As noted above, Pan American Airways and its chairman, Juan Trippe, had the ear of Congress and president Roosevelt, and fed fears of British dominance in the air.
What and who was behind the new Ali, the wily Washington lobbyist who had the ear of everyone from Strom Thurmond to Orrin Hatch? The wife of Senator Arlen Specter even baked Ali a double chocolate-mousse pie.
It was little things which often had a quite disproportionate impact upon burgh councillors, for such a move would give tangible proof that the party which could arrange it had the ear of government and could thus effect other, and perhaps more far-reaching, changes.