Serge Semenenko
Serge Semenenko (1903[1] – April 24, 1980[2]) was a prominent member of the so-called "White Russian" emigre community that fled Bolshevism and revolution, achieving success as a Hollywood banker in the 1950s and 1960s through his affiliation with the First National Bank of Boston. His is remembered as a gracious and generous philanthropist. His most notable gift was an elegant Park Avenue mansion in the northern reaches of Manhattan's Upper east Side, presented to the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in 1958. [3]
He was born in Odessa (then part of Imperial Russia) on August 26, 1903 and fled with his family to Constantinople (now Istanbul ) at the age of 18.[4] There he studied studied at both Classical College and Robert College and graduated with a GPA of 8.5 out of 10. He then moved to the United States to continue his studies at Harvard Business School.[5]
In 1956 he was part of a group of investors who bought out the shares in Warner Bros. Pictures that were sold by Harry Warner and Albert Warner.
The Warners bought the Brunswick label in 1930, but the collapse of the record market during the Great Depression cost the studio heavily and the label was sold to the American Record Corporation at the end of 1931 for a fraction of its former value. As a result, Warner Bros. had shied away from any involvement in the record business for the next 25 years.
According to music historian Fred Goodman, Semenenko had a strong interest in the entertainment business. After joining the Warner Bros. board he pushed studio boss Jack L. Warner to establish a recorded music division, which was eventually incorporated in 1958 as Warner Bros. Records.[6]
Semenenko put together a syndicate of six banks in 1963 to help a troubled Curtis Publishing.[7]
In 1967, he resigned as vice-chairman and a director of First Boston after his activities were dissected in a first article in The Wall Street Journal.[8]
Notes
[edit]- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2010-03-12.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Fowler, Glenn (28 April 1980). "SERGE SEMENENKO, FINANCIER, IS DEAD; Ex-Bank Executive in Boston and Investment Counselor Was 76 Helped Acquire Film Companies". The New York Times.
- ^ "SERGE SEMENENKO, FINANCIER, IS DEAD; Ex-Bank Executive in Boston and Investment Counselor Was 76 Helped Acquire Film Companies". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-11-27.
- ^ "TimesMachine: Sunday April 5, 1964 - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-11-27.
- ^ https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,941573,00.html
- ^ Fred Goodman, The Mansion on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen, Springsteen and the Head-on Collision of Rock and Commerce (Jonathon Cape, London, 1997, ISBN 0-224-05062-1), p.44
- ^ "Decline of Key Magazines Rocked Curtis Empire; Publisher, Beset by Financial and Management Woes, Still Fighting Losses" (PDF). Retrieved 2018-06-12.
- ^ McClintick, David. Indecent Exposure: A True Story of Hollywood and Wall Street (Collins Business Essentials) ISBN 0-06-050815-9
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