Kings of the Mountain

Who are the highest paid executives in U.S. industry? In a survey of 400 key executives, Business Week magazine reported that the top three all made more than $700,000 in salary and bonus last year. Best paid: General Motors President Harlow H. Curtice with $776,400. Second was Bethlehem Steel Chairman Eugene G. Grace with $705,923, and third G.M.'s Board Chairman Albert Bradley with $701,525. Right behind was Du Pont President Crawford H. Greenewalt, whose $642,619 came from a $178,619 salary and a whopping $464,000 bonus. A few notches lower, Chrysler Corp. President L. L. Colbert picked up a $249,800 bonus for boosting car sales, thus doubling his 1954 pay to $500,700.

Another eye opener: Columbia Broadcasting System's Director Edward R. (See It Now) Murrow, whose $316,000 pay was highest for the industry, even more than that of President Frank Stanton ($293,857) and Chairman William S. Paley ($241,526) or of R.C.A.'s David Sarnoff ($200,000). Others in the salary stratosphere:

$500,000 to $600,000: Ford Motor Co.'s Chairman Ernest R. Breech and President Henry Ford 11; General Motors Executive Vice Presidents Louis C. Goad and Frederic G. Donner.

$400,000 to $500,000: Ford's Executive Vice Presidents Lewis D. Crusoe and Delmar S. Harder.

$300,000 to $400,000: Distillers Corp.-Seagrams' President Samuel Bronfman, International Business Machines' Chairman Thomas J. Watson, United Merchants 81 Manufacturers' President J. W.Schwab, Colgate-Palmolive Chairman Edward H. Little, Procter & Gamble President Neil H. McElroy, Republic Steel's President C. M. White.

$250,000 to $300,000: Union Carbide's President Morse G. Dial, American Tobacco's President Paul M. Hahn, Arnico Steel's President W. W. Sebald, National Steel's Chairman Ernest Tener Weir and President Thomas E. Millsop.

Of the total 400 executives in 132 companies covered by the survey, almost 65% made at least $100,000 in 1955. Notable exception: Remington Rand's Board Chairman Douglas MacArthur (see PEOPLE), whose 1955 salary came to $68,600.

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