{"id":2126,"date":"2019-04-23T09:33:48","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T09:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/?p=2126"},"modified":"2024-03-05T13:10:29","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T13:10:29","slug":"kirk-kerkorian-father-of-the-las-vegas-mega-resort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/fun-time\/kirk-kerkorian-father-of-the-las-vegas-mega-resort\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirk Kerkorian: Father of the Las Vegas Mega Resort"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The history of the world\u2019s greatest cities tells the tales\nof the legendary people who built them. The lively desert gambling mecca of Las\nVegas is the stuff of legends, and its creators were all larger than life. From\nthe time of mob legends like Bugsy Siegel to the modern day mobs of people who\nswarm the Strip, Las Vegas owes a good chunk of its current mega-fa\u00e7ade to mega\ndeal maker Kirk\nKerkorian<\/a>. Owing to his involvement in the development of Las Vegas, the\nauto industry, and Hollywood, Kerkorian is considered the greatest deal maker\nin capitalist history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humble Beginnings<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"Kirk<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Every story of wealth reads better with a rags-to-riches\nstory, and Kerkorian\u2019s tale is a worthy example. Born Kerkor Kerkorian in\nFresno, California in 1917, Kerkorian was the son of immigrant Armenian\nparents. When his father\u2019s raisin farming business went under in the Great\nDepression, the family relocated to Los Angeles. Armenian was Kerkorian\u2019s first\nlanguage, and he is quoted as saying that he didn\u2019t learn English until they\nhit the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


A Fighting Chance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Kerkorian dropped out of school in the eighth grade and got into some trouble street fighting with gangs. To help pull Kirk out of trouble, his older brother, Nish Kerkorian, taught him how to box in a ring<\/a>. The scrappy young Kirk took to the gloves well, and he became a fairly skilled amateur boxer. \u201cRifle Right Kerkorian\u201d even won a Pacific amateur welterweight championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning of World War II, Kerkorian learned to fly\nairplanes rather than risk induction into the infantry, which was not his type\nof fight. Instead, he snagged a gig with the British Royal Air Force flying\nequipment from Canada to Europe. While not fighting directly in the war\nhimself, Kerkorian delivered de Havilland Mosquito fighter planes to Europe to\nsting the Axis forces. During his stint with the RAF, Kerkorian delivered 33\nplanes and logged thousands of hours as a pilot. These forays into the European\nwar theater nearly cost Kerkorian his life on several occasions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Self-Made Man<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"Kirk<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Kerkorian saved most of his wages earned flying planes and\nbought a plane of his own: a Cessna for $5,000. Still a flyboy at heart,\nKerkorian began a charter service flying between L.A. and Las Vegas. As his charter\nflights between Vegas and L.A. slowly increased, Kerkorian began to fall in\nlove with Las Vegas. After a brief gambling period, he decided to cash in on\nthe growing aviation industry, bought a small charter airline in 1947, and\nrenamed it Trans International Airlines. After making a lot of money buying and\nselling used aircraft, he finally made his first million when he sold TIA to\nStudebaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And with that million dollars, Kerkorian bought his first piece of Las Vegas land<\/a>, 80 acres directly across the street from the Flamingo, the hotel casino mobster Bugsy Siegel started. He then rented his newly-purchased land to Caesars Palace, which built a hotel casino on the site. After renting the land for a while, Kerkorian sold the land to Caesars, and reinvested the profits into even more prime Vegas real estate on the Strip. He still held onto his airline until 1968, when he sold it for $104 million to the Transamerica Corporation. And with that, a mogul was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buying and Selling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most of what made Kirk Kerkorian so successful was his\nability to make lucrative deals one after the other. Some of his greatest\nsuccess stories involve his buying, selling, re-buying, and re-selling the same\nproperties multiple times\u2014each time for a massive profit. Kerkorian became the\nmaster of property flipping within a few decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1967, Kerkorian bought 82 more acres of land on the Strip\nand built the International Hotel, the largest hotel in the world at the time.\nThe hotel\u2019s gigantic Showroom Internationale showcased the first in a long line\nof Vegas\nmega-star performers<\/a>, beginning with Barbra Streisand and Elvis Presley.\nElvis shook his pelvis on that Vegas stage for 30 days straight, bringing in\nover 4,000 customers per night. And once his Vegas empire started growing, Kerkorian\nbought the Flamingo Hotel, and eventually sold both the International and the\nFlamingo to Hilton Hotels for a tidy profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hello Hollywood<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"Fabulous<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

As one interest leads to another, Kerkorian\u2019s interest in entertainment didn\u2019t end on the Vegas stages. After carving out his piece of the Las Vegas skyline, he started seriously looking into becoming a Hollywood player. In 1969, Kerkorian bought MGM film studios for $650 million. When the MGM studios floundered in the box offices in the 70s, Kerkorian doubled down and bought his second studio, United Artists. He later merged the two studios to form MGM\/UA, and sold the whole lot to television tycoon Ted Turner for $1.5 billion in 1985. When Turner ran into financial problems later on, Kerkorian happily bought back the MGM\/UA for $780 million\u2014then immediately resold it to an Italian investor for $1.3 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, when the Italian financier ran afoul of European\nfinancial authorities, Kerkorian bought the studios back yet again\u2014and then\nfinally sold them to Sony in 2004 for a whopping $2.9 billion. During his\nHollywood studio buying frenzy, Kerkorian also purchased Orion Pictures, The\nSamuel Goldwyn Company, and the Motion Picture Corporation of America. The\nworld of finance runs on the \u2018buy low, sell high\u2019 model, and Kerkorian was the\nmaster. With his feet firmly in both Vegas and Hollywood, Kerkorian continued\nto conquer the financial world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MGM Grand and the Rise of Mega Resorts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

During the years Kerkorian owned MGM, he never invested much\ntime in running the studio for profit, as he was more of a deal-maker than a\nstudio executive. Instead, he banked on the good name of MGM and opened the MGM\nGrand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. It was the largest hotel in the world at\nthe time of construction\u2014and larger than the Empire State Building. With this\nmaster stroke, Kerkorian cemented his legacy on the Las Vegas Strip, and the\nLas Vegas mega resort was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1980, the original MGM Grand burned in a fire, killing 87\npeople and destroying the hotel. Within 8 months, a new MGM Grand was built in\nits place. Kerkorian formed a spin-off company from his MGM holdings, called\nTracinda, and formed MGM Resorts International. The new company owns and\noperates the Bellagio, The Mirage, The New York \u2013 New York, Circus Circus,\nMandalay Bay, The Luxor, Excalibur, Monte Carlo, and the CityCenter complex.\nAll of these mega resorts together form one of the most eclectic and memorable\nskylines in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Auto Industry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Kerkorian was rich, but never idle. After conquering Vegas\nand Hollywood, he moved on to invest in the American auto industry. In 1995,\nKerkorian partnered with retired Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca in a takeover attempt\nof the Chrysler Corporation. Chrysler\u2019s management poured its resources into\nfighting the hostile takeover, and Kerkorian eventually sold his stake in\nChrysler in 1996. Chrysler was eventually acquired by German auto company\nDaimler-Benz. Kerkorian also held stock in GM and Ford, before finally getting\nout of the auto business for good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Man<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"Kirk<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

After such amazing feats of financial bravado, one might expect\nKirk Kerkorian to be a swaggering, macho cowboy of sorts. On the contrary,\nKerkorian was an intensely private person who seldom appeared in public. And\nwhen he was seen in public, he would often be seen driving plain vehicles like\na Ford Taurus or a Jeep Cherokee. Even with all of his Hollywood holdings, the\nman even paid for his own movie tickets. While he enjoyed wearing fine clothing\nwhile wheeling and dealing, he was also a family man with two daughters, Tracy\nand Linda, from whose names his company Tracinda was formed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kerkorian\u2019s net worth at his peak was $16 billion according\nto Forbes magazine. But while he was building his legacy in America, Kirk\nKerkorian never forgot his roots. Over a 22 year period, he donated more than\n$1 billion to his ancestral homeland of Armenia, which financed a variety of\ninfrastructure improvements, including highways, streets, schools, museums, and\nconcert halls. Kerkorian died in Beverly Hills in 2015, nine days after his 98th<\/sup>\nbirthday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The history of the world\u2019s greatest cities tells the tales of the legendary people who built them. The lively desert gambling mecca of Las Vegas is the stuff of legends, and its creators were all larger than life. From the time of mob legends like Bugsy Siegel to the modern day mobs of people who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"yoast_head":"\nKirk Kerkorian: Father of the Vegas Mega Resort \u2502 Planet 7<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover the story behind Kirk Kerkorian, the man responsible for putting much of the Las Vegas Strip on the map.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/fun-time\/kirk-kerkorian-father-of-the-las-vegas-mega-resort\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kirk Kerkorian: Father of the Las Vegas Mega Resort\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discover the story behind Kirk Kerkorian, the man responsible for putting much of the Las Vegas Strip on the map.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/fun-time\/kirk-kerkorian-father-of-the-las-vegas-mega-resort\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Planet 7 Casino\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-23T09:33:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-05T13:10:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Kirk_Kerkorian_Image_1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1420\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Frank West\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@planet7_casino\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@planet7_casino\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Frank West\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/fun-time\/kirk-kerkorian-father-of-the-las-vegas-mega-resort\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/fun-time\/kirk-kerkorian-father-of-the-las-vegas-mega-resort\/\",\"name\":\"Kirk Kerkorian: Father of the Vegas Mega Resort \u2502 Planet 7\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-23T09:33:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-05T13:10:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0102ddf10cd1fa9ca2dd9b8f15f8423c\"},\"description\":\"Discover the story behind Kirk Kerkorian, the man responsible for putting much of the Las Vegas Strip on the map.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/fun-time\/kirk-kerkorian-father-of-the-las-vegas-mega-resort\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/fun-time\/kirk-kerkorian-father-of-the-las-vegas-mega-resort\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/fun-time\/kirk-kerkorian-father-of-the-las-vegas-mega-resort\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Kirk Kerkorian: Father of the Las Vegas Mega Resort\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/\",\"name\":\"Planet 7 Casino\",\"description\":\"Planet 7 Casino\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0102ddf10cd1fa9ca2dd9b8f15f8423c\",\"name\":\"Frank West\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.planet7casino.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3253f1d9da8d7b95874588db99eb8c9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b3253f1d9da8d7b95874588db99eb8c9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Frank West\"},\"description\":\"Frank West is a bit of an itinerant gambler. 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