WEBVTT - Threshold Resistance: Alfred Taubman 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:02.760 Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.560 --> 0:00:04.040 He's Aaron. 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:07.520 Hey Elizabeth, Hi, nice to see you. How are you 0:00:08.039 --> 0:00:08.440 pretty well? 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:11.080 I'm being pretty good, feeling it's nice. It's my favorite 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:12.040 time of year, Autumn. 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:13.200 Okay, good for you. 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:14.480 What about you? How you doing? 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:18.440 It's spring? I love it nice. Do you know what's ridiculous? 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:18.959 Oh me? 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:21.120 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah I Doay, go ahead? 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:21.720 Oh man? 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:23.840 Do you know that there was once a knee injury 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:27.480 that was worth about eleven point five billion dollars. 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:28.040 I've done that. 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:30.640 Yeah, there was a knee injury that was worth eleven 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:32.479 eleven point five billion dollars. 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:33.280 Tell me more. 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:35.360 Okay, you see, a long time ago there was a 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:38.480 high school wrestler. This kid was pretty good, but while 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:41.360 he was in high school, he injured his knee. He 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:43.360 didn't know what to do. But since he'd hurt his 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:45.640 knee and he was feeling restless and he could no 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:48.920 longer wrestle, he joined his high school's acting troop. He 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:52.320 started performing, did school plays, eventually went off to Hollywood. 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:55.240 By then he changed his name from Thomas Mappither the 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:58.640 Fourth to what you know him as now, Tom Cruise 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:02.600 Godle career box office as a movie star is roughly 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:06.639 eleven point five billion dollars worldwide. That was a world 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:08.119 changing knee injury, Elizabeth. 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:13.080 It really was so exasperated. Look, I don't know what 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:13.560 to tell you. 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:16.280 I recently became a Tom Cruise fan, and I used 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:18.319 to hate the guy, couldn't watch any movies with him. 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:20.280 And now I'm just like, I love that guy. He's 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:23.600 so strange and intense. How could I not like him? 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:24.319 Right? 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:26.880 So there you go. That was my best impression of 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:28.679 a Paul Harvey story, page two. 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:30.400 I can't stand Tom. 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:33.119 I know you can't. So I told you it's ridiculous. 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:35.200 I just that's ridiculous. 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:36.640 One knee injury started all of Yeah. 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:38.360 You know it's more ridiculous is that you're now a 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:39.040 Tom Cruise. 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:45.080 I know I can't believe it either. I think I'm 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:46.480 doing a bit just on myself. 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:48.760 Think so I think, well, you know, I'll run a 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:50.360 bit into the ground. So I wait for you to 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:53.120 run this one out. Do you know what else is ridiculous? No, 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:55.320 thank you your love of Tom. 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:56.920 Cruise, my new found love of Tom Cruise. 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:21.960 Financial crime, that's art crime. This is ridiculous crime. A 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:26.600 podcast about absurd and outrageous. Caper's heiss and cons. It's 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:31.440 always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred percent ridiculous. 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:34.320 You damn right there it is. I talk a lot 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:37.880 about art crime. You talk a lot a lot like 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:41.840 a lot though crimes, and they've always been forgers. Really 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:44.320 you do like the fake Yeah? I love them, can't 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:44.799 get enough. 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:45.920 Why do you like the fake hers? 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:49.840 I just love it? I don't know. So today, though, 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:51.840 I have an art crime from the other side of 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:52.880 the aisle, so to. 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:54.560 Speak, somebody who destroys art. 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:56.720 No, this is on the auction house side. 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:58.240 Oh that other side. 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.840 Serious auction house, auction and adventure. 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:05.919 Is that the name of the Okay, I'm going to 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:07.280 introduce her, he made that face. 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:10.359 I'm going to introduce a couple of characters in this, 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.760 some heroes, some villains, some both. They contain multitudes, et cetera, 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:17.960 et cetera, as do we all right, So let's begin 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:23.080 with Adolph Alfred Tobman a Tobman. Yeah, he goes by 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:23.880 Alfred Tobman. 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:24.600 I bet he does. 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:26.680 His is an incredible story. 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:27.880 Dolphie is a tough nickname. 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:32.919 Yeah. So he was born in nineteen twenty four in Pontiac, Michigan. 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:35.839 You know, I always like to set the stage, give 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.640 you an idea. Who this guy is. He invented the 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:39.840 Pontiac car. 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:42.560 No, he didn't. He didn't he invented. 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:46.960 He's just from Pontiac. His parents were Jewish immigrants who 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:50.680 came over from Poland. His dad was in real estate development, 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:53.480 and his dad built the first synagogue in Pontiac. 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:54.800 Good for him. 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.400 Todman had a stutter, and he had difficulty reading and 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:02.000 writing because of some dyslexia, and he was left handed 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:04.520 but forced to use his right hand, which was so 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:07.560 common in those days. Yes, but he had a broader vision, 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:10.920 bigger than any hurdle put in his way was. He 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:13.760 once said, quote, when I look at something, I have 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:17.200 a sense not of what is, but of what could be. 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:19.039 Oh he's like Bobby Kennedy. 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:22.760 Yeah, he's basically Bobby Kennedy. So he started small. He 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.599 took part time jobs selling shoes and working construction to 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:29.719 put himself through the University of Michigan, and then he 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:32.680 left college. He left University of Michigan while he was 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:35.560 still a freshman to serve in World War Two. Oh goodness, 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:38.240 So you know, signed right up. When he got back 0:04:38.240 --> 0:04:41.679 from the war, he studied art architecture at Lawrence Technical 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:45.400 University near Detroit, and he took night classes. He worked 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:48.159 as a junior draftsman during the day at an architectural firm. 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:50.360 But then he bounced out of college again and then 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:51.280 he just headed right. 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:53.320 Into the working world, I feel you. 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:57.000 So he saw that the post war boom of the 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:00.320 middle class was coming. Oh like, he got it. War's 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:02.520 good business, and he had that larger vision. 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:03.720 That's not Bobby Kennedy thing. 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:07.600 Right, He's Bobby Kennedy. So he opened a real estate 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:10.760 development company in nineteen fifty and he borrowed five thousand 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:14.520 dollars to build and rent out a bridle shop in Detroit. 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:16.719 That was the beginning of his empire. 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:18.280 Because real estate, it's like, these people are going to 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:19.880 get married. They're coming back to the war, they're going 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:20.400 to get married. 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:22.679 Here's this building. I'm going to put a bridle shop 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:25.159 in it. I'm going to rent it. Read yeah, well 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:27.520 so and it is. It's perfect. And so from there 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:29.279 he's just making all this money on it. So he 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:32.680 builds a shopping close in Flint, Michigan, and he put 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:35.360 the stores. This was totally new at the time. So 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:39.400 he put the stores in the back of the big lot, 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:42.720 and he put the parking spaces out front. Oh so 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:44.400 instead of having a park on the street and it's 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:46.799 taking up this whole thing, he buys this lot, puts 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:47.600 everything in the back. 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:50.479 So he basically makes kind of a modern shopping modil. Well, yeah, 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:51.920 we would recognize. 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:54.080 He sees that's exactly what he did. And he saw 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.840 this like boom and car ownership and usage, and you know, 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:00.440 people they're in their sweet rides with Finn they want 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:03.160 a shop baby. Oh yeah, so he's like helps him out. 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:06.320 Each venture that he had made more and more money, 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:10.000 and his business expanded to just bigger projects all over 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:13.680 the country. This is how he explained it. Quote. Suburban 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:17.120 growth after the war allowed us to build large developments 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:20.040 based on new road patterns and new freeways that came in. 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:23.320 We were able to duplicate a great degree what occurs 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:27.680 in a downtown, all under one ownership and one control. Yeah, malls. 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:32.520 So he's credited by everyone with a popularization of malls. 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:34.080 Oh really yeah, oh damn. 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.680 By nineteen fifty three, he owned a bunch of strip 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:41.680 shopping centers like little strip malls. His developments the mall 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:44.280 at Short Hills still that one is still one of 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:48.159 the most profitable shopping centers in the country, still going damn. 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:52.560 He designed the mall to have really wide entryways. 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:56.440 And welcoming and well he was a cathedral of commerce. 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:59.919 Well, he wanted to avoid what he called threshold resistance. 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:05.359 Think of that term threshold resistance. He made the malls welcoming. 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:10.880 He put waterfalls and like plants and stuff, skylight. Yeah, 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:13.560 and his thinking was, quote, we want people to get 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:16.640 in easily and get out easily. Getting out is just 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:19.600 as important as getting in. That man drives a woman 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:22.320 for shopping on Saturday and he has trouble getting out, 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:24.840 so he can't see a football game. He'll say, don't 0:07:24.880 --> 0:07:29.360 ever bring me back here again, hay Lions. So he 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:33.720 pulled in big names in retail high end Nieman, Marcus 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:37.560 saxofth Avenue, north Strom, Marshall Fields, East, San Laurent, Louis Buitan, 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:41.120 Ralph Lauren. So the malls were posh. He was putting 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:44.040 up the pash stuff. There's not that way, is I 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:46.920 don't think so now? And so these are places to 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:49.559 see and be seen to meet friends, take your family, 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:52.680 get a meal, watch a movie, shot up, and so 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:56.040 he kept putting that larger vision to work. He constantly 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.400 tinkered with layouts. He saw that women were actually the 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:03.840 ones buying or men'swear than men, and so he started 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:07.160 catering to the female customers. He put makeup counters on 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:09.440 the first floor, yes, because he saw that that was 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:11.800 the place where the most time is spent. Everyone had 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:14.240 to go in and out, and cosmetics have the highest 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:16.480 markup of all the retail items. 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:18.880 And they smell nice and feel good when you walk in. 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:21.000 I remember as a kid, you always have to walk 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:22.680 in generally through the making. 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:27.040 And like, let's face it, ladies be shopping rights anyway. 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:32.840 So at one time Tobman owned and managed nineteen regional 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:35.760 shopping centers in the United States. He was a self 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:39.720 made billionaire and was on Forbes four hundred list of 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:41.800 richest Americans for two decades. 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.520 And this guy's going to be a crimer at some point. 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:47.720 That's like, wow, a successful crimer. 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:51.439 Yeah, why did he turn He's got it all, He's. 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:53.040 Got it all. Well, you know, we always went a 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:53.680 little bit more. 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:54.200 So. 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:56.240 There were critics of his of course, because you know 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:58.960 the fact that Mal's chipped away at jobs and businesses, 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:02.240 wrote it down on towns. Yeah, it's troubling, he'll say. 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:04.360 And he sort of set the stage for Walmart to 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:05.840 come in and like wreck shop of. 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:07.920 All the small home big box revolution. 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:12.160 Yeah. So this mollification was felt, especially in places like 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:15.160 Detroit who were struggling to save their downtowns when the 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:18.439 suburbs were luring everyone away. And then there's the whole 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:21.680 paving of paradise for the creation of parking lots. So 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:25.199 so long farmland, green space, Hello smog and traffic and 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:28.760 over crowding. Todman, though not hearing it, he said that 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:33.199 malls were the modern day equivalent of ancient marketplaces exotic bazaars. 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:34.760 Well he's not wrong. 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.520 I mean, that's exactly what they're modeled on. It's the 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:40.199 Turkish bazaar for a modern car exactly. 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:44.040 So by the late nineteen fifties, he hooked up with 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:48.720 Max Fisher, a Detroit financier. I know, and by hook 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:50.880 up not in an intimate sense, but as a business part. 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:53.120 Yeah, he's actually a big business person. He was taken. 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.320 So Fisher hired Tobman's firm to build something to go 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:58.640 hand in hand with all them parking lots. He was 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:03.839 laying down speedway gas stations. Right. So here's Tom and 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:09.880 building the America we know today, serious over consuming, spending, burning, selling, expanding, 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:17.600 well stated America. That America, my America. This is America. 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.280 So while he may have been building for the every 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.320 man and woman, Tomman was living life with the swells. 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:26.800 I mean, he's a billionaire, right, and he loved art. 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:32.800 Oh here we go, right, is a tingle. He collected 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:37.439 old Masters, French impressionists, modern artists like Jackson Pollock, and 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:40.840 every piece in his collection was a forgery. I'm just 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:42.360 kidding now. 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:46.400 He just couldn't see very well and had no idea 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:47.360 hot for forgeries. 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:50.079 I mean, I'm guessing some probably were, like you. 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:53.880 Know all they wanted to have a forgery collection. 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:55.160 That's not that's my goal. 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:56.080 That would be you. 0:10:58.760 --> 0:11:01.120 He's a cultured fella, yes, right, So he was a 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:04.079 board member on like a number of cultural organizations. He 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:06.880 liked the finer things in life, and luckily he could 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:10.120 afford them. It was these megadeals, like the one that 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:12.520 he pulled off in nineteen seventy seven that made him 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:15.600 a real Richie Rich because see in nineteen seventy seven, 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:18.560 he went to a friend with an idea, let's put 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:21.680 together a group to outbid a giant corporation on a 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:26.200 piece of land. Who's the friend, Donald Brenn Probably haven't 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:28.760 heard of him, don't know that name. Fellow real estate developer. 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:32.680 He was based out of Mission Viejo in southern California. Today, 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.480 Bran ranks one twelve where the players dwell on the 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:39.800 Forbes Billionaires list due to his net worth of sixteen 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:43.560 point two billion dollars. Dang right, So what's the giant 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:46.080 corporation they're going to go up against? Mobile Oil? 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:46.920 Ooh? 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:49.720 And what's the piece of land? The Irvine Ranch. 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:51.000 Wow. 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:53.040 So that may not mean much to you, So let 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:56.800 me enlighten you and anyone within earshot. The Irvine Ranch 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:00.400 is this enormous parcel that stretches nine miles along the 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:03.800 Pacific coast and then twenty two miles inland, and it 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:07.640 contains more than twenty percent of Orange County within this area. 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:09.760 And Orange County is huge, by the way, on the 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:13.440 seven hundred and ninety eight square miles. So inside Irving 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:17.040 Ranch are the city of Irvine. The University of California 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:20.760 at Irvine, parts of Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, and Anaheim 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.160 Unincorporated County land and little bits of Santa Ana and 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:24.880 coast to Mason. 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:25.720 Wow. 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:28.800 So the Irvine Ranch was first cobbled together by James 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:31.720 Irvine in eighteen sixty four, and he got the land 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:35.800 from Mexican and Spanish land grant from California. Is right, yeah, exactly. 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:38.560 So he dies in eighteen eighty six and his son, 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:42.600 James Junior, inherits it. He's only nineteen years old. He 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.160 James Junior and his friend Rode bicycles from San Francisco 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:50.600 down to Orange County to inspect his inheritance. Like Penny Farthings, 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:51.560 I guess no. 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:55.320 That's how outrageous. I mean, there's no infrastructure to help you. 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:57.640 I mean you're just obviously sleeping on the side of 0:12:57.640 --> 0:12:57.960 the road. 0:12:58.679 --> 0:13:01.120 El Camino Royale is what they're doing, is like they're 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:03.880 just taking from mission to mission to get down now. 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:06.760 So even gave me pause, and I have all kinds 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:07.560 of bad ideas. 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:11.480 So Junior takes the land from ranching to farming and 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:14.959 builds an agricultural empire. He had tenant farmers They grew 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:19.240 lima beans, black eyed peas, sugar beets, walnuts, avocados, strawberries, lemons, oranges, 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.280 lots of citrus, lots of citrus. During the fifties and sixties, 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:25.000 Orange County was the fastest growing county in the nation. 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:26.599 It was What's up Disneyland. 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:28.160 It was the model of what you thought of California 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:29.400 if you're outside of California. 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:31.800 So the Irvine Company had to decide what to do 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:35.120 with the land sell or like, you know, develop it 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:37.960 piece by piece in the name of urbanization, like keep 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:40.880 it one parcel. So they went with the development of 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:44.079 a master plan and in nineteen sixty an architect was 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:47.160 hired to create a vision for this entire new community. 0:13:47.440 --> 0:13:50.160 There'd be houses and jobs and retail and schools and 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:53.199 parks and open spaces. There would still be agriculture because 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:56.120 Irvine Ranch is still one of the nation's largest providers 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:56.960 of avocados. 0:13:57.160 --> 0:13:59.720 Oh yeah, that's some huge avocado regions. Yeah. 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:03.480 In nineteen sixty one, the Irvine Company sold nine hundred 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:07.000 and ninety acres to the University of California system for 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:10.840 one dollar. And this was for the purpose of creating 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:14.680 a new campus, which became the University of California Irvine. 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:17.840 The school was named in honor of the Irvine family, 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:20.480 not the city of Irvine, because that city didn't even 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:24.280 exist yet. Ah So the city of Irvine was officially 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:27.400 incorporated in nineteen seventy one. That grew up around this campus. 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:28.360 I didn't know that late. 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:32.360 Doesn't that mean either. Nineteen seventy seven, Mobile Oil wanted 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:36.360 that land, which is scary. It's some of the most 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:40.040 valuable real estate you can imagine. So Taubman he got 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:42.400 with his buddy bren and they put together a group 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:45.800 to outbid Mobile. So they paid three hundred and thirty 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:49.120 seven point four million dollars for the Irvine Ranch. That's 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:52.600 the equivalent of one point seven billion today. And I 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:55.480 feel that's undervalued given what's on that land. So then 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:59.480 six years later Taubman sold his interest to Brenn and 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:02.800 made him self a tidy one hundred million dollars on 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:05.760 the deal. And that's the equivalent of three hundred million 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:08.440 on you know today, So in the period of six 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:11.480 years he makes three hundred million bucks. He called the 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:14.360 purchase of the Irvine Ranch the best deal since the 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:20.880 Louisiana purchase. So Bren. He took over the Irvine Company 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:24.440 and has catapulted himself into super wealth with it. The 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.360 Irvine Company owns more than one hundred and twenty million 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:31.880 square feet of real estate. That's hotels, Marina's golf courses, 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:34.720 five hundred and fifty office buildings, one hundred and twenty 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:39.320 five compartment complex, is forty shopping centers, and he actually 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:42.840 bren currently owns about ninety seven percent of the met 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:46.440 Life building in Manhattan. So these guys like they all 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:48.800 gathered together and they're all these sort of like self 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:53.000 made developers. Let's take a break. When we come back, 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.400 I'll let you know what else Alfred Tobman bought with 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:58.880 his incredible wealth. And here's a hint. I love drinking. 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:02.880 The stuff aren't here and crime. Trust me, we'll get 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:26.480 to it. Zarin, Hey, Hi, what are you doing here? 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:28.200 We were doing story time? 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:32.880 Yeah, we're doing story time. So Alfred Todman, rich guy, 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:37.880 self made true American success story. He did that huge 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:41.320 deal with the Irvine Ranch, and his worth skyrocketed and 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:42.560 he just kept doing deals. 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.640 His timing was incredible, right, it is getting it in California. 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:48.640 At that moment, he sees like the retail boom in 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:52.680 the fifties. He sees the car boom retail and like the. 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:55.880 Whole suburban family idea of like post war America. And 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:57.800 then he goes, you know what Orange County is like 0:16:57.920 --> 0:16:59.200 the applethesis of that. 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.760 It's amazing, it's incredible. So in nineteen eighty two he 0:17:03.880 --> 0:17:06.560 bought load Eye, Zone A and w restaurants. 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:08.240 Yes, get back. 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:10.879 He didn't get the drinks, just the restaurant. Oh okay, 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:11.960 hot diggity. 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:14.479 I love diet Roopier, dude, I love everything. 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:16.439 I love amw Like. We used to go, like you 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:19.000 know people go to like a dairy queen. We would 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:19.520 go tow. 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:21.560 That was the way I want. I want to Rootier Float. 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.159 I wanted to rock be Yes absolutely love and I 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:26.040 don't even go to lowd Eye. I would go to 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:28.960 these o. I wasn't that far from it from my 0:17:28.960 --> 0:17:29.320 home town. 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:32.680 I love it so uh die Roopier, that's my new vice. 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:34.560 I used to drink a lot of dit coke, but 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:36.400 I stopped that years long years ago. 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:36.760 On you. 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:39.720 I've been like on a solid water in crystal light 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:41.000 beverage regime for a while. 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:43.239 That's good because you know the sugars and dit coke 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:44.960 if you heat them up, then turned into a bisco 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:45.600 wood glue. 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:46.000 Right. 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:47.920 Well, that's why I was drinking it. 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:49.600 Before your body heats things up. 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:52.600 So yeah, but now I like the diet rooper. I 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:54.520 like that for you A and W the iconic stuff. 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:58.160 That's my little treat. If I'm good and obedient and respectful, 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:01.040 I allow myself to die. Ruper keeps me on the 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:04.800 straight and marror. So anyway, I don't do that, so Tom, 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:07.800 I don't have him very often. Tom and he bought 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:11.160 the ANW restaurant and they started in load. I stuck 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:15.840 in Lodie again, shout out to another California Central intown. See, 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:19.520 I can work California or the Central Valley into every show. 0:18:20.280 --> 0:18:22.879 So anyway, the restaurants they weren't doing so hot, and 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:25.200 he did a bit of restructuring and then he sold 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:30.680 it in nineteen ninety four to Sagittarius Acquisitions. Made another 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:33.760 Tidy Prophet right now though it's part of that Taco 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:37.800 Bell Pizza Hut KFC long John Silver's Young Brands group, the. 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:39.840 One that Pepsi conglomerated then sold. 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:42.480 To Yum completely. So you know, he got in on 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:46.359 the ground floor, repackaged, made more money. He bought a 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:48.960 ton of stuff in the eighties. He bought department store 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:50.680 chains like Woodward and Lothrop. 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:51.720 I've never heard of that. 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:56.480 Who knows. Between nineteen eighty three and nineteen eighty four, 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.960 he was the majority owner of the USFL mis Chigan Panthers. 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:03.640 Oh, get back USFL baby. 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:07.560 Before he merged the team with the Oakland Invaders for 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:08.919 the nineteen eighty five season. 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:10.200 Yeah, very short lived. 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:13.560 The team, as you know, with the rest of the USFL, 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:16.439 folded after the eighty five season. But I suppose it 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:16.680 was fun. 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.919 We'll last it was. That was nuts. A lot of 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:21.960 great NFL players were actually in the USFL. 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:23.320 Yeah, I know nothing about that. 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:25.240 Oh yeah, herschel Walker was in there. I think Doug 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:26.240 Flutie was in there. 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:28.040 I mean like a bunch of Yeah, a bunch of 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:30.560 players who had been big Heisman candidates in the early 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:32.600