![]() ![]() Hollywood has long been famous for taking outside investors to the cleaners, as Matsushita or Sony could tell you, but, as Betty Lasky, daughter of Paramount co-founder Jesse Lasky, says, "Kennedy was the first and only outsider to fleece Hollywood." Then, after less than five years, Kennedy turned his back on it all, walking away with millions of dollars in his pocket. In the process, he wiped out several studios, slashed hundreds of jobs, and devastated the careers of two of Hollywood's biggest stars, one of whom, Gloria Swanson, was also his mistress. He also helped foment the talkie revolution and pioneered a model of corporate control and vertical integration that the entertainment industry takes for granted today. I could take the whole business away from them." He would come very close to doing just that, the only man in the history of Hollywood to run three studios at the same time. As he told a fellow broker, "Look at that bunch of pants pressers in Hollywood making themselves millionaires. ![]() Kennedy had been methodically planning his move for six years. ![]() "Kennedy has no previous experience in show business" was an often repeated phrase in the coverage of his purchase, but that was hardly the case. ![]()
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