Personnel

Last week the following were news:

Big stockholders in John R, Thompson Co. (restaurants and cafeterias in 36 cities) are John Daniel Hertz and Charles Alexander McCulloch who were good friends of the founder until he died in 1927. Last March President John R. Thompson Jr., 37, tried to get proxies sufficient to regain voting control but gave up and announced, "It was all due to a misunderstanding." Chicagoans felt that the Hertz-McCulloch group allowed him to remain as president for sentimental reasons. Last week he resigned, was succeeded by William Murphy Collins, 55, oldtime Chicago restaurant man who sold Philip Henrici's ("No Orchestral Din") to the Thompson chain in 1929. Four days before President Thompson resigned Mr. Collins, also a large stockholder, was made chairman of the company.

Kenneth Collins, 34, who last month resigned as vice president and publicity director of R. H. Macy & Co. to form his own advertising agency, changed his plans abruptly. Early in January he will become assistant to Bernard F. Gimbel, president of Gimbel Brothers, Inc., owners of Gimbel and Saks stores in Manhattan and department stores in Pittsburgh. Philadelphia, Milwaukee. William Howard, who resigned as Macy's advertising manager to go in the proposed new Collins agency, will go with him to Gimbel's as his assistant.* Possibly to celebrate but probably to avoid answering tedious questions both Mr. Collins & Mr. Howard promptly sailed for Bermuda after the announcement, will remain there until after New Year's. Mr. Collins had his private telephone number changed. On the day of his departure not even his new employers could get in touch with him.

Bertram Cutler, agent & representative of the John Davison Rockefellers, was elected a director of Radio Corp., succeeding Westinghouse's Andrew Wells Robertson. Rockefeller Center, Inc. owns 100,000 preferred A shares of Radio, received in return for reducing the amount of space in Radio's lease.

Charles Stedman Garland, captain of the 1927 U. S. Davis Cup Team, manager of the Chicago office of Brown Bros. Harriman & Co., will be a partner of the firm Jan. 1.

*A Gimbel advt. of last week: "Albie Booth, sensational football player, will be in our Sporting Goods Department all evening. Albie will demonstrate and autograph 'Touchdown,' the new football game."

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