Before going through the Forbes 400 list in roughly strictly reverse order, I’ll start with the oldest of its members (for obvious reasons that will be left unsaid due to propriety), one of whom is Kirk Kerkorian. Kerkorian looks like he will be a tough nut to crack. Though very generous to charities and to UCLA, he’s very private and seems to have no particular interest in art. Thinking about ways to approach him made making a list of Why the Rich Give Money seem like a good exercise. Here are some reasons to start with:
- Recognition
- Belief in a cause
- To help
- Tax Purposes (wealthy folks please weigh in, is this valid?)
- To be instrumental/a mode of creation
If these were the only reasons in existence, and it had to be one only, I’d pick #5 for Kerkorian. At the same time, I frankly don’t see much creativity or anything else going on in the purchase and resale of real estate, beyond making money. Given the daring and seat-of-pants nature of his early life (and this trend of an interesting early life preceding an apparently bland business life may turn out to be a trend with those on the list), it’s puzzling that he should become just a real estate developer, if only because it seems like a dull profession.
The following is my condensed edit of his Wikipedia entry, with tidbits from newspaper articles on him.
Kerkor “Kirk” Kerkorian is an American businessman who is the president/CEO of Tracinda Corporation, a private holding company based in Beverly Hills, California. Kerkorian is known as one of the important figures in shaping Las Vegas and, with architect Martin Stern, Jr. the “father of the mega-resort.”
Kirk Kerkorian was born on June 6, 1917 in Fresno, California, to Armenian immigrant parents. Dropping out of school in 8th grade, he became a fairly skilled amateur boxer under the tutelage of his older brother, fighting under the name “Rifle Right Kerkorian” to win the Pacific amateur welterweight championship.
In 1939, he met Ted O’Flaherty, for whom he installed water boilers. O’Flaherty was taking flying lessons, and Kerkorian took a guest seat one day and was converted on the views of the Californian coast. Sensing the approach of World War II and not wanting to join the infantry, he learned to fly at the Happy Bottom Riding Club in the Mojave Desert. In exchange for flying lessons from pioneer aviatrix Pancho Barnes, he agreed to milk and look after her cattle.
On gaining his commercial pilot’s license in six months, Kerkorian learned that the British Royal Air Force was ferrying Canadian-built planes over the north Atlantic to Scotland. The Mosquito’s fuel tank carried enough fuel for 1,400 miles, while the trip directly was 2,200 miles. Rather than take the safer Montreal–Labrador–Greenland–Iceland–Scotland route (although, going further north could mean the wings icing and distorting, and the plane crashing); Kerkorian preferred the direct “Iceland Wave” route which blew the planes at jet-speed to Europe — but it wasn’t constant, and could mean ditching. The fee was $1,000 per flight, but the statistics were that only one in four completed the journey. In May 1944, Kerkorian and his Wing Commander J.D. Woolridge rode the wave and broke the old crossing record. Woolridge got to Scotland in six hours, 46 minutes; Kerkorian, in seven hours, nine minutes. In two and a half years with RAF Ferry Command, Kerkorian delivered 33 planes, logged thousands of hours, traveled to four continents and flew his first four-engine plane.
After the war, having saved most of his wages, Kerkorian bought a Cessna. He worked as a general aviation pilot, and made his first visit to Las Vegas in 1944. After spending much time in Las Vegas during the 1940s, Kerkorian quit gambling and in 1947 bought Trans International Airlines, which was a small air-charter service which flew gamblers from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. He then bid on some war surplus bombers, using money on loan from the Seagrams family. He operated the airline until 1968 when he sold it for $104 million to the Transamerica Corporation.
In 1962, Kerkorian bought 80 acres in Las Vegas, across The Strip from the Flamingo, for $960,000. This purchase led to the building of Caesars Palace, which rented the land from Kerkorian; the rent and eventual sale of the land to Caesars in 1968 made Kerkorian $9 million.
Married three times, Kerkorian met his second wife Jean Maree Harbour-Hardy at the Thunderbird Casino. Ms. Harbour-Hardy, an accomplished choreographer and dancer from England, traveled the world instructing dance troupes. By chance, they met and fell in love while she was sent to check opportunities to choreograph a performance in Las Vegas. His most enduring marriage (1954–84) produced Kerkorian’s two daughters, Tracy and Linda. The name of Kerkorian’s personal holding company – Tracinda Corporation – is a portmanteau of the two daughters’ names. Although divorced, they remain close friends and confidants. Ms. Harbour-Hardy Kerkorian is financially successful in her own right.
In 1967, he bought 82 acres of land on Paradise Road in Las Vegas for $5 million and, with architect Martin Stern, Jr., built the International Hotel, which at the time was the largest hotel in the world. The first two performers to appear at the hotel’s enormous Showroom Internationale were Barbra Streisand and Elvis Presley. Presley brought in some 4,200 customers every day for 30 days straight, breaking all attendance records in the county’s history. Kerkorian’s International Leisure also bought the Flamingo Hotel.
After he purchased the MGM movie studio in 1969, Kerkorian and Stern opened the original MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, larger than the Empire State Building and the largest hotel in the world at the time it was finished. In 1986, Kerkorian sold the MGM Grand hotels in Las Vegas and Reno for $594 million to Bally Technologies. The Las Vegas property was subsequently renamed Bally’s. Spun off from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, MGM Resorts International owns and operates many prime properties, including the Bellagio, the current MGM Grand resort complex, The Mirage, Mandalay Bay, and the newly completed CityCenter in Las Vegas.
Beginning in 1969, Kerkorian distanced himself from MGM’s movie studio arm. In 1979, Kerkorian issued a statement claiming that MGM was now primarily a hotel company; however, he did expand the film library and production system with the purchase of United Artists in 1981. In 1986, he sold the studios to Ted Turner, which initiated a fifteen-year period of financial turmoil for the struggling studio. In 2005, Kerkorian finally sold MGM to a consortium led by Sony. He retained a 55% stake in MGM Mirage. In May 2009, following the completion of a $1 billion dollar stock offering by MGM Mirage, Kerkorian and Tracinda lost their majority ownership of the gaming company.
His involvement with the American auto industry began in 1995, when with the assistance of retired Chrysler chairman and CEO Lee Iacocca, Kerkorian staged a takeover attempt on the Chrysler Corporation. Chrysler’s management treated the takeover as hostile, and after a lengthy battle, Kerkorian canceled his plans and sold his Chrysler stake in 1996. In 2007, with Chrysler now owned by Daimler-Benz, Kerkorian made a $4.58 billion bid for the Chrysler Group. After a bidding competition, 80% of the Chrysler arm of Daimler-Chrysler was sold to Cerberus for $7.4 billion.
Kerkorian’s short-lived third marriage (1999) was to professional tennis player Lisa Bonder, 48 years his junior, which under a prenuptial agreement lasted only one month. He subsequently was involved in a breach of privacy suit filed against him by Steve Bing. Kerkorian claimed Bing was the father of Bonder’s daughter, which was later established by DNA testing. On August 10, 2006, the LA Times reported that Kerkorian’s attorneys were being sued by Bonder because of their connection to former high-profile private investigator Anthony Pellicano, who is currently serving a fifteen-year prison sentence for running a wiretapping scheme. Bonder’s attorney alleges that Kerkorian’s lawyers hired Pellicano to wiretap telephone calls illegally between him and Kerkorian’s ex-wife in order to gain a tactical advantage in the divorce proceedings.
Kerkorian once owned 9.9 percent of General Motors. According to press accounts from June 30, 2006, Kerkorian suggested that Renault acquire a 20 percent stake in GM to rescue GM from itself. On November 22, 2006 Kerkorian sold 14 million shares of his GM stake (it is speculated that this action was due to GM’s rejection of Renault and Nissan’s bids for stakes in the company as both of these bids were strongly supported by Kerkorian). His further liquidation of stock over the next three years helped precipitate GM’s bankruptcy in June 2009.
Kerkorian began buying Ford Motor Company stock in April 2008, and spent about $1 billion to accumulate a 6% stake in the automaker. By October 2008, the investment had lost two thirds of its value, and he began selling. On October 21, Tracinda sold the 7.3 million Ford shares at an average price of $2.43, and said it planned to cut further its existing 6.1 percent stake in Ford, for a potential total loss of more than half a billion dollars. Kerkorian sold his remaining stake in Ford in December 2008.
Kerkorian has a penchant for expensive clothes (especially custom-made outfits by Italian designer Brioni), but drives relatively low cost vehicles such as a Pontiac Firebird, Jeep Grand Cherokee and a Ford Taurus.
Kerkorian splits his time between his residences in Beverly Hills, California and Las Vegas. The richest person in Los Angeles, he may also be the most private. He almost never gives interviews and seldom appears in public. Even though his charitable foundation has dispensed more than $200 million to schools, hospitals, non-profits, companies, and charities, he has never allowed anything to be named in his honor.
Kerkorian founded the Lincy Foundation in 1989 in response to the devastating earthquake in Armenia. 25,000 people died in the earthquake as two major cities and 100 villages were completely destroyed. The substantial contributions from the newly formed Lincy Foundation provided housing to thousands of displaced individuals and families and reconstruction of roads and other key infrastructure.
In 2011, The Lincy Foundation gave $200 million to UCLA to create the “Dream Fund at UCLA”. He received the Mesrob Mashdots Medal from the Republic of Armenia for his services to Armenia and its people in 2001.
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