Word: cantor
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...vaudeville and opera stars. These were sensible, tentative steps; now the maverick Warner brothers made a great leap of faith. Their Jazz Singer wasn't a true "talkie''; it broke free from silent-screen traditions only for brief dialogue and a few songs. Nor was the story, about a cantor's son who goes into show business, at all modern. But Jolson's hip-swiveling salesmanship (he was in many ways the Elvis of his day) put over the novelty of talking pictures. The film, an immediate sensation, cued a frantic rush to convert all studios and movie theaters...
...bomb went off shortly after noon and shook the building like an earthquake. Our offices on the top floors of 1 World Trade Center (the north tower) went dark. No one knew what had happened, but within minutes the emergency lights kicked on and our 700 employees at Cantor Fitzgerald calmly headed for the stairs. The stairway quickly became a traffic jam as 20,000 workers on lower floors were also evacuating that cold February day, but the Cantor folks didn't panic. Some of them lashed their ties and belts to the wheelchairs of handicapped people and carried them...
...terrorist bomb exploded in an unoccupied van in the Trade Center's underground garage, it's clear that for many of us the event was a false ceiling on the limits of terror. We thought at the time the attack was a warning to be prepared. And so, Cantor Fitzgerald and the other tenants and building managers of the World Trade Center tried to prepare. We took what we thought were exhaustive efforts to safeguard ourselves from any future incidents. Security at ground level and below was tightened. Stairways were rebuilt to make it easier for police and fire fighters...
When it did, on Sept. 11, our preparations were not in vain. The added measures no doubt saved the lives of thousands of people who evacuated safely. Yet to a tragic extent, we had erected defenses against the past. We could not have foreseen the horror and destruction that Cantor Fitzgerald, New York City and our nation would experience. We lost more than anyone could have imagined...
Lutnick is chairman and CEO of investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald