Kirk Kerkorian

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Kerkor "Kirk" Kerkorian (June 6, 1917-2005), an Armenian businessman, investor, and philanthropist.

He was the president and CEO of Tracinda Corporation, his private investment firm headquartered in Beverly Hills, California.

Kerkorian was one of Las Vegas's most prominent figures, with architect Martin Stern, Jr. describing him as the "father of the mega-resort."

He built the MGM Grand Hotel (1969), the International Hotel (opened in 1969), and the MGM Grand (1993).

In 1969, he purchased the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie theater. Kerkorian's Lincy Foundation, which was established in 1989 and concentrated on helping northern Armenia recover from the 1988 earthquake, which was a result of Armenian American origins.

Kerkorian also invested to ensure that a film based on the Armenian Genocide's past would be made.

In April 2017, the resulting film, titled "The Promise," premiered in the United States.

In 2000 Time magazine, he was named the country's 10th largest contributor.

President Robert Kocharyan appointed Kerkorian as an honorary citizen of Armenia in September 1998.

In May 2004, Kocharyan bestowed the title of National Hero of Armenia, the highest state award.

Early years

Kerkor Kerkorkore was born in Fresno, California, on June 6, 1917, to Armenian parents who fled Turkey via cattle boat during the Armenian Genocide. Armenian was his first language, but he didn't learn the English word until he hit the streets. Following the 1920-1921 depression, his family migrated to Los Angeles. Kerkorian, who dropped out of school in eighth grade, became a highly skilled amateur boxer under his older brother Nish Kerkorian's tutelage, winning the Pacific amateur welterweight championship under the name "Rifle Right Kerkorian." Rose Kerkorian, Kirk Kerkorian's older sister, had a similar fate.

Personal life

Kerkorian was a "intensely private individual." He almost never gave interviews and rarely appeared in public. "Kerkorian civilians rarely attended board meetings and never gave speeches." He was shy, but he was a tenacious negotiator. Many who met him describe him not as a Hughesian hermit but rather as a kind, generous man."

Kerkorian, a former MGM executive and former Las Vegas resort owner, was an avid tennis player who competed, collaborated with other players, including Lornie Kuhle, and regularly competed with Alex Yemenidjian, a former MGM executive, and former Las Vegas resort owner. He had a penchant for expensive clothes (particularly Brioni's custom-made outfits), but he had a tendency to drive relatively cheap cars, including a Pontiac Firebird, Jeep Grand Cherokee, and a Ford Taurus.

Kerkorian died in Beverly Hills, California, nine days after his 98th birthday. He is buried in Inglewood Park, California, near Los Angeles.

Kerkorian was married four times, first to Hilda Schmidt from 1942 to 1952. Jean Maree Hardy's next marriage took place from 1954 to 1984. The two had met at the Thunderbird resort in Las Vegas. Hardy, a dancer from England, toured the world instructing dance troupes. As she was sent to find choreographed a Las Vegas appearance, she met and fell in love. Tracy and Linda, Kerkorian's two daughters, became a portmanteau for Kerkorian's personal holding company Tracinda Corporation and his charitable group, the Lincy Foundation, during the marriage. Despite being divorced, the two people remained close friends and confidants.

Kerkorian's short-lived third marriage (1999) was to professional tennis player Lisa Bonder, 48 years his junior, which lasted just one month. Before marrying, the two had reached a prenuptial contract. Kerkorian was later sued by Steve Bing in a privacy lawsuit. Bing was the father of Bonder's daughter, according to Kerkorian, who was later discovered by DNA paternity testing. Kerkorian's attorneys were being sued by Bonder because of their links to former high-profile private investigator Anthony Pellicano, who started serving a 15-year prison term for running a wiretapping scheme in 2008. Kerkorian's lawyers retained Pellicano to wiretap phone calls between him and Kerkorian's ex-wife in order to gain a tactical advantage in the divorce hearings, according to a bonder's attorney. Pellicano also used dental floss (surprisingly obtained from garbage) to establish that it was Bing, not Kerkorian who fathered Bonder's daughter. Attorney Terry Christensen was found guilty of racketeering for deploying Pellicano to tap Bonder's phone and receiving a three-year prison term, which was not announced on appeal.

Una Davis, who was born in 1966, was born in Kerkorian's short-lived fourth marriage (2014). When Kerkorian died in June 2015, the marriage lasted only 57 days and divorce proceedings were ongoing.

Kerkorian was instrumental in philanthropy through his charitable foundation, The Lincy Foundation, named after his daughters, Linda and Tracy. According to reports, the foundation raised more than $1 billion, although Kerkorian never permitted anything to be named in his honor. The foundation paid for half of the cost of an 80-kilometer highway Armenia. Kerkorian has invested more than $200 million in Armenia over the next decade, including $60 million to the reconstruction of schools and streets as well as the renovation of many museums, theaters, and concert halls.

The Lincy Foundation was dissolving in 2011 after 22 years of charitable service after dispensing its last $200 million to University of California, Los Angeles. Half of the funds were planned for medical education, scholarships, and other areas, while the other half was set to establish the "Dream Fund" for charitable causes around the country.

The majority of the $2 billion estate was donated to charity, but a three-person committee was left to divide the funds within three years. The estate settled for $12.5 million with his 4th wife in December 2018, as well as $10.0 million and $50.0 million for two philanthropic foundations advised by his 4th wife.

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Business career

Sensing the outbreak of World War II and not wanting to join the infantry, Kerkorian learned to fly at the Happy Bottom Riding Club in the Mojave Desert, adjacent to the United States Army Air Corps's Muroc Field, now Edwards Air Force Base. He promised to milk and look after her cattle in exchange for flying lessons from pioneer aviator Pancho Barnes.

Kerkorian learned that the British Royal Air Force was ferrying de Havilland Mosquitos from Canada to Scotland in six months. The Mosquito's fuel tank held enough fuel for 1,400 miles (2,300 km), while the trip itself was 2,200 miles (3,500 km). Rather than taking the safer Montreal–Greenland–Scotland route, which may have resulted in the wings icing and the plane crashing, Kerkorian preferred the direct "Iceland Wave" route, which would have led to the planes' crashing, rather than the more scenic Montreal–Labrador–Scotland route, which could have resulted in plane delays and plane crash, but it wasn't constant, which could have required abandoning. The flight cost was $1,000 per flight. Although reports showed that one in four planes failed to make it, the actual rate was closer to one in forty. Kerkorian and his Wing Commander John de Lacy Wooldridge rode the tide in May 1944 and set a new crossing record. Wooldridge made it to Scotland in six hours, 46 minutes; Kerkorian, in seven hours, nine minutes. Kerkorian delivered 33 planes, logged thousands of hours, and flew his first four-engine plane in two and a half years with RAF Ferry Command.

Kerkorian spent $5,000 on a Cessna after the war, having saved the majority of his money. He served as a general aviation pilot and made his first trip to Las Vegas in 1944. Kerkorian stopped gambling in Las Vegas during the 1940s and in 1947, a small air-charter company that carried gamblers from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, received $60,000 for Trans International Airlines. He then bid on some war surplus bombers, borrowing money from Seagram's loan. At the time, gasoline, especially airplane fuel, was in short supply, so he sold the fuel from the planes' tanks, paid off his mortgage, and still had the planes. He was president of the airline until 1968, then sold it to Transamerica Corporation for $104 million.

Kerkorian purchased 80 acres (32 ha) in Las Vegas across the Flamingo Strip from the Flamingo in 1962. This investment resulted in the construction of Caesars Palace, which rented the land from Kerkorian; the rent and eventual sale of the property to Caesars in 1968 paid Kerkorian $9 million ($70 million today).

Barbra Streisand and Elvis Presley were the first two performers to perform at the hotel's massive Showroom Internationale in 1967; 82 acres (33 ha) of land on Paradise Road in Las Vegas, with architect Martin Stern Jr., was the first hotel in the world at the time; Presley saw in over 4,200 customers (and potential gamblers) every day for 30 days in a row, breaking the county's attendance records. The Flamingo Hotel was purchased by Kerkorian's International Leisure; eventually, both hotels were sold to the Hilton Hotels Corporation and renamed the Las Vegas Hilton and the Flamingo Hilton respectively;

Kerkorian, a film director who produced the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio in 1969, opened the original MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, which was larger than the Empire State Building and the country's biggest hotel at the time. The original MGM Grand burned in 1980, one of Las Vegas's worst disasters in history. There were 84 deaths in the fire, including three that occurred later due to injuries sustained in the fire. The MGM Grand reopened after only 8 months. The Las Vegas Hilton caught fire, killing eight people within three months following the MGM fire.

Kerkorian sold the MGM Grand Hotels in Las Vegas and Reno to Bally Manufacturing in 1986. The Las Vegas property was then renamed Bally's. MGM Resorts International, which includes Bellagio, the new MGM Grand, The Mirage, Mandalay Bay, Circus Circus, Mandalay Bay, The Luxor, Excalibur, Monte Carlo, and the newly completed CityCenter complex in Las Vegas, is a spin off from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

MGM sold its Treasure Island Hotel and Casino to billionaire and former New Frontier owner Phil Ruffin for $750 million.

MGM President James Thomas Aubrey Jr. was appointed by Kerkorian in 1969. Aubrey downsized the struggling MGM and sold off a substantial amount of historical memorabilia, including Dorothy's ruby slippers from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, as well as the British MGM studio in Borehamwood. In 1973, Kerkorian purchased MGM's distribution system and gradually distanced himself from the company's daily operation. He also had a minority interest in Columbia Pictures, but the Justice Department brought an antitrust lawsuit due to his owning shares in two studios. Kerkorian issued a statement in 1979 announcing that MGM was now primarily a hotel company; however, with the acquisition of United Artists from Transamerica in 1981, he also managed to expand the overall film library and production system, becoming MGM/UA Entertainment Company. Ted Turner sold MGM to Ted Turner in March 1986. Turner sold the United Artists affiliate back to Kerkorian after the purchase was made.

Turner owned MGM from March 25 to August 26, 1986. Turner racked up a lot of debts, and he couldn't afford to keep the studio under those conditions. Turner sold the MGM (including its post-May 1986 libraries) and RKO Radio Pictures (the pre-1950 Warner Bros. library and Fleischer Studios/Famous Studios Popeye cartoons) and MGM's trademarks to United Artists, as well as Gilligan's Island and its animated spin-offs The New Adventures of Gilligan and Gilligan's Planet to recoup his investment. The studio lot was sold to Lorimar-Telepictures, which was later purchased by Warner Bros.; in 1990, the lot was sold to Columbia Pictures Entertainment of Sony Corporations Columbia Pictures Entertainment in exchange for the half of Warner's lot, which it had rented since 1972. Giancarlo Parretti, an Italian financier, bought the MGM studio in 1990, which later combined the former Cannon with the MGM purchase to create MGM-Pathé Communications. Parretti defaulted on the loans he'd used to buy the studio, putting the studio in the custody of Crédit Lyonnais, the French bank. Crédit Lyonnais invested substantial money to restore the moribund studio and then sold it back to Kerkorian in 1996. Kerkorian soon expanded the company, purchasing Orion Pictures, The Samuel Goldwyn Company, and Motion Picture Corporation of America from John Kluge's Metromedia in 1997, when it purchased the pre-1996 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment library, which was in the process to sell PolyGram from Seagram to Seagram.

Kerkorian sold MGM once more to a consortium led by Sony in 2005. He retained a 55% interest in MGM Mirage.

Kerkorian's Tracinda investment group offered to purchase 15 million shares of MGM Mirage to raise his stake in the gaming behemoth from 53% to 67% if accepted on November 22, 2006.

Following the completion of MGM Mirage, Kerkorean, and Tracinda's majority ownership of the game business, the company's majority shareholder fell from 53.8 percent to 39 percent, and even after promising to purchase 10% of the new stock offering they now remain minority owners.

Kerkorian had a on-again/off-again relationship with the American auto industry. Kerkorian started his involvement in 1995 with the help of former Chrysler chairman and CEO Lee Iacocca. Chrysler's leadership portrayed the takeover as hostile, and Kerkorian canceled his plans and sold his Chrysler stake in 1996, despite a lengthy struggle. Iacocca was forbidden from discussing Chrysler in public or print for five years as part of the deal, according to a gag order. Chrysler's board decided to be acquired by German automaker Daimler-Benz two years ago. Kerkorian has always driven an American car, including a Ford Taurus and Jeep Cherokee.

Kerkorian once owned 9.9% of GM (GM). According to news reports from June 30, 2006, Kerkorian suggested that Renault bought a 20 percent stake in GM to save GM from itself. To compel GM's executive hierarchy, Tracinda to Rick Wagoner was sent out to the public, but negotiations fell. Kerkorian's share price dropped by 14.1% from its November 20 price, although it remained above $30/share). Kerkorian's ownership was reduced by the buy-off to around 7% of GM. Tracinda revealed on November 30, 2006, that it had agreed to sell another 14 million shares of GM, bringing Kerkorian's stake to half of what it had been earlier this year. He had effectively sold most of his remaining GM shares by the end of November 2006. GM lost more than 90% of its value after Kerkorian's sale, falling to as low as $1/share by May 2009 and declaring bankruptcy on June 1, 2009.

Kirk Kerkorian made a $4.58 billion bid for the Chrysler Group, Daimler-Chrysler's U.S. arm. After Daimler-Chrysler's announcement that they were interested in selling the Chrysler division on February 14, major investors, including Cerberus Capital Management, The Blackstone Group, and Magna International announced plans to buy the company. Kerkorian's bid, although not surprising, was not surprising considering his long service in the US auto industry. During the bidding process, he asked for the assistance of his close associate Jerome York, who served as the CFO of both Chrysler and IBM. Daimler-Chrysler's 80% of the Chrysler arm was sold to Cerberus for $7.4 billion on May 14, 2007.

Kerkorian began purchasing Ford Motor Company shares in April 2008 and invested around $1 billion to build a 6% interest in the company. By October 2008, the investment had lost two-thirds of its value, and he began selling. "In the wake of current economic and market conditions, Tracinda sees particular value in the gaming, hospitality, oil and gas industries, and has, therefore, decided to reallocate its resources and refocus on those industries."

Tracinda sold the 7.3 million Ford shares at an average price of $2.43 per share on October 21, saying that it planned to reduce its existing 6.1 percent interest in Ford to reduce its existing 6.1 percent stake in the company, resulting in more than half a billion dollars. On December 29, 2008, Kerkorian sold his remaining interest in Ford.

According to Forbes magazine, Kerkorian's net worth in 2008 was $16.0 billion, making him the country's fourth richest individual and the richest person in California at that time. Kerkorian's net worth fell to $3.2 billion by 2011 when he was one of those hardest affected by the stock market recession. He was ranked as the 412th richest individual with a net worth of $3.9 billion in 2013.

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