Kirk Kerkorian

Kerkor "Kirk" Kerkorian (Քըրք Քըրքորյան; June 6, 1917 – June 15, 2015) was an Armenian-American businessman, investor, and philanthropist.

He was the president and CEO of Tracinda Corporation, his private holding company based in Beverly Hills, California.

Kerkorian was one of the important figures in the shaping of Las Vegas and, with architect Martin Stern Jr.., is described as the "father of the mega-resort".

Kirk Kerkorian was born on June 6, 1917, in Fresno, California, to Armenian parents who escaped present-day Turkey via cattle boat during the Armenian Genocide.

Armenian was his first language and he "didn't learn the English language until he hit the streets."

His family moved to Los Angeles following the depression of 1920–21.

Dropping out of school in eighth grade, Kerkorian became a fairly skilled amateur boxer under the tutelage of his older brother Nish Kerkorian, fighting under the name "Rifle Right Kerkorian" to win the Pacific amateur welterweight championship.

Kirk Kerkorian also had an older sister, Rose Kerkorian.

Sensing the onset of World War II, and not wanting to join the infantry, Kerkorian learned to fly at the Happy Bottom Riding Club in the Mojave Desert—adjacent to the United States Army Air Corps's Muroc Field, now Edwards Air Force Base.

In exchange for flying lessons from pioneer aviator Pancho Barnes, he agreed to milk and look after her cattle.

On gaining his commercial pilot's certificate in six months, Kerkorian learned that the British Royal Air Force was ferrying Canadian-built de Havilland Mosquitos over the North Atlantic to Scotland.

The Mosquito's fuel tank carried enough fuel for 1400 mi, while the trip directly was 2200 mi. Rather than take the safer Montreal–Labrador–Greenland–Iceland–Scotland route (although, going further north could mean the wings icing, and the plane crashing), Kerkorian preferred the direct "Iceland Wave" route, which blew the planes at jet-speed to Europe—but it was not constant, and could mean ditching.

The fee was $1,000 per flight.

Although accounts claim the risk was that one in four planes failed to make it, the actual rate was closer to one in forty.

After spending much time in Las Vegas during the 1940s, Kerkorian quit gambling and in 1947 paid $60,000 for Trans International Airlines, which was a small air-charter service that flew gamblers from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

He then bid on some war surplus bombers, using money on loan from Seagram's.

Gasoline, and especially airplane fuel, was in short supply at the time, so he sold the fuel from the planes' tanks, paid off his loan, and still had the airplanes.

In May 1944, Kerkorian and his Wing Commander John de Lacy Wooldridge rode the wave and broke the old crossing record.

Wooldridge got to Scotland in six hours, 46 minutes; Kerkorian, in seven hours, nine minutes.

In two and a half years with RAF Ferry Command, Kerkorian delivered 33 planes, logged thousands of hours, traveled to four continents and flew his first four-engine plane.

After the war, having saved most of his wages, Kerkorian spent $5,000 on a Cessna.

He worked as a general aviation pilot and made his first visit to Las Vegas in 1944.

In 1962, Kerkorian bought 80 acre in Las Vegas, across the Las Vegas Strip from the Flamingo, for $960,000.

In 1967, he bought 82 acre of land on Paradise Road in Las Vegas for $5 million and, with architect Martin Stern Jr.., built the International Hotel, which at the time was the largest hotel in the world; The first two performers to appear at the hotel's enormous Showroom Internationale were Barbra Streisand and Elvis Presley.

Presley brought in some 4,200 customers (and potential gamblers), every day, for 30 days straight, breaking in the process all attendance records in the county's history.

Kerkorian's International Leisure also bought the Flamingo Hotel; eventually, both hotels were sold to the Hilton Hotels Corporation and were renamed the Las Vegas Hilton and the Flamingo Hilton, respectively.

He operated the airline until 1968 when he sold it for $104 million to the Transamerica Corporation.

This purchase led to the building of Caesars Palace, which rented the land from Kerkorian; the rent and eventual sale of the land to Caesars in 1968 made Kerkorian $9 million ($70 million today).

He built the world's largest hotel in Las Vegas three times: the International Hotel (opened in 1969), the MGM Grand Hotel (1973) and the MGM Grand (1993).

He purchased the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio in 1969.

After he purchased the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio in 1969, Kerkorian (with architect Martin Stern Jr..) opened the original MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, larger than the Empire State Building and the largest hotel in the world at the time it was finished.

On November 21, 1980, the original MGM Grand burned in a fire that was one of the worst disasters in Las Vegas history.

The Clark County Fire Department reported 84 deaths in the fire; there were 87 deaths total, including three which occurred later as a result of injuries sustained in the fire.

After only 8 months the MGM Grand reopened.

Of Armenian descent, Kerkorian provided over $1 billion for charity in Armenia through his Lincy Foundation, which was established in 1989 and particularly focused on helping to rebuild northern Armenia after the 1988 earthquake.

Kerkorian also provided money to ensure that a film based on the history of the Armenian genocide would be made.

In 2000 Time magazine named him the 10th largest donor in the US.

Kerkorian was declared an honorary citizen of Armenia.

He was bestowed the title of National Hero of Armenia, the highest state award.

The resulting film, called The Promise, premiered in April 2017 in the United States.