What's Up, LLC

Website Links

Description

Who is Larry Shapiro? Rumors of him first surfaced in his native Sacramento, California, where people reported seeing a child clinging to airport fences just to be near airplanes. Reportedly, by age 10, he had become expert at begging for rides and washing airplanes for flying time, apparently oblivious to the stereotypes. In the schoolyard, every time a Curtis Jenny or a Wright Flyer passed overhead, he would jump up and down and say "look at that airplane!" His teachers would say, "That comedian is going to be an airshow announcer," and the die was cast. When the local airstrip was closed to make room for a plastics factory, he figured out a scheme to be near airplanes all the time. Telling his mother he was going out for a pizza, he enlisted in the Air Force, and failed to return for six years. When he did, she asked "Did you remember the anchovies?" He had forgotten, having been distracted by action all over the world, some even in the military. He did remember to take his check ride, and somehow became a pilot. He clung to his childhood vision, or rather that of his teachers, and built his master plan for the future. First, he moved to Manhattan, and became a comedy writer for the New York Hysterical Society (it's no joke.) After a rigorous apprenticeship, he founded an advertising and promotional agency known as Larry Shapiro "On Call", which became Shapiro, Benjamin & Wilder when his joke writer and secretary both threatened to quit. Although business was hilarious -- they specialized in comedy-based Public Service Announcements -- Larry thought it was time to sober up, so he went to Israel to wait for a war. One came in 1973. Ultimately, he stayed for two years. He especially liked the food. But food wasn't everything -- at least then -- and Larry still had his master plan. So he moved to California, where there were a large number of airports. He figured, "There must be airplanes near some of those airports." and he was right. After considerable research, he settled in on the San Francisco Peninsula where there were (at the time) airports on every street corner. But, he had to eat (food apparently counted for something) so he took a sales job. It turned out this was fortuitous, for it taught him to say whatever came into his mind, a skill he would fully exploit in later years. Sales was kind to Larry, but he wasn't selling airplanes. During weekends, and evenings, on his lunch break, in the morning, and at happy hour, he would hang on the fence overlooking the San Carlos Airport, old habits being what they were. Eventually, a man took pity on him, and offered him a job as vice-president of sales and marketing for American Aeromedical Corporation, a flying ambulance service. This taught him the meaning of life and inspired him to serve as President of a local Child Abuse Treatment Center in his spare time. With his foot now firmly in the door of aviation, he concluded "The sky's the limit!" He began selling airplanes just so that he could talk about them to strangers, and ultimately founded the now-thriving Jorgenson-Lawrence Aircraft Sales and Management company. Weekends, he flew as airshow demo pilot for the American General Tiger.

Products & services

Similar companies nearby