The last tycoons: the secret history of Lazard Frères & Co
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"Felix Rohatyn": CC report.
"Very shy but very clever": Francois Voss interview, January 31, 2005.
"If any banker": Reich, Financier, p. 295.
"The standard shot of him": Ibid.
"Their relationship was exceptional": Ibid.
"They were intimates": Voss interview, January 31, 2005.
"on top of everybody": SEC files, Andre Meyer SEC testimony.
Lazard's investment in Mediobanca: NYT, September 15, 1955.
"memorandum of understanding": SEC files.
Italian manufacturer, Necchi: Ibid.
"I refer to our meeting": Ibid.
"behind the back": Ibid.
"did have and do have": Ibid.
Tobacco Memorandum: Ibid.
"an excellent investment": Ibid.
"the long-range possibility": Ibid.
"Hartford--she's a blue-blooded lady": Ibid.
"I had an understanding with them": Ibid.
"the future vitality of our free economy": Ibid.
"full panoply" and "inexorable pressure": Ibid., Geneen memos.
"I think that during the ensuing": Ibid.
On his first day back in the office: Ibid., FGR's calendar.
"The course is scenic and exacting": SEC files.
"Now that it looks like": Ibid.
"he thought they had the size": Ibid., FGR's SEC testimony.
"Dr. Cuccia is a very cold": Ibid., Andre Meyer's SEC testimony.
"Have talked to both Geneen": Ibid., telex from FGR to Andre Meyer.
IRS ruling and John Seath's letters: Ibid.
"Mediobanca had the option": Ibid., FGR's SEC testimony.
October 7, 1969, version of the ITT deal: Ibid., SEC files.
"urging that the Department of Justice": SEC files, Walsh to Kleindienst.
"It was, I am afraid": SJC, Walsh testimony.
"it is our understanding": SEC files, Walsh letter.
"The door is open": SJC, Jack Ryan testimony.
"He is a rather quiet individual": Ibid.
"recognized financial figure": SJC, Richard Kleindienst testimony.
"at his invitation, to give him": SJC, FGR testimony.
"I thought he might have seemed": Ibid.
"I believe that for the record": Ibid., Kleindienst testimony.
"it might have additional repercussions": SEC files.
"I probably would have": SJC, Walsh testimony.
"Hi, Dick": From publicly available transcripts of Oval Office tapes of Richard M. Nixon.
"Immediately thereafter, I sent word": SJC, Kleindienst testimony.
FGR's April 29 meeting: SJC and SEC files.
Kleindienst's specific request: SEC files.
"amplify and augment": SEC files, FGR's May 3 letter.
FGR's May 10 meeting: SJC and SEC files.
"Rohatyn said it was a serious matter": SJC, Kleindienst testimony.
"They give us Grinnell": Nixon Oval Office tapes.
June 16 call to FGR: SEC files and SJC.
"negotiating memorandum": SEC files.
"within twelve seconds": SEC files and SJC.
FGR's June 18 call: SEC files.
FGR's June 29 meeting: SEC files and SJC.
"to complain about the rather rigid": SJC, Kleindienst testimony.
"Mr. Rohatyn indicated his belief": SJC, Peter Flanigan testimony; and Flanigan interview with author.
July 31 settlement agreement: SEC files.
"We wish to object": SEC files.
Geneen pledged some $400,000: SEC files and SJC.
"son-of-a-bitch" McLaren: Nixon Oval Office tapes.
"McLaren came in like a lion": I. F. Stone, "Behind the I.T.T. Scandal," New York Review of Books, April 6, 1972; also in SEC files.
Larry O'Brien letter to John Mitchell: SEC files.
"The settlement between the Department of Justice": SEC files.
the columnist Jack Anderson: Anderson's columns appeared on February 29, March 2, and March 3, 1972: Anderson, Anderson Papers, pp. 94-96.
"That was again totally stupid": Interview with FGR, December 17, 2004.
"the two persons with whom": SJC, Kleindienst testimony.
"No, sir," he told Kennedy: Ibid.
"In conclusion, I want to emphasize": SJC, McLaren testimony.
"I was thought qualified": Ibid.
"Every meeting was on the record": Ibid.
"The suggestion that discussions with Rohatyn": Anderson, Anderson Papers, p. 119.
"talking with my children": SJC, FGR testimony.
"Let me say now that I": Ibid.
"my influence and persuasiveness": Ibid.
"categorically false": SJC, Kleindienst testimony.
"I think those are terribly serious": SJC, McLaren testimony.
Colson memos: SEC files; and NYT, August 13, October 30, November 1, and November 19, 1973.
Colson and Nixon conversation: Nixon Oval Office tapes, March 30, 1972.
"Very occasionally": Nicholas von Hoffman, Washington Post, March 10,1972.
"I am kind of a stubborn": SJC, Kleindienst testimony.
"One thing I learned": WSJ, October 10, 1975.
"I did something stupid" to "no clue what this was all about": Interview with FGR, December 17, 2004.
Chapter 6. The Savior of New York
"The world of investment banking": Michael Jensen, "The Lazard Freres Style," NYT, May 28, 1972.
"Andre was impressed": Interview with Robert Ellsworth.
"Andre didn't know": Cary Reich, Financier: The Biography of Andre Meyer (New York: Morrow, 1983), p. 189.
"I'd go over to his apartment": Ibid.
"trivial political gossip": Interview with Ellsworth.
"four or five hours": SEC files, Thomas Mullarkey testimony.
"had nothing to do with it": SEC files, FGR testimony.
"I just distanced myself": Interview with FGR, December 17, 2004.
On June 16, 1972: SEC files, SEC charge against Lazard.
"simple gold Tiffany clock": Cary Reich, "The Legacy of Andre Meyer," Institutional Investor, April 1979.
Kennedy told Casey: WSJ, June 28,973.
out-of-court settlement: SEC files.
"That was big, big stuff": Interview with Stanley Sporkin, October 22, 2004.
a rare public statement: SEC files.
lawsuits were filed against ITT: SEC files.
"Secret documents which escaped shredding": Jack Anderson columns from U.S. Senate investigations on the International Telephone and Telegraph Co. and Chile, 1970-71, March-April 1973.
"model of the new breed": "The Remarkable Felix G. Rohatyn," Business-Week, March 10, 1973.
"Andre didn't like it one bit": Interview with FGR, January 3, 2005.
"I am still far from satisfied": FGR "Dark Ages" memo, April 9, 1973.
IRS decided to revoke: NYT, March 7, 1974, and WSJ, April 15, 1974.
"In the unlikely event": SEC files.
FGR testimony November 16, 1973, and April 24, 1974: SEC files.
Mullarkey testimony November 16, 1973, and April 24, 1974: SEC files.
Andre Meyer testimony on four separate occasions: SEC files.
"merger mastermind": Michael Jensen, NYT, June 23, 1974.
"It's far and away": Ibid.
"If he pulls it off": Time, June 17,1974.
FGR editorial about RFC: NYT, December 1, 1974.
Gus Levy and William McChesney Martin letters to the editor: NYT, December 22, 1974.
"If Lockheed is the kind": Forbes, January 15, 1975.
the SEC's second examination: SEC files.
"I got a call from David Burke" and the story of becoming head of MAC: Interview with FGR, January 20, 2005.
"For the last two weeks": NYT, June 5, 1975.
"They may be new to the problem": Ibid.
"I didn't tell the Republicans": WSJ, October 10, 1975.
"Congratulations. Sisyphus should have": Fortune, Oc
tober 1975.
"Plays hob with my domestic life": Washington Post, November 11, 1956.
"Jeannette was very intelligent": Judith Ramsey Ehrlich and Barry Rehfeld, The New Crowd (Boston: Little, Brown, 1989). p. 97.
"She was an extraordinarily bright": Ibid.
Description of FGR's years with Helene Gaillet: Interview with Helene Gaillet, February 3, 2006.
"stuffed with books, magazines": Peter Hellman, "The Wizard of Lazard," NYT Magazine, March 21, 1976; and WSJ, October 10, 1975. Felix even once described the Alrae as a "dump" and said that when he was dating his second wife, Elizabeth, she insisted he move out (Ehrlich and Rehfeld, New Crowd, p. 165).
"Look, I was living with a woman": Interview with FGR, May 25, 2005.
"In those days": Ehrlich and Rehfeld, New Crowd, p. 164.
"He is the Henry Kissinger": Newsweek, August 4, 1975.
"It was just a relatively small": SEC files, FGR testimony.
"There was no reason for me": Interview with Mel Heineman.
"The only recollection I have": SEC files, Heineman testimony.
"Mr. Heineman is a nice man": SEC files, Meyer testimony.
"To the best that I can": SEC files, Heineman testimony.
"were linked": SEC files, Mullarkey testimony.
"Mr. Sundick, are you": Ibid.
"It's my present impression": Ibid.
"Andre found some people": Interview with FGR, December 17, 2004.
Sam Harris's letter to Irwin Borowski: SEC files.
October 13, 1976, settlement between SEC and Lazard: SEC files.
"new light on one of the most complex": Judith Miller, NYT, October 14, 1976, p. 78.
the SEC's single-spaced compendium: In the Matter of International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, Lazard Freres, release no. 14049, October 13, 1976.
criminal grand jury: Interviews with Robert Price, April 15, 2005; Disque Deane, August 17, 2005; Patrick Gerschel, June 21, 2005; and others.
Felix adamantly and repeatedly denied: Interviews with FGR among them, May 25, 2005, and January 17, 2006.
Sporkin denied: Interview with Sporkin, June 3, 2005.
"I swear on the Torah": Interview with Price, December 14, 2005.
"I will confirm that, yes": Interview with Deane, August 17, 2005.
"Felix would deny that he was walking": Interview with Gerschel, June 21,2005.
"we are very pleased": NYT, May 9,1981.
"was unable to push a paper clip": Reich, Financier, p. 311.
"It was brilliantly conceived": Ibid., p. 331.
wrapped in brown paper: Message from Disque Deane, August 22, 2005, and interview, September 13, 2005.
"It was not so much a sale": Ibid., p. 359.
"It was a typical rich man's": Ibid., p. 360.
"The prized Andre Meyer": Ibid.
"stand as an enduring": Douglas Dillon homage to Andre Meyer, Congressional Record, October 11, 1979.
"The Meyer Galleries were as crisp": Paul Goldberger, NYT, September 19,1993.
"Timeliness, style and charm": Jacob Javits, Congressional Record, October 11,1979.
"Rohatyn's voice cracked": Reich, Financier, p. 355.
"Sometimes I imagine": Ibid., p. 356.
Chapter 7. The Sun King
"haute banque d'affaires": "The Making of Lazard's Michel David-Weill," Euromoney, March 1981.
"perhaps a little bit more": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"I guess the thinking of the 'early runners'": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"Frank Zarb once told me": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"Objectively, Michel is the landowner": Jean-Claude Haas, "Assault on the House of Lazard," Forbes, September 4, 2000.
"This is not a partnership": Interview with Frank Pizzitola, April 18, 2005.
"You would need many advanced degrees": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"did things as a helper": Fortune, November 1977.
"If you don't see us getting back": Cary Reich, Financier: The Biography of Andre Meyer (New York: Morrow, 1983), p. 243.
"I had to persuade him": Ibid., p. 244.
"The president stepped down": Fortune, November 1977.
"the real significance of the Franco Wyoming deal": Reich, Financier, p. 246.
"Memorandum to Partners": Andre Meyer, December 26, 1974.
"So as to show who was in charge": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"Pierre was so smart": Interview with Robert Ellsworth.
"My father had, in my opinion": Interview with MDW, November 30, 2005.
"He was an immortal": Interview with Patrick Gerschel, June 21, 2005.
"I have a certain degree of influence": Robert J. Cole, "End of an Era at Lazard," NYT, January 30, 1977.
"Mr. Rohatyn is a very important man": Ibid.
"not something I yearn for": NYT, August 22, 1976.
"Suppose I was appointed": Peter Hellman, "The Wizard of Lazard," NYT Magazine, March 21, 1976.
July 2, 1976: Memorandum to partners from Donald Cook.
August 19: Memorandum to partners from Donald Cook.
"And it went from bad to worse": Interview with Gerschel, January 20, 2005.
September 1976: Memorandum to partners from Andre Meyer and MDW.
"strictly confidential": Cole, "End of an Era at Lazard."
"We saw them drifting downward": Cary Reich, "The Legacy of Andre Meyer," Institutional Investor, April 1979.
"The risk was not of losing business": "The Making of Lazard's Michel David-Weill."
"He was politicking": Interview with Gerschel, June 21, 2005.
"I told him it wouldn't be good": FGR, Newsweek, May 4, 1981.
"We were riding through": SEC files, Mullarkey testimony.
"The Lazard I knew": Interview with FGR, November 29, 2004.
"The firm was very lucky": Interview with MDW, January 31, 2005.
"I was born to great opportunity": Wyndham Robertson, "Passing the Baton at Lazard Freres," Fortune, November 1977.
"Too bad, you have come too late": Among others, Institutional Investor, May 1993.
low overhead, M&A focused: Robertson, "Passing the Baton at Lazard Freres."
Patrick Gerschel's background: Interview with Gerschel, January 12, 2005.
"You know a clerk is a clerk": Ibid.
"It was a very curious kind of place": Ibid.
"People who write memos": Ibid.
"This was cuckoo land": Ibid.
"To be number one at Lazard": Interview with Francois Voss, January 31,2005.
"It was a shocking breach": Reich, Financier, p. 339.
"At first, Patrick was just": Ibid.
"Patrick was trying to become the senior partner": Interview with Disque Deane, August 17, 2005.
"since he never talked to Cook": Interview with Gerschel, January 12, 2005.
"wasn't very good": Ibid.
"I thought that was an asinine remark": Reich, "Legacy of Andre Meyer."
"Andre Meyer's view of life": Interview with Gerschel, January 12, 2005.
"He loved that firm": Ibid.
"He was just a young man": Interview with FGR, January 20, 2005.
"I was a special case": Interview with Gerschel, January 12, 2005.
"Don't be so silly": Ibid.
"In New York, if you had asked": "The Making of Lazard's Michel David-Weill."
"At that time and even seen": "The Last Emperor," BusinessWeek, May 30,1988.
"the heir of a celebrated line": Le Nouvel Economiste, July 1978.
"After 183 years of doing business": NYT, May 1, 1975.
"It was a Napoleonic first act": Interview with a Lazard partner.
no intention of promoting any internal candidates: Interview with WL, January 26, 2005.
"disappointed": Interview with Peter Lewis, March 8, 2005.
"We cut back quite a bit": NYT, September 11, 1979.
"Particularly during the years": Reich, "Legacy of Andre M
eyer."
"It was like looking in the mirror": Ibid.
"Mr. Meyer wanted to know": Reich, Financier, p. 348.
"It is a little different if you are a partner": Ibid.
"the relationships are getting closer": Reich, "Legacy of Andre Meyer."
"Last month, four Lehman partners": Fortune, September 1978.
"Before coming to Lehman Brothers": Ken Auletta, Greed and Glory on Wall Street (New York: Warner Books, 1986), p. 55.
$5,000 bonus check: Ibid.
"So it is to be war": Ibid.
"Count me in, Jimmy": Fortune, September 25, 1978.
"I was very well impressed": Ibid.
"But my personal relationship with him": Reich, "Legacy of Andre Meyer."
"angry shouting, sealed desks": Ibid.
"Door locks were changed": Auletta, Greed and Glory, p. 58.
"With his big cigar": Interview with Pete Peterson, May 26, 2005.
"cancelled the bonus of my secretary": Auletta, Greed and Glory, p. 58.
attempting to buy a real estate asset: Ibid., pp. 56-58.
"Everybody was pretty appalled": Interview with Peterson, May 26, 2005.
"And I just sat there": Ibid.
"It is the sort of typecasting": Auletta, Greed and Glory, p. 56.
"People have said Jim Glanville": Ibid.
"Pete is a friend of mine": Interview with Ward Woods, February 16, 2005.
"I mean, Glanville was": Interview with FGR, January 3, 2005.
letter of "congratulations": FAP, Frank Altschul to Bobby Lehman, October 4, 1966.
"My view on U.S. relations with Israel": Auletta, Greed and Glory, p. 56.
"Glanville wrote one of the most": Interview with Peterson, May 26, 2005.
"And I recall saying": Ibid.
"That there was a place": Interview with Woods, February 16, 2005.
"We live in cramped quarters": Fortune, September 25, 1978.
"As is often the case": WL memorandum to Sidney Wolf, October 15,1975.
"And he says to me": Interview with Mina Gerowin, January 6, 2005.
"The secretaries have to go": Reich, Financier, p. 349, and "Legacy of Andre Meyer."
"You don't have to say with whom": Reich, Financier, p. 349, and "Legacy of Andre Meyer."
"Do you want to know what I do": Reich, Financier, p. 349.
"I found a group": Interview with Woods, February 16, 2005.
"dark place": Interview with WL, January 26, 2005.
"He had a powerful grip": Interview with Damon Mezzacappa, August 2, 2004.
"We went to this meeting": Interview with Roger Briggs.
"created somewhat of a problem": "The Making of Lazard's Michel David-Weill."