Word: valleys
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...wife Sandy fired off letters to Squaw stockholders accusing Cushing of mismanagement. A stockholders' meeting was called, and the result was inevitable, since Cushing owned 52% of the stock, his friends another 46%. After an audit showed nothing legally wrong, Cushing replaced Poulsen as president of Squaw Valley Development. Today, a bitter Poulsen still controls choice homesites in the valley (and stands to become a millionaire with the land boom caused by Cushing's getting the Olympics), but Cushing and the corporation have exclusive ski rights, since they possess the only lift permit allotted to the area...
...opening of Squaw Valley Lodge on Thanksgiving Day, 1949, was a memorable fiasco. Cushing had to hire strikebreakers when his union workmen struck the week of the opening, hooked up plumbing himself. Justine hurriedly summoned the domestic couple from their New York home, pressed a friend into service as a chambermaid. One woman guest arrived early, found Cushing still at work on the plumbing. Snarled Alec: "Madam, come back in three hours, and we'll be ready. Meanwhile, don't bother me." That night everything went wrong. There was no dinner until 10. Only one toilet was working...
There were only six weeks in which to ready Squaw Valley's bid for consideration as the U.S. nominee to stage the games. Cushing moved quickly, enlisted the support of California State Senator Harold ("Biz") Johnson and Governor Goodie Knight, got the legislators to revive an old bill that had promised Los Angeles money to back its successful 1932 Summer Olympics bid, pass a new version to guarantee $1,000.000 for Squaw. Old Friend and Squaw Stockholder (5%) Laurance Rockefeller gave his support. With evidence of financial backing, a hastily prepared brochure and a charming dissertation on Squaw...
...Triumvirate. For the selling job, Cushing called on two fellow Harvardmen for help: George Weller. globe-trotting reporter for the Chicago Daily News, and Marshall Haseltine, urbane expatriate who lived in Europe. Weller got a leave of absence to work with Cushing. He drove into Squaw Valley over the rutted dirt road from State Highway 89, took one horrified look and decided on the spot that the pitch had to be a return to Olympic ideals of togetherness and simplicity, in contrast to Europe's ornate resorts...
...meeting convened in Paris, Cushing & Co. had made personal contact with 42 of the 62 delegates. The three Americans hung out unobtrusively in cocktail bars frequented by delegates, never pushed themselves, but were always available. Cushing had ordered a huge (7 ft. by 12 ft.) relief model of Squaw Valley at a cost of $2,800, had it shipped to Paris for $3,000. The monster proved so big it would not fit through the door of the I.O.C. exhibit room, but after lodging was found for it down the street, delegates went out of their...