We went to the movies tonight and saw "Flash of Genius" in Tulsa. It is an independent film starring Greg Kinnear and is based on the true story of a professor and inventor who came up with the intermittent windshield wiper in the 60's. He tried to sell his patent to Ford, but instead they steal the idea and call it their own. The story covers the 12 year battle. It is a good flick. *** stars. At one point in the story he is offered a settlement without admission of guilt. He declines on principle.
At another point is attorneys quit because they say that Ford is too big to battle. That is where the flashback happened and the movie came at me hard.
The last time the economy went south was 1983 in Oklahoma. I was a principle in the firm of Sparks Martin Inc. in Tulsa. We had 12 persons in the firm and in 1982 we (along with a joint venture partner firm from Detroit) were hired by Gerald Hines Corporation ( the nation's largest developer) to design a shopping and office complex at 61st and Memorial in Tulsa to be called Eton Square. It was to be a 15 million dollar complex. We signed the contracts with the provision that if we had to borrow any money to carry ourselves until the project completed financing GH would reimburse. During the project we hired a professional estimator to keep everyone up to date on budget and costs and reviewed this with the owner regularly. We were 4 weeks from completing the construction drawings, when we got the call to stop work. Mr Hines, sensing that the oil bust was approaching CANCELLED the project.
Hines asked us to come to a meeting to settle up. We and our joint venture partners showed up to a room FULL of attorneys. They told us that they would pay us for the $9,000,000 dollar project. We reminded them that it was 15 million. They grinned and said we don't care what documentation you have. If you don't take this, we can drag this out for 8 years and you will be gone before then. "We know your finances." We could not get any attorney that would face them. That day in 1983, Gary and I lost $75,000.00 in real money and our partners lost $150,000.00. We were deep in dept and went from 12 employees to 6 in a week.
The movie tonight required me to revisit one of the darkest days of my career.
I know the movie was well acted. I have lived it!
By the way: The Eton Square that exist today is NOT our design. Ours was way cool.
At another point is attorneys quit because they say that Ford is too big to battle. That is where the flashback happened and the movie came at me hard.
The last time the economy went south was 1983 in Oklahoma. I was a principle in the firm of Sparks Martin Inc. in Tulsa. We had 12 persons in the firm and in 1982 we (along with a joint venture partner firm from Detroit) were hired by Gerald Hines Corporation ( the nation's largest developer) to design a shopping and office complex at 61st and Memorial in Tulsa to be called Eton Square. It was to be a 15 million dollar complex. We signed the contracts with the provision that if we had to borrow any money to carry ourselves until the project completed financing GH would reimburse. During the project we hired a professional estimator to keep everyone up to date on budget and costs and reviewed this with the owner regularly. We were 4 weeks from completing the construction drawings, when we got the call to stop work. Mr Hines, sensing that the oil bust was approaching CANCELLED the project.
Hines asked us to come to a meeting to settle up. We and our joint venture partners showed up to a room FULL of attorneys. They told us that they would pay us for the $9,000,000 dollar project. We reminded them that it was 15 million. They grinned and said we don't care what documentation you have. If you don't take this, we can drag this out for 8 years and you will be gone before then. "We know your finances." We could not get any attorney that would face them. That day in 1983, Gary and I lost $75,000.00 in real money and our partners lost $150,000.00. We were deep in dept and went from 12 employees to 6 in a week.
The movie tonight required me to revisit one of the darkest days of my career.
I know the movie was well acted. I have lived it!
By the way: The Eton Square that exist today is NOT our design. Ours was way cool.
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