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Trump vs. Hefner, Apple Avoids Bankruptcy, and First Ever Canned Beer
Welcome to This Week In Ticker History, where every stock has a story
David Prince
January 20, 2025
Welcome back, Ticker Historians.
We’ve got a new (old) President, banks reporting record earnings, and FDA approval for Zyn nicotine pouches.
We’ve lost Tik Tok. Fair trade?
Good luck to Ohio State and Notre Dame tonight, we just hope both teams have fun.
As always, stay bullish.
Own a piece of Wall Street history. Check out the Ticker History Shop for stock certificates from your favorite companies.
Atlantic City, 1981: Trump and Hugh Hefner Go To War 📅
In the early 80’s, real estate developer Donald Trump battled Playboy magazine publisher Hugh Hefner over Atlantic City casino licenses.
There were a limited number to go around, and both billionaires wanted a piece.
 Trump poses for a New York Times feature story in 1980. |  Hefner with his then-girlfriend Sondra Theodore in 1981. |
Hefner had a head start, opening the Playboy Hotel in Atlantic City as a themed destination resort in 1980 and immediately applied for a casino license. His bid was rejected on April 8th, 1982, with the state of New Jersey listing several concerns with Hefner’s lifestyle and business dealings.
Four weeks earlier on March 15, 1982, Trump received his license for a new hotel and casino in Atlantic City. The New Jersey Casino Commission preferred Trump’s clean cut, conservative presentation of Hefner’s more flashy, sex-focused lifestyle. There were also concerns that some of Hefner’s associates were linked to the New York Mafia, a major red flag for the group concerned with the integrity of the casino industry.
There is circumstantial evidence that Trump’s political connections and business dealings with members of the NJCC may have helped his approval.
In an ironic turn, the Playboy Hotel was purchased by Trump in the early 1990’s and rebranded as the Trump Regency Hotel. Over the coming decades, all off the casinos Trump opened in Atlantic City would declare bankruptcy.
This Week In Business History 📅
January 24, 1848 James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California, sparking the official start of the Gold Rush. |  A prospector from the 1890’s. |
January 21, 1911 The first-ever Monte Carlo Rally, organized by Prince Albert I of Monaco, is held to promote tourism in the principality during the winter season. The race would held solidify the automobile’s place in European culture and would evolve into the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix in 1950. |  Participants traveled from across Europe to converge in Monaco for the race. |
January 25, 1886 The North Hudson County Railway opens the first elevated cable railway in the United States in Hoboken, New Jersey. Using a cable to go up steep hills, the “Hoboken Elevated” was the precursor to above-ground subway lines in New York City and Chicago. |  An elevated train runs in Hoboken in the 1890’s. |
January 24, 1935 Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company introduces Krueger’s Finest, the first ever canned beer. The flat-top steel cans, developed by the American Can Company, revolutionized the beer industry by offering a lightweight alternative to traditional glass bottles. |  The full lineup of canned beers Gottfried Kreuger introduced in the 1930’s. |
January 25, 1919 U.S. Steel, under the leadership of J.P. Morgan, becomes the first U.S. company to reach a market value of over $1 billion. Morgan and his partner Elbert H. Gary controlled over two-thirds of the steel market at the time, forcing competitors to close up or get bought out. |  Morgan, Gary, and the U.S. Steel board of directors in 1919. |
January 24, 1984: Apple Releases The Macintosh 📅
After the release of the Apple Lisa in 1983, Apple was at the brink of bankruptcy. While customers liked the Lisa’s user-friendly features, its price tag ($9,995!) made it inaccessible to most people. Apple pivoted with the release of the Macintosh, and computers were never the same.
The Macintosh featured a 9-inch monochrome display, 128 KB of RAM, and a built-in 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. Like the Lisa, the Macintosh had a graphical user interface (GUI) controlled via a mouse, making it accessible for non-technical users, but unlike the Lisa, it cost only $2,495.
Two days prior to its release, Apple debuted its iconic "1984" commercial directed by Ridley Scott debuted during the Super Bowl XVIII, building massive hype across the country and driving demand for the new product.
Within its first year, Apple sold over 250,000 units of the Macintosh, much better than the 10,000 Lisa units that were sold the previous year. The Mac's GUI with menus, files and folders became the inspiration for other operating systems including Microsoft Windows and set the standard for modern computing.
Are You Ready For Some Football? 📅
Forget Ohio State vs. Notre Dame in the CFB championship tonight.
Let’s take a look at the Carnegie-Mellon Tartans and other schools founded by great American industrialists.
This Just In 📅
In the early 1900’s, the Belgian colony in Congo was a gold mine. Literally.
 A map of the Belgian Congo from the 1920’s. |  Children fleeing Kilo-Moto during the Congolese civil war in 1992. |
When gold deposits were discovered in Congo, King Albert I established the Société des Mines d'Or de Kilo-Moto in 1919 to help fund Belgium’s post-World War I recovery. These were the largest gold mines on the continent, producing 80% of African’s gold.
In years following Congo’s independence in 1960, the country suffered from political unrest, and civil wars with arms purchased with stolen gold from Kilo-Moto disrupted operations.
Own a piece of history- check out the 1944 stock certificate from Société des Mines d'Or de Kilo-Moto below!
Looking Forward 📅
That’s old news. What can we look forward to?
Markets closed today- one less chance to lose money.
We’ve got the CFB Championship tonight and the NFL conference championships on Sunday. Let’s go!
Tesla and Microsoft both report earnings on 1/29. How’s the Cybertruck affecting the bottom line?
The National Association of Realtors releases their report on home sales on 1/23, giving us a picture of the national real estate market.
Severance Season 2, American Primeval, Squid Game Season 2, The Pitt, Landman- so much good TV.
Stay safe, stay warm, and stay bullish. |
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