CORPORATIONS


     Since 1963,The Los Angeles Times has published its list of the "TOP 100" corporations which maintain their principal headquarters within the State of California. In order to be listed, the companies must meet the following two requirements: (1) must maintain their principal headquarters in California; and (2) the company's stock must be available to the public. No private firms are listed.

     All figures listed were compiled by the Los Angeles Times. The 1977 figures were published in The Times Sunday, May 14, 1978 edition.

TOP TEN a. Standard Oil Of California b. Atlantic-Richfield Company c. Union Oil of California d. Occidental Petroleum Co. e. Getty Oil Co. f.  Litton Industries, Inc. g. Lockheed Corporation h. Foremost-McKesson, Inc. i. The Signal Cos., Inc. j. Carnation Company

RANK PREVIOUS YEAR 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1977 SALES 21.75 billion 11.41 billion *6.02 billion 6.02 billion *3.54 billion 3.44 billion 3.37 billion 3.05 billion 2.96 billion 2.33 billion

ASSETS 14.82 billion 11.12 billion 4.72 billion 4.13 billion 4.17 billion 2.06 billion 1.57 billion 1.04 billion 2.15 billion 1.21 billion

TOP TEN UTILITIES IN CALIFORNIA a. Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. b. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. c. Southern California Edison Co. d. Pacific Lighting Corp. e. General Telephone Co. of California f.  Pacific Gas Transmission Co. g. San Diego Gas & Electric Co. h. Continental Telephone Co. of Calif. i. California Pacific Utilities j. California Water Service Co.

1977 REVENUES 4.07  billion 3.51  billion 2.06  billion 1.47  billion 862 million 814.3 million 508 million 111.5 million 75.1 million 45.4 million

ASSETS 9.87  billion 8.00  billion 5.65  billion 1.94  billion 2.20  billion 260.5  billion 1.41  billion 297 million 125 million 166 million

*Revenues

TOP TEN SAVINGS AND LOANS IN CALIFORNIA a. Home Savings & Loan Association b. Great Western Savings & Loan Assoc. c. American Savings & Loan Association d. Calif. Federal Savings & Loan Assoc. e. Glendale Federal Savings & Loan f.  Imperial Savings & Loan Association g. Home Federal Savings & Loan- San Diego h. Gibraltar Savings & Loan Association i.  Citizens Savings & Loan Association j.  World Savings & Loan Association

1977 YEAR-END ASSETS 9.18 billion 7.67 billion 7.66 billion 4.72 billion 3.19 billion 2.84 billion 2.81 billion 2.72 billion 2.32 billion 2.27 billion

TOP TEN INSURANCE COMPANIES IN CALIFORNIA a. Occidental Life Ins. Co. of Calif. b. Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co. c. California-Western States Life Ins. Co. f. Beneficial Standard Life Ins. Co. e. West Coast Life Insurance Co. Fire and Casualty: a. Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. b. Farmer's Insurance Group c. State Compensation Insurance Fund d. Argonaut Insurance Company e. Transamerica Insurance Company

1977 YEAR-END ASSETS 2.19 billion 1.96 billion 824 million 234.3 million 158.7 million 3.90 billion 2.16 billion 865.4 million 808.7 million 780.8 million

TOP TEN BANKS IN CALIFORNIA a. Bank of America National Trusts Savings b. Security Pacific National Bank c. Wells Fargo Bank National Association d. Crocker National Bank e. United California Bank f.  Union Bank g. The Bank of Calif. National Association h. California First Bank i.  Lloyd's Bank of California j.  The Sumitomo Bank of California

1977 YEAR-END ASSETS 80.89 billion 18.28 billion 14.84 billion 12.34 billion 11.14 billion 4.68 billion 3.00 billion 2.52 billion 1.71 billion 1.24 billion

     There are fifty businesses listed here. Of the corporations named, only one would appear on a list of the top ten national firms. That would be Standard of California, which has topped this list every year since The Los Angeles Times began publishing this roster in 1963.

     A.    CHAYEVSKY, PADDY - screenwriter and creator of the movie "NETWORK", which won actor Peter Finch the 1977 Academy Award for Best Actor, playing newscaster Howard Beale:
     "I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression; everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job; the dollar buys a nickel's worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street and there is nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do and there is no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat and we sit watching our t.v.'s while some local newscaster tells us that today we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes -- as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad, worse than bad -- they're crazy.... it's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly, the world we live in is getting smaller and all we say is, please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms, let me have my toaster and my t.v. and my steel belted radials and I won't say anything -- just leave us alone.

     Well, I'm not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad. I don't want you to protest; I don't want you to riot; I don't want you to write your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street....all I know is that, first, you've got to get mad... you've got to say, 'I'm a human being .... God Damn it ... my life has value.' So, I want you to get up now -- I want all of you to get out of your chairs -- I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore'. I want you to get up right now, get up and go to your windows -- open them -- stick your head out and yell 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore'. Things have gotta change, but first you have to get mad...."

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You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you. You dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs....in God's name .... you people are the real thing. We are the illusion..."

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     C.  Mr. Jensen, Head of CCA, to Howard Beale:

"Good morning, Mr. Beale. They tell me you're a madman."

Beale: "Only desultorily."

Jensen: "How are you now?"

Beale: "I'm as mad as a hatter."

Jensen: "Who isn't? I'm going to take you into our conference room -- seems more seemly a setting for what I have to say to you. I started as a salesman, Mr. Beale. I sold sewing machines, and automobile parts, hair brushes, and electronic equipment. I'd like to try to sell something to you --


VALHALLA, Mr. Beale. Please sit down... you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it!

Is that clear? You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case ... the Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow... title gravity... it is ecological balance. You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations, there are no peoples, there are no Russians, there are no Arabs, there are no Third Worlds, there is no west. There is only one holistic system of systems. One vast and immense interwoven, inter-acting multi-national dominion of dollars...Petrol-Dollars, Electro-Dollars, Multi-Dollars, Reichs Marks, Rials, Rubles, Pounds and Sheckels.

It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic -- and sub-atomic -- and gallactic structure of things today,...and you have meddled with the primal forces of nature -- and you will atone.

Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little 21-inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America.... there is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and ATT and Dupont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state? Karl Marx?

They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, mid and max solutions and compute the price cost probabilities of their transactions and investments. Just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations. Inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale; it has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there is no war or famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company for whom all men will work to serve a common profit/prophet in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided.... all anxieties tranquilized.... all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel."

Beale: "Why me?"

Jensen: "Because you're on television, dummy. 60 million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday."

Beale: "I have seen the face of God."

Jensen: "You just might be right, Mr. Beale."

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