Word: 49ers
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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While the "49ers" were going around his plant, Inventor Edison chewed a cigar and consented to answer a questionnaire that newsmen had presented to him. To the question, "What do you think of the future of the talkies?" his answer was emphatic: "Without great improvements people will tire of them. Talking is no substitute for good acting we had in silent pictures." Then, to another query, he gave ambition, imagination, and the will to work as the key to success...
...morning the "49ers" were assembled at 8 o'clock in the storage battery room at the plant, and after a slight delay caused by New Englanders "Maine" and "Vermont" oversleeping, the papers were passed out. The hush that marked the first glance at the examination was gradually broken as the "brightest boys" began writing. A morning that had started cool grew increasingly hot and humid. Coats came off and sleeves were rolled up as the "49ers" worked in silence, five proctors quietly pacing between the desks. With tense expressions the boys labored over questions demanding exact, accurate answers, with puzzled...
Still ignorant of the winner, the "49ers" went to Coney Island that night, and then on a sight-seeing trip through Manhattan. The Edison staff, cautious gentlemen, advised leaving watches at home and taking no more than...
While the "49ers" were waiting, the Committee which had judged the papers until 3 a. m., called in five boys for a brief chat that seemed to have no significance. Actually, it was to decide by personal impression the outcome of a practical tie. To Wilbur Brotherton Huston, 16, son of the Episcopal Bishop of Olympia (Wash.), went the award that meant four years full scholarship at any institution he will choose. So pleased was Inventor Edison with his test's success that additional prizes were given, going to "Connecticut," "Pennsylvania," "New Mexico," "Indiana," and consisting of four years' tuition...
From the time his fellow "49ers" first heard he won and lifted him to their shoulders, Winner Huston was the center of attention. It was learned that he was interested in marine biology, did not smoke, had never been a Boy Scout. When the boys boarded the Mayor's yacht Macom for a tour of Manhattan, reporters surged around Winner Huston, confident of a "chatty" interview that would tickle their public. They were disappointed and commented on the Lindberghian attitude he maintained toward them. Asked his answer to one part of the test he calmly said...