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Punchboard Empire. In many of his enterprises, Koolish was associated with son-in-law Stolkin. Through Monarch Sales Corp., Stolkin himself built up a punchboard empire to sell radios and ballpoint pens; he sold out for $1,000,000 in 1948 (he recently said he was worth $3,433,690). Stolkin had his troubles too. Complaints to Chicago's Better Business Bureau against Monarch swelled to 298. The FTC cracked down on "deceptive sales practices." Postal authorities also warned Stolkin against unlawful use of the mails to conduct a lottery. (Stolkin satisfied all but 28 B.B.B. complainants through settlement, and agreed to stop the activities the Post Office Department objected to.) Together and separately, Koolish and Stolkin branched out into other fields, including oil, cattle, radio stations, a loan agency, and TV tubes.
RKO's other new owners:
¶ High-living, chance-taking Ray Ryan, 48, who started as a trucker in the oilfields, and now claims his oil production exceeds 5,000 barrels a day. Ryan figured briefly in the Kefauver hearings when it turned out that he and Racketeers Frank Costello and Frank Erickson had an interest in the same oil lease. Ryan has gone 50-50 with Stolkin and Koolish in many oil ventures and in the Martin & Lewis movie, At War with the Army.
¶ Director Edward ("Buzz") Burke, 32, a millionaire who is a partner with Ryan in oil, and with Stolkin in West Coast radio stations at Portland and Seattle.
R Vice President and Director Sherrill Corwin, 44, a Los Angeles movie-theater owner and a director of the Theater Owners of America.
$2,000 a Week. To run RKO's administration and finances, the new owners signed up Arnold Grant, 44, as chairman. A top motion-picture lawyer and partner in the Hollywood firm of Bautzer, Grant, Youngman & Silbert, Grant had met Stolkin & Co. a few months ago when they asked his firm to wind up the final details of the RKO deal. He made such a good impression that they gave him a five-year contract at RKO at $2,000 a week. Grant, who was given no hand in production, knew the syndicate members as oil and TV parts men; apparently he was unaware of their other activities in the past. But after last week's furor, there was little doubt that, in the interests of the company, Grant would insist that changes be made in the board of directors and an independent board named.
Chairman Grant and RKO, whose stock has dropped nearly a point (to $3.87) since Hughes sold out, will have their work cut out for them putting RKO back on its feet. Not a picture has been started on the lot in four months. The new management hopes to get production up to a rate of 18 to 26 pictures a year within the next twelve months.