Into New Territory

On the West Coast, two widely different takeovers last week were the business talk of the territory: >Gulf & Western Industries, the auto parts, chemicals and mining conglomerate, which went hip-deep into the entertainment field last October by buying troubled Paramount Pictures in a $165 million stock swap deal, waded in farther. G&W agreed to take over Hollywood's Desilu Productions, the TV film maker controlled by Comedienne Lucille Ball, for $17 million in stock. Desilu produces four TV series (The Lucy Show, Mission: Impossible, Star Trek and You Don't Say), rents production facilities to 13 others, including I Spy and Corner Pyle. All of this earned Desilu $734,000 on revenues of $18.8 million in fiscal 1966. Charles G. Bluhdorn, 40, the Vienna-born immigrant who whipped G&W into a $317 million corporation (TIME cover, Dec. 3, 1965), sees "great potential" in the entertainment field, which now accounts for 30% of his company's sales. Last December Bluhdorn hired former CBS-TV President John T. Reynolds, who will now work to expand Desilu's profits as well as Paramount's TV business. Weary of Desilu's $75,000-a-year presidency, Lucille is said to be anxious to sell her 60% shareholding, worth more than $10 million, and devote full time to being Desilu's star performer. >Humble Oil & Refining, Jersey Standard's domestic subsidiary, will pay more than $30 million for California Standard's 1,500 Signal Oil service stations in California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Humble is far and away the leading gasoline seller on the Eastern Seaboard, and the new stations will give it a long-sought boost on the West Coast by doubling its slim 2% share of the market. Humble had previously tried to break in in a big way by buying Tidewater's refining and marketing operation--only to be stopped dead by the Justice Department. This time round, the company is building its own $135 million refinery near San Francisco, which will supply the new stations with Enco (for Energy Co.) gas--Humble's West Coast brand name. Cal Standard, for its part, will now concentrate on its own brands, Chevron and Standard.

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