A couple with three children waited in line at San Francisco's Pier 41 to purchase tickets for a boat trip to Alcatraz. Others watched with varying degrees of sympathy and irritation as the young children fidgeted, whined, and punched one another. The frazzled parents reprimanded them to no avail.
Finally they reached the ticket window. "Five tickets, please," the father said, "Two round trip, three one way."
CorfamIn 1964, E.I. duPont de Nemours Co. introduced Corfam. This hydrocarbon-based, synthetic substitute for leather was flexible, with tiny pores, for uses such as shoes, handbags, belts and suitcases. Shoes put on sale with Corfam uppers were supposed to give consumers the look, feel and durability of leather. DuPont predicted that by 1984, 25% of America's shoes would be made of Corfam. But synthetic leather was snubbed by customers in droves. It was one of the best-prepared products in terms of market and technology development and yet it failed. Time on the market: seven years. Production ceased in 1971. Corfam was described by Leonard Sloane in the New York Times as, "Du Pont's $100-Million Edsel," (11 Apr 1971). |
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