Floyd Bostwick Odlum (March 30, 1892 – June 17, 1976) was an American lawyer and industrialist. He has been described as "possibly the only man in the United States who made a great fortune out of the Depression", referring to the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

Life and career

After struggling as a corporate attorney in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

, Odlum received an offer of a job at a New York firm, and in 1921 became vice-president of his primary client,

Electric Bond and Share Company The Electric Bond and Share Company (Ebasco) was a United States electric utility holding company organized by General Electric. It was forced to divest its holding companies and reorganize due to the passage of the Public Utility Holding Company ...

. In 1923, Odlum, a friend, and their wives pooled a total of $39,600 and formed the United States Company to speculate in purchases of utilities and general securities. Within two years, the company's net assets had increased 17 fold to nearly $700,000. In 1928, Odlum incorporated Atlas Utilities Company to take over the common stock of his other company. During the summer of 1929, Odlum was one of the few industrial moguls to believe that the boom on

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

could not continue much longer, and he sold one half of Atlas's holdings, as well as $9 million in new securities to investors. He had $14 million in cash and short term notes when the stock market crashed. During the next few years, Atlas Utilities bought up stock in less fortunate investment companies at Depression-reduced prices. After

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

was inaugurated President of the United States, Odlum shifted gears, selling off utilities before stronger regulation set in, and switching to large-scale financing. By 1933, Odlum was one of the 10 wealthiest men in the United States. Besides

Atlas Corporation 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 Investo ...

, he had a major stake in

RKO Studios RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith ...

Convair Convair, previously Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, was an American aircraft-manufacturing company that later expanded into rockets and spacecraft. The company was formed in 1943 by the merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee ...

Northeast Airlines Northeast Airlines was an American trunk carrier, a scheduled airline based in Boston, Massachusetts, originally founded as Boston-Maine Airways that chiefly operated in the northeastern United States, and later to Canada, Florida, the Bahamas, ...

, and

Bonwit Teller Bonwit Teller & Co. was an American luxury department store in New York City, founded by Paul Bonwit in 1895 at Sixth Avenue and 18th Street, and later a chain of department stores. In 1897, Edmund D. Teller was admitted to the partnership a ...

, among other businesses, and was associated in the aviation business with financier

George Newell Armsby George Newell Armsby (August 10, 1876 – October 25, 1942) was an American entrepreneur who led major corporate mergers in the first half of the 20th century, including the merger of California food companies that resulted in California Packing ...

. Odlum's association with Armsby provided a link to Armsby and John Cheever Cowdin's enterprise Transcontinental Air Transport, Inc. In 1948, Odlum sold RKO to

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 ...

. Odlum was an investor in the 1954 production of the

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

show ''

The Pajama Game ''The Pajama Game'' is a musical based on the 1953 novel '' 7½ Cents'' by Richard Bissell. The book is by George Abbott and Richard Bissell; the music and lyrics are by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. Dances were staged by Bob Fosse in his chor ...

''—during which actress

Shirley MacLaine Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty; April 24, 1934) is an American actress and author. With a career spanning over 70 years, she has received List of awards and nominations received by Shirley MacLaine, numerous accolades, including a ...

was discovered by

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

producer

Hal Wallis Harold B. Wallis (born Aaron Blum Wolowicz; October 19, 1898 – October 5, 1986) was an American film producer. He is best known for producing ''Casablanca'' (1942), ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1938), and '' True Grit'' (1969), along wit ...

—and convinced

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

's head

Sidney Weinberg Sidney James Weinberg (October 12, 1891 – July 23, 1969) was a long-time leader of the Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs, nicknamed “Mr. Wall Street” by ''The New York Times''Whitman, Alden"Sidney J. Weinberg, Known as 'Mr. Wall Street,' Is De ...

to invest as well. Odlum was first married, in 1915, to Hortense McQuarrie, first female department store head (at

); they were divorced in 1935. His second wife, whom he married in 1936, was aviator Jackie Cochran. Odlum and Cochran were close friends of

Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( ; July 24, 1897 – January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer. On July 2, 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. During her li ...

and her husband George P. Putnam, and the Odlums were financial backers of Earhart's flying activities. They developed the Cochran-Odlum (C-O) Ranch in

Indio, California Indio (Spanish language, Spanish for "Indian") is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley of Southern California's Colorado Desert region. Indio is approximately east of Los Angeles, east of Palm Springs, ...

where they lived after the 1950s. Odlum along with business associate L. Boyd Hatch also purchased and developed Hatch's Camp, also known as St. Ann's Retreat, or Pine Glenn Cove, a mountainous retreat in

Logan Canyon Logan Canyon is a canyon in the western United States in northeastern Utah, which cuts its way through the Bear River Mountains, a branch of the Wasatch Range. It is popular for both summer and winter activities, especially rock-climbing, hi ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. In 2006, Pine Glenn Cove was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. In 1964, Odlum received the Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...

. He was presented alongside his wife, fellow honoree Jackie Cochran. Odlum died in 1976 at the age of 84. His wife Jackie Cochran died four years later on August 9, 1980.

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Odlum, Floyd American energy industry businesspeople American film studio executives 20th-century American lawyers 1892 births 1976 deaths RKO General Businesspeople from Los Angeles Businesspeople from Michigan People from Union City, Michigan People from Indio, California 20th-century American philanthropists 20th-century American businesspeople University of Colorado Law School alumni American mass media owners