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In Manhattan last week the brothers, as usual, worked both sides of the Street. While Clint Jr. breakfasted with business partners to talk over details of a real estate enterprise, John left his $17,000-3-year suite at the Carlyle hotel and rode the subway downtown to the green-carpeted headquarters of Alleghany Corp. to begin making "a lot of critical decisions" about Allegheny's future. After his business breakfast, Clint Jr., too, showed up at Alleghany to listen in on the intricate briefings on company affairs. Then the brothers headed off for separate tables at "21"—Clint to explore another land deal, John to meet with the president of a Murchison-owned insurance company. In the afternoon, Clint Jr. headed back to Dallas to cover home base; John still had a week's work to do in New York.
A Calf on Credit. The Murchisons have been rich all their lives, began early to get their education in high finance. While they were still toddlers, Father Clint Sr. switched from buying oil leases, in partnership with the late Sid Richardson, into oil drilling. A brilliant trader, old Clint Murchison built his original holdings almost entirely by credit, swapping a share of one oil lease for money to start a second. In 1925, after his fortune had reached $5,000,000, Clint took a brief fling at retirement. But after his wife's death in 1927 he went back to wheeling and dealing and, in a series of ingenious parlays, built up an intricate, multimillion-dollar empire that eventually embraced everything from ranching to chemicals. "What else is a fellow going to do but work?" said old Clint. "I can't play the piano."
Even while he made his millions, Clint Sr. was never too busy for his boys. They lived in a lively, colorful and noisy household, populated by Clint Sr.'s business cronies, learned to play poker and to hunt squirrel, duck and quail in the best Texas style. When John was only ten, Clint began teaching him the basic lessons in financial gain: you can buy something, and make a profit on it, without using your own money. He sold John a calf on credit for $25, took his signed note to pay the price plus interest. Young John later sold the calf at a profit and paid off the note. Said Clint Sr.: "I figure a man is worth about twice what he owes."
Descending Ax. After this lively upbringing. Eastern prep schools—Hotchkiss for John and Lawrenceville for Clint Jr. —had something to teach, but seemed rather tame. "It's a great shock for a Texas boy to go to an Eastern school,'' says John. "The Eastern boys were more formal, more rigid in their habits. Down in Texas you start driving a car earlier, running around with girls earlier.'' John went on to Yale, Clint Jr. to M.I.T. John admits that, except for bistros and girls, his freshman year at New Haven was "pretty much of a loss." The day after Pearl Harbor, he joined the Army Air Forces—partly, he says wryly, "to escape the dean's descending ax." A year later, Clint joined the Marines.