The Gambler: How Penniless Dropout Kirk Kerkorian Became the Greatest Deal Maker in Capitalist History
432
The Gambler: How Penniless Dropout Kirk Kerkorian Became the Greatest Deal Maker in Capitalist History
432Hardcover
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Overview
“Offers an entertaining look at Kerkorian’s outsize life… an interesting portrait of a billionaire.” – Wall Street Journal
The rags-to-riches story of one of America’s wealthiest and least-known financial giants, self-made billionaire Kirk Kerkorian—the daring aviator, movie mogul, risk-taker, and business tycoon who transformed Las Vegas and Hollywood to become one of the leading financiers in American business.
Kerkorian combined the courage of a World War II pilot, the fortitude of a scrappy boxer, the cunning of an inscrutable poker player and an unmatched genius for making deals. He never put his name on a building, but when he died he owned almost every major hotel and casino in Las Vegas. He envisioned and fostered a new industry —the leisure business. Three times he built the biggest resort hotel in the world. Three times he bought and sold the fabled MGM Studios, forever changing the way Hollywood does business.
His early life began as far as possible from a place on the Forbes List of Billionaires when he and his Armenian immigrant family lost their farm to foreclosure. He was four. They arrived in Los Angeles penniless and moved often, staying one step ahead of more evictions. Young Kirk learned English on the streets of L.A., made pennies hawking newspapers and dropped out after eighth grade. How he went on to become one of the richest and most generous men in America—his net worth as much as $20 billion—is a story largely unknown to the world. That’s because what Kerkorian valued most was his privacy. His very private life turned to tabloid fodder late in life when a former professional tennis player falsely claimed that the eighty-five-year-old billionaire fathered her child.
In this engrossing biography, investigative reporter William C. Rempel digs deep into Kerkorian’s long-guarded history to introduce a man of contradictions—a poorly educated genius for deal-making, an extraordinarily shy man who made the boldest of business ventures, a careful and calculating investor who was willing to bet everything on a single roll of the dice.
Unlike others of his status and importance, Kerkorian made few public appearances and strenuously avoided personal publicity. His friends and associates, however, were some of the biggest names in business, entertainment, and sports—among them Howard Hughes, Ted Turner, Steve Wynn, Michael Milken, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Elvis Presley, Mike Tyson, and Andre Agassi.
When he died in 2015 two years shy of the century mark, Kerkorian had outlived many of his closest friends and associates. Now, Rempel meticulously pieces together revealing fragments of Kerkorian’s life, collected from diverse sources—war records, business archives, court documents, news clippings and the recollections and recorded memories of longtime pals and relatives. In The Gambler, Rempel illuminates this unknown, self-made man and his inspiring legacy as never before.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780062456779 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 01/23/2018 |
| Pages: | 432 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.70(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
A Note to Readers xiii
Prologue: Introducing Kirk Kerkorian 1
I The Making Of A Man
1 Gambling on the Wind 9
2 The Kid from Weedpatch 15
3 Bet of a Lifetime 39
4 Scraps, Craps, and John Wayne 45
5 On a Wing and a Spare Tank 49
6 Bugsy Siegel's Last Flight 57
7 Art of the Junk Deal 65
8 Gambling on Gambling 73
9 Jack Magic and the Blade 77
10 A Crapshooter's Dream 83
11 His First Million 89
12 The Armenian Connection 97
II The Making Of A Billionaire
13 Trouble with Mobsters 109
14 A Clash of Tycoons 119
15 A $73 Million Side Bet 131
16 Hello, World! 141
17 Gary and Kirk and Barbra and Elvis 147
18 The Smiling Cobra 155
19 A Kick in the Ass 163
20 Making Debbie Reynolds Cry 173
21 The Rival Vanishes 183
22 Putting On the Moves 189
23 A View to the Abyss 195
24 Extra Risk Factor 203
25 Punch, Counterpunch 211
26 MGM Spells Disaster 219
27 Villain of the Actuaries 229
28 One Roll of the Dice 239
29 Ted Turner's Ticking Time Bomb 245
30 A Burial at Sea 251
31 Among the Billionaires 257
III The Making Of A Legend
32 Babe Ruth at Bat 269
33 The Iacocca Nuisance 277
34 She Persisted 289
35 Rifle Right Takes Iron Mike 299
36 Genocide and Generosity 307
37 Wynn and Lose 317
38 Fateful Attraction 329
39 A God Among Deal Makers 337
40 Breaking Bad 347
41 After "the Fall" 355
Epilogue: Kirk's Last Deal 367
Acknowledgments 373
Notes 375
Selected Bibliography 393
Index 397