- He was called the King, Father, Baron, Eagle, and Lion of Las Vegas.
- Banks gladly lent him huge loans without collateral.
- He was a constant member of the Forbes list of the wealthiest people in the world.
- He donated tens of millions to charity.
- Even when he was ninety, he never took vacations.
- He was a national hero of Armenia.
If you still do not understand who we mean, it is Kirk Kerkorian who played an essential role in the development of Las Vegas and became one of the most influential tycoons in the gambling industry.
Kirk Kerkorian's Biography
We will briefly tell you about the life of Kirk Kerkorian, full of exciting events and most significant achievements.
Childhood and Youth
Kirk was born in Fresno, California, in 1917. His parents were Armenian immigrants, Lilies and Aharon Kerkorian.
Kirk was not even ten years old when he had to learn to make money. He sold watermelons planted by his father, newspapers, and so on. Kirk even had time to be involved with juvenile criminals, and because of them, he came to another school.
His older brother did boxing and later became a professional athlete. Kirk could have followed his example because he enthusiastically attended a boxing gym and made decent progress in amateur boxing. However, he had another passion - airplanes.
First Commercial Successes
Kerkorian was trained as a commercial pilot and took a job in the Air Transport RAF in Montreal, where he received a good salary for what had risked his life ferrying military aircraft. By 1945, Kirk became an experienced pilot who had flown thousands of hours and earned a decent amount.
He bought a small plane and started charter flights to Las Vegas. A couple of years later, Kerkorian had his airline with transportation between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Kirk bought and sold the airline several times, successfully turning every transaction and increasing the capital.
Growing Business
Another profitable operation of Kerkorian was the purchase and subsequent sale of the Telecommunications Industry Association of the United States of America (TIA). During Kirk's management, its share prices have tripled. It's easy to guess that its sales gave him solid profits.
Gambling Industry
In 1962, he bought eighty acres of land on the Las Vegas Strip for less than one million dollars. Within a few years, he gave land for lease and then sold all territories belonging to future owners of Caesars Palace casino. Total revenue from these transactions exceeded nine million dollars.
In 1967, he bought eighty-two acres in Las Vegas, but now for more than five million US$. Kirk built International Hotel, the world's largest hotel complex on this land. Of course, it has a luxurious casino. Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, and other celebrities performed on its stage. Later, Kerkorian had to sell his company to the Hilton Hotels Corporation, and the transaction was not in his favor.
The next big project was the construction of Kirk Hotel & Casino MGM Grand Hotel, which became the largest of its kind in the world. In November of the eightieth year, a big fire in MGM Grand Hotel killed nearly ninety people.
After this, the hotel-casino did not work for more than a half year, but later re-opened and was very popular among visitors to Las Vegas. In 1986, the MGM Grand Hotel was purchased by Bally Technologies.
Filmmaking Industry
Another area of interest for Kirk Kerkorian was the film industry. In 1969, he started buying shares of the famous Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Soon, he owned more than 80% and could supervise the studio's work. He reorganized it several times and sold it.
In the nineties, he re-bought it and attached it to MGM companies such as Columbia Pictures, 20 Century Fox, and United Artists. In 2005, Kirk broke up with MGM selling it to Sony Corporation for nearly three billion dollars.
Contemporary History
Since the beginning of the twenty-first century,
- Kerkorian again made large public transactions.
- He acquired Steve Wynn's company Mirage.
- He also bought a chain of hotels, Mandalay Bay Resorts.
- He owned a part of MGM Mirage.
MGM Mirage includes numerous hotels and casinos in Las Vegas and other American cities. It is one of the largest networks in the casino world.
Family
Kerkorian owned Tracinda Corporation, a vast holding company, and the charity fund Lincy Foundation. Both names are formed from Tracy and Linda, Kirk's daughters.
In 2011, Kirk's empire suffered huge losses due to the financial crisis. His funds were reduced approximately six times (from eighteen to three billion), but he was still the wealthiest resident of Beverly Hills and one of the most respected people in Las Vegas.
Charity
It will take a long time to enumerate all properties belonging to Kirk. But this is not so interesting to our readers. But we can not ignore the activities of Kerkorian in charity.
First, Kirk participated in the political life of Armenia, which he considers his home country.
- He donated hundreds of millions to rebuild the country after the devastating earthquake in Spitak.
- Later, he contributed two million dollars to Armenian cultural facilities, the repair and construction of roads, development of science and tourism.
- Kerkorian was the patron of the Artsakh Fund.
For these achievements, President Robert Kocharian awarded him the title of National Hero of Armenia and awarded the Medal of Motherland. Yerevan repeatedly wanted to name a street in his name, but Kirk always refused such an honor.
Kerkorian also donated a lot to charity in the United States.
Mysterious person
Kirk Kerkorian was different from other world-famous casino people. He did not like appearing in public and avoided interviews hiding from prying eyes in his world. Kirk spoke only in a close circle of friends and family. You could not see him on the regularly scheduled flight. They say that he did not have an e-mail and a bank card.
Death
Kirk Kerkorian died on the 15th of June, 2015. It happened in Beverly Hills, California. In nine days, he would have met his 98th birthday.
He is buried in Inglewood, California.
