REAL ESTATE: Stolkin Rides Again

When it comes to picking up—and dropping—a fast buck, few can match Chicago’s Ralph E. Stolkin, 36. By using the mails and punchboards to peddle such merchandise as ballpoint pens, coonskin caps and cheap radios, Stolkin ran a $15,000 loan into a $3,400,000 fortune. After the Federal Trade Commission cracked down on him for “deceptive sales practices” and U.S. postal authorities warned him against conducting a lottery by mail, Punchboard King Stolkin headed for Hollywood. He took charge of a five-man syndicate that bought RKO from Howard Hughes and named himself president. But Stolkin’s interesting past soon caught up with him; stockholders’ complaints forced Stolkin & Co. to sell RKO back to How ard Hughes at a loss of $1,350,000 (TIME, Oct. 27, 1952 et seq.).

Last week Promoter Stolkin turned up in Florida, this time touting real estate. He bought 3,200 acres of pastureland, named it Coral City and painted a rosy word picture of a proposed metropolis of some 40,000 citizens. To Florida’s perennial optimists Stolkin announced that he will sell his houses at cost ($7,025 to $8,600). His profit, if any, will come from the lots, from the office buildings and shops he plans to build, and from the water and sewerage companies he will run. Said Promoter Stolkin: “The financial policy behind Coral City [is] the most dynamic theory—or combination of ideas—to be introduced into a major American industry in some time.”