Changes of the Week

P: Edward Vernon ("Eddie") Rickenbacker, 62, president of Eastern Air Lines Inc. since 1938, moved up to board chairman in order "to get young men on jobs where they can carry responsibility and to give me more time for policy matters and long-range planning." Eastern's new president is Thomas F. Armstrong, 51, treasurer and secretary since 1938, who joined the airline as an apprentice bookkeeper in 1928. But as chief executive officer, iron-fisted Rickenbacker is still the real boss.

P: Charles S. Bridges, 50, vice president in charge of sales and advertising of Libby, McNeill & Libby, third largest (after H. J. Heinz Co., California Packing Corp.) U.S. food-canning concern (last year's net sales: $177 million), succeeded the late Daniel W. Creeden as president and general manager. Bridges came to Libby as a salesman in 1923, rose steadily to become vice president in 1943.

P: Frank E. Kalbaugh, 52, superintendent of the Southern Pacific Railroad's Salt Lake Division, was named manager of the recently rehabilitated and overhauled Alaska Railroad, the only major road owned and operated by the Interior Department. Longtime Railroader Kalbaugh hopes to pump some life into the Alaska, which runs nearer the Arctic Circle than any other American road, and whose annual deficit ($585,000 last year) arrives as regularly as the spring thaw. Kalbaugh joined "So Pac" in 1919 as a clerk in the San Joaquin (Calif.) Division, worked his way up to superintendent of transportation in 1947, took over the Salt Lake Division five years ago.

P: Edward Muhl, 46, vice president and a general production executive of Universal Pictures Co., Inc., moved into the post of production head, succeeding William Goetz and Leo Spitz, who have run the studio as a team since 1947. Muhl, who landed a job as a secretary to Universal Pictures' late Founder Carl Laemmle 26 years ago, came up through the ranks, working at one time in the business department, later as chief of the legal department. When Goetz & Spitz merged their International Pictures Co. with Universal in 1947, he became vice president and general manager of studio operations, won a reputation as an able cost-cutting producer with an eye for good story material and smart casting. Ailing Executive Spitz plans to retire, but Producer Goetz hopes to start his own studio.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.