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^[[Will Eck.]]
^[[With the compliments of]]
LOWELL W. LEE
^[[May you enjoy your flight]]
^[[possibly LEE's signature]]
DISTRICT TRAFFIC MANAGER
PAN AMERICAN AIRWAYS, INC.

1109 CONNECTICUT AVE.
WASHINGTON, D. C.

PAN AMERICAN AIRWAYS SYSTEM
6/27/39
Mr. Eck
The motor coach will leave our New York office, 135 East 42nd Street, at 11:15AM, E.S.T., for connection with departure of the DIXIE CLIPPER from Port Wasington at 2:00PM, E.S.T.
L. W. Lee

[[photo]]
Post Staff Photo.
Holds First Ticket for Atlantic Hop
First ticket for the trip across the Atlantic aboard the huge Pan-American Airways clipper ship was issued to W. J. Eck, of the Southern Railway System. He made the reservation eight years ago

[[deposit receipt left hand block]]
DESCRIPTION OF PASSAGE
TRIP ROUTING: OW[[box]] CIRCLE[[box]] RY[[box]]
FROM ^[[New York]]
TO ^[[MARSEILLES FRANCE]]
VIA ^[[P.A.A. AZORES]]
(Route)
^[[+Return -]]
COMMENCING ON ^[[6/28]] 19^[[39]]
FARE $^[[675.00]]
DEPOSIT REC'D $^[[675.00]]
BALANCE DUE $ ^[[-]]
DEPOSIT REC'D ON ^[[-]] 19^[[-]]
BALANCE DUE ON ^[[-]] 19^[[-]]

[[deposit receipt main section]]
NOT TRANSFERABLE NOR VALID IF ALTERED
PAN AMERICAN AIRWAYS SYSTEM
& Associated Carriers
DEPOSIT RECEIPT for Passage Fare

FORM C7-5M
2181

RECEIVED FROM ^[[MR. W. J. ECK]]
(Print Name of Payee)
^[[Southern Railway Bldg Wash. D.C.]]
THE AMOUNT OF ^[[Six hundred + Seventy five]] $^[[675.00]]USA CY
as deposit on the passenger transportation described hereon and subject to the tariffs, rules and regulations of the Carriers and to the and provisions set forth below.
The above stated deposit is redeemable only by the office of the Company where this Receipt is issued and only to the person whose name is written above, upon surrender of the original of the Receipt.
Any reservations for passage described hereon will not be held after the date stated hereon for payment of the balance of the fare due for such passage, unless such balance is paid on or before the date on which it is due.
DEPOSIT REC'D ^[[P.A.A.]] BY ^[[L.WLEE]](Agent) AT^[[Wash.]](City) ON ^[[6/15]] 19^[[39]]
-o-
DEPOSIT REDEEMED AND PAYMENT RECEIVED BY (Signature of Payee or his authorized Agent) AT (City) ON 19
[[blank lines]]
[[box]]CHECK NO [[box]]CASH
DEPOSIT REPAID BY
(Agent)

[[Newspaper clipping]]
TIME
New York, N. Y.
JUL 3 1939

"I Want to Be First"
In 1931 air-mined Humorist Will Rogers told Pan American Airways: "If you boys ever get around to flying the oceans, I want to be your first passenger," offered to make a cash deposit for the privilege. The airline refused his money, but put him at the head of its waiting list for both Atlantic and Pacific crossings, then only misty dreams. Before taking off for Siberia in 1935, Will Rogers called Pan American, asked if he could get back in time for the first Pacific flight, He could have, easily-but for the crack-up in lonely Point Barrow, Alaska, which killed him and his pilot, Wiley Post.
This week, as the press preview round trip completed its westward flight and a scheduled flight over the northern route was headed east, Pan American's 41-ton Dixie Clipper (Captain Arthur E. La Porte, commanding) was readied at its Port Washington, L. I. base to take off for Lisbon and Marseille via the Azores, on its first regulatory passenger flight (44 hours).* It was just 20 years to the month since Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown made the first non-stop trans-atlantic hop. In the seat once reserved for well-loved Will Rogers sat W. J. Eck, assistant vice president of Southern Railway, an engineer whose hobbies are photography and globe-flying and whose name was the first of some 300 first-flight applicants.
Not the least of Pan American's headaches had been what tot do with these eager trippers. The Dixie Clipper can carry 74, but sleeps only 40. Twenty-two applicants were finally booked, on a first-come-first-served basis. Many, not knowing how much the fare would be, had sent varying amounts (biggest: $1,500). The airline decied on a one-way fare of $375; round trip, $675.
Among the 22 early birds: Benjamin ("Sell 'em Ben") Smith, demon speculator in oil, gold, airplanes; rich Long Island widow Clara Adams, inveterate first tripper who is trying to round the world in 16 days (for passage on the Graf Zeppelin in 1928 she paid $3,000); Mrs. Elizabeth Stettinius Trippe, wife of Pan AMerican President Juan Terry Trippe; Captain Torkild Rieber, Board Chairman of Texas Corp.; United States Lines President John M. Franklin; Investment Banker Harold Leonard Stuart; a lawyer from Allentown, Pa., named Julius Rapoport; San Francisco Shipowner Roger Lapham, whose American Hawaiian Steamship Co. was in trouble with union stay-at-homes