Word: griffins
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Wall Street's handicappers seriously expected TV Tycoon Merv Griffin to win when he challenged Manhattan Developer Donald Trump for control of Atlantic City's Resorts International hotel and casino. But last week Griffin surprised anyone who doubted his dealmaking acumen. Settling a month-long wrangle, Trump agreed to go along with Griffin's offer to buy the company's outstanding stock, including the developer's majority share, for an estimated $300 million. In exchange, Griffin will sell Resorts' nearly completed Taj Mahal hotel-casino, other real estate and its fleet of helicopters to Trump, assets that the developer says...
News Editor for this Issue: Noam S. Cohen '89 Night Editors: David J. Barron '89 Noam S. Cohen '89 Mark M. Colodny '89 Spencer S. Hsu '91 Brooke A. Masters '89 Copy Editors: Jennifer Griffin '91 J. Trevor McCabe '91 Editorials Editors: John J. Murphy '89 John C. Yoo '89 Features Editor: Brooke A. Masters '89 Photo Editors: Lisa Clark '89 Eugene L. Jhong '90 Sports Editors: Mark T. Brazaitis '89 Casey J. Lartigue Jr. '89 Godsend Marie B. Morris...
That is a long way from the $150 a week Griffin made as a Big Band crooner in the late '40s, when he recorded I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Cocoanuts. Once a boy blimp who weighed 240 lbs., Griffin shed a third of that bulk so he could sing on stage. He later had a brief movie career, which included one line in a Doris Day film. Guest appearances for Jack Paar, Johnny Carson's predecessor in NBC-TV's late-night spot, won Griffin his own daytime talk show in 1960, which he syndicated...
When it failed, Griffin put together a new syndicated show, serving as host until 1986. But through the '60s and '70s, he was laying the foundation for his fortune, using game shows as the building blocks. With his wife at the time, Julann, he devised a program whose gimmick was the simplest of inversions -- giving the answer and asking for the question. Jeopardy's success funded Griffin's other investments, including Wheel of Fortune, the most profitable syndicated show ever, with estimated revenues of more than $100 million a year. The two shows were the trophy properties in Griffin...
...Griffin is a hands-on chief executive, thoroughly involved in planning and now plotting takeover strategy. He oversees a staff of 120 in Los Angeles and is constantly on the phone to Griffin Co. President Michael Nigris, who directs 100 employees in New York City. Griffin the businessman is a tougher character than the talk-show host who sympathetically listened to an endless parade of guests. To beat Donald Trump, Griffin will have to be as aggressive behind the scenes as he was agreeable in front of the camera...