong Land Development Ltd., to end my beachcombing days. He arranged for me to join Peat Marwick Mitchell and Co. (KPMG today) in Hong Kong as an articling clerk. I did so and that launched me on a financial career that has taken me so far beyond my expectations that to say I owe Bob Baker a lot would be an understatement bordering on ungratefulness. But that’s another story. My next heightened awareness of Canadian Pacific Airlines was in March of 1966 when I read newspaper coverage of the crash of Canadian Pacific Airlines flight 402 at Haneda airport, Tokyo’s international airport at that time. The flight originated in Hong Kong and was scheduled to touch down in Tokyo to pick up more passengers and then fly on to Vancouver. Of the crew and passengers of 72 people, eight survived the crash. I can recall thinking how sorry I was to read that tragic news. There was no reason for me to feel that way except that I had an image of the goose on the tail of that airline company. I was sitting in the offices of KPMG - it was lunch hour at the time and that afternoon was shot for me as I wandered around in a daze without much of an idea why. In the summer of 1967 I received a long distance phone call from Vancouver from my friend and fellow ex-Kontinentals rock band member, Danny Piry. He had left Hong Kong in 1966 to study in Vancouver and
Chapter 1 ~ Hong Kong ~ 25
was phoning to ask if I would consider coming to Canada to join up with the band again. I think it took me about twenty seconds to ask him to repeat that question and say “Yes, I’ll be there tomorrow!” When one is young and immortal the thought of pulling up stakes and moving to another country doesn’t invoke thinking about the serious consequences that such a move entails. Most of my work-mates at KPMG were shocked that I would give up four years of articling to go and play in a band but they gave me a great send off anyway when the time came for me to say farewell. As it turned out, formalities such as Canadian Immigration and travel documentation held up the process so I had to endure almost six months of my parents not speaking to me. Their disappointment that I would quit a reputable job at KPMG was palpable and it was probably the most miserable six months that my family ever experienced. But before I finally left for Canada there was another piece of news about another Canadian Pacific Airlines crash: in February of 1968 a leased B707 on a flight from Honolulu to Vancouver crashed on landing at Vancouver airport. This news did little for my flight jitters as I approached the day when I would board that flying goose to Canada. At long last the day of departure came. It was St. Patrick’s Day, Sunday, March 17, 1968 when I got on board a Canadian Pacific Airlines DC8 in Hong Kong to emmigrate to Vancouver. I paid a one way
26 ~ Marcus Lung
ticket price of something like HK$600 which was almost all my back pay and vacation pay from KPMG, I remember having only about sixty dollars US in my pocket as I prepared to board the plane. At the very last minute my father, who hadn’t spoken to me for months but drove me to the airport along with the whole family to see me off, slipped four hundred US dollars into my pocket and said, “Good luck Son, all the best”. I think he had in mind that once that money ran out I’d be back in Hong Kong. As I write this memoir, I am collecting my Canada pension after 45 years here – so much for going back! “So kiss me and smile for me Tell me that you’ll wait for me Hold me like you’ll never let me go Cause I’m leavin’ on a jet plane Don’t know when I’ll be back again Oh baby, I hate to go”
.
Leaving on a Jetplane, by John Denver The 15 hour flight to Vancouver seemed both a blur and an age at the same time. The hours passed quite quickly but each minute seemed like hours.Thoughts of family and friends; awareness of minute details of sights and sounds within and without the aircraft; wonderment and anxiety about the future; regrets about things left unfinished,
Chapter 1 ~ Hong Kong ~ 27
relationships left behind and words left unsaid; whether to order another free scotch that came in miniature bottles. Come to think of it, I remember the male cabin steward, Marcus Lung, as if I saw him only yesterday because he was so kind and attentive to all the passengers on the flight. I never had to ask for another miniature; they arrived with regular monotony. In later years as I became a fixture on CP Air flights, I would meet up with Marcus many times and he always reminded me of how many miniatures he brought me on my first flight! I was seated at the very back of the DC8 aircraft and the cabin was almost empty on the leg from Hong Kong to Tokyo. My dinner came on a tray with nice porcelain dishes and the cutest little umbrella spear that protruded from a pineapple round. I spent some time opening and closing that little umbrella and then I carefully wrapped it in a clean napkin and stowed it away for a souvenir. When we arrived in Tokyo a diminutive Japanese man came on board at the front of the aircraft calling out something like “All con passengers please disembark and wait in the holding lounge.” I had no idea what this was about then but it was to be the scourge of my existence for a few years! That little man was the terror of Canadian Pacific Airline’s staff at Tokyo airport and every employee who has ever heard him call out for cons (airline vernacular for contingent passenger) will remember the dreaded experience of being “bumped off” the flight in Tokyo! This was because even though
28 ~ Five Man Cargo
the flights might have had lots of room from Hong Kong, they would fill up in Tokyo with paying passengers and if you were an employee, the lights and sights of Tokyo beckoned! After we took off from Tokyo the captain announced on the intercom that our trip would take us over the international dateline and we would actually gain a day! He joked (at the time I didn’t know that it was a joke) that he would let us know just before we crossed the date line as we would probably feel a bump as we went over it. I was wideeyed and excited as all get out during that eight hour crossing of the Pacific from Haneda airport. I stayed up all night – looking occasionally out to marvel at the stars visible through the window. I wondered if I would ever come this way again. After all, Canada was something like 7000 miles away and people don’t travel all that distance very often, do they? I arrived in Vancouver on the same day that I left Hong Kong and had St. Patrick’s Day all over again on Sunday March 17th, 1968 in Vancouver. The idea of gaining a day was unfathomable to me and to this day it is an article of faith that this date line change thing is not voodoo. My arrival was greeted by former Kontinentals band members Danny Piry, Gerald Laishley and John Telling and they brought newcomer bass player, Orly Anderson, along with a bunch of Canadian
Chapter 1 ~ Hong Kong ~ 29
guys and girls who all came to see me at the airport. That same day the guys drove me down to Tartini’s drum shop in New Westminster where I plunked down $300 US for my Ludwig drums and signed a promissory note to pay $45 a month until it was paid off. I had no idea what this credit system was since one always paid cash for things in Hong Kong. Our band in Vancouver was known as the “Five Man Cargo” and quickly established its presence in the local music scene. Our popularity was such that the $300 investment in those drums was paid back many times within a year and our weekends were booked solid at Point Roberts’ famous weekend party spot known as “The Breakers.” Point Roberts is a finger of land that juts out from the Canadian mainland and is bi-sected by the 49th parallel which puts the southern half of the finger in American territory! There is no road access to mainland USA from Point Roberts and it was a favorite hangout for young Canadians wanting a weekend of booze and fun (the liquor stores closed weekends on the “dry” mainland of Vancouver). On July 20, 1969, we were playing at the Breakers when Apollo 11 “the eagle” landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin halted proceedings for almost an hour while the customers crowded around several TV monitors to watch and listen to Armstrong’s words. “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. Funny how one remembers things.
30 ~ Bruce Allen
As we became more and more popular and in demand we went about searching for a full time manager for the band and one day John Telling, Gerald Laishley and Orly Anderson came into the club with a fellow in tow – “Meet Bruce Allen. He is going to be our manager!”. No one in the Canadian music scene needs reminding who Bruce Allen became. Yes, Bruce Allen started his career as the manager of the Five Man Cargo in Vancouver. And yes, he was just as bombastic then as he is today. During the week we were booked mostly at “Lasseter’s Den,” a nightclub owned by Bill Lasseter, a rather famous defensive back on the BC Lions football team. Later we were the house band at the Marco Polo night club in China Town where we played with the likes of visiting stars and bands including Ike and Tina Turner, Herman’s Hermits and The Platters. My most unforgettable character from those days was Harvey Lowe, a local-born Chinese celebrity who was the Master of Ceremony at the Marco Polo night club. Harvey had won the World yoyo championship in 1932 in London, England and held that title until he passed away in March 2009. Harvey had met and mingled with celebrities and ordinary people from all walks of life but I never knew he was a celebrity himself as he was always selfless and obliging. The only thing that gave him away was his tendency to bring out a yoyo and fling the thing towards the ground to create the spin that sets the yoyo up for a walking-the-dog trick! Later in life, Harvey worked for Vancouver Airport (YVR) as a meet and greet host and I would run into him in the arrivals area greeting people from the Cathay Pacific flights.
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If you grew up in Vancouver between 1933 and 1974 chances are you knew someone in the Kitsilano Boys’ Band. Every boy wanted to join the band and go on one of those fabulous two to five month European tours. After marching his boys through the provincial, national and world band championships, culminating in a win against 35 adult bands at the Crystal Palace in London, England in 1936, Arthur Delamont became a music legend.
“CONCURRENCE HAS BEEN RECEIVED FROM ALL COUNTRY AND GENERAL MANAGERS AND THEIR OVERSEAS NATIONAL EMPLOYEES FOR KEITH POPE, GENERAL MANAGER, U.K. AND IRELAND, TO REPRESENT ALL OVERSEAS BASED EMPLOYEES ON THE COUNCIL OF CANADIAN AIRLINES EMPLOYEES” MAKE THIS BABY FLY SID! - Tony Buckley
WARFLEET PRESS * www.warfleetpress.com ISBN 978-0-9868793-3-3 $34.95
Printed in China