Title: Gordon L. Gilmore Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1946-1973

Creator:

• Gilmore, Gordon L., 1908-

Call Number: U.S. Mss 168AF; DC 780

Quantity: 2.0 c.f. (5 archives boxes) and 1 film

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of a public relations executive for Trans World Airlines, Inc., consisting primarily of administrative records, publicity and promotional material, and publications. The administrative records include reports, public relations manuals and handbooks, studies of corporate image, and working papers prepared to publicize the proposed Pan Am-TWA merger in 1962. In the publicity files are plans, brochures, correspondence, and press releases describing various inaugural flights and major anniversary celebrations. Included here is a promotional film featuring Lady Bird Johnson. The publications file, which is rather fragmentary, contains samples of various TWA titles. The remainder of the collection consists of correspondence, speeches to college and business audiences, and memorabilia including a journal describing his 1959 trip to East Africa.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0168af

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Gordon L. Gilmore, public relations executive in Trans World Airlines, Inc., was born 4 August 1908 in Freeborn, Minnesota, the son of Ansel E. and Bertha Scoville Gilmore. He graduated from Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota in 1930. Between 1930 and 1944 Gilmore worked as reporter, copy reader, news editor and radio commentator for the Mason City (Iowa) Globe-Gazette, the Omaha Bee-News, and the St. Paul Dispatch-Pioneer Press. Following active military service as a naval lieutenant, 1944-1946, Gilmore joined Transcontinental and Western Air, Inc. (now Trans World Airlines) as manager of the New York News Bureau, with the additional responsibility of directing Eastern Region public relations. He remained in public relations with TWA until retirement in 1973, with appointments to the following positions: assistant to vice-president-Public Relations, 1947; director of Public Relations, 1948; vice-president-Public Relations, 1951 (a corporate office); and vice-president of Public Affairs, 1973.

Gilmore personally directed major company promotional activities and anniversary celebrations in the 1950's and `60's, often coordinating TWA's international publicity programs. Also, he helped create a new corporate image for TWA beginning in 1958 and he aided in the 1961 reorganization and expansion of the company and its objectives, following a struggle between the airline and Howard Hughes and Hughes Tool Company (the parent company) for control of the airline. He was a member ofTWA's Management Council, and served as chairman of the Contributions Committee and as secretary to the Board of Directors' Consumer Affairs Committee, in addition to his involvement in many outside aviation and public relations organizations. Gilmore served as a consultant to the United States State Department in the late 1960's, and in 1969 the Gallagher Report poll voted him Corporate Public Relations Man of the Year. In 1972 Gilmore was awarded the Distinguished Service Award of the Public Relations Society of America, New York Chapter.

Since retirement Gilmore has made his home in Pompano Beach, Florida, where he heads Gilmore Groups Associated, a select public relations consulting firm.

The papers of Gordon Gilmore are arranged chronologically in six series: Correspondence, Administrative Records, Publicity, Speeches, Publications, and Personal Memorabilia. Within these series Gilmore's public relations talents are illustrated by the wide and colorful variety of materials documenting the major publicity campaigns of TWA -- from first inception and planning of a promotion to the finished press release or tourist brochure.

The CORRESPONDENCE file, 1946-1973, contains correspondence related to Gilmore's business activities and personal achievements. Letters, memos, certificates, invitations and programs are included.

PUBLICITY papers are divided into two groups, General Promotional Activities and Specific Flight and Event Promotions. Under General Promotional Activities are found correspondence, memos, press releases and plans dealing with TWA's 30th Anniversary in 1955, and for the “Cosmic Contest” planned to highlight the celebration. Also included is a copy of and correspondence about the commemorative booklet, “30 Years of Service,” and plans and publicity for the 20th Anniversary of TWA's first transatlantic flight, in 1966. Specific Flight and Event Promotions include press releases, brochures, itineraries, passenger and crew lists, and memos created as part of the airline's publicity of inaugural flights and new services and particularly to attract domestic and foreign press attention. The promotions are arranged chronologically as they appear on the container list.

The SPEECHES section contains copies of Gilmore's talks to college and business audiences from 1950 to 1972. In addition there are notes from a series of slide talks delivered in 1963.

The file of PUBLICATIONS dates from 1952 to 1973, and contains TWA publications and those of other organizations. Included is a very incomplete series of the TWA in-house Skyliner newspaper. Miscellaneous publicity and informational pamphlets include “TWA International Air Route” (1950), “Wings Across the World” (1966), “35th Annual TWA Writing, Photo and Broadcast Competition” (1972), “The Late, Late, Very Late Show” (n.d.), “Propellers Are for Boats” (n.d.), and “The Finest Air Fleet in the World” (n.d.).

PERSONAL MEMORABILIA contains a varied group of business and press cards (c. 1964), as well as Gilmore's handwritten journal describing a trip to East Africa in 1959. Two postcards congratulate Gilmore's mother on the birth of her son in 1908.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Gordon L. Gilmore, New York, N.Y., 1973. Accession Number: MCHC73-116, MCHC73-128

Processing Information

Processed by Menzi Behrnd (FGH intern) and Joanne Hohler, Sept. 28, 1977.

U.S. Mss 168AF Box   1 Folder   1-3	Series: Correspondence, 1946-1973
	Series: Administrative Records	⇧
	Company Papers,
Box   1 Folder   4	Board of Directors Reports, 1960-1964, 1972.
Box   1 Folder   5	Charles C. Tillinghast, Jr., joining TWA, biographical and press reports on, 1961.
Box   1 Folder   6-7	Pan-Am - TWA Merger, [1960], 1962, August - 1963, January.
Box   1 Folder   8	Energy Crisis, speeches and reports on, 1973.
	Public Relations Manuals and Handbooks,
Box   2 Folder   1	Manuals and reports, 1948-1970.
Box   2 Folder   2	TWA Public Relations Handbook, 1970.
Box   2 Folder   3	Public relations and corporate image surveys and studies, 1948, 1959-1972.
	Series: Publicity	⇧
	General Promotional Activities,
	30th Anniversary,
Box   2 Folder   4-5	General, [1952], 1954 - 1955, September.
Box   2 Folder   6	“Cosmic Contest,” 1954, October - 1955, August.
Box   2 Folder   7	Sample “Cosmic Contest” entries, 1955.
Box   3 Folder   1	“30 Years of Service,” 1955.
Box   3 Folder   2-3	“20th Anniversary of Transatlantic Service,” [1964]-1965, June - 1966, February.
	Specific Flight and Event Promotions,
Box   3 Folder   4	TWA “Flight to the U.S.A.,” 1951.
Box   3 Folder   5	“TWA Quickie Vacations,” 1951-1952.
Box   3 Folder   6	Inauguration of “Through-Plane Service,” Houston to Pittsburgh, New York, 1953.
Box   3 Folder   7	“TransAirama,” 1957.
Box   3 Folder   8	“People to People” international program, 1957.
Box   3 Folder   9	Inauguration of Boeing 707 Intercontinental Service, 1959.
Box   4 Folder   1	Opening of Trans World Flight Center at New York International Airport, 1962.
Box   4 Folder   2	Inaugural flight to the Far East, Hong Kong, Bangkok, 1966.
Box   4 Folder   3	Inaugural flight to East Africa, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 1967.
Box   4 Folder   4	“Visit U.S.A. Editor's Tour,” [1965-1966], 1969.
DC 780	Crossing the Trails of Texas, film produced by the Naval Photographic Center, 1968 Physical Description: 1 reel of 1; ca. 1200'; sd; color; 16mm archival positive  Scope and Content Note: Lady Bird Johnson hosts a tour of Texas for a group of foreign journalists as part of the Visit USA Tours” program intended to ease balance of payments problem. They visit historic sites, museums, missions, fair, the LBJ Ranch, etc. Arrivals and departures; handshaking; crowds; bands; dancing; barbecues; picnics; wildflowers; seashore. Lady Bird speaking, dedicating markers; welcoming crowds; bidding farewell to journalists.
U.S. Mss 168AF Box   4 Folder   5	Miscellaneous tours, 1955, 1961, 1965, 1968.
	Series: Speeches	⇧
Box   4 Folder   6-8	1950-1957, 1960-1972.
Box   4 Folder   9	Slide talk, 1963.
	Series: Publications	⇧
Box   5 Folder   1	TWA in-house, bi-weekly publications; Skyliner and TWA Today, 1952-1973 (incomplete).
Box   5 Folder   2	TWA Ambassador, Volume 5, Nos. 1-12, 1972.
Box   5 Folder   3	Miscellaneous TWA pamphlets, 1950-1972.
Box   5 Folder   4	Publications from other organizations, 1955-1973.
	Series: Personal Memorabilia	⇧
Box   5 Folder   5	Notebook, 1959.
Box   5	Cards, 1908, 1964.