A photo shows David North on his bike in July of 1946. After getting the bike, North could deliver a paper route instead of selling papers on the street.
Photo courtesy David North
David North, who retired as General Motors' lead car designer, stands at the Crystal Lounge downtown, where he used to hawk papers in the 1940s.
JAMES WOODCOCK/Gazette Staff
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For 33 years, David North designed cars during General Motors'
glory days. But he got his first lesson in turning a profit by
selling newspapers on a Billings street corner.
In the late 1940s, North sold the afternoon paper from the
doorway of the Crystal Lounge at the corner of First Avenue North
and North Broadway. His father, a part-owner of The Billings
Gazette, worked across the street from the Crystal, in a ground
floor office at the Northern Hotel.
With the corner location and the Crystal's angled entryway,
North could sell papers to traffic along both streets.
The newsboys bought their papers for 3 cents and sold them for a
nickel.
“You had to guess how many papers you thought you could sell,”
North said. “If you ended up guessing wrong, you didn't have any
profit.”
It was North's first lesson in risk versus reward.
When he worked at General Motors, executives often viewed car
designers as dreamers. But, when North pitched an idea, he let the
“money people” know that he realized his job was to make a
profit.
North's first big break at GM came when he designed the Pontiac
GTO, which was introduced in 1964 in response to America's craving
for unbridled horsepower.
North, who became the auto giant's chief designer, was
responsible for other classic designs including the Cadillac
Eldorado, Oldsmobile Toronado and Buick Riviera. He and his wife,
Pat, moved back to Billings after he retired from GM in 1991.
In the 125 years since The Billings Gazette began publishing a newspaper, Gazette carriers have circumnavigated the globe countless times to d…
A photo shows David North on his bike in July of 1946. After getting the bike, North could deliver a paper route instead of selling papers on the street.
