Jack Wrather
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John Devereaux "Jack" Wrather, Jr. (May 24, 1918 - November 12, 1984), was a petroleum millionaire who became a television producer and later diversified by investing in broadcast stations and resort properties. He is best known for producing The Lone Ranger, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, and Lassie television series in the 1950s.
Wrather was born in Amarillo, Texas, the seat of Potter County, and grew up in Tyler, the seat of Smith County. He graduated with a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Texas in Austin in 1939.
Wrather worked in the oilfields of East Texas as a young man and later inherited his father's oil company, Overton Refining Company.
On July 31, 1941, he married Mollie O'Daniel, the daughter of Democratic Governor and later U.S. Senator Wilbert Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel. They had two children (Jack and Molly). Mollie filed for divorce in 1945.
Wrather served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve during World War II (1942-1947).
On February 5, 1947, he married the movie actress Bonita Granville. They had two children (Linda and Christopher). Granville appeared as an actress in over forty movies during the 1930s and1940s and on many dramatic television series during the 1950s. She later became a producer for the Lassie show. She is best known for playing the role of Nancy Drew in a series of movies in the late 1930s.
[edit] Movies and Television
After the war, Wrather bought a home in Hollywood and became a movie producer, founding Jack Wrather Productions. In 1946, he produced his first movie, The Guilty, starring Bonita Granville, whom he would later marry.
By 1955, he had produced six more movies, including High Tide, Perilous Waters, Strike It Rich and Guilty of Treason.
Wrather purchased 70 percent share of the television station KOTV in Tulsa from fellow oil millionaire George Cameron. The other 30 percent was owned by station manager Maria Helen Alvarez and commercial manager John Hill. Wrather knew nothing about the management of a station and offered to increase Alvarez and Hill to 50 per cent of the stock in exchange for their services.
Hill wanted to move on to real estate, so Wrather agreed to purchase his shares and increase Alvarez to 50 per cent owner in the new Wrather-Alvarez Television' / 'Wrather-Alvarez Broadcasting' Corporation.
Wrather-Alvarez went on to purchase the San Diego television and radio stations KFMB-TV and KFMB in 1953 and New York radio station WNEW in 1955. Television station KOTV was sold in 1954 when Alvarez relocated to the San Diego station.
Wrather-Alvarez also financed and owned the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. Walt Disney asked Wrather to build the Disneyland Hotel when Disney had exhausted his credit in building the Disneyland theme park. The hotel was completed in 1955, and immediately shared the success of Disneyland. When Disney later attempted to buy the hotel, Wrather refused to sell.
In 1954, Wrather-Alvarez purchased the complete rights to The Lone Ranger and took over production of the television series (1954-1957). The corporation also purchased the Lassie television series in 1956 and Sergeant Preston of the Yukon in 1957.
The Wrather-Alvarez relationship did not end well because Wrather had discovered that "Miss" Alvarez had married former partner John Hill when he had been "bought out" and his shares given to Alvarez. Wrather unsuccessfully sued Alvarez and Hill for fraud.
In 1958, Wrather bought Alvarez's shares of Wrather-Alvarez and became sole owner of its television and hotel assets. The Wrather-Alvarez holdings were distributed into separate companies: Wrather Hotels, Lone Ranger Inc., Lone Ranger Television, Lone Ranger Pictures, and Lassie Television.
The Independent Television Corporation was formed as a joint venture between Jack Wrather and the British Incorporated Television Company in 1958. In September 1958, Independent Television Corporation purchased TPA for $11,350,000. The company operated primarily as a distribution service for syndicating television shows produced by Wrather or the British ITC company. Wrather later (about 1959-60) sold his shares of Independent Television Corporation to ITC.
He was also the founder of Los Angeles PBS member station KCET.
Wrather is also known as the man that 'sued the mask off the Lone Ranger'. When a new theatrical movie version of the Lone Ranger was being produced during the late 1970s, Wrather obtained a court order requiring Clayton Moore to quit making public appearances as the Lone Ranger. This resulted in a great deal of negative publicity and The Legend of the Lone Ranger released in 1981 was not well received. Before Wrather died, he gave permission for Clayton Moore to resume making public appearances in costume.
[edit] Other Investments
Wrather further diversified his holdings by building or buying resort hotels and other properties throughout the United States.
In addition to the Disneyland Hotel, Jack Wrather also owned the Twin Lakes Lodge in Las Vegas, Nevada, the L'Horizon Hotel in Palm Springs, California, and the Inn at the Park in Anaheim. In the 1970s there was talk of the Disneyland-Alweg monorail being expanded to stop at the Inn at the Park. That never came to fruition. The Inn at the Park has switched hands numerous times over the years and is currently operated as the Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort.
In 1957, Wrather purchased the Muzak corporation, a company noteworthy for providing "elevator music" for business environments. The company owned an extensive library of "easy-listening" music and one of the world's largest recording plants. Wrather sold the company in 1972.
In the early 1980s Wrather purchased, restored and made tourist attractions of the Spruce Goose and the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California.
Over the years, Wrather created or purchased many different companies for his various businesses and investments. These included Evansville Refining Co., Overton Refining Co., Jack Wrather Pictures, Inc., Freedom Productions Corporation, Western States Investment Corporation, Wrather-Alvarez Broadcasting, Inc., General Television Corporation, Jack Wrather Productions, Wrather Hotels, Lone Ranger Inc., Lone Ranger Television, Lone Ranger Pictures, Lassie Television, and the Muzak Corporation. In 1961, he combined his various holdings into the Wrather Corporation.
Disney finally acquired the Disneyland Hotel in 1989, when it purchased the Wrather Corporation. Disney has retained the hotel but sold off most of the other assets.
Wrather died of cancer in Santa Monica, California.
In the meantime, most of the popular Wrather franchises are now under the ownership of Classic Media.
