By 1964, Gulf+Western was one of the fastest-growing companies on the New York Stock Exchange. The next year, with only $5 million in cash on hand, Bluhdorn borrowed $85 million from Chase Manhattan. It was one of the largest unsecured loans in history, three times as much as the combined annual worth of the companies comprising Gulf+Western. It landed Bluhdorn on the cover of Time, as one of its “Millionaires Under 40.”
