Here’s something to think about the next time you have your heart set on something and the plot of the story doesn’t unfold in quite the way you envisioned. Had A.R. Hebenstreit gotten the job in Massachusetts, if nothing else, we would all talk funny. Instead of “lets get a drink at the bar”, we would say “let’s get a drink at the bah”. There most certainly would have been no television and radio stations and Albuquerque would not suffer the scourge of Chinese Elms. He may well have flourished as a city manager and knowing the man, he would have done interesting things but like one of those science fiction time travel paradox things, nothing would be the same. For one thing Ann Smith and Bruce Hebenstreit would have never met on a train headed toward Chicago in 1938 and my Dad would not have spun out one of the more transparently lame pick up lines you can imagine. My sister Nancy would not have met and “dated” Elvis Presley, getting her kicked out of Saint Vincent’s Academy for girls. A bunch of other things would not have happened or existed at all had he ended up living back east. Fortunately, long before my parents met on the Super Chief, fate made that possible because A.R. did not get the job in Massachusetts.
The good news is, in the process of being told, “sorry, no job”, the folks in Massachusetts told the young man to go west. A little town called Albuquerque in New Mexico was also looking for a City Manager.
Albuquerque was a dusty town of less than 26,000 people in 1918. New Mexico had only been a State for six years. New Mexico would have been number 48 of the lower 48 had it not beat Arizona into the Union by a week in 1912. Santa Fe and Albuquerque were the two largest cities. Santa Fe was the capital of course. In the area of future economic development two institutions were sought after by both cities. On a coin flip Albuquerque got the University of New Mexico. Santa Fe got the State Prison. As city manager the first thing AR did was re-do the city budget. This gave the city a better handle on money and the where with all to plan for expansion.
Albuquerque was dusty for a few reasons. Not the least of which was its location in the high desert of the Southwest. It was also dusty because it had no paved streets. A trolley ran between “Old Town” Albuquerque and downtown to 1st street where the train station and the Alvarado Hotel were located. The trolley tracks were laid in the dirt on a road through the center of town.
The road is now a street called Central Avenue. Back in 1919, Central Avenue and the streets around it became the center of a controversy. The dispute resulted in Albuquerque’s first City Manager becoming the first City Manager to quit the job in disgust over accusations from the local newspaper leveled at the City Manager, AR Hebenstreit and the Mayor, Clyde Tingley. It also marked the beginning of a long on going feud between Hebenstreit and Tingley vs. the Albuquerque Journal. The not so flattering, to down right mean articles apparently became a tradition because they seemed to continue through the next two generations.
Everyone agreed the town needed infrastructure such as sewers and paved streets. What Hebenstreit did as City manager was explore ways to get that done. He took bids from construction companies in other cities from as far away as Arizona and El Paso, Texas. He felt the bids were extravagant. Part of the reason for that was the nearest asphalt plant was in El Paso and the necessary equipment would need to be transported.
With his engineering, mathematics and budgeting tools at hand, he was able to put together a budget of his own to do the needed construction and do it for about half the price. Part of the reason for this was the equipment and other resources he would need could be bought by him personally without any cost to the city. After the street project was done he would use the new equipment and business to do other construction jobs badly needed in Albuquerque and other parts of the state.
He took the proposal to Mayor Tingley who saw the merit of the plan. Tingley approved the enterprise.
The Journal, after the project was under way, began running headline stories accusing Tingley and AR of collusion and self dealing, etc. Despite complaints by the two men and continued full disclosure on the project the Journal continued its attacks. Fortunately, Albuquerque was small enough that the citizens knew Tingley and Hebenstreit as men of integrity and the articles did not do much damage. Though not particularly damaging to his reputation, AR was deeply offended by the papers disregard of the facts and the continued attacks on his character. As soon as the project was done he quit his job as City Manager while Tingley, his popularity unhindered by the paper, went on to become Governor. Never the less, as New Mexico Construction Company did business, under bidding the competition while delivering better results, the Albuquerque Journal continued to make its accusations. Despite the fact the general population of the city and state continued to elect Tingley and respect Hebenstreit, the articles continued to really bug both of them for years to come. Finally in 1928, quite by accident, they found a way to strike back.
Again bad fortune and apparent disaster ended up delivering a huge blessing. Had A.R. not done the street construction, been hassled by the Journal, quit his job and started a construction company, he would never have been able to take advantage of the opportunities and good luck that later came and kept on coming. Once again misfortune became good fortune which ultimately produced a real fortune.
From 1918 until his death in 1969, AR Hebenstreit and his achievements are better known, sort of. The end results speak for themselves. The stories of how they were achieved are somewhat varied and difficult to sort out almost a hundred years later. For example, there is the accidental broadcasting empire.
Following my Grandfather's somewhat dramatic departure from Albuquerque’s first City Manager job he focused on growing the construction business. The money the company earned from the controversial street construction job was plowed back into the company to pay for equipment. His independence from Tingley should have been evident by the fact he got other contracts from the Federal Government and other cities and states. The photo of the Construction company in this story was taken in Denver. He continued to run the construction company into the early1950’s when he built the road to Sandia Crest. He also worked on Hoover Dam near Las Vegas, Nevada and laid out the design and infrastructure for the new town there. It was, and is, called Boulder City Nevada.
Boulder City originally housed workers on the dam and their families. For what it’s worth, the dam project, started in 1932, was originally called Boulder Dam but the name was changed to Hoover Dam. The town of Boulder City was incorporated already and incongruously stuck with its name.
While the construction company continued to construct, a totally unexpected enterprise fell into AR Hebenstreit's lap.
The cross country foot race and the radio station in a bus:
The foot race from Los Angeles to New York is a story in itself. Look it up on the internet. It was called The Bunion Derby. CC Pyle promoted the race which included in it a very bad business model. Pyle built and licensed the only mobile radio station ever built.
The idea was to have “advance men” sell advertising in the various towns along the route. He should have considered that there was no significant town between Los Angeles and Albuquerque. Businesses in those small places were not interested in advertising on radio. First, electricity was relatively new and not common in rural areas. Secondly, without a radio station already in the area there were few radios.
Pyle was broke and the radio station was impounded for debts in Albuquerque. He needed to come up with $3,900 to bail it out. What happened next depends on who you talk to:
1: Highly unlikely: The most common story has it that the station was won by Hebenstreit in a poker game. Apparently there was a fairly regular poker game at the Franciscan Hotel. I’ve been told AR played in the game. I have a very fancy antique set of poker chips in a mahogany box that would suggest my Grandfather did play poker from time to time. I am sure, however, they did not play for stakes that were high enough to have a radio station thrown in, impounded or not. It’s a romantic notion, but surely untrue.
2: The more logical story: Finally, Hebenstreit and Tingley found a way to even the playing field with the newspaper. They may well have met CC Pyle at a poker game. Who knows. According to this version, after lengthy discussion, Tingley convinced AR he should buy the station. This is probably true. They had a very specific purpose in mind. As the owner of a new radio station AR Hebenstreit could sign on every day at noon and rebut the Journal stories and editorials. Tingley, the good politician he was took no ownership and stayed clear of the operation. Apparently A R’s only motivation and expectation was to insert another vehicle with 1st amendment rights into the local discourse. Visionary that he was, AR apparently did not see a sensible commercial value in this 5,000 watt radio station in a bus. In addition to signing on at noon every day for about 15 minutes to “broadcast the truth”, he did end up backing the bus up to a music store in town. It was used for a few minutes a day to play the latest records that had come out.