Eli M. Black (April 9, 1921 – February 3, 1975) was an American businessman. He controlled the
United Brands Company.
His son
Leon Black
Leon David Black (born July 31, 1951) is an American investor and the co-founder and former-CEO of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management. Black also served as the chairman of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City from Ju ...
is a founding member of private equity firm
Apollo Management
Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American global private-equity firm. It provides investment management and invests in credit, private equity, and real assets. As of March 31, 2022, the company had $512 billion of assets under management, ...
.
Early life and education
Born Elihu Menashe Blachowitz in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
, he immigrated to the United States as a child. He attended
Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is a private Orthodox Jewish university with four campuses in New York City.["About YU]
on the Yeshiva Universi ...
, and graduated at the top of his class in 1940.
He also received training to be an
Orthodox Jewish
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
and served as the rabbi of a congregation in
Woodmere,
New York for three and a half years prior to entering business.
[St. Petersburg Times: "Violent Death Contradicted Executives' Quiet Life" by Peter T. Kilbourne]
February 19, 1975
Business career
Black's business career began in investment banking with
Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, a ...
, and then the American Securities Corporation, where he worked on financing for the American Seal-Kap Company, a company that made caps for milk bottles. He was hired to be their chairman and chief executive officer in 1954. Black renamed the company AMK, after its ticker symbol, and turned it into a vehicle for acquisitions, joining the
conglomerate bandwagon of the 1960s. Among his many takeovers was the
John Morrell & Co. meatpacking
The meat-packing industry (also spelled meatpacking industry or meat packing industry) handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of meat from animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock. Poultry is generally ...
company. AMK joined the nation's top 500 companies in 1967. In September 1968, Black bought 10% of the outstanding shares of United Fruit on the open market, while outbidding other companies, and gained a controlling interest.
In 1970, AMK merged with
United Fruit Company
The United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was formed in 1899 fro ...
, and adopted the name
United Brands
Chiquita Brands International Sàrl (), formerly known as Chiquita Brands International Inc. and United Fruit Co., is a Swiss-domiciled American producer and distributor of bananas and other produce. The company operates under a number of ...
. Black became chairman, president, and CEO. At that time, United Fruit was importing about a third of all the bananas sold in the US and owned the
Chiquita
Chiquita Brands International Sàrl (), formerly known as Chiquita Brands International Inc. and United Fruit Co., is a Swiss-domiciled American producer and distributor of bananas and other produce. The company operates under a number of ...
banana brand. But Black soon discovered that United Fruit had far less capital than he had believed. The company soon became crippled with debt. The company's losses were exacerbated by
Hurricane Fifi
A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...
in 1974, which destroyed many of its
banana plantations in
Honduras. In 1974, United Brands reported losses of $40 million for the first three quarters of the year. Black struggled to keep the company solvent, and in December United Brands announced that it was selling its interest in
Foster Grant, Inc. for $70 million.
Death
On February 3, 1975, Black went to his office on the forty-fourth floor of the
Pan Am Building
The MetLife Building (also 200 Park Avenue and formerly the Pan Am Building) is a skyscraper at Park Avenue and 45th Street (Manhattan), 45th Street, north of Grand Central Terminal, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Desi ...
in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. At about 8:00 a.m., he fell to his death, landing on the northbound
Park Avenue Viaduct
The Park Avenue Viaduct, also known as the Pershing Square Viaduct, is a roadway in Manhattan in New York City. It carries vehicular traffic on Park Avenue from 40th to 46th Streets around Grand Central Terminal and the MetLife Building, t ...
beside motorists. Homicide detectives concluded that the quarter-inch glass window was broken with Black's attaché case and classified his death a suicide.
A few weeks later the
Securities and Exchange Commission uncovered a 1.25-million-dollar
bribe
Bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corru ...
that United Brands paid to
Honduran president Oswaldo López Arellano
Oswaldo Enrique López Arellano (30 June 1921 – 16 May 2010) was a Honduran politician who twice served as the President of Honduras, first from 1963 to 1971 and again from 1972 until 1975.
Early life
Lopez was born in Danlí to Enrique L ...
under authorization by Black in order to obtain a reduction of taxes on banana exports.
After Black's death,
Seymour Milstein
Seymour Milstein (July 21, 1920 – October 2, 2001) was an American real estate developer and philanthropist.
Early life and education
Milstein was born to Jewish family[Paul Milstein
Paul Milstein (May 12, 1922 – August 9, 2010) was an American real estate developer and philanthropist.
Early life and education
Milstein was born to a Jewish family][Benedict I. Lubell
Benedict I. Lubell (1909 – December 13, 1996) was an American oil executive and philanthropist.
Biography
Lubell was born to a American Jews, Jewish family on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. His father Samuel L. Lubell founded the Bell Oil a ...]
and art dealer
Grace Borgenicht Brandt). They had two children: daughter Judy Schlosberg
and son
Leon Black
Leon David Black (born July 31, 1951) is an American investor and the co-founder and former-CEO of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management. Black also served as the chairman of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City from Ju ...
,
founding member of private equity firm
Apollo Management
Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American global private-equity firm. It provides investment management and invests in credit, private equity, and real assets. As of March 31, 2022, the company had $512 billion of assets under management, ...
.
Black served as a trustee of the
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts,
The American Jewish Committee
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) is a Jewish advocacy group established on November 11, 1906. It is one of the oldest Jewish advocacy organizations and, according to ''The New York Times'', is "widely regarded as the wikt:dean, dean of American ...
, the
Federation of Jewish Philanthropies
UJA-Federation of New York (United Jewish Appeal – Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, Inc.) is the largest local philanthropy in the world. Headquartered in New York City, the organization raises and allocates funds annuall ...
,
Babson College, the Jewish Guild for the Blind, and the
Jewish Museum A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area.
List of Jewish museums
Notable Jewish museums include:
*Albania
** Solomon Museum, Berat
*Australia
** Jewish Mu ...
. He had also served as chairman of the ''
Commentary Magazine
''Commentary'' is a monthly American magazine on religion, Judaism, and politics, as well as social and cultural issues. Founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945 under Elliot E. Cohen, editor from 1945 to 1959, ''Commentary'' magazine dev ...
'' publication committee.
The Eli M. Black Lifelong Learning Center at the
Park Avenue Synagogue
The Park Avenue Synagogue ( he, אגודת ישרים, ''Agudat Yesharim'', The Association of the Righteous) is a Conservative Jewish congregation located at 50 East 87th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 188 ...
is named in his honor.
Cultural references
The 1994 film ''
The Hudsucker Proxy
''The Hudsucker Proxy'' is a 1994 screwball comedy film co-written, produced, and directed by the Coen brothers. Sam Raimi co-wrote the script and served as second unit director. The film stars Tim Robbins as a naïve but ambitious business scho ...
'' included a scene resembling Black's suicide.
See also
*
Union of Banana Exporting Countries
References
Further reading
*"Eli Black's Rites Attended by 500", ''The New York Times'', February 6, 1975.
*Peter T. Kilborn, "Suicide of Big Executive: Stress of Corporate Life", ''The New York Times'', February 14, 1975.
*Thomas P. McCann, ''On the Inside'', Beverley, Massachusetts: Quinlan Press, 1987.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Black, Eli M.
1921 births
1975 suicides
20th-century American businesspeople
American businesspeople in shipping
American food industry business executives
American investment bankers
American manufacturing businesspeople
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
Corporate raiders
Lehman Brothers people
Polish emigrants to the United States
Suicides by jumping in New York City
Yeshiva University alumni
United Fruit Company
People from Woodmere, New York
Rabbis from New York (state)
20th-century American rabbis
1975 deaths