STOCKS More Green in Other Pastures
By its very nature, a holding company works behind the scenes, hates to make headlines. Yet one of the U.S.'s biggest holding companies, the Alleghany Corp., is constantly creating spectacular business news. A 1954 proxy fight in which Alleghany's progenitors, the late Robert Young and aging Woolworth Heir Allan P. Kirby, now 73, took control of the New York Central Railroad was big and bitter. Next, in one of Wall Street's most famous proxy battles, Kirby lost Alleghany to Texans Clint and John Murchison (TIME cover, June 16, 1961), later won it back again by...