Atlas Corporation

The Atlas Corporation, was formed in 1928, from a merger of the United Corporation, an investment firm started in 1923 with $40,000, with Atlas Utilities and Investors Ltd. The corporation specialized in capital formation and management. In 1929, Atlas was a $12,000,000 investment trust. [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,885869,00.html "Odlum Makes a Deal," "TIME Magazine", Apr 1, 1940 (retrieved Sep 1, 2008)] .] The company was able to shrewdly weather the stock market crash and continue to grow through the 1930s and 1940s. The corporation was founded by Floyd Odlum and his brother-in-law Boyd Hatch.
With Floyd Odlum as president and Boyd Hatch as vice-president, Atlas invested, managed or controlled numerous industries, including Greyhound Lines, RKO, and Paramount motion picture studios, the Hilton hotel chain, the Bonwit Teller (acquired 1934) and Franklin Simon & Co. (acquired 1936) ladies’ apparel stores, Madison Square Garden, and various mines, utility companies, aviation related businesses, and banks. [ [http://history.utah.gov/board_of_state_history/documents/NR0607B.pdf] National Register of Historic Places description of Hatch’s Camp, Logan Canyon, Cache County, UT (Sec. 8, p. 3-4) (retrieved Sep 1, 2008).] [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,935179,00.html "Odlum's Busy Week," "TIME Magazine", Jun 14, 1954 (retrieved Sep 1, 2008)] .] [Pattillo, Donald M. (2001) "Pushing the Envelope: The American Aircraft Industry", (University of Michigan Press), ISBN 0472108697.] After Atlas Corporation acquired the Bonwit Teller ladies’ apparel stores, Floyd Odlum convinced his wife, Hortense Odlum, to become involved in the store’s operations. She became the first female president of a major department store chain when she became president of Bonwit Teller in 1934. [Odlum, Hortense McQuarrie, (1980) "a woman's place: The autobiography of Hortense Odlum", Ayer Publishing, ISBN 9780405128509.] [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,848657,00.html "Storekeeping Atlas," "TIME Magazine", Oct. 12, 1936 (retrieved Sep 1, 2008)] .] [ [http://aolsvc.timeforkids.kol.aol.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,847205,00.html "Lady from Atlas," "TIME Magazine", Oct. 22, 1934 (retrieved Sep 1, 2008)] .] In 1948, Howard Hughes acquired controlling interest in RKO from Atlas. [Barlett, Donald L. and James B. Steele, (2004) "Howard Hughes: His Life & Madness", W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 9780393326024.] The Atlas Missile program was named after the Atlas Corporation, the contractor through its Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, (later Convair) subsidiary, which was used in the Apollo missions to send astronauts to the moon.

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