King Larry: The Life and Ruins of a Billionaire Genius

by James D. Scurlock

Overview

From Howard Hughes to Mark Zuckerberg, the public has always been fascinated by genius entrepreneurs who succumb to their eccentricities. Now, James Scurlock engages, educates, and entertains readers with the captivating story of DHL cofounder and billionaire Larry Hillblom.

King Larry begins with an early biography of Larry Lee Hillblom, a mercurial young man who grew up on a peach farm outside of Fresno, California. Hillblom cofounded DHL in 1969 (three years before FedEx), and it became the fastest-growing corporation in history. Hillblom’s expatriate life began in 1981, when he retreated to a small tax haven in the Western Pacific. There he led the resistance to American meddling in the Marianas Islands. Hillblom’s voracious appetite for underage prostitutes is another facet of his unusual story. In 1995, Hillblom’s amoral, thrill-seeking nature caught up to him when his seaplane disappeared off the coast of Anatahan, leaving behind an estate worth billions. Weeks later, five impoverished women and their attorneys came forward to challenge Hillblom’s will in a legal battle for his fortunes that continues to this day.

Meticulously researched and thoroughly engaging, King Larry will satisfy fans of such bestsellers as Confessions of an Economic Hit Manand The Accidental Billionaires .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781416589235
Publisher:	Scribner
Publication date:	10/18/2014
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	897,872
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

James D. Scurlock studied at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania before dropping out to pursue an entrepreneurial venture and later a documentary film career. His first film, Parents of the Year, won numerous awards and was an official selection of more than twenty-five film festivals. His first feature-length documentary, Maxed Out, explored our culture of debt and won the Special Jury Prize at South by Southwest. His first book, a companion to the award-winning documentary, was nominated for the National MS Society's "Books for a Better Life" Award. He has written, primarily about the impending (and now realized) financial crisis, for Slate, Newsweek, The Huffington Post, and AARP Magazine, among others. He has also appeared on numerous programs, including Nightline, The Today Show, and CNBC’s Power Lunch. Scurlock lives in Santa Monica, California.

Editorial Reviews

…terrific…[Scurlock's] quest took him all over the world, from English mansions to California courtrooms, and from Honolulu, where he talked with early DHL employees, to Saipan, where he spent months poring over court papers to track down Mr. Hillblom's onetime, um, paramours in distant corners of Vietnam and the Philippines. Mr. Scurlock has returned with a story that is everything I enjoy in a book: strange, exotic, inspiring, extensively researched, clearly written and, yeah, sort of creepy.
—The New York Times

Bryan Burrough

Larry Lee Hilblom (1943–1995) does not have the immediate name recognition of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, or Howard Hughes, but the enigmatic founder of DHL has a story that is just as fascinating—and more mysterious—than any of these genius entrepreneurs. In his biography of the eccentric businessman, Scurlock (Maxed Out) traces Hilblom’s rise from humble beginnings on a Northern California peach farm through the founding of DHL and its meteoric rise to domination in the airfreight industry to the mysterious disappearance of his seaplane in the western Pacific in 1995. The chronology, twists, and turns of DHL alone are riveting, with one complex, legal battle after another threatening to derail the company, but the allegations that Hilblom fathered several children with underage girls in various Southeast Asian countries lend the book a darker, more sensational tone. While the dense accounts of DHL’s unending litigation battles may prove impenetrable for some, Scurlock sprinkles in enough of Hilblom’s eccentric personal life to keep the narrative lively and flowing. He meticulously researches both the business and personal fact and folklore of the entrepreneur’s life and weaves them into a gripping account of the mercurial, visionary, complicated billionaire’s life. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Documentary filmmaker Scurlock (Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders) writes about the life and ventures of eccentric billionaire Larry Lee Hillblom. Hillblom cofounded DHL, the shipping company, in 1969, and it became the fastest-growing corporation in history. A business savvy entrepreneur, he also owned or co-owned over 50 other companies. Along the same lines as Ben Mezrich's The Accidental Billionaires and John Perkins's Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, this biography delves deeper into its subject's personal life. Scurlock covers Hillblom's early days growing up on a peach farm in Fresno, CA, his retirement from DHL in 1981, his retreat to an island paradise, the remainder of his life, and the debate over his estate and illegitimate children following his death in a 1995 plane crash. VERDICT This provocative book holds readers' attention throughout. The title, however, may mislead some to think the book is about television and radio host Larry King. Recommended for general readers, especially those interested in business biographies.—Lisa Felix, Mishawaka-Penn-Harris P.L., IN

Library Journal