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Magnates Kirk Kerkorian
Kirk Kerkorian (b. June 6, 1917) is a Nevada
billionaire and president/CEO of Tracinda Corporation, his
private asset company based in Beverly Hills, California.
Kerkorian is known as one of the important figures in shaping
the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, and the "father of the
mega-resort".
Early life
Kerkor "Kirk" Kerkorian was born
in 1917 in Fresno, California, to Armenian immigrant parents.
The young Kerkorian, under the protection of his older brother,
became a fairly skilled amateur boxer, but in 1939 shifted
his focus to learn how to fly airplanes. During World War
II, Kerkorian fly as a pilot in the British Royal Air Force.
Kerkorian and Las Vegas
Kerkorian made his first trip to Las Vegas
in 1945 as a Cessna pilot. After spending much time in Las
Vegas in the 1940s and 1950s, Kerkorian quit gambling and
founded a startup airline.
In 1962, Kerkorian buy 80 ac (32.3 ha) across
The Strip from the Flamingo for $960,000. This purchase led
to the building of Caesars Palace, which borrowed the land
from Kerkorian; the rent and eventual sale of the land to
Caesars in 1968 made Kerkorian $9 million.
In 1967, he bought 82 ac (33 ha) of land
on Paradise Road in Las Vegas for $5 million and built the
International Hotel, which on the time was the largest hotel
in the world; Kerkorian's International Leisure also bought
the Flamingo Hotel.
In 1973, having purchased MGM, the famous
movie studio, Kerkorian and MGM opened the original MGM Grand
Hotel, which was the largest hotel in the world at the time
it was completed.
On November 21, 1980, the original MGM Grand
burned in a fire that was the bad disaster in Las Vegas history.
The Las Vegas Fire Department reported 84 death in the fire.
There were 87 death total, including three which occurred
later as a result of injuries sustained in the fire. Marvelously,
the MGM Grand reopened after only 8 months.
In 1986, Kerkorian sold the MGM Grand hotels
in Las Vegas with Reno for $594 million to Bally. Spun off
from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, MGM Mirage owns and operates many
properties, as well as the Bellagio, the current MGM Grand
resort complex, The Mirage, Treasure Island, the New York-New
York, and the Boardwalk in Las Vegas, as well as the Beau
Rivage Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Kerkorian and MGM
In 1969, Kerkorian appointed James T. Aubrey,
Jr. MGM's president. He downsized the struggling MGM and sold
off very big amounts of historical memorabilia, including
Dorothy's ruby slippers (from The Wizard of Oz), and several
acres of MGM's backlots (which were razed to build houses).
Kerkorian sold MGM's distribution system in 1973, and little
by little distanced himself from the daily process of the
studio. In 1979, Kerkorian issued a statement claiming that
MGM was now primarily a hotel company; however, he also managed
to enlarge the overall film library and production system
with the purchase of United Artists in 1981. In 1986 he sold
the studios to Ted Turner.
Turner kept ownership of the joint MGM/UA
for exactly 74 days. Both studios had massive 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, which was later acquired by Warner Bros.; in 1990,
the lot was sold to Columbia Pictures in trade for the half
of Warner's lot they'd borrowed since the 1970s. Also in 1990,
the MGM studio was purchased by Italian financier Giancarlo
Parretti, but Parretti defaulted on the loan he'd used to
buy the studio and sold the studio back to Kerkorian in 1996.
Family
Kerkorian wedded professional tennis player
Lisa Bonder. He was involved in a breach of privacy suit file
against him by Steve Bing. Kerkorian claim Bing was the father
of Lisa Bonder's daughter.
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