Businessman. He was the founder and owner of the prestigious Stork Club, a New York City nightspot known world-wide, which was opened from 1929 to 1965. The Stork Club was the epitome of glamor. Although no longer there, the Stork Cub had the green canopy, blue-uniformed doorman with his whistle, the heavy bronze door swinging to admit only the chosen few of the rich and famous, and a dining room with mirror and fresh flowers. A private windowless room to play cards, the Cub Room was his "snub room," which was guarded by the head waiter known to everyone as "Saint Peter." Newspaper gossip columnist, Walter Winchell, would broadcast his radio show from a table, listing those who were enjoying a night at the Stork Club: To name a few, Author Ernest Hemingway; actor Charlies Chaplin; FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover; organized crime figure, Frank Costello; journalist Dorothy Kilgallen; British Royals, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor; the cabaret act of the Nordstrom Sisters; socialite Brenda Frazier; actor Erik Rhodes; sex symbol, Marilyn Monroe, along with America's rich and famous, which included the Kennedys; the Roosevelts, and the Harrimans. All came to the Club dressed in glitzy evening attire. In the 1950s, he hosted a television show, interviewing guest at the Club. From the time of the speakeasy of the Roaming 20s to the 1960's, he held court, trying desperately to please while often riding roughshod over all that he could intimidate. Surrounded by Jazz Age gangsters, he continually fought running battles against racketeers while avoiding Federal Agents. After receiving a limited education in a one-room school in rural Oklahoma, he joined with his older brother, who had been released from prison after a conviction of homicide, to bootleg alcohol. During Prohibition in the United States from 1920 to 1933, money could easily be made by making illegal alcohol during the Great Depression. It was a felon if the bootlegger was arrested for selling illegal alcohol. Their business expanded to other states including Michigan. At the age of 18, he was arrested, in Detroit, convicted of a felon, and served a 15-month sentence in Leavenworth Prison, before the conviction was reversed. He moved to New York City. Before operating the Stork Club, he was in the real estate business in New York City, owning a number of drug stores. Dealing with New York City gangsters, he sold illegal alcohol at the Stork Club. The Club was raided for illegal alcohol by Federal agents in 1931 and after this incident, the Club was move to a different location. In 1963 he offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the return of his son-in-law, Alexander I Rorke, Jr, whose plane disappeared on September 24, 1963 in the Caribbean in route to Cuba. Eventually, Rorke was declared dead without any information leading to this mystery. He married twice and had three children with his second wife. He was an uncle-in-law to actress Barbara Billingsley of "Leave to Beaver" fame. A host of books and films have been produced about the Stork Club.