The Atlas Corporation is an American
investment firm that was formed in 1928.
History
Atlas corporation was formed in 1928, in a merger of the United Corporation, an investment firm started in 1923 with $40,000, with Atlas Utilities and Investors Ltd. The corporation specialized in
capital formation and management. In 1929, Atlas was a $12,550,000
investment trust
An investment trust is a form of investment fund found mostly in the United Kingdom and Japan. Investment trusts are constituted as Public limited company, public limited companies and are therefore closed ended since the fund managers cannot red ...
. The company was able to shrewdly weather the
Wall Street crash of 1929, and continue to grow through the 1930s and 1940s. The corporation was founded by
Floyd Odlum and his brother-in-law Boyd Hatch.
With Floyd Odlum as president and Boyd Hatch as vice-president, Atlas invested, managed or controlled numerous industries, including
Greyhound Lines,
Bonwit Teller (acquired 1934) and
Franklin Simon & Co. (acquired 1936) ladies' apparel stores,
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...
, and various mines, utility companies, aviation related businesses, and banks. After Atlas Corporation acquired the Bonwit Teller ladies' apparel stores, Floyd Odlum convinced his wife,
Hortense Odlum, to become involved in the store's operations. She became the first female president of a major department store chain when she became president of Bonwit Teller in 1934. In 1948,
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American Aerospace engineering, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was The World's Billionaires, one of the richest and most influential peo ...
acquired controlling interest in
RKO Pictures
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the major film studios, "Big Five" film studios of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood's Clas ...
from Atlas.
The
Atlas Missile program was named after the Atlas Corporation,
the contractor through its Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, (later
Convair) subsidiary, which was used in the
Mercury missions to send astronauts into orbit.
Today, the company has ownership in natural resources investments.
References
{{Authority control
Financial services companies established in 1928
Investment companies of the United States
Holding companies of the United States
Holding companies established in 1928
American companies established in 1928