Julius Blank, one of Fairchild's eight founders, tells a hilarious yarn about the night Bob Noyce turned up to join Shockley Semiconductor. Charlie Sporck recounts the tale in his book Spinoff.
A party had been arranged for some of the new Shockley recruits. "Noyce had driven in from Salt Lake City non-stop," says Blank, "he had a scruffy little two-door Ford that was a piece of crap."
It was raining hard that night, and Blank describes Noyce's Ford's windshield wiper as 'sort of vacuous'.
"He showed up in the pouring rain at 10 at night. He comes in, he hadn't shaved, he looked like he'd been living in his suit for a week, and he was thirsty" remembers Blank.
Refreshment was, unfortunately as it turned out, only too readily to hand.
"There was a big bowl of martinis on the table there, and he picks up the bowl and starts drinking it, just like that, and then he passes out," recalls Blank.
As for Shockley, Blank recalls: "Shockley got a little loaded also, and he was dancing the tango with a rose in his teeth."
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