ABSTRACT
But Cornfeld met his match in John McCandish King. Like Cornfeld, King was a self-made millionaire. King invested $1,500, one-half of his net worth, in an Oklahoma oil drilling venture in 1952. During the next 15 years, King showed an amazing knack for finding oil under previously undrilled property. By the mid-1960s, King Resources was one of the country’s largest independent oil companies and its founder was worth an estimated $300 million. King dressed like Hollywood’s vision of a Texas oil man, wearing expensive cowboy boots and 10-gallon hats, and owning 3,000 pairs of cufflinks.
