Growing Rich - Arabictrader.com

KIRK KAZANJIAN
band, sing in the glee club, and join the dramatic society. He also
worked for Reynolds and Company in the summer months and during
holiday breaks.
For the most part, Stovall was a messenger boy for the brokerage
firm. Before his voice changed, he was also allowed to be a relief
switchboard operator, filling in for the woman who normally held
that job. “Men were not expected to do that sort of thing in the early
1940s,” Stovall explains. “But when I still had my soprano voice,
everyone on the phone thought I was a woman anyway so it worked
out fine.” One of his most exciting jobs came at Christmas time, when
he was sent to deliver whiskey to the traders around town. “I was so
young, I guess they figured I wouldn’t steal the whiskey,” he surmises.
“They couldn’t trust the other messengers. They were all older and
might have kept some of it for themselves.”
A PRESIDENTIAL CLIENT LIST
Reynolds and Company quickly attracted an impressive clientele.
“Some of these brokers, sitting at ordinary little desks, had very big
accounts,” Stovall says. “I knew how substantial they were because
I’d see their statements come through.” In addition to celebrities of
the theater and industrialists, the firm’s roster of major clients included
General Dwight D. Eisenhower. When Eisenhower first signed up, he
was enjoying a meteoric rise to fame that began as military commander
during World War II and culminated with his election as the thirtyfourth
president of the United States in 1953. One of the brokerage
firm’s partners, Cliff Roberts, was a friend of Ike’s and played golf
with him frequently at the Augusta National Golf Club (which Roberts
founded), home of the famous annual Augusta National Tournament.
Back then, a major account had $2 or $3 million. “Today, it seems
everybody who’s 28 is worth that amount,” Stovall quips. But you
must keep this figure in the proper context to appreciate how impressive
it was. In the 1940s, the minimum wage, which Stovall was paid,
was 25 cents an hour. “That may sound like slavery, but you could
have a good lunch at the Automat in New York City for very little,”
he insists. “A beef pie in a casserole dish cost 15 cents, while milk,
coffee, and a roll with butter could be had for a nickel each.” As a
result, for 30 cents you got a hot entree, with a roll to mop it up and
a cold glass of milk to wash everything down.
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