The Big Man of Jim Beam

Chapter 6Sweet Home Boston

At the ripe old age of 25, Booker Noe was placed in charge of Plant Number Two in Boston. He was given full responsibility for the place: He was distiller, human resource director, and warehouse supervisor. If it happened in Boston, Booker was now responsible for it. Despite being over in Clermont, Carl checked on him plenty. He was Booker's boss, make no mistake about that. Business was booming and things had to run right at both plants if production was going to be maintained.

One of Booker's first tasks was to do some hiring. While a handful of workers from Clermont had been transferred over to the plant, other spots needed to be filled, so Booker busied himself with finding the right people for those jobs. He scoured the area looking for men with distillery experience, asking for recommendations from other plants. When he heard of someone with potential, he called him up and told him to come down for an interview. These so-called interviews were usually wide-open discussions that lasted either minutes or hours, depending on Booker's mood and interest level. One worker was hired after just five minutes: “You seem like an okay feller. But if you ever lie to me, you're fired.” Another sat through a two-hour discourse on hunting and fishing, complete with Booker demonstrating the best way to cast a line into a creek.

In addition to men with experience, Booker also hired friends—men whose only qualification was that he liked them. The men he chose were ...