Flashback to 1959
Print Issue: July 2019
Flashback: OCTOBER 1959 | VOL. 3, NO. 4
GOOD SECURITY IS GOOD BUSINESS
The year was 1959. The American Society for Industrial Security (now ASIS International) held its fifth annual meeting in Los Angeles. The theme, “Good Industrial Security Is Good Business,” still resonates with ASIS and its members, creating a foundation for today’s focus on enterprise security risk management and its contributions to the business mission.
ASIS President Eric Barr spent three weeks each month traveling to ASIS chapters in an effort to grow the Society. He and former president Russell White chartered the European Chapter during a business trip to NATO headquarters that year.
CELEBRATION
Then, as now, ASIS members knew how to mix business and pleasure. In 1959, a banquet was held at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel, a popular venue that was also the scene of several Academy Awards ceremonies. In the ensuing decade, the hotel would be the site of the Robert Kennedy assassination and would close its doors a few years after that.
THE OLDEN DAYS
Security Management’s precursor, Industrial Security, was in its third year of publication in 1959. The October issue took on the subject “Security in the Olden Days.” Just imagine how things have changed over the last 60 years. What did security professionals in the ’50s do without the Internet, biometrics, and drones?