Business: The Slick Brothers

At San Antonio’s tortilla-flat Alamo Field last week, 50 men in coveralls scurried over, under, into, out of and around nine fat-bodied Curtiss Commando planes. They installed refrigeration equipment in some, heaters in others. On the silver sides of all nine, they painted the royal blue insignia of a brand-new air-freight enterprise: Slick Airways, Inc.

Less than two months, ago, Slick Airways was still just a daydream much like the daydreams of 100,000 other soldier flyers. Unlike most others, this one was backed by 1) plenty of cash and 2) rough-&-ready business savvy. Both were supplied largely by two brothers, dark-haired, studious Thomas Baker Slick Jr., 29, and sandy-haired, easygoing Earl Frates Slick, 25-Money & Ideas. The Slick brothers are sons of famed Tom Slick, “king of the wildcatters,” and stepsons of Oilman Charles Urschel* (after Tom Slick died, his partner Urschel married his widow). The brothers were not content to live on $10,000 a year apiece left them by their father, nor wait till they inherited the bulk of the $25,000,000 Slick fortune.

Hardly had they finished their schooling at Exeter and Yale when they started wildcatting for themselves. In partnership with Stepbrother Charles Urschel Jr., they operated Slick Oil Co., struck it lucky in south Texas and in Mississippi. Tom Slick Jr. branched out. He got dozens of patents on gadgets he invented, everything from fishhooks to oilfield equipment; he ran an experimental Hereford breeding farm, launched a frozen-food locker. When war came, he went to work for the Federal Government on oil jobs, went into the Navy and is now on his way home from Japan to aid the latest family venture.

The idea of the airline was Earl Slick’s. He had mixed flying lessons with his wildcatting, had been a wartime pilot in the Air Transport Command. Not long after he became a civilian last December, he heard that nine surplus Army Curtiss Commandos were up for sale. In Washington, he walked into RFC’s surplus-plane division one day at i p.m., came out at 1:15 owning the planes. The price : $247,000.

“After that,” said young Slick, “things really began to move fast.”

Seafood & Vegetables. He hired 35 ex-Army flyers as pilots, promising them also a share of profits; showed oil companies how rigs could be broken down and air-freighted in six-ton (C46 capacity) lots. The oil companies are ready to sign contracts when Slick gives the word. He lined up cargoes of vegetables, seafood, etc. to be flown north, merchandise to be flown back to Texas stores.

Not till last week did the new company get around to incorporating formally. At a meeting in the Slick Oil Co. offices in San Antonio’s 21-story ,Milam Building, Earl Slick was elected president, Charlie Urschel Jr., treasurer. Tom will probably be vice president. Total capitalization: $1,000,000, almost all put up by the Slick and Urschel families.

Next week Slick Airways will fly its first commercial cargo (vegetables and seafood) to the “Texas Brag” dinner* in Washington. Taking in all the hustle & bustle at Alamo Field, old Charlie Urschel Sr., a director of the fledgling company, cracked: “You’d think there was a hot lease play around here.”

* Kidnapped in 1933, Urschel was held for nine days on a Texas farm till $200,000 was paid for his release. By remembering the precise time a transport plane passed over the farm daily, he was able to locate the farm, help the FBI trap the kidnappers. *A term used by Texans, notorious braggarts about Texas, to describe their opinion of their state. Those who have “demonstrated ability” in such bragging will be feted by Texas Citrus & Vegetable Growers Association in Washington at the first Texas Brag dinner.