Gulf+Western In 1956, Bluhdorn together with David "Jim" Judelson acquired Michigan Plating and Stamping, a small auto parts company that eventually grew into
Gulf and Western Industries, a conglomerate that ranked 61st in the
Fortune 500 by 1981. Holdings of Gulf and Western were blue-chip names such as
Paramount Pictures,
Simon & Schuster, and
Madison Square Garden, as well as less glamorous assets such as the
South Puerto Rico Sugar Company,
New Jersey Zinc, and
Taylor Forge. Paramount was suggested to Bluhdorn by
Sumner Redstone and the acquisition was encouraged by Paramount's head of publicity, Martin S. Davis. It was during Gulf and Western's ownership of Paramount that it went from being number nine at the box office based upon total receipt sales, to number one. After the marketing success of
Love Story in 1970, Bluhdorn appointed
Frank Yablans as president of the studio and Robert Evans as head of production. Together they oversaw the studio in its heyday, releasing such hits as
The Godfather,
The Godfather Part II, and
Chinatown. In 1974, Bluhdorn stepped down as chairman of Paramount and hired
Barry Diller as Paramount's chairman and CEO. According to Diller, Bluhdorn and Yablans had a very tense relationship with Yablans and Evans, and Redstone actually sought greater influence over Yablans, who he regularly bribed.
Dominican Republic Bluhdorn was very aware of the financial potential of the
Dominican Republic and invested a significant amount of resources into its social and economic development. He is credited as being the father of the Dominican tourism industry. In 1967, Gulf and Western paid $54 million for the South Puerto Rico Sugar Company. Most of the company's operations were in the Dominican Republic, where it owned the extensive Central Romana sugar mill in
La Romana and of land. Nearly half of the land was used to produce sugar cane and, at the peak of the cane-cutting season, the company employed 19,000 people, making it the country's largest private employer as well as the largest taxpayer and landowner. Gulf and Western acquired Consolidated Cigar Corporation in 1968 and later shifted its
Canary Island cigar-making operations to La Romana. It also created Corporación Financiera Asociada (Cofinasa), a Dominican finance company. In 1969, the Dominican government and Gulf and Western Americas Corporation established an industrial free zone in La Romana. The zone was administered by Gulf and Western America's Operadora Zona Franca de La Romana subsidiary. As Gulf and Western had purchased Paramount in 1966, Bluhdorn had plans to turn the island into a moviemaking mecca. To sell the idea he constantly invited producers, directors, writers and movie stars, to get them to appreciate the natural beauty of the country. During the 1970s, Gulf and Western developed of the sugar mill's land into the
Casa de Campo resort. Casa de Campo is home to three internationally renowned
golf courses designed by
Pete Dye – Teeth of the Dog, Dye Fore, and Links. One of Bluhdorn's Dominican friends,
Oscar de la Renta, was hired to do interior design for Casa de Campo. In the early 1980s, construction of the
Altos de Chavón ==Personal life==