Thirty-one years ago, when California's Richfield Oil Co. collapsed from reckless overexpansion and feckless management, giants scrambled for the pieces. Among the contenders was the late Harry Ford Sinclair, who hustled in from the east in his company Fokker to announce: "Gentlemen, I am in California and I am in to stay."
Sinclair stayed long enough to pluck Richfield out of the expectant hands of Standard Oil of California. Unable to outbid SoCal by himself, he teamed up with Manhattan's Cities Service Co.; between them, the two eastern oil companies and their subsidiaries eventually bought up 62% of the stock...
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