By JESSICA DREBEN
Staff Reporter
As the ranks of wealthy Angelenos swelled during the past year, 11 heavy hitters dropped off the list of L.A.’s richest.
Well-known names like Lew Wasserman, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Aaron Spelling and the O’Malley family don’t appear this year because they do not make the minimal cut-off as determined by Business Journal editors. While a fortune of $300 million was sufficient to make the list last year, a minimum of $500 million was needed in 1998.
Not only are L.A.’s rich getting richer, but a few people who managed to dodge the media spotlight in past years were added in 1998, causing some near the bottom last year to drop off.
Not that the drop-outs this year are exactly struggling. All are believed to hover in the nine-figure range, though a few have taken hits in the stock market or have simply not kept up with the blistering pace being set by others. L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan missed the list for the second year in a row, though his worth is believed well over $250 million.
Spelling, who created hit shows like “Love Boat,” “Dynasty” and “Melrose Place,” and made headlines when he built L.A.’s biggest and most lavish mansion, has gone into semi-retirement. He is not on the list for the first time in years.
Wasserman, also in retirement, isn’t moving as fast as he did in the days when he was running MCA Inc. (now Universal Studios Inc.). His wealth, an estimated $480 million, just missed the cut. Wasserman is famous for, among other things, discovering Steven Spielberg and Ronald Reagan.
Another missing Hollywood player is DreamWorks SKG principal Jeffrey Katzenberg worth roughly $400 million. Also cut was Ovron Gene Autry, the famous Western film star, and the O’Malley family, which sold their key asset, the Dodgers, this year for $311 million.
Hollywood and sports moguls weren’t the only ones bumped off the list.
Janice and Robert Davidson, who built the educational software company Davidson & Associates and are worth a combined total of over $1 billion, have moved to Incline Village in Nevada and therefore are ineligible. The Davidsons sold their company two years ago and are said to have left to avoid the high California taxes. The two also spend a great deal of time in Hawaii.
Others, like David Collins and Eric Garen, co-founders of Learning Tree International Inc., have suffered paper losses from the company’s stock. Also missing are Herbalife International founder Mark Hughes, along with Michael Forman, president of Decurion Corp., which owns the Pacific and Cinerama movie theaters.
