Like a botanist intrigued by flowers of all stripe, those around me know I’m interested in all manner of business history and trivia. It’s no surprise then that every new day researching a project like Comeback! presents countless rabbit trails. Why rush to finish when meandering through leafy glades is so delightful? Every day, it seems, I bring home a basket full of wellinevers (“well, I never!”) on which to ruminate at the stop lights and grocery lines of life.
For instance, in Comeback! you discover Billy Durant’s passion for business had two faces: building companies and trading in their stocks. Few know Billy Durant was one of the top five operators in the great bull market of the 1920s. (This passion, incidentally, is what enabled him to take General Motors back from the greedy Wall Street types hell bent on keeping him out of his creation.)
Who traded all those stocks for Billy? Call me curious but I wanted to find out. The answer brought yielded another delightful wellinever, not in the person, but that person’s backstory. Do an internet search on Henry A. Rudkin and you’ll be hard pressed to learn much of Billy’s favorite stockbroker.
Google his wife, however, and you learn a lot. Maggie Rudkin, you see, founded Pepperidge Farm. You can find the story on their website–no need to add any more here. Except to note, as my wife did upon hearing this: amazing the people with whom Billy Durant rubbed shoulders… 🙂