See production, box office & company info, Official Facebook page for the film. This movie is a goo prequel to The Ultimate Legacy therefore I recommend seeing it for that reason alone. Its difficult to overstate the impact of the Life and Fortune spreads, which triggered a seismic shift in the way America viewed Texas, especially its oilmen. Among the first to arrive was Jack Wrather, a Dallas oil heir who, bored with life in the oil fields, moved to Los Angeles and married the actress Bonita Granville in 1947. Quietly, so quietly no one noticed, the McCarthys moved into a modest house in the suburb of La Porte. Now, as his estate of oil companies and cattle ranches is divided among greedy and self-serving relatives, one member is singled out for something special: Red's great-nephew, Jason. Wealth Nugget:He and this three older siblings inherited a stake in their father Dan Duncans pipeline firm, Enterprise. McCarthy insisted he couldnt pay unless allowed to develop New Ulm. McCarthy dragged himself back from Bolivia in 1957, bruised, battered, and, if not exactly penniless, no longer a rich man; unable to build a pipeline to transport the natural gas he had discovered, he sold his Bolivian interests to a group of American companies for $1.5 million, much of which he used to repay debts. Wealth Nugget:He is teaming up with architect Norman Foster on a Dallas skyscraper. I cant promise to be perfect, but I promise Ill try as hard as I can. A scant three years after its celebrated opening, the Shamrock was no longer Glenn McCarthys. a tough, but fair man a multi-billionaire one of the best men that Theodore J. Hamilton ever knew he put stipulations on who his money should go to he gave no one cash for their inheritance he wanted Jason to learn some things and prove that he had learned them before he put him in charge of his foundation To do that, however, it would be necessary to make an actual movie. We see blood on his chest and watch as Gus tries to patch him up. Four dozen more arrived on an American Airlines charter that afternoon. For Warner Mendel, it was the job from hell. By dusk the owners lawyers were standing in the mud alongside, ready to stop McCarthy at the stroke of midnight. McCarthy himself, like a latter-day Butch Cassidy, disappeared into the wilds of Bolivia, vowing to return with a second fortune. He lingered for nearly a year, finally dying, a day after his 81st birthday, on December 26, 1988. For Equitable executives, the first sign of real trouble came not from the oil fields or the Shamrock but from the chemical plant McCarthy had begun building east of Houston in 1946. Youve still got time, Red., Red changes his ways and apologizes to his children for having neglected them. Equitable had first realized the plant was in trouble the previous summer, when McCarthy approached its executives for money to fix it. They ultimately decided against it, fearing the public-relations nightmare of crippling a Texas legend and realizing that the Shamrock, if run properly, might yet turn a profit. But when he discovers his late grandfather's journal, he is transported back to Red Stevens' incredible world. And McCarthy, as its builder and owner, would emerge as the states dominant impresario, using newfound fame and contacts to expand into every conceivable business, to conquer New York and Hollywood, even Dallas. Wealth Nugget:He founded the Bonderman Travel Fellowship at the University of Washington to sponsor fellows to travel to at least six countries in eight months. Every few months the papers carried a new item about a fistfight or car accident. Out the door went his business suits. he could think of, then invited dignitaries from 24 foreign countries. Wealth Nugget:He was one of the first people to pledge $1 million in aid after Hurricane Harvey.Texans owner Bob McNair is getting his own giant statue. Jason and Alexias love has deepened following Emilys tragic death. Red Stevens : Our lives should be lived not avoiding problems but welcoming them as challenges that will strengthen us so that we can be victorious in the future. Summary of Ultimate Gift.docx - The movie centers on Red Stevens a Rachel Stevens shuts down 'lies' from ex-fianc Jeremy Edwards after he said he . Source of wealth: Restaurant, entertainment and casino empire, second-year owner of Houston Rockets. It had been coming for years. His journal relates, decade by decade, how he achieved his dream as well as his realization of the toll such a compulsive ambition takes on his wife, Hanna, and their four children. Jason and Alexia have champagne with a special meal. Writers Brian Bird (screenplay) One man bought one of the bars and opened it as the Shamrock Caf in a Houston strip mall. speakers hail shamrock as symbol of new era, blared a headline in the Chronicle, which termed the project perhaps the greatest ever undertaken by an individual in Texas. The Post coverage swallowed the entire front page. Wealth Nugget:He travels to developing countries to distribute hearing aids. A year later Hilton bought out McCarthys redemption rights, severing his last ties to the Shamrock, which was renamed the Shamrock Hilton. When the deadline arrived that August, however, the plant was still comatose. Everyone issued upbeat statements to the press, and the Houston newspapers, backing McCarthy to the end, ran stories emphasizing his tenuous chance at regaining ownership. All the men wore tuxedos, the women were in backless dresses with chiffon and taffeta trains and mink after mink after mink, diamonds dripping from every neck. One of Clint Murchisons closest friends, the Dallas oilman E. E. Buddy Fogelson, wed Greer Garson at his New Mexico ranch in 1949. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. The news vendors shifted uncomfortably in rented tuxedos. Gus repeatedly compares Red to toe fungus, complaining, Every time I get rid of you, you show up again.. An oilman going bankrupt in Texas? No surprise there. And then it hit him: the Middle East. When the network returned live five minutes later, however, the Emerald Rooms microphones failed. Youre my fortune, Alexia. That would be beneath an oligarch of this magnitude. Its well-intended workaholism that drives a wedge in between Jason and Alexia. A crowd of 5,000 dominated by bobby-soxers ringed the train station and lined nearby rooftops for its arrival. Forbesmagazines new rankings of the 400 richest billionaires in America shows just how much money there is the Lone Star State. Weve all been in radio a long time, Gardner mused, but who has ever seen anything like this!. but energys definitely the Lone Star State lifeblood. But not in Texas. Red Stephens - Wikipedia Even his critics had to admit his dcor made a statement. In the years after World War II, the first great Texas oilmenH. But those involved, and the others who witnessed it, repeated the story until it became a part of McCarthy lore. 179 (tie). But according to Alanna Nashwho spent time with the real Colonel in the 90sthere were times when he was just as scary as what you see onscreen. As for Red, we see him work hard to help make money for his family in the Depression, and he shows a great deal of grit and determination to better his prospects as he grows older. Suddenly a man rushed up, lifted a camera, and snapped a photo. For McCarthy, the only good news was that the national publications that celebrated his rise generally failed to notice his fall. All during the 1940s, however, Texas called to her. Undaunted, McCarthy looked elsewhere. It needed immediate and total control. The second, to McCarthy, would be for a jaw-dropping $22 million, among the largest loans Equitables board had ever approved. He envisioned a Hollywood-style gala, complete with spotlights and movie stars. Its executives had opened their first oil lending office in Dallas just weeks before, in May 1945. McCarthy didnt come to the big Irish wake they had thrown on June 9, 1986, the night the Shamrock closed. Red learns that lesson the hard way, becoming desensitized to lifes blessings in his dogged pursuit of big bucks. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. City: Austin. But when the old tycoon dies and leaves behind an unorthodox will, Jason embarks on a journey that will yield an inheritance cash alone could never match. On Tuesday, with two days left, McCarthy flew to Los Angeles to fetch his friend Howard Hughes and finalize travel arrangements for the movie stars. It was all he really wanted anyway. McCarthy and Lamour caucused and decided to begin the broadcast anyway, with or without an audience in the Emerald Room. Bryan Burrough is a Vanity Fair special correspondent. He was too big, people said, the Shamrock too glamorous, the times too giddy to even consider such a thing. Trying to find guidance dealing with his family and a strained relationship, Jason starts reading his grandfather's journal. He offered to drill wells for next to nothing, and a few wildcatters, no doubt mindful who his father-in-law was, gave him a chance. Drayton McLane Jr. But lately John P. Stevens has been making news as an incubator for blue-chip business leaders. Wealth Nugget:: He ownsChub Cayisland in the Bahamas. The first hint of impending change came on a cool, windy afternoon in February 1948, when Hunt, wearing an off-the-rack tan gabardine suit and gray fedora, emerged from the Mercantile National Bank building onto the sidewalk along Commerce Street in downtown Dallas. Net worth: $2.5 billion McCarthy had wagered $1,500 on a Texas A&M football game, but there was a mix-up; the bookie thought McCarthy had bet on the loser, not the winner. Cameron, however, was a serial philanderer, and Miller left him several months later upon finding him engaged in an impromptu pool party with 17 young ladies in bikinis. Joe Millionaire: Steven Calls Calah A 'Wild Card' In Finale Preview Clip Each assignment is centered around a "gift". A few days later reporters trailed McCarthy to Paris, where he was staying at the Hotel George V with Howard Hughess onetime P.R. Still, just about everyone in Dallasand around the countrywas floored by the headline in the April 5, 1948, issue of Life. ". As a Hollywood columnist wrote in 1954, The Texas jillionaires seem to gravitate to the motion pictures like a moth to a candle.. It was losing money. The pool became the showcase where Houstons youngest, most beautiful, and richest women came to see and be seen. But McCarthy was a man with dreamsvast, historic, world-altering dreams. His results were impressive; even when McCarthy found no oil, he drilled fast, worked hard, and came in under budget. McCarthy angrily summoned the man who had arranged the bet, a sports promoter named Larry Rummans. Tourists from all over the world poured through the front doors, ogling McCarthys opulent Texas Riviera, as the gossip columnists quickly christened it. Lamour, now joined by Van Heflin and a comic named Ed Gardner, tried to get the crowds attention, but it was no use. Every time a barrel of foreign oil comes in America, a barrel less is produced in Texas, he groused. The stereotype of the raw, hard-living, bourbon-swilling, fistfighting, cash-tossing, damn-the-torpedoes Texas oil millionaire did not exist before Glenn McCarthy rocketed into the national imagination in the late 1940s. The story of Glenn McCarthy, once Houstons greatest wildcatter, had one final chapter. That morning the stars began to arrive. Published Mar 10, 2022. McCarthy fumed and waited for one to be built. Kent threw McCarthy to the floor and was sitting on his chest when four burly Shamrock waiters attacked him and then, along with McCarthy, began chasing him around the club, overturning tables in little explosions of expensive stemware. She became a beloved Texas philanthropist, endowed the Greer Garson Theatre, at Southern Methodist University, and died in 1996. No other Texas oilman ever rose so high or fell so hard. McCarthy signed. The opening alone was costing him $1.5 million. We hear that Hamilton has been in a terrible car accident. Hunts 15 children. Wealth Nugget:: He founded Trilogy Software. Wealth Nugget:The former engineer worked at Goodyear Tire and Kraft Foods before getting his MBA at Columbia. Many people on Wall Street think that Bobby is based on billionaire Bill Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund management company, due to the same initials, but Damian has said that's not the case . He claimed his station sold more gasoline than any other in Houston, and he may have been right. Wealth Nugget:Hes in the process of getting a custom-made Bugatti. Red Stevens (James Garner) is a crusty, old billionaire who dies suddenly in an air crash. Wealth Nugget:He made money during the Great Recession by buying struggling assets. Red Bull emerged as a dominant force in F1. McCarthy fired the dancing girls. He tried to sound excited about the venture, taking along Houston reporters to watch him begin drilling, but it felt like exile. 2023 Cond Nast. There was a war on. No one outside the oil business had heard of Glenn McCarthy. Amid the din, Lamours radio audience heard little but crowd noise, interspersed with curses from the control room. Hunt, Fortune said, was the biggest of The Big Rich, and thus also probably the richest individual in the U.S.. But the big event, the announcement that introduced much of Houston to the McCarthy whirlwind, was the hotels groundbreaking. A seven-time Academy Award nomineeshe won the 1943 Oscar for best actress in Mrs. MiniverGarson eased away from Hollywood after her marriage and settled into a long, quiet life in Dallas with Fogelson, who died in 1987. Night approached. In 1967 the Houston vice squad launched an investigation after a guest claimed McCarthy had hosted an orgy at the club, complete with live sex acts atop the tables; nothing came of it. Chaos ensued. Just as The Ulimate Gift did, this second Ultimate offeringwhich is both a sequel and a prequel loosely based on the book by Jim Stovallpoignantly reminds us that our family and our relational legacy are of far greater worth than any worldly goal we might strive to achieve. "[9] Christianity Today felt the film warranted 3.5 out of 4 stars and called it "lovingly crafted but never manages to build up much mystery, suspense, tension, or narrative steam. Parents, get practical information from a biblical worldview to help guide media decisions for your kids! He was known as a man who could drill a well in half the time it would take a major oil company, a geologist named Michel Halbouty recalled, a man inclined to raise his fists at every affront whether large, small or imaginary but he could charm Lady Godiva off her horse.. On January 18, an updated analysis of McCarthys overall reserves reached Equitables board. Reality TV Star, Billionaire Wildcatter Uncovered In West - Forbes Off in the corners, McCarthys security men exchanged nervous glances. Source of wealth: Computer services, real estate. While sleeping in a park, he encounters a woman, Alexia, and her outspoken daughter, Emily. His deeds, McCarthy knew, had to match the look. Her name was Edna Ferber. Wealth Nugget:He is the founder of Patron and cofounder of John Paul Mitchell Systems. The Green Promise was complete, and would premiere at a Houston theater the night after the hotels opening; city fathers had agreed to stage a torchlit evening parade in its honor. Whether they sprang from his hardscrabble beginnings, a desire to eclipse his father-in-law, or something else altogether, McCarthy burned to rise above the Hunts and Cullens and Richardsons atop the Texas pyramid, to own titanic refineries and office towers and continent-spanning pipelines. Jason isnt as naturally driven by ambition as his grandfather was. It was the last most of Texas would see of McCarthy for a very long time. He dropped out of high school, but later leveraged his gridiron prowess into brief stays at Rice Institute (now Rice University) and Texas A&M, where he was expelled for hazing. So frenetic were McCarthys preparations that year, and so effective Nahas at publicizing them, it sometimes seemed McCarthy was the only oilman in Houston in 1946. But McCarthy didnt give up. He tried to sell the New Ulm field to Howard Hughes but couldnt. Around Houston he had become a human tornado of postwar progress, donating land for a new airport, holding press conferences to announce charitable gifts, riding a horse in the rodeo parade, lobbying to bring the city a professional baseball or football team. All through the war years, with little fanfare, he opened new fields, extended old ones, and fattened his accounts. The Equitable, meanwhile, slowly broke apart his empire. The hotel was losing money, and fast. Before Hunt could react, the man disappeared into the crowds. Howard Red Stevens: The Ultimate Gift - 727 Words - StudyMode The Ultimate Gift is a 2006 American drama film directed by Michael O. Sajbel from a screenplay written by Cheryl McKay, which is based on the best selling novel by Jim Stovall, who cameos in the film. As the self-absorbed grandson of billionaire oil baron Red Stevens, Jason Stevens lacks nothingexcept purpose. With his inheritance, Jason chooses to build a hospital, called Emily's Home, for children with terminal illnesses, but before the building begins, Emily dies. Inside Aspen's 'Billionaire Mountain,' Where the Rich and Famous Live It was a sign of things to come. All rights reserved. His grandson, Jason Stevens, who first has to pass a series of character tests administrated by his grandfathers lifelong friend and lawyer, Ted Hamilton. He would beat the oil importers at their own game. In exchange for signing over all his stock, and a promise to refrain from interfering in the Shamrocks operations, McCarthy could keep a suite at the hotel and spend a limited amount of money on business entertainment. From Everett Collection; digital colorization by Lorna Clark. Wealth Nugget:Daughter of the late Dan Duncan, she sits on the board of the University of Texas Health Science Center. Gifts of work, money, friends and learning are among the dozen that Jason must perform before he is eligible for the mysterious "Ultimate Gift" his grandfather's will has for him. By 1942, McCarthy was back drilling his own wells. Director Michael Landon Jr. (whose famous father was, of course, the kind-but-stalwart patriarch of Little House on the Prairie) has admirably crafted a film the whole family can both enjoy and talk about together, as everyone in said family is urged to focus first on that family and their cherished relationships. Engineers spent months tinkering with equipment, but could never figure out why. But by 8:20 the P.A. On the topic of the eccentric Scandi billionaire, who in every red flag going continued to send blood to an . Up and down Fifth Avenue, scores of New York lenders, keenly aware of the massive loans Sid Richardson and Clint Murchison had taken, were flocking to find oilmen of their own to fund. The rest of the United States regarded it with a sort of fond consternation. Lamour fled to her suite in tears. If he could make a fortune once, McCarthy reasoned, he could do it again. He strongly resents his grandfather because his father had died while working for him. In the first scene, "Red" reveals how Jason will ultimately discover his inheritance. Forgive me for not putting you first in my life, Jason tells her. Movieguide reviews the family drama THE ULTIMATE LIFE Forbes 400: The Richest People In Texas, 2017 He first goes to Texas where he works on his grandfather's friend Gus Caldwell's ranch for a month, learning what hard work is. After the groundbreaking for Emily's Home, Jason is recalled to the law firm for one more meeting and told he has exceeded the expectations of his dead grandfather, and he is given the final gift of $2-billion dollars, rewarding Jason not only for his completing the tasks, but for using the $100-million to help others. A billionaire with questionable priorities re-examines his life after discovering his grandfather's journal.A billionaire with questionable priorities re-examines his life after discovering his grandfather's journal.A billionaire with questionable priorities re-examines his life after discovering his grandfather's journal. Of course, Walmart heiress Alice Walton reached the tippy top of Texas financial titans. Inside, everyone crowded into the lobby for champagne; a cowboy actor, Don Red Barry, sipped his from the slipper of Beaumont oil heiress Ann Justice. Giant is the story of an oil-and-ranching family clearly modeled on the Kleberg clan, who ran (and still run today) the vast King Ranch. A Billionaire's Story - New York Times The Ultimate Life picks up three years later. man whispered. McCarthy would still run things, but under the watchful eye of a comptroller Equitable brought in to oversee his finances. He sold some neighboring leases and managed to raise enough for one last wildcat, but this too came in dry. Equitables board arm-twisted McCarthy into downsizing the Shamrock project, eliminating the apartment buildings, the shopping center, the grocery, the drugstore, and the theater, leaving only the hotel, which was fine by McCarthy. At Anahuac, Chocolate Bayou, Angleton, Collins Lake, Coleto Creek, North and South Stowellovernight, it seemedMcCarthy became the hottest oil finder in Texas. This brings him to address his resentment over the death of his father there, and he makes a trip into the mountains with a local guide to see where it happened. Red Stevens Net Worth - Celebrity Net Worth Wiki Unfortunately, Houston had no movie stars.