Talk:Louis Lesser/Archive 1

Warren Buffett, David Susskind
I saw very old photo from the David Susskind Show, with Lesser on one side of Susskind, and a young Warren Buffett on the other. Does anyone know how to get transcripts on this old show? HkFnsNGA (talk) 02:53, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Photo of Lesser with Young Warren Buffet at his side on David Suskind Show
Lesser appeared with Warren Buffett at his side on the David Susking Show. Can someone help me with uploading the image? How do I find out if it is owned or in the public domain?HkFnsNGA (talk) 22:39, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Lesser Towers? Sterling Towers?
This is a weird situation because a mega-billionaire attorney renamed the building "Sterling Towers", and there are ads run almost EVERY week, and sometimes every day, in the LA Times saying this building was "Developed by Donald Sterling". But the 1963 Louis Lesser Annual Report has the building as its cover building, and shows clear pictures inside, shows the address, and clearly shows that it was developed by Louis Lesser Enterprises, not Donald Sterling, as do many news articles. What is going on here? Why all the LA Times ads? HkFnsNGA (talk) 02:49, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Unusual histories on these selected Lesser Buildings
I have found some weird information on these Lesser Buildings.
 * Western Edition Apartments, 918 Apartments, San Francisco, CA
 * Vista Terrace Apartments, 54 Apartments, Los Angeles, CA
 * West Loma Apartments, 260 Apartments, San Diego, CA
 * Oak Glen Apartments, 80 Apartments, San Diego, CA
 * Clairmont Apartments, 24 Apartments, San Diego, CA
 * Villa Pacific Apartments, 184 Apartments, San Diego, CA
 * Fort Sheridan Military Homes, 100 Apartments, Fort Sheriden, IL
 * Centerline Gardens, 150 Apartments, Warren Michigan
 * Los Angeles State College Residence Hall, 2600 Units, Los Angeles, CA

The information I am finding is not reliably sourced, and is pretty weird. Too weird to put in a BLP article, without AIRTIGHT reliable sources. Can anyone help here? HkFnsNGA (talk) 02:46, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Weirder and Weirder - Please help with sources re various named companies and Boards of Directorships, especially "Zenith Refinery"
Lesser has served on the boards of corporations, and owned and operated many, including Chairman of the Board of Cash Express, Inc., Director and Officer, Sea Transportation, Ltd., Lee Martin, Inc., Petro Oil and Gas, Inc., Sunset Oil Co., Eagle Oil Refinery Co., and was the Managing Director of Zenith Refinery, Ltd., which Lesser owned and operated, according to the Zenith Brochure, which has a picture of Lesser (with 1975 style sideburns) operating the controls at Zenith. Some information comes from a Zoominfo (which is not a reliable source) article, which appears to have been written by Creative Environments of Hollywood, Inc., a company owned by a mega-billionaire at the time of the article. Can anyone find any reliable sources on this? The Zenith Refinery situation is particularly strange, as it looks like Lesser left his major company in Hong Kong literally overnight, Lesser received nothing for the company, and a young low level employee suddenly had a half million Hong Kong dollars in his account, Zenith was sold to a German Company, with nothing going to Lesser, and the Chinese guy quickly turned the half million he suddenly got into a multi-billion dollar operation, with Lesser getting nothing, except getting out of Hong Kong overnight. HkFnsNGA (talk) 02:39, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Military Industrial Complex - Lesser Just Owned all the Buildings?
Lesser somehow seems to have locked up contracts under Kennedy and Johnson for so many military industrial complex buildings that it indicates something much more than that Lesser was simply a historic developer. Lesser was Civil Defense Commissioner for Los Angeles, and his residential buildings were nuclear fallout shelters. I would be surprised if there is not more to the story, but I can find nothing online, other than that Lesser somehow got all of these contracts and developed the buildings. Can anyone help with information above and beyond the simple facts I just cited, as it seems like intersting historic information, more than just about "a developer". HkFnsNGA (talk) 02:40, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Shah of Iran
There is mention of Lesser owning oil companies all over. There is also mention in reliable sources of Lesser owning and develpoling in Iran, in the 1950's and 1960's. Can anyone find anything about why Iran is mentioned with Lesser's name? I can find no information at all, beyond that Lesser "developed" in Iran. HkFnsNGA (talk) 02:57, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Death of Jeanne Lesser, Tri National Development Corporation Bankruptcy
Louis Lesser founded, owned most of the shares of, and operated Tri National Development Corporation. After the death of his wife Jeanne, to whom Lesser was married 70 years, Lesser entered a period of depression and gave up control of the company, retaining the majority of the stock, but moving to Hong Kong. The new operators angaged in controversial business practices, and on return from Hong Kong after three years, Lesser placed the business into Chapter 11 for reorganization. The trustee hired his neighbor law firm, who failed to clear title to hundreds of millions in real estate holdings in Mexico, and sold the real estate for only a little over $15 million, yet took out nearly 4 million for themselves before shareholders got anything, leaving Lesser, the principle shareholder, with nothing. Please help fact check this section so it can be added to the article. HkFnsNGA (talk) 07:10, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Ferdinand Marcos, Imelda Marcos, Japanese Gold Stolen from China in WWII, Death of Marcos, Kinor Ltd.
Lesser was partners in Kinor Ltd. with the questinable Ferdinand Marcos, and Imelda Marcos. Lesser helped Marcos move to Hawaii, where Marcos died. Lesser helped arrange the funeral, and Marcos was initially interred in Hawaii. Please help research Kinor, Ltd. with reliable sources, as well as the move and death of Marcos. HkFnsNGA (talk) 07:10, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Selling Las Vegas Casinos to Howard Hughes, Mentoring Kerk Kerkorian - Jimmy Hoffa, Morris Shenker, Samuel Kahn, Teamsters Financing, San Diego Land Deals,
"Selling Las Vegas Casinos to Howard Hughes, Mentoring Kerk Kerkorian - Jimmy Hoffa, Morris Shenker, Samuel Kahn, Teamsters Financing, San Diego Land Deals". I did not just make the title of this section up out of my own head. Morris Shenker "The Money Shaker" (That's what the LA Times called him) was Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa's and Samuel Kahn's attorney. Lesser sued for fraud, and won. This will need a lot of VERY reliable sourcing if it is to go into the main article. I guarantee it will be more fun than reading a detective novel. I have been reading, and can hardly stop, but I have not figured it all out yet. Please help. HkFnsNGA (talk) 07:48, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Temporarily Undoing edit of User:Epeefleche
User:Epeefleche, I am new to the Wikipedia formulas and codes. In Louis Lesser, I am temporarily undoing your edit, so I can practice using the formula you showed me, by redoing your exact edits, so it stays in my head how to do it, like an exercise. I will put your exact edit back in. If this is not proper etiquette, please let me know on the article talk page. Your edit will probably be restored by me before you even read this comment, but if I am doing something wrong, please let me know on the talk page of the article, otherwise, just ignore this comment, and my undoing and redoing your edit. Thank you. HkFnsNGA (talk) 13:34, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Please use named refs
You need to use named refs. They work like this: the first time you do and then the next time you use the same ref you just do. At the moment each repeat of a ref has its own number which is confusing and looks like padding. NBeale (talk) 19:08, 29 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Worse than looking like padding, it is hard for me to keep track of references when they are repeated over and over at the bottom. HkFnsNGA (talk) 02:50, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

Howard Hughes
It is clear from the multiple news sources that Lesser was Howard Hughes' landlord for Hughes Aircraft, developing most of the buildings for Hughes, then leasing them out to Hughes. Verbal sources, and nonreliable internet sources indicate that Lesser also had major interests in Las Vegas Casinos and Hotels, with Louis Lesser Enterprises, Inc. being the major shareholder in The Fontier Hotel (renamed New Frontier Hotel), the Glass Slipper Hotel, Moulin Rouge Hotel, the Dunes Hotel, and other hotels and casinos, including the Taj Majal and another property purchased by Donald Trump in Atlantic City. These verify major ownership interests in these hotels and casinos, which were apparantly sold to Howard Hughes and when Morris Shenker became involved in them, following the Jimmy Hoffa and Teamsters Union funding and the bad press coverage. It is unclear if Lesser was involved as a major player in the helping make the illegal teamsters loans, or if he just tried to get out of the ownership association when the mob connections were exposed. He certainly was not in the Hoffa-Shenker-Kahn camp by the time he filed suit in 1970, but I can not find news sources on any of this, other than what I put in the article, which leaves it ambiguous as to whether Lesser was the initial cause of the illegal loans, or collateral damage from them. There must be some kind of online public record of this, but the stock brokerage connection I have says his information is "proprietary", which makes no sense, since the stock transfers were public, as these were publicly traded companies. Does anyone know how to cite sources for the information of stock ownership and transfers of major chunks of the stock, when the sources are tock brokers doing the checking? HkFnsNGA (talk) 14:52, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

I'm afraid this is too long and wonder what your connection is with the subject
I hate to say this, but I really think this article is far too long in relation to the notability of the subject. Once it has survived the AfD it needs to be cut down to a reasonable length. Also I cannot help wondering what conection you have with the subject? I do not at all think that a connection should debar you from editing the article but I think it is fair to other editors to know what the connection is. NBeale (talk) 15:13, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I put a comment here, then read the BLP thing, then deleted my comment, because I said possibly negative things abuot a living person. HkFnsNGA (talk) 22:14, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I have to agree - this is a gigantic article in relative terms. Hazir (talk) 15:17, 2 December 2009 (UTC)
 * I have put a construction notice at top. I am writing articles on each of the sections. I just completed one yesterday.  There is considerable news coverage for each section topic.  After writing the independent articles (which will only mention Lesser briefly, since they are notable in themselves, I will then shorten the sections and refer them to the independent articles.  Could you look at the article I wrote yesterday and give me some guidance as to wheter I am on the right track for those articles? HkFnsNGA (talk) 16:08, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

POV/Fact check of articles that link here
I've checked several articles that link to this one, as well as the contribution history of, and have found that HkFnsNGA has been adding a lot of WP:PEACOCK terms ("historic developer Louis Lesser") to tangentially connected articles such as Fallout shelter (diff). He also added some uncited claims or claims where the citation didn't back up the claim on Donald Sterling, and made some other questionable claims about Lesser on San Manuel, Arizona , where the San Manuel Chamber of Commerce website makes no mention of the guy in the town's history. Need some help checking the "What links here" and HkFnsNGA's contribution history to check for BLP violations, peacock terms, and other factual issues. KuyaBriBri Talk 16:10, 30 November 2009 (UTC)


 * NOT TRUE, what User:Kuyabribri said.
 * The information User:Kuyabribri says I put in was NOT PUT IN THE ARTICLE BY ME; it was all there BEFORE my edits, as can be seen by the article as it existed BEFORE my edits, here.
 * All I did in addition to adding reliably sourced information was organize the information I already found in the article into an inelligable format, assuming the previous editors had reliable sources, without checking their sources.
 * If you want my POV, see the section on this talk page below - "Shady Deal?". Just because Lesser did business partners with every international world class shady character, does not mean Donald Sterling is any kind of angel, but I did not check the other previous editors' sources, I just organized them.
 * I added the ONLY reliably sourced information in the article here . In fact, the only thing User:Kuyabribri kept in the article was information that I added, so his/her accusations that I am the one who put unsourced POV in that article are NOT TRUE.

HkFnsNGA (talk) 17:49, 30 November 2009 (UTC)


 * I wrote this sentence, and it has a negative POV with a deliberate ambiguity, making it look like a lawless element returned, when it did not - "The sale of 5,000 acres of the ranch in 1875 started the City of Pomona. Churches, schools, and Pomona College ended the lawless element, prior to Lesser’s purchase." I was trying to be funny.  If humor is allowed, given the bad guys Lesser seemed to willfully do business with, leave it in,, but otherwise the clause "..., prior to Lesser’s purchase.... " should be removed. HkFnsNGA (talk) 22:44, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

Shady Deals?
Here is a bunch of stuff that requires reliable sources, to be included. It occured after the LA Times news blitz of 1950 to 1965. Did Lesser own the LA Times? Also, there are a bunch of other local newspapers in other states, with Lesser stuff, but they are not showing up in Google News Archives.

MICHAEL A. SUNSTEIN, Tri National Development

 * MICHAEL A. SUNSTEIN
 * Tri National Development
 * Google search names and things from here, and it leads to tie-ins with the following sections below -

Ferdinand Marcos, Imelda Marcos, Craig Lesser, Kinor, Ltd.

 * Imelda Marcos
 * Hawaii Hotels
 * Kinor, Ltd
 * Marcos flight from Philippines to Hawaii

Shah of Iran

 * Escape from Iran
 * Massive developments in Iran before 1979

Adi Da, Craig Lesser

 * Massive real estate sales to Adi Da Cult and involvement of Craig Lesser, see links in section, and follow links in internet reports and court filings on this. Also, Lake County Recorder's Office Real Estate Title search shows some very interesting stuff

Las Vegas Hotels and Casinos sales to Howard Hughes, Teamsters, Organized Crime Connections?

 * Morris Shenker
 * Jimmy Hoffa,
 * Irvin J. Kahn,
 * Shelter Island Inn
 * San Diego stuff
 * Las Vegas Casinos and Hotels sales in huge block sales from Louis Lesser Enterprises to Howard Hughes and others
 * See article section for links on part of this, MUCH more reliable source stuff is needed

Environmental Degradation

 * Strip Mining
 * Oil Drilling
 * Zenith Refinery in San Fernando Valley, 1975
 * Eric Diesel Timber, Eric Diesel Grading, Assiciation of Engineering Geologists, Cal Trans Pet Cemetary - follow these links and names, , ,

Nelson Mandela

 * Nelson Mandela
 * JDMC Global Corp.,
 * International Synergy Holding Co.
 * More if you follow links and names in here

Belize, Compradore, Salt Creek

 * Belize
 * Compradore
 * Salt Creek

HkFnsNGA (talk) 17:15, 30 November 2009 (UTC)

Dead Links
Please leave the dead links for a while. I am going to be writing articles on them as I research this article. Thank you. HkFnsNGA (talk) 00:11, 2 December 2009 (UTC)