John Devereaux "Jack" Wrather, Jr. (May 24, 1918 - November 12, 1984), was a
petroleumPetroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds.The term "petroleum" was first used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in...
millionaire who became a
television producerThe primary role of a television producer is to control all aspects of production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
and later diversified by investing in broadcast stations and resort properties. He is best known for producing
The Lone RangerThe Lone Ranger is an American radio and television show created by George W. Trendle and developed by writer Fran Striker.The eponymous character is a masked Texas Ranger in the American Old West, originally played by Paul Halliwell, who gallops about righting injustices with the aid of his...
,
Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, and
LassieLassie is an American television series that follows the adventures of a female rough collie named Lassie and her companions, human and animal. One of the longest running dramatic series on television, Lassie was broadcast by a television network from September 12, 1954, to March 24, 1973...
television series in the 1950s.
Wrather was born in
Amarillo, TexasAmarillo is the 14th-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 173,627 at the 2000 census. The Amarillo metropolitan area has an estimated population of...
, the seat of
Potter CountyPotter County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. It forms part of the Amarillo metropolitan area. In 2000, the population was 113,546. Its seat is Amarillo. Potter County is named for Robert Potter, a politician and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence.-Geography:According...
, and grew up in
TylerTyler is a city in and the county seat of Smith County, Texas in the United States. The city is named for President John Tyler in recognition of his support for Texas's admission to the United States...
, the seat of
Smith CountySmith County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 174,706 , while in 2007 it was estimated to have reached 198,705. Its county seat is Tyler. Smith county is named for James Smith, a general during the Texas Revolution...
. He graduated with a
bachelor of artsBachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
degree from
The University of Texas at AustinThe University of Texas at Austin is a public research university located in Austin, Texas, United States, and is the flagship institution of The University of Texas System. The main campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol...
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
DemocraticThe Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world. In the U.S...
GovernorA governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
and later U.S. Senator
Wilbert Lee "Pappy" O'DanielWilbert Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel was a radio personality and a Democratic Party politician from Texas.O'Daniel was born in Malta, Ohio, and as a young child moved to Reno County, Kansas. He worked in the flour milling business and moved to Fort Worth, Texas, in 1925 to work for Burrus Mills...
. 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 IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
(1942-1947).
On February 5, 1947, he married movie actress
Bonita GranvilleBonita Granville was an American film actress and television producer.-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Granville was the daughter of stage actors, and made her film debut at the age of nine in Westward Passage...
. They had two children (Linda and Christopher). Granville appeared in over 40 movies during the 1930s and 1940s and on many dramatic television series during the 1950s, and later became a producer for the
Lassie show. She is best known for playing the role of
Nancy DrewNancy Drew is a fictional young amateur detective in various mystery series for children and teens. Created by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate book packaging firm, the character first appeared in 1930...
in a series of movies in the late 1930s.
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 GuiltyThe Guilty is a film noir based on a story by Cornell Woolrich.-Plot:The film tells the story of two roommates. One of the men, who suffered a head injury in battle, meets a girl and starts dating her. When he finds out she's dating other men around town he dumps her and starts dating her sweet...
, 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
TulsaTulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 45th-largest in the United States. With an estimated population of 385,635 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 916,079 residents projected to reach one million between 2010...
from fellow oil millionaire
George CameronGeorge Cameron was a founding member of the baroque rock vocal group the Left Banke. In 1973, Cameron and Les Fradkin formed the pop harmony group California which recorded for Laurie Records. George Cameron plays drums for Charly Cazalet-rough mix-nyc, that was released in 2005 on cdbaby.com....
. 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 DiegoSan Diego , named after Saint Didacus , is the second-largest city in California and the ninth largest city in the United States, located along the Pacific Ocean on the west coast of the United States. The US Census Bureau estimates the city's population at 1,279,329 as of 2008...
television and radio stations KFMB-TV and KFMB in 1953 and
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
radio station WNEW in 1955. Television station KOTV was sold in 1954 when Alvarez relocated to the San Diego station. Wrather-Alvarez also owned the Construction Permit for WJDW-TV (Channel 44, Boston, MA), which was donated to The WGBH Educational Foundation in 1965, and now being operated as non-commercial station WGBX-TV (analog 44, digital 43).
Wrather-Alvarez also financed and owned the
Disneyland HotelThe Disneyland Hotel is a resort hotel located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, notable as the first hotel to officially bear the Disney name...
in
AnaheimAnaheim is a city in Orange County, California. As of January 1, 2009, the city population was about 348,467, making it the 10th most-populated city in California and ranked 54th in the United States. The city anticipates that the population will surpass 400,000 by 2014 due to rapid development...
.
Walt DisneyWalter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon and philanthropist. Disney is famous for his influence in the field of entertainment during the twentieth century. As the co-founder Walter Elias...
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 RangerThe Lone Ranger is an American radio and television show created by George W. Trendle and developed by writer Fran Striker.The eponymous character is a masked Texas Ranger in the American Old West, originally played by Paul Halliwell, who gallops about righting injustices with the aid of his...
and took over production of the television series (1954-1957). The corporation also purchased the
LassieLassie is an American television series that follows the adventures of a female rough collie named Lassie and her companions, human and animal. One of the longest running dramatic series on television, Lassie was broadcast by a television network from September 12, 1954, to March 24, 1973...
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
fraudIn the broadest sense, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and is also a civil law violation....
.
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 CompanyThe Incorporated Television Company was a British television company largely involved in production and distribution...
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 AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
PBS member station
KCETKCET is the PBS member-television station in Los Angeles, California. It is one of four PBS member stations serving Greater Los Angeles, the others being KVCR-TV, KOCE-TV, and KLCS. Broadcasting on channel 28, the studio is located at 4401 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood...
.
Wrather is 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 MooreClayton Moore was an American actor best known for playing the fictional western character The Lone Ranger.-Early years:...
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.
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, NevadaLas Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada, the seat of Clark County, and an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, fine dining, and entertainment. Las Vegas, which bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, is famous for the number of...
, the L'Horizon Hotel in
Palm Springs, CaliforniaPalm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, approximately 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 42,807. Golf, swimming, tennis, horseback riding and hiking in the nearby desert and mountain areas are...
, 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 changed ownership frequently, and is currently operated as the Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort.
In 1957, Wrather purchased the
MuzakMuzak Holdings LLC is a company based in metro Fort Mill, South Carolina, United States, just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, founded in 1934, that is best known for distribution of background music to retail stores and other companies....
corporation, a company 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 MaryRMS Queen Mary is a retired ocean liner that sailed the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line...
in
Long Beach, CaliforniaLong Beach is a large city located in southern California, USA, on the Pacific coast. It is situated in Los Angeles County, about south of downtown Los Angeles. Long Beach borders Orange County on its southeast edge....
.
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.
DisneyThe Walt Disney Company , often simply known as Disney, is the largest media and entertainment conglomerate in the world, known for its family-friendly products...
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
cancerCancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth , invasion , and sometimes metastasis...
in
Santa Monica, CaliforniaSanta Monica is a city in western Los Angeles County, California, USA. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and Venice on the...
.
Most of the popular Wrather franchises are now owned by
Classic MediaClassic Media, Inc. is an American production company and distributor of family programming. Formed in 1998 after acquiring Golden Books Family Entertainment, their library consists of properties which they acquired from other companies, including Entertainment Rights, Harvey Comics, Jay Ward...
. Various documents related to Wrather, Bonita Granville, and the Wrather company are
archiveAn archive is a collection of historical records, and the location in which the collection is kept. Archives contain records which have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime....
d at the Von der Ahe Library at
Loyola Marymount UniversityLoyola Marymount University is a comprehensive co-educational private Roman Catholic Jesuit university in Los Angeles, California, United States. The University is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities and one of five Marymount institutions of higher...
as part of its Center for the Study of Los Angeles collection.
External links