THE 1970s: BUSINESS AND THE ECONOMY: PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

On 11 May 1977 John D. Backe, 44, succeeded the powerful William S. Paley, 77, as chief executive officer of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), a $2 billion multimedia conglomerate, as part of a long-planned change of top leadership which did not, however, prove successful; Backe was pushed out in 1980.

On 3 February 1975 Eli M. Black, the president and chief executive officer of the $2 billion United Brands multinational conglomerate, committed suicide in New York. The company had suffered severe losses, and the news was surfacing that it had tried to get a tax reduced by offering a bribe to the president of Honduras.

On 11 September 1975 W. A. ("Tony") Boyle, the head of the United Mine Workers of America, received three consecutive life terms for ordering the murder of union rival Joseph Yablonski, his wife, and his daughter, whose bodies were found on 5 January 1970.

On 22 July 1971 Edgar M. Bronfman took over as president and treasurer of the Distillers Corporation Seagrams and its chief U.S. subsidiary, Joseph E. Seagram and Sons, following the death of his father, Samuel, who was the company's founder.

On 6 November 1973 Malcolm Forbes, publisher of the business magazine Forbes, landed at Gwynn Island in-Chesapeake Bay after a monthlong flight in a custom-designed hot-air balloon from Coos Bay, Oregon.

In June 1978 Henry Ford II reorganized the top leader-ship of the much-troubled Ford Motor Company, essentially eliminating the ambitious Lee Iacocca, making Philip Caldwell the deputy chief executive, and appointing William Clay Ford, Henry's brother, as chairman of the executive committee.

On 1 September 1974 Alan Greenspan succeeded Herbert Stein as head of the three-member Council of Economic Advisers in the administration of President Gerald Ford.

On 26 September 1977 Sir Frederick ("Freddie") Laker, the British owner of Laker Airways, overcame strong opposition from the scheduled airlines to inaugurate the Skytrain, an inexpensive, no-frills, no-reservation bargain flight from New York to London and from London to Los Angeles. The Skytrain became popular among the student and backpacking set and anticipated the end of U.S. airline regulations in 1978.

On 3 May 1971 Roger Lewis, the former president and chief executive officer of General Dynamics, was confirmed by Congress after his appointment by President Richard Nixon as the first president of the newly formed Amtrak, previously known as the National Railroad Passenger Corporation.

On 11 September 1975 Gov. Hugh Carey of New York chose eminent investment banker Felix G. Rohatyn of Lazard Freres and Company, to be the unpaid chairman of New York City's newly created Municipal Assistance Corporation (MAC), whose purpose was to counter a possible bankruptcy of the largest and most important U.S. city.

On 30 March 1973 Frank Stanton retired from CBS at age sixty-five after thirty-eight years of exceptionally diligent service that carried him to the presidency but not to the position of chief executive officer that William S. Paley gripped so tightly.