Cultural Imperialism
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| Gary Cooper |
Southwest Airlines has announced it will begin flight service at Philadelphia International Airport in May, 2004. Philadelphians sort of know that the airport is in Southwest Philadelphia, and many of them remember getting their driver's license at the Division of Motor Vehicles, when it was located in the Southwest. But the Texas cowboys who run Southwest Airlines mean to give new meaning to Southwest Philadelphia, and plant their red-hot branding iron there. One does have to muse a little. Sam Houston came from a family that still owns much of Chestnut Hill, and Dallas is named after a place near Scranton. We have historical links with what is apparently pronounced "Takes-us", but somehow they get lost in the tradition of the cowboy, which, come to think of it, was invented by Owen Wister of 7th and Spruce Street.
Herb Kelleher, the founder of Southwest Airlines, presents almost a caricature of the Texas cowboy. He looks like Gary Cooper, he drawls and brags, boasting cheerfully about just about everything his company does. He is planning to bring hordes of out-of-town visitors because of his tremendously cheap fares, and publicly told the Director of the Visitor's Information Center that he had better plan on doubling his staff, right away, because crowds of tourists are coming. His airline is fairly new, but it ranks first in service, and highest in quality, number one in baggage handling. Stupendous is a word frequently used. And then flashes of the shrewd CEO underneath it all creep out. They've had 31 years of profitability, and are the only American Airline with an investment grade bond rating. At 26%, they have the highest return on investor dollar of any member of the S & P 500. They have customer satisfaction, and the best employee satisfaction in the worl'. Maybe he laughs at his own jokes a little too much, maybe he boasts too much, but there's an answer to that, too. He quotes Dizzy Dean -- "It ain't bragging if you really done it."
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| texas |
It's impossible not to like this guy, and the admiration grows when you hear his business plan. His airline initially confined itself to Texas because the state is large enough to be able to fly many flights entirely within the state boundaries. By doing so, he escaped interstate regulations, and demonstrated enormous cost savings from not having to comply with all the red tape. Eventually, many hampering rules were repealed after competitors started to complain and lobby. Another central feature was the ability to respond to insider gossip in the oil industry, since airlines burn hundreds of million of gallons of gasoline. Much of the profitability of an airline depends on accurately predicting the direction of oil prices, and hedging against them. By confining himself to short trips, he could concentrate on flying only one model of airplane, thus reducing training and maintenance costs. There are advantages to being a Texas airlines.
And then there is the notorious boisterousness of it all. The employees are encouraged to behave like members of a college fraternity parties, which is described as "dropping the mask and behaving naturally", although the parents of teenagers would have other descriptions. Employees are expected to have fun while they work. No frills, but lot's of fun, and cheap. Really cheap. Philadelphia is in for a big dose of success, and lots of fun flying everywhere they never flew before, welcoming the whole country to visit, and y'all come back, y'hear? The whole city can therefore possibly expect soon to be acting and talking like l'll Texas on the Delaware. Maybe we must prepare for a rise in the incidence of lung cancer, too, if young people go too far in imitating his flouting of political correctness. Not only did he chain-smoke from the lecture platform, he came down into the audience and borrowed a pack of cigars. Hi, ho, and away.
It's therefore a surprise to learn that this man is a lawyer, an honors graduate of New York University Law School. And even more of a surprise to learn that he was brought up in Audubon, New Jersey, graduating in the class of 1949 from Haddon Heights High School. He absorbed a very large dose of Philadelphia culture, and even a fair dose of New York City, but it didn't change Texas a bit. What seem to be the dominance genes of Texas, born on Philadelphia's Spruce Street perhaps but nurtured on the hot prairies, are now coming back home. The uniqueness of many generations of immigrants dissolved in Philadelphia's cultural waters in the past, but this is the first time we have heard the triumphal bugle of Texas. Maybe it's a wake-up call we need to hear, of course. Corrupt and contented, pay to play, borrow to spend -- all of these tunes have perhaps been heard a little too much.
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8000 Essington Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19153  |
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