L.A. QUINTET

By Len Krane

This 5th edition, 18 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 33 ventures during his 77-year career. Each venture includes the startup and outcome, his profits or losses, and what he learned catching "waves" of innovation.

Famous, wealthy people helped him: Eli Broad, KB Home, Broad Museum; Ed Pauley, Pauley Petroleum, Pauley Pavilion; Ray Stark, famed movie producer; Bill Belzberg, Far West Financial; and others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9798369412985

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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Copyright © 2024 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: 12/13/2023

Xlibris

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CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

PREFACE

D&L CAR CLEANING. FAILURE.

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

SHORT-SLEEVE SPORT SHIRTS. SUCCESS.

SIDELINE: MOVING SUBWAY ADS. FAILURE.

SIDELINE: ALUMINUM BOAT COVERS. 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 CABLE TV 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 TV FRANCHISE. FAILURE.

SIDELINE: ITALIAN MOVIE NETWORK. FAILURE.

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

SIDELINE: SOLAR IN ST. BART. FAILURE.

SIDELINE: CHARISMA BOARD GAME. FAILURE.

SIDELINE: MINI-MOKE IMPORTS. FAILURE.

SIDELINE: TALKWEB PATENT. SUCCESS.

THIRD MARRIAGE. SUCCESS.

VACUUM ELEVATORS. SUCCESS.

SIDELINE: KEYLO ELECTRIC PICKUP. SPECTACULAR FAILURE.

LAST LOT IN BEL-AIR. A GOOD TRY.

OPE: OCEAN PROTEIN EFFECT

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

There is only one success - to be able to

live your life in your own way.

- Christopher Morley

PROLOGUE

M Y MOST SUCCESSFUL ventures were in five different industries:

Apparel Industry, 1954-1962

Cable Television Industry, 1968-1974

Movie Industry, 1976-1998

Residential Construction Industry,

1983-2002

Vacuum Elevator Industry, 2010-2021

The business school approach of analyzing and trying to predict possible outcomes with various assumptions before jumping into a venture never occurred to me. When I recognized an opportunity I took it. I knew so little about each industry that if I tried to create a comprehensive business plan I would not have taken the risks.

I was, therefore, fortunate to catch a wave of innovation in several unrelated industries.

Charlie Munger famously said, What you have to learn is to fold early when the odds are against you, or if you have a big edge, back it heavily, because you don’t get a big edge often, so seize it when it does come.

It took me awhile to learn to fold early on my unpromising ventures, but luckily I did double-down on my few big edges.

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.

New York City was my home until I was 21. When I was 9, my parents, younger brother and I moved to a 6th floor, two-bedroom apartment.

Our building was one block from 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 helped to develop my independence.

When Dad came home on the IRT train 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 best 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 Walnetto caramels on the radio one Sunday, an announcer cut in to tell of the Pearl Harbor attack. Dad soon began manufacturing clothing, such as faux fur parkas, for the U.S. Army. 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 brother’s carriage to deliver larger orders from the A&P, and my tips were much better. 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-three 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 an 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. I didn’t start making real money until I realized that L.A. is about the movie business, real estate development, and waves of innovation.

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

January 2024

10_a_lbj6.jpg

NO HOTDOG HOTDOG 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 ($4,000 in 2023 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 ($2,050 in 2023 dollars) and a used Coca-Cola icebox for $30 ($400 in 2023 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