Hunt for Success

In his grocer's bag of whims and interests, one of A. & P. Heir Huntington Hartford's most earnest pursuits is graphology. Few persons, from financiers to fiancees, ever get close to Hartford without passing his handwriting test. Most of all, he likes perfectionists --people who make their d's Greek-style, from the bottom up after an initial downstroke. Yet as a businessman, Hartford sometimes works from the top down. He has emptied treasure into such disparate ventures as Show magazine (sold for a $7,000,000 loss), Manhattan's Gallery of Modern Art (annual deficit: $580,000), an automated parking garage and, inevitably, his Handwriting Institute, now defunct.

The money for all this came from the 10% slice of A. &P. that he inherited in 1922 as a grandson of Founder George Huntington Hartford. After a series of sales, including 700,000 shares for $31 million in 1959, that slice has thinned to 3% . Last week Hartford was back at the store again, registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission to put on the market 760,000 more shares, worth $21.8 million at the June 10 close of 28 3/4. If he decides to sell all that, he will be left with less than 1% of the company--and a lot less cash than if he had sold off a few years ago. As A. & P. sales have shrunk slightly under tough competition from brighter chains, its stock has slid from a 70 1/2 high in 1961.

At 55, "Hunt" Hartford is not about to change his spending habits. What will he do with proceeds from his stock? Says he: "I'll probably put it primarily into ventures I'm already in--the art gallery, Denver's Oil Shale Corp. and Paradise Island." He has also invested in a 500-room hotel to be built on Paradise Island, the Bahamian resort of which he sold 75% in January for $12.5 million, after having spent $30 million on the project.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.