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But before that took place, Mr. Catchings and Mr. Williams joined forces, and during the summer (while, as it happened, Walter Sachs was in Europe taking what proved to be an expensive vacation) they launched a mighty investment trust. It was launched with $102,500,000 of assets of which $67,500,000 was supplied by the public who bought a million shares of preferred stock at $50 and a million shares of common at $17.50. The rest was supplied by Goldman Sachs Trading Corp. and Mr. Williams' Central States Electric Corp., each of which acquired 2,000,000 shares of common. No prosaic name had this huge trust. Mr. Williams in his wife's honor named it after her beloved Shenandoah Valley. Magnificent was Shenandoah's reception in July of 1929; in a few days the stock issued for $17,500,000 was valued at $42,000,000.
A month later Messrs Catchings & Williams were ready for a new flotation. This one was named after Mrs. Williams' beloved Blue Ridge mountains. Goldman Sachs Trading and Central States Electric put up $62,500,000 capital (through Shenandoah) to purchase 6,250,000 shares of Blue Ridge at $10 a share, and the public was offered a million shares of preferred at $51.50, a million shares of common at $20. The public was not expected necessarily to buy with cash. It was invited to trade its blue chip stocks for Blue Ridge shares. The offer was: to take shares of Allied Chemical (last week selling around $85) for $324, of American Telephone (last week $91) at $293, of Atchison (last week $42) for $275 and of General Electric (last week $15) at $395; of U. S. Steel (last week $33) at $238; of I. T. & T. (last week $6) at $119; etc., etc. But the public did not respond to Blue Ridge as it had to Shenandoah. Blue Ridge began to sell off—and then, while it was still being traded on a when-as-and-if-issued basis, came the slump.
In May 1930 when Mr. Catchings resigned from Goldman, Sachs and marched over to a desk in Mr. Williams' office, the New Era came definitely to an end.
The New Deal, 1933, found Shenandoah with its $102,500,000 of assets shrunken to $32,455,000; Blue Ridge with its $127,500,000 of assets shrunken to $40,405,000; one selling at $1.85 a share, the other at $2.25. Harrison Williams still presided over them, and if his personal fortunes had waned he showed it far less than many another multi-millionaire of 1929, though his Long Island estate was reported for sale. Shenandoah's largest assets included over $1,500,000 of North American Co. and slightly less of Central States Electric. Blue Ridge's largest assets included about $6,500,000 of North American Co. and $3,000,000 or $4,000,000 of Central States Electric.
Meantime Floyd Bostwick Odium, master of Atlas Corporation, had been going around picking up second-hand investment trusts. Atlas' holdings of Blue Ridge were listed on Dec. 31 as only 92,215 shares, of Shenandoah only 19,471, but Mr. Odium must have picked up more off the record, for last week he turned up with control.