Ringmaster's Return

In the World War II industrial circus staged by Cleveland's upstart manufacturers Jack & Heintz Inc., U.S. business men never quite knew whether to hiss or cheer Ringmaster Bill Jack. He both be wildered and fascinated them with his free meals, free massages, free Florida vacations for his "associates" (employees) and the $39,000 bonus he paid his secretary for "just working hard." On a $100,-ooo stake and $3,400,000 in Government loans, he rang up peak sales of $90 million in 1943 and overnight became the nation's largest maker of airplane starters and automatic pilots.

At war's end, the circus ended. Said Jack's colleague Ralph Heintz: "It is time we faced facts. The free benefits we formerly received were paid for by Uncle Sam." Bill Jack sold out for $8,000,000 and went out to Rancho Santa Fe, Calif, to take it easy. By 1949, idleness chafed him. In Solana Beach, Calif., he organized the Bill Jack Scientific Instrument Co. to make a new kind of aerial reconnaissance camera, rounded up some new "associates" and began dreaming big dreams. Last week it looked as if Bill Jack was ready to hop into the public eye--and public pocket--once more. He announced plans for a is0,000-square-foot factory for his camera, and the Defense Production Administration recommended a $2,000,000 "emergency" loan for him to build it.

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