The last tycoons: the secret history of Lazard Frères & Co (133 page)

"Unlike most government officials": Ibid.

"My being able": Ibid.

"He is the Big Apple's Henry Kissinger":
WSJ,
September 22, 1978.

"Our economy is out of control": Felix G. Rohatyn,
The Twenty-Year Century
(New York: Random House, 1984), p. 170.

"Being in the public eye":
W,
February 2, 1979.

Chapter 8. Felix for President

"From my point of view": Interview with FGR.

"In the last couple of years": Cary Reich, "The Legacy of Andre Meyer,"
Institutional Investor,
April 1979.

"broad tape": FGR's memorandum, January 24, 1979.

"The procedure outlined": Frank Pizzitola memorandum, February 28,1979.

"One year, we paid": Interview with Frank Zarb, April 27, 2005.

"He has a European": Reich, "Legacy of Andre Meyer."

"today probably closest personal friend": Andy Logan, "Around City Hall,"
NY,
April 30, 1979.

"Liz was getting very frustrated": Interview with Victor Gotbaum, February 28, 2006.

"Felix wanted him": Ibid.

"We had an extraordinarily enlightening": Logan, "Around City Hall."

"It didn't unwind": Interview with Gotbaum, February 28, 2006.

"Felix was very nervous": Ibid.

"propelled him to national prominence":
NYT,
October 16, 1983.

"I like big cities":
Newsweek,
May 4,1981.

"felt that it was unfair," Logan, "Around City Hall."

"certainly a moral conflict of interest":
New York Post
and also
NYT,
March 7, 1979.

"The privilege of public service": Jack Tamagni letter of resignation,
NYT,
March 8, 1979.

"notable public service":
Economist,
March 17, 1979; and Logan, "Around City Hall."

"a pretty shabby episode": New York
Daily News;
and Logan, "Around City Hall."

"I don't accept that notion": Logan, "Around City Hall."

"If Guidry can pitch":
NYT
, May 18,1979.

"I thought it was outrageous": Interview with FGR, May 25, 2005.

"the fact was that he did not": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"They are making a fortune":
NYT,
September 11, 1979.

"In any walk of life":
Euromoney
interview with MDW, March 1981.

"It would be a mistake": Interview with Damon Mezzacappa, August 2, 2004.

"for me it was all about the future": Ibid.

"That was Tom's job": Ibid.

"A nice man but": Ibid.

"became a bit of a sore point": Ibid.

"So for a while": Ibid.

"Really? Where is this computer?": Interview with WL, January 26, 2005.

"It was very controversial": Ibid.

"Then for the first time": Ibid.

"I mean, what are these guys up to?": Interview with Mina Gerowin, January 6, 2005.

"And I didn't want to be": Ibid.

"First of all, it was so": Ibid.

"Fred comes in and he lectures me": Ibid.

"I didn't have a clue": Interview with Luis Rinaldini, November 9, 2004.

"I must have called him ten to fifteen times": Ibid.

"Felix had a reputation at the time": Ibid.

"I think it really became the means": Interview with Jim Manzi, March 15,2005.

"There are some incredibly smart people": Ibid.

"We explained to Jacques Attali": Interview with MDW, November 30, 2005.

"They understood before anyone else": Martine Orange,
Ces messieurs de Lazard
(Paris: Albin Michel, 2006), p. 196.

"I believe in the free market": William Serrin,
NYT,
April 21, 1981.

"demanding a fundamental change": Ibid.

"We have an educational system": Ibid.

"I am getting calls": Thomas Eagleton to FGR, November 29, 1982, used with permission of Sen. Eagleton and the
Thomas F. Eagleton Papers, 1944-1987,
Uniform Historical Manuscript Collection, Columbia, Mo.

"The war we are going to fight": In substantially the same form in Felix G. Rohatyn,
Twenty-Year Century
(New York: Random House, 1984), p. 36.

"For the handful of men": Leslie Wayne, "The Corporate Raiders,"
NYT,
July 18, 1982.

"These fees don't come from widows and orphans": Ibid.

"The level of fees is so different": Ibid.

"There's a general perception":
NYT,
October 4, 1982.

"Anyone can win": Ibid.

"Rohatyn's progress": Michael Kinsley, "The Double Felix,"
New Republic,
March 26, 1984.

"To me, this was an outrageous breach": Leon Levy and Eugene Linden,
The Mind of Wall Street
(New York: Public Affairs, 2002), pp. 131-32.

"We don't like you":
Institutional Investor,
February 12, 2004.

Chapter 9. "The Cancer Is Greed"

"calmly handed a co-worker":
New York Post,
December 11, 1984; and Dan Dorfman, "Probing a Mysterious Suicide at Lazard Freres,"
New York,
February 11, 1985, p. 15.

"I think there were three people": Ralph Nader and William Taylor,
The Big Boys: Power and Position in American Business
(New York: Pantheon, 1986), p. 214.

John A. Grambling Jr.: The account of Grambling's illegal spree can be found in Brian Rosner,
Swindle
(Homewood, Ill.: Business One Irwin, 1990), and in Ed Cony's front-page
WSJ
article, March 23, 1987.

Forstmann Little closed the Dr Pepper deal on February 28, 1984: Tombstone advertisement,
WSJ,
March 7,1984.

Continental Illinois Bank's contractual obligation: Bound volumes of closing of Dr Pepper deal from the offices of Forstmann Little & Co.

Robert Wilkis's role in the Dennis Levine insider trading scandal: James B. Stewart,
Den of Thieves
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), and Douglas Frantz,
Levine & Co.
(New York: Holt, 1987).

"perhaps not the best person": Interview with John Grambling Jr.

"As the revelations of illegality": Felix Rohatyn, "The Blight on Wall Street,"
New York Review of Books,
March 12,1987.

"thunderstruck": Interview with FGR, February 25, 2005.

"And I just couldn't get over it": Ibid.

like Caesar's Gaul: Kate Bohner,
Forbes,
November 20, 1995.

the 1984 creation of Lazard Partners: This information comes from the May 1984 prospectus about the deal that Pearson was required to file publicly and from Ian Fraser,
The High Road to England
(London: Michael Russell, 1999).

"finally exorcising Meyer's ghost":
BusinessWeek,
June 18, 1984.

"It was Michel's doing": Ibid.

"Already I feel a fantastic current":
NYT,
May 28, 1984.

"I wouldn't be telling the truth": Ibid.

"You kiss Michel's ring":
WSJ,
September 6, 1984.

"I think very highly of him": Ibid.

"Michel goes anywhere": Ibid.

"no longer as influential": Ibid.

"was very reluctant": David McClintick, "Life at the Top,"
NYT Magazine,
August 5, 1984.

"I am satisfied": Lenny Glynn and Elizabeth Peer, "Felix: The Making of a Celebrity,"
Institutional Investor,
December 1984.

"Bankruptcy is like stepping into a tepid bath": Judith Ramsey Ehrlich and Barry Rehfeld,
The New Crowd
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1989), p. 133; and Peter Hellman, "The Wizard of Lazard,"
NYT Magazine,
March 21, 1976.

tracked Felix's press notices: "The Felix Index,"
Institutional Investor,
December 1984.

"I have compared him to a great fish": Glynn and Peer, "Felix."

"straight in the eye": Fraser,
High Road to England,
p. 356.

Chapter 10. The Vicar

"spent part of his youth":
Financial Times,
October 25, 2001.

"At the risk of intruding": WL to Chris Lacovara, January 20, 1988.

"the world's best associate": Interview with WL, January 26, 2005.

"I was concerned that I was ever more": Ibid.

"Anyone who does this job": WL memorandum, 1984.

"This damn thing turned into":
WSJ,
November 8, 1985.

"It's the deal of the century": Ibid.

"Today things are getting badly out of hand": "Merger Tango,"
Time,
December 23, 1985.

"The integrity of our securities markets": FGR testimony before U.S. Senate, Banking, Finance, and Insurance Subcommittee, June 6, 1985.

"The way we are going will destroy": "Merger Tango."

Account of Marcel Katz's insider trading:
WSJ,
July 14 and August 8, 1986.

log cabin home:
Architectural Digest,
June 1997.

"while dazzling benefit dinners": Kathleen Teltsch,
NYT,
November 24,1985.

"There is so much concentration": Kathleen Teltsch,
NYT,
January 5, 1986.

cover story: Ron Rosenbaum, "The Shame of the Super Rich," in
Manhattan Passions
(New York: Penguin Press, 1988), p. 25. Originally appeared in
Manhattan Inc.

"Felix the Cat and Snow White vs. the Social Sisters":
W,
May 19, 1986.

"What we serve":
NYT,
June 8, 1986.

"It's just not something":
NYT,
March 13, 1986.

"Having followed your career": Ibid.

Felix's growing fame, though:
NYT,
April 12, 1990.

W
feature article on MDW in Cap d'Antibes: August 11, 1986.

"This was just a terrible article": Interview with Damon Mezzacappa, August 2, 2004.

"Michel really started to love": Ibid.

"In
Euromoney
six years ago": WL memorandum, September 24, 1986.

"They were Pearson men": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"I don't think these people": Interview with MDW, January 31, 2005.

"In my judgment, we should": WL to MDW, November 6, 1986.

"Given the opportunity": Interview with Robert Agostinelli, April 21, 2005.

"I thought my career was over": Ibid.

"Bob is not normal": WL to MDW, November 6, 1986.

"You are Lazard": Interview with Agostinelli, April 21, 2005.

"There are, for example, more partners": WL memorandum to MDW, January 20, 1987.

"You people are the most ungrateful": Interviews with former Lazard analysts.

"There is a need to increase": WL memorandum to MDW, March 10, 1987.

"When I was an associate": WL memorandum to MDW, November 6,1987.

"of paramount concern": WL memorandum to MDW, October 31, 1987.

"Fundamentally, the issues of concern": WL memorandum to MDW, April 10, 1988.

"This is the time to be commercially aggressive": Ibid.

"is a long-lasting boil": WL memorandum to MDW, May 9, 1988.

"The excellence of our partners": MDW and FGR memorandum, May 20,1988.

"It's more than probable": "The Last Emperor,"
BusinessWeek,
May 30, 1988.

"The intimacy between Felix and I": Ibid.

"Felix and Ira": Leslie Wayne, "In Search of a Richer Lazard,"
NYT,
April 30, 1989.

"It's not bad having Babe Ruth": Ibid.

"None of your goddamn business": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"The Fortune 500 is our target" and "Lazard of the 90s":
WSJ,
February 3,1988.

"The Wasserstein thing":
Business-Week,
May 30, 1988.

"Accountability for partners": WL memorandum to MDW, August 29, 1988.

"Bill Loomis has decided": MDW memorandum to the banking group, November 30, 1988.

"It was one of those moments": Interview with Nat Gregory, February 4,2005.

"Running banking at Lazard": Ibid.

Chapter 11. The Boy Wonder

"special situations":
NYT,
April 30 and April 7, 1989.

"Lazard has been in the junk bond business":
NYT,
April 7, 1989.

"In two days the whole thing": Interview with SR, September 14, 2004.

"What I didn't really understand": Interview with Luis Rinaldini, November 9, 2004.

"It's tough competition": Ibid.

"Intelligence...spark...humor...wit": Partners' meeting minutes quoting MDW, February 21, 1990.

"soon after I got to Morgan Stanley": Ed Klein, "Paramount Player,"
Vanity Fair,
January 1994.

"I used to develop sources": Philip Weiss, "The Rise of Steven Rattner,"
Washington Monthly,
May 1, 1986.

"Hello Sweetheart, Get Me Mergers and Acquisitions": Ibid.

"Nothing good was going to come": Interview with SR, September 14, 2004.

In short order, she ran it into the ground: Summary of the lengthy May 31, 1995, "Decision and Order" of the National Labor Relations Board against Paragon Paint Corp. and its owner, Selma Rattner. The case is now used as part of a University of Texas at Dallas course, "Ethics, Culture, and Public Responsibility." Said the professor: "She inherited Paragon Paint from her father, and evidently was unable to deal with it and hated it. The workers were stuck."

"It's tough to be a first child": Weiss, "Hello Sweetheart."

"kind of 'Goodbye, Columbus'": Peter Applebome,
NYT,
May 16, 2004.

674 and counting:
Brown Daily Herald,
October 17, 1973.

"surpass Babe Ruth's mark": SR,
Brown Daily Herald,
November 5, 1973.

"those folks in University Hall": SR,
Brown Daily Herald,
January 11,1974.

"the most honored job": Michael Wolff, "The Clark Kent Timesman,"
New York,
November 10, 2003.

"Steve and I were both involved": Klein, "Paramount Player."

"I don't know how people": Weiss, "Hello Sweetheart."