When Tim completed his work on the rewrites he presented himself before the managing editor’s desk.
“Sit down, Tim,” said Carson, as he indicated a chair at his side.
“We want plenty of local interest in the air tour,” he went on, “so what do you think of having a contest to select a name for our plane?”
“That sounds fine, Mr. Carson,” replied Tim heartily. “It ought to arouse interest here because Atkinson is getting more and more air-minded. You ought to see the number of people who come out to the field every day to watch the planes, and especially when the transcontinental air mail comes in. There’s a fascination about flying that’s getting into everyone’s blood.”
“You certainly have a real case of it,” laughed the managing editor, “but I’m glad you have, Tim, for you are doing fine work.”
“Now,” he continued, “I want you to take complete charge of the contest over the naming of our plane. Offer $100 in prizes to be distributed in any way you see fit. We want to stage the contest in one week and you can have a column a day for your publicity stories. Select your own judges and give me a name by next Thursday. Let’s see, this is Tuesday, that will give you two days to get ready, announce the contest this Thursday and the winner in one week. How does that strike you?”
“Dandy, Mr. Carson, and thanks a lot for the opportunity.”
Tim threw all his energy into formulating plans for the big contest and by Monday morning, three days before the announcement of the winning name, his desk was piled high with letters. The deadline for entries was set for Wednesday at 6 p. m. with the announcement of the winner in the next day’s paper.
The first prize was $50, the second best name would get $25, while the next 25 would be given honorable mention and $1 apiece. Tim selected Carl Hunter, “Tiny” Lewis, the mail pilot, and Ralph to help him open the letters and judge their contents. By the time the final mail arrived Wednesday afternoon more than 5,000 letters had been received and excitement was at a high pitch. A big picture of the plane had appeared in the editions of that day with a question mark on the side where the winning name would be placed.
All evening long Tim and his helpers ripped open letters, scanned their contents, and sorted them as they thought best. It was early morning when they had completed their task and narrowed the 5,000 suggestions down to 27 letters. Out of that 27 would come the first and second place winners and the list of 25 honorable mentions.