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Military contracts in the Korean War gave his airline a mighty boost. By 1959, with a worldwide charter business, Kerkorian renamed his outfit Trans International Airlines; three years later, he started switching to jets. The new planes were so expensive that Kerkorian overextended himself, but he managed to turn a near-disaster into a financial coup. He sold TIA to Studebaker in 1962, retaining a share of the airline's subsequent earnings as part of the sales price. Record profits produced by the jets enabled him to buy back the entire line two years later. He sold TIA a second time in 1968 for $90 million worth of Transamerica Corp. stock, which he completely unloaded by last month for about $108 million in cash. Part went to pay for Kerkorian's 31% interest in Western Airlines and part to finance the International Hotel.
Preferably Acapulco. In Las Vegas, Kerkorian has been lucky from the start. His earliest real-estate deal involved the purchase of a 40-acre plot on the Strip for $900,000. Caesars Palace was built there; its owners paid Kerkorian $660,000 annual rent, until he sold out last year for $5 million. He also bought control of the famed but money-losing Flamingo in 1967, then reorganized, redecorated and earned 33% on his investment in the next year.
Should Las Vegas become too confining for Kerkorian, there are plenty of other places in the world to go. "I'd sooner do something in Acapulco than in Europe," he says, "but if there's a good deal, I'll go anywhere." Wherever it is, the busy entrepreneur expects to wring handsome profits from other people's free time.