Why does every city seem to have a Yellow Cab company?
Dear Cecil: In every city I can ever recall being in, the major taxi company, or one of the major taxi companies, is the Yellow Cab company. I know Star Trek postulated theories of parallel development, but there must be some other reason for yellow being the color for taxicabs. Please satisfy my curiosity on this bit of arcane Americana. — D.C., Washington, D.C. Cecil replies: It does seem a little suspicious, especially when you consider that at one point there were 1,300 North American cities or towns with Yellow Cabs. We owe it all to one John Hertz, a Chicago entrepreneur whose name is most commonly associated today with rental cars. An Austrian immigrant, Hertz spent his early years engaged in such Horatio Alger-type occupations as hawking newspapers and driving delivery wagons, all the while looking out for the Main Chance. He found it in 1905 in the person of Walden W. Shaw, a wealthy young gentleman who needed a partner to help save his foundering auto dealership. Hertz served
