The Bronx To Bel-Air Redux: Serial Entrepreneur’s 32 Successes and Failures Show You What It Takes

By Len Krane

The Bronx To Bel-Air Redux, 17 years after The Bronx To Bel-Air, updates the original and adds new ventures.

Venture often and don’t worry about failure. That’s how you become an entrepreneur and have fun along the way. Krane’s had successes and
Failures in 32 ventures during his 76-year career. Each chapter includes the startup and outcome, his profits or losses, what he learned, and shows you what it takes. Ventures from cable TV to movie distribution, to Internet patent, to vacuum elevators, to residential development, and more.

Wealthy people helped him - Eli Broad, Broad Museum – Ed Pauley, Pauley Pavilion - and others. He is now retired and considering new ventures.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669870142

Len Krane

Len Krane – successful entrepreneur. He served in Naval Air Intelligence, island hopped the Caribbean in Windjammers, started 33 ventures across the U.S. and internationally. Now 92, Krane drives a Tesla Y, and keeps busy in active retirement. He and his wife enjoy L.A. and the Wynn in Vegas. They share their Bel-Air home with two Norwich terriers.

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The Bronx To

Bel-Air Redux

serial entrepreneur’s 32 successes and

failures show you what it takes

Len Krane

Copyright © 2023 by Len Krane.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 03/10/2023

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

851893

CONTENTS

PREFACE

NO HOT DOG HOT DOG STAND. SUCCESS.

D&L CAR CLEANING. FAILURE.

DOOR PEEPHOLES. SUCCESS. JOB: U.S. NAVY.

LEISURE LIFE SPORT SHIRTS. SUCCESS.

SIDELINE: MOVING SUBWAY ADS. FAILURE.

SIDELINE: ALUMINUM BOATCOVERS. FAILURE.

SIDELINE: CARISE CAR WINDOWS. FAILURE.

JOB: IBM CORP. COMPUTER SERVICES. FAILURE. SIDELINE: MISS-MATCH. SUCCESS.

JOB: PROPERTY RESEARCH. CAPITAL INVESTMENT. FAILURE.

JOB: NATIONWIDE CABLEVISION. KRANE CABLEVISION ASSOCIATES. SUCCESS.

UNITED CABLE TV IPO. FAILURE.

KCA CABLE TV INDUSTRIES, INC. SUCCESS. CABLE TELEVISION COMPANY OF PUERTO RICO. SUCCESS.

SIDELINE: CABLE TV CARACAS. FAILURE. SIDELINE: CABLE TV SANTO DOMINGO. FAILURE.

SIDELINE: CABLE AD SALES. SUCCESS. CABLE AD SALES L.A. FAILURE.

SIDELINE: P.I. RECORD DISTRIBUTORS. SUCCESS.

KPAY-TV. SUCCESS. K-PAY ENTERTAINMENT. SUCCESS.

SIDELINE: EAST VALLEY CABLE FRANCHISE. FAILURE.

SIDELINE: ITALIAN MOVIE NETWORK. FAILURE.

SIDELINE: K-B BONITA VILLAS. SUCCESS. SIDELINE: KRANE-BUILT HOME. SUCCESS.

SIDELINE: SOLAR IN ST. BART. FAILURE.

SIDELINE: CHARISMA BOARD GAME. FAILURE.

SIDELINE: MINI-MOKE IMPORTS. FAILURE.

SIDELINE: CHICKEN EXPRESS. FAILURE.

SIDELINE: TALKWEB PATENT. SUCCESS.

THIRD MARRIAGE. SUCCESS.

VACUUM HOME ELEVATORS. SUCCESS.

KEYLO ELECTRIC PICKUP. SPECTACULAR FAILURE.

EPILOGUE

For my Dad, who always told

me, you can do it.

A person of courage flees forward,

in the midst of new things.

- J. Maritain

Life is an adventure, or it’s nothing.

- Anon

PREFACE

M Y DAD SAID when you work for someone you get part of the money you make for them, but when you work for yourself you get it all. He never mentioned that when you work for yourself you might get nothing.

As a kid during the 1930s, I remember Dad being in and out of different sportswear manufacturing businesses in New York. Mom, always an at-home mom, supported Dad’s ventures. We lived in a two-bedroom apartment in the Bronx one block from Gun Hill Road and Jerome Avenue, which bordered Van Cortlandt Park.

This huge park encompassed two public golf courses (where I caddied when older), a lake with rowboats (and ice skating in the winter), picnic grounds, bridle trails, and hilly wilderness areas. On weekends my friends and I disappeared for afternoons of adventuring. That early freedom began when I was nine, and helped to develop my independence.

When Dad came home on the IRT from working in Manhattan he always told exciting business stories: how his new styles were selling well in Chicago department stores, or how he got a great deal on new production equipment, or how he was lucky to have his latest wonderful business partner.

There were times with rocky family finances during that Depression era, but my kid brother and I were blissfully unaware. Good times or bad, Mom and Dad gave us a small surprise present every few weeks. We were a close family.

As I listened to Uncle Don advertising Walnettos caramels on the radio one Sunday, an announcer cut in to tell of the Pearl Harbor attack. Dad soon began manufacturing clothing for Lend-Lease programs, such as parkas for the Russians. I became a business optimist.

I had been making money on Saturdays and some days after school by helping women carry groceries home from the A&P for tips. Then I borrowed my youngest brother’s carriage to deliver larger orders from the A&P, and my tips were much better. In 1943, at age twelve, I was in business with a new red wagon. My parents were proud of me.

From my teens to my nineties I’ve started thirty-two ventures, both successes and failures. I learned as much and had almost as much fun with the failures as with the successes.

I was lucky that some famous, wealthy people and large corporations helped me. I presented my ideas convincingly, with great enthusiasm. When you’re a serial entrepreneur you need OPM (other people’s money) to make something big happen. Los Angeles was always a city where you can open doors with a phone call and a promising idea. But I didn’t start making real money until I realized that L.A. is about entertainment and real estate.

I hope you find each venture as interesting, challenging, and instructive as I did. Venture often and don’t worry about failure. That’s how you become an entrepreneur and stay an entrepreneur—and have fun along the way.

Bel-Air

March 2023

NO HOT DOG HOT

DOG STAND. SUCCESS.

O UR FAMILY RENTED a bungalow for the summers in Rockaway Beach on Long Island, New York during the mid-1940’s. We were on 43 rd street, six short blocks from the ocean.

A wooden store stood on the sand at the rear of the beach at 43rd street. A woman who sold suntan lotion and beach sundries rented it for the summer of 1946. At the end of the season in early September, just after my 15th birthday, I noticed a For Rent sign on the store.

I told my Dad that if we could rent the store, I thought it would make a good hot dog, ice cream, and soda stand for the next summer. And we could be partners. Dad called the phone number on the sign, and spoke with the rental agent. Yes, it was available for 1947, and the rent would be $300 ($3,600 in 2021 dollars) for the season. We would pay for electricity. It would be OK if we painted a sign on the wood flaps that swung up to open the storefront above the counter, and built a platform on the sand for customers to stand on.

Dad agreed to put up the money, I agreed to work every day, and we would split the profits 50-50. Dad signed the lease - we were in business. There would be a lot of work and planning until we opened for the summer in June, 1947.

In the spring, two of my friends and I went to the lower Eastside of Manhattan to buy a used ice cream freezer for $150 ($1,800 in 2021 dollars) and a used Coca-Cola icebox for $30 ($360 in 2021 dollars), and arranged for them to be shipped to the Rockaway store. We hired a carpenter to build the wood platform, about 15 feet long and 3 feet wide, attached to the wood frame of the store.

We painted large black letters upside down and backwards on the inside of the wood flaps, Cold Soda—Ice Cream Pops 6c—Sandwiches when they were lifted and kept open. There was no gas for cooking hot dogs—Mom said she would make sandwiches. I called the vendors and arranged for deliveries of Breyer’s ice cream, bottled sodas, candy, gum, and cigarettes. My Dad paid the deposits that they required.

I opened the no hot dog hot dog stand in the middle of June and it quickly became very popular. On the 4th of July weekend I had three friends working with me. Business was brisk. My Mom and her friends made dozens of chicken, ham & cheese, and turkey sandwiches which quickly sold out.

The war had ended two years ago, and cigarettes were still rationed. Whichever brands we received sold immediately.

I enjoyed my workdays—swimming and body-surfing from 9 to 11, working from 11:30 to 5:30 every day including weekends. I took