1.
Kirk
Kerkorian
-.just turning,
90, is president and chief executive
officer of Tracinda Corp., a private
holding company based in Beverly Hills,
Calif.
•••
His corporation's
name is an amalgam of the names of his two
daughers, Tracey and
Linda.
•••
He was born in 1917
in Fresno, Calif., to Armenian immigrants.
He dropped out of school in eighth grade
and became a skilled amateur boxer,
fighting under the name of "Rifle Right
Kerkorian."
•••
During World War
II, he piloted de Havilland Mossquito
airplanes over the north Atlantic as part
of the Royal Air
Force.
•••
Learning from his
mentor, Howard Hughes, he wanted to own an
airline. Not only did this become a
reality, he followed Hughes to Las Vegas
and helped shape the city into what it is
today.
•••
Like Howard Hughes, who once owned
RKO, Kirk bought MGM movie studios and
film library, in which he sold, bought
back and resold it again several time
during a 30 year period. SEE the TIMELINE
- 1980s. The International Hotel in Las
Vegas, which once was the largest in the
world.
-- In
1990, the MGM studio was purchased by
Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti, but
Parretti defaulted on the loans he'd used
to buy the studio and sold the studio back
to Kerkorian in 1996.
•••
In 2005 Kerkorian sold MGM once more to a
consortium led by Sony. He retains a 55%
stake in MGM Mirage. •••
On 22 November 2006 Kerkorian's Tracinda
investment corporation offered to buy 15
million shares of MGM Mirage to increase
his stake in the gambling giant to 61.7%
from 56.3%, if approved.[6].
SEE
STORY Kerkorian Backs out JOCKEY CLUB /
BELAGIO CITY WALK
PROJECT
•••
General Motors / Kerkorian once held 9.9
percent of G.M. shares. According to press
accounts from June 30, 2006, Kerkorian has
suggested that Renault acquire a 20
percent stake in GM to rescue GM from
itself. A private letter sent to Rick
Wagoner was released to the public to add
pressure upon the General Motors executive
hierarchy. Those talks have since
failed.[7]
•••
On Wednesday 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
Kirk. The sale resulted in GM share prices
falling 4.1% from its Monday 20 November
price. The sale lowered Kerkorian's
holding to approx. 7.4% of GM. On November
30, 2006 Tracinda Corp. investment firm
said it had agreed to sell another 14
million shares of General Motors Corp.,
cutting Kerkorian's stake in the automaker
to half of what he owned earlier that
year. Later on he sold the remaining
shares of GM, and left GM for
good.[8]
•••
Daimler-Chrysler / On April 5, 2007 Kirk
Kerkorian made a $4.58 billion bid for the
Chrysler Group, the U.S. arm of
Daimler-Chrysler. Since Daimler-Chrysler
announced they were interested in selling
the Chrysler division on February 14,
large investors such as Cerberus Capital
Management, The Blackstone Group and Magna
International each announced intentions to
bid on the company. Kerkorian's bid, while
not expected, is not surprising given his
long involvement in the U.S. automobile
industry. During the bidding process, he
will be aided by his close associate
Jerome York who was a former CFO at both
Chrysler and IBM. As of May 14, 2007 80%
of the Chrysler arm of Daimler-Chrysler
was sold to Cerberus for $7.4 billion. •
Personal life / Married three times,
Kerkorian
met his second wife Jean Maree Hardy, a
former dancer at the Thunderbird, in Las
Vegas. The marriage produced Kerkorian's
two daughters, Tracy and Linda.
Kerkorian's personal holding company -
Tracinda Corp - is a portmanteau of the
two girls names. Also named after his two
daughters, Kerkorian's Lincy Foundation
has made huge charitable contributions,
much of this to Armenian causes.
•••
Kerkorian's third marriage was to
professional tennis player Lisa Bonder,
which under a prenuptial agreement lasted
for one month in 1999. 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 Los
Angeles Times reported that Kerkorian's
attorneys were being sued by Bonder
because of their connection to former
high-profile private investigator Anthony
Pellicano, who presently faces a 110-count
federal indictment for racketeering,
wiretapping, witness tampering, and other
charges. 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.[9]
•••
Kerkorian often plays tennis with Alex
Yemenidjian. He 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.[10]
TVI's legal
entertainment journalist,
Pat Maginnis explains the Jockey Club City
Walk Deal this
way: Patrick Maginnis.
.
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Part
02 /
TIMELINE
-
Life
- ACHIEVEMENTS
Year
Event and
Significance
1917
Kirk Kerkorian, 90, was born
in 1917 in Fresno, Calif., to
Armenian immigrants. He dropped
out of school in eighth grade and
became a skilled amateur boxer,
fighting under the name of "Rifle
Right Kerkorian."
1940
During World War II, he
piloted de Havilland Mossquito
airplanes over the north Atlantic
as part of the Royal Air
Force.••
1947
In 1947, he paid $60,000 for
TransInternational Airlines, a
small air-charter service mostly
used by gamblers who flew from
Los Angeles to Las Vega. He
operated the airline until 1968
when he sold it for $104 million
to Trans-American Corp.
1962
In 1962,
Kerkorian bought 80 acres (32.3
hectares) 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.
1967
In
1967, he bought 82 acres (33
hectares) of land on Paradise
Road in Las Vegas for $5 million
and, with architect Martin
Stern,[5] 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 (and potential
gamblers), every day, for 30 days
straight, breaking in the process
all attendance records in the
city's history. Kerkorian's
International Leisure also bought
the Flamingo Hotel (which later
sold the Flamingo to the Hilton
Hotels Corporation in 1970). The
International Hotel is known
today as the Las Vegas Hilton.
Until about 2000, the Flamingo
was known as the Flamingo
Hilton.
1968
Sold TransInternational
Airlines for $104 million to
Trans-American Corp.
1969
MGM
/ In 1969, Kerkorian appointed
James T. Aubrey, Jr. MGM's
president. Aubrey downsized the
struggling MGM and sold off
massive amounts of historical
memorabilia, including Dorothy's
ruby slippers (from The Wizard of
Oz). Kerkorian sold MGM's
distribution system in 1973, and
gradually distanced himself from
the daily operation of the
studio.
1970
In
1979, Kerkorian issued a
statement claiming that MGM was
now primarily a hotel company;
however, he also managed to
expand the overall film library
and production system with the
purchase of United Artists in
1981.
George C.
Scott won the Best Actor Oscar
for his memorable performance in
Patton
but then refused the gold
statuette and didn't attend the
awards ceremony.
1970
Disaster
films
became a main staple of films in
the 70s -- the trend began with
Airport (1970). The entire
disaster film craze was really
kick-started by The Poseidon
Adventure (1972).
1970
The IMAX
wide-screen format premiered in
the Fuji Pavilion at the Expo in
Osaka, Japan.
1970
Nevada
millionaire Kirk Kerkorian bought
MGM in 1970, and then promptly
downsized the company. He sold
off acres of the studio's real
estate of backlots, and its
valuable film memorabilia (such
as Dorothy's The Wizard of
Oz
ruby slippers) for a fraction of
its real value. The sell-off
financed an expansion of
Kerkorian's hotel-casino
investments, and began a decline
for the studio.
1970
The popular
landmark tear-jerker and
commercially-successful film
Love
Story,
adapted from Eric Segal's
screenplay and thin novel, was
the first modern romance film
blockbuster. Its story of a rich
boy/poor girl romance, was backed
by Paramount's fast-living head
of production Robert Evans. It
averted the struggling studio
from financial collapse, and
beautiful Ali McGraw (Evans
married the starlet) was put on
the January 11, 1971 cover of
Time Magazine. Evans later
made the equally-successful
The
Godfather
(1972)
and The
Godfather, Part 2
(1974)
films and Chinatown
(1974)
in the early 70s.
1970
Following in
the tradition of the "Kitchen
Sink" UK films in the 50s and
60s, director Ken Loach's
low-budget, documentary-style,
second feature-film Kes,
released in 1969, has since
been regarded as one of the best
British films ever made (it was a
Best Film nominee for the 1971
BAFTA Film Awards). The dark and
moving independent film was a
heartbreaking, authentic,
coming-of-age family drama about
an abused 15 year old
working-class Yorkshire boy who
found meaning in his life by
raising a baby kestrel (falcon).
Surprisingly, the
starkly-truthful and
socially-conscious naturalistic
film was never released
commercially in the US.
1970
Let It
Be was released, the last
film starring the Fab Four; this
effort chronicled the Beatles
recording their last-produced
Apple studios album - a comeback
attempt that actually led to
their breakup.
Early
1970s
Dennis
Hopper's Easy
Rider
(1969),
Bob Rafelson's Five
Easy Pieces
(1970),
and Peter Bogdanovich's
The
Last Picture Show
(1971)
were representative of the New
Hollywood movement of
unconventional auteur
directors with new ideas and
personal visions. In 1971, USC
film school graduate George Lucas
released his first full-length
feature film, THX 1138.
1970-71
For her
performance in Women in
Love (1969, UK), actress
Glenda Jackson became the
first performer to win an
Academy Award for Best Actress
for a role in which she appeared
nude.
1971
The
blaxploitation film genre, with
anti-Hollywood films aimed at a
primarily African-American
audience, was born with Melvin
Van Peebles'groundbreaking Sweet
Sweetback's Baadasssss Song!
-- the first
commercially-successful
black-themed film. It forced
Hollywood to acknowledge the
monetary potential of the
untapped, urban African-American
market (similar to the effect
Easy
Rider
(1969)
had on its countercultural
audiences) as a result of this
influential film. The landmark
crime/action blaxploitation film
Shaft, starring Richard
Roundtree as a defiantly-proud
black hero, was directed by
Gordon Parks and would become a
major cross-over hit. From then
on through the end of the decade
(but mostly in the first half of
the decade), over 200 films would
be released by major and
independent studios which
featured major black characters
(and some black athletes such as
Jim Brown and Rosie Grier), to
profit from the black movie-going
audiences. Clint Eastwood and
Charles Bronson would play
similar hard-edged roles for
whites. Blaxploitation cinema
experienced a revival in the late
1990s, with Larry Cohen's
Original Gangstas (1996),
reuniting stars from the earlier
era. The director of Pulp
Fiction (1994), Quentin
Tarantino, paid homage to the
blaxploitation genre twenty-five
years later with Jackie Brown
(1998), starring Pam
Grier.
Early
70s
The success of
blaxploitation films led to an
onslaught of other black
exploitation genres, with
numerous remakes or lesser
imitations ranging from westerns
to martial arts kung fu films to
horror and gangster films. Sample
films included Hit Man
(1972), Blacula (1972)
and Blackenstein (1973),
and Larry Cohen's Black Caesar
(1973). However, the vast
majority of these films were
still distributed, produced, and
controlled by non-blacks. All of
the blaxploitation films set the
stage for Hip Hop music and
subculture, future directors such
as Spike Lee and John Singleton,
and movies like Harlem Nights
(1989), Posse (1993),
the Beverly Hills Cop
series, and Pulp Fiction
(1994).
1971
Two films
released about the same time
resurrected the controversy over
violence in films: (1) Stanley
Kubrick's satirical
A
Clockwork
Orange
- rated X and responsible for
copy-cat crimes in the UK,
prompting the director to
withdraw the dystopic film about
social conditioning and free will
from distribution for many years;
and (2) Sam Peckinpah's Straw
Dogs - criticized for
glorifying violence rather than
commenting upon it, re-edited for
an R-rating, and banned in
England for 30 years.
[A
Clockwork
Orange
was also the first film to use
Dolby technology for its sound
recording.]
1971
Billy
Jack was the first film to be
marketed in 'wide-release' at
many theatrical venues on the
same day. This was a change from
the previous strategy of testing
a film in a few markets to first
see if results were positive,
before expanding its market. This
same marketing strategy was used
for Spielberg's major blockbuster
Jaws
(1975)
- and paved the way for the
method in which all major
releases are done
today.
1972
The popular,
low-budget, adult-oriented,
X-rated Deep Throat, the
second hard-core pornography
feature film released in the US
(after Behind the Green
Door) contributed to the
explosion of the porn industry
and 'porn chic' by being
exhibited in many mainstream film
theatres. It was one of the most
financially successful films ever
made (grossing over $1,000,000,
but costing only $24,000 to
make).
1972
HBO
transmitted its first cable
television programming to 365
subscribers in Wilkes-Barre, PA
-- this marked the start of
pay-TV service for cable.
1972
The AVCO
Cartrivision system (for
CARTRIdige teleVISION) was a
combination receiver / recorder /
playback unit. It was also the
first videocassette recorder to
have pre-recorded tapes of
popular movies (from Columbia
Pictures) for sale and rental --
three years before Sony's Betamax
VCR system emerged into the
market. However, the company went
out of business a year
later.
1972
Sony
introduced the U-Matic line of
video cassette recorders.
1972
Italian-American
director Francis Ford Coppola's
The
Godfather,
a reinvention of the gangster
genre, was finally released. It
won three Oscars from its ten
nominations, including awards for
Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon
Brando, who refused to accept the
award) and Best Adapted
Screenplay (Mario Puzo and
Francis Ford Coppola). Sacheen
Littlefeather declined Marlon
Brando's Best Actor Oscar in the
1973 awards ceremony as a protest
against government Indian
policies.
1972
Director
Bernardo Bertolucci's
controversial, X-rated Last
Tango in Paris was released
to protest and criticism due to
its explicit sexual content.
Actor Marlon Brando and
Bertolucci both earned Oscar
nominations - making them the
only Oscar nominees for an
X-rated film that hasn't been
re-rated since its
release.
1972
Ralph Bakshi's
Fritz the Cat was the
first X-rated animated feature in
Hollywood history.
1973
Warner Bros.
had its first major hit with the
sensational and shocking
The
Exorcist,
an originally X-rated film that
encouraged the trend for
big-budget horror films, other
cheaply-made imitations - and
more blockbusters.
1973
In
1973 he purchased MGM, the famous
movie studio. Again with the
architect Martin Stern, Kerkorian
and MGM opened the original MGM
Grand Hotel and Casino, which was
the largest hotel in the world at
the time it was finished. On
November 21, 1980, the original
MGM Grand burned in a fire that
was one of the worst disasters in
Las Vegas history. The Las Vegas
Fire Department reported 84
deaths in the fire; there were 87
deaths total, including three
which occurred later as a result
of injuries sustained in the
fire. Amazingly, the MGM Grand
reopened after only 8 months.
Almost three months after the MGM
fire, the Las Vegas Hilton caught
fire, killing eight
people.
1973
The
once-powerful MGM Studios
abandoned most of its
movie-making business because of
a string of failures due to
ownership changes and bad
production choices by head Kirk
Kerkorian, who sold MGM's
distribution system, and
gradually distanced himself from
the daily operation of the
studio.
1973
The
science-fiction classic
Westworld was the first
movie to make use of "digitized
images", a primitive term for
what has evolved into CGI
(computer-generated imagery) in
the present day.
1973
To maximize
profits from weekend audiences,
the industry decided to move
major film openings from mid-week
to Fridays.
1973
George Lucas'
idea for Star
Wars
was declined by Universal and
subsequently accepted by
Twentieth Century Fox after his
success with the nostalgic
American
Graffiti.
It was one of the biggest hits of
the year, with unknown but
up-and-coming star Harrison Ford.
1973
In
negotiations with Fox, George
Lucas wisely cut his directing
fee for Star
Wars
(1977)
by $500,000 in order to gain
ownership of merchandising and
sequel rights. In a revolutionary
approach to Hollywood film-making
and merchandising, Lucas wisely
accepted the small fee of
$175,000 in return for the much
more lucrative forty percent of
merchandising rights for his Star
Wars Corporation. Merchandising
of movie paraphernalia associated
with the film encouraged an
entire marketing industry of
Star Wars-related items
(i.e., toys, video games, novelty
items at fast food restaurants,
etc.).
1974
Tobe Hooper's
milestone cult slasher film
The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre was released,
inspired by the real-life
Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein
(also responsible for Alfred
Hitchcock's Psycho
(1960)),
featuring a horrifying,
mask-wearing,
chainsaw-threatening Leatherface
character.
1974
Director Roman
Polanski's neo-noir
Chinatown,
starring Jack Nicholson, was
released, and grossed $30 million
- much more than its budget of $6
million. Twenty-five percent of
the film was financed by a tax
shelter syndicate which received
about 10 percent of the profits
in return -- this avenue of film
financing has since been closed
by order of federal regulation.
1974
Best
Director-winning Francis Ford
Coppola's critically-acclaimed,
Best Picture-winning gangster
epic sequel The
Godfather, Part
II,
-- actually a prequel -- was one
of the rare instances in which
the sequel was superior to the
original film. It became the
first 'sequel' to win Best
Picture. It would help launch the
trend toward blockbuster
sequels.
1974
The hit
disaster film Earthquake
featured a gimmick called
Sensurround, which created
synchronized vibrations in
theaters by means of thumping
bass sounds.
1974
People
Magazine was launched.
1974
In the era
before video stores and
widespread availability of films
for viewing, the LA-based,
premium cable outlet Z Channel
exerted a tremendous impact on
the film industry. One of the
first pay cable stations, it
provided a wide variety of
innovative programming from its
troubled head Jerry Harvey in the
80s, including on-air film
festivals, foreign films,
hard-to-find rare classics,
non-mainstream films, original
and uncut 'director's versions,'
works of new talent (actors,
directors, and writers),
late-night European softcore
features (often starring Laura
Antonelli), and the airing of
other independent productions.
The channel often regenerated
interest in critically-acclaimed
films that had flopped on initial
release (i.e., Oliver Stone's
Salvador (1986) or Robert
Altman's McCabe and Mrs.
Miller (1971)). By the late
80s, the cable channel was
eventually forced out of the
market by giants HBO and Showtime
when it was acquired in 1988 by a
company that decided to combine
its movie programming with
sports.
1979
In
1979, Kerkorian issued a
statement claiming that MGM was
now primarily a hotel company;
however, he also managed to
expand the overall film library
and production system with the
purchase of United Artists in
1981.
1980
THE MGM DAYS OF SELLING AND
RE-SELLING THE STUDIO TO WILLING
BUYERS. TED TURNER WAS ONE OF
THEM:
•••
In 1986, Kerkorian sold the MGM
Grand hotels in Las Vegas and
Reno for $594 million to Bally.
Spun off from
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, MGM Mirage
owns and operates several
properties, including the
Bellagio, the current MGM Grand
resorIn 1986 he sold the studios
to Ted Turner.
WITH THAT IIN MIND - Kirk started
a new project, (where the Marina
Hotel once stood), The Mirage,
Treasure Island, the New York-New
York, and what was once the
Boardwalk in Las Vegas. They also
own the Beau Rivage Casino in
Biloxi, Mississippi.
In 1986 he sold the studios to
Ted Turner.
•••
Turner kept ownership of the
combined MGM/UA for 74 days. Both
studios had huge debts and Turner
simply could not afford to keep
them under those circumstances;
to recoup his investment, he sold
all of United Artists and the MGM
trademark back to Kerkorian. The
studio lot was sold to
Lorimar-Telepictures, which was
later acquired by Warner Bros.;
in 1990, the lot was sold to Sony
Corporation's Columbia TriStar
Pictures in exchange for the half
of Warner's lot they'd rented
since the 1970s.
1986
In
1986, Kerkorian sold the MGM
Grand hotels in Las Vegas and
Reno for $594 million to Bally.
Spun off from
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, MGM Mirage
owns and operates several
properties, including the
Bellagio, the current MGM Grand
resort complex (where the Marina
Hotel once stood), The Mirage,
Treasure Island, the New York-New
York, and what was once the
Boardwalk in Las Vegas. They also
own the Beau Rivage Casino in
Biloxi, Mississippi.
