Bad Boys: Rocky Aoki and Gerry Tsai
August 2, 2008
Reflections on the Passing of Two Asian American Business Personalities
You might not have heard of two Asian immigrants who died this month, but they were responsible for my high school prom dinner and my first mutual fund purchase. Their names were Rocky Aoki and Gerry Tsai — the playboy restaurateur and the Wall Street Master of the Universe, respectively.
In their day, Rocky and Gerry lived large and, as Tony Soprano would say, they produced. Rocky founded his Benihana restaurants from the money he made selling ice cream in New York neighborhoods that no other ice cream man dared enter. Gerry practically created the concept of the growth fund. They died within 24 hours of each other in Manhattan, a city that exemplifies immigrant dreams large and small.
Benihana of Tokyo was Asian chic before Asian became chic. The name supposedly came from the Japanese word for a “small red blossom,” flowers that Rocky’s father found growing in the debris after the World War II Allies firebombed Tokyo. Rocky brought the blossom to America and permed and bleached his hair so white so that people could tell him apart from other Asians. He told his Japanese chefs to juggle the knives, building Benihana of Tokyo into an empire. In his day, he was also an Asian Hugh Hefner, publishing a softcore porn magazine, owning a nightclub, racing powerboats and compiling a list of girlfriends that included Miss Iceland.
Shanghai-born, Boston-educated Gerry Tsai brought Wall Street to the masses when he all but invented the aggressive mutual fund in the ’60s. He turned over his fund as much as 100 percent in a year — unheard of at the time. And in 1965, he grossed a 50 percent return for Fidelity Capital Fund investors. The Dow Jones Industrial realized an anemic 15 percent that year.
He quit Fidelity to start his own mutual fund firm, the Manhattan Fund, and in three years, he sold it for a reputed $30 million. He quit the company that bought the Manhattan Fund because they wouldn’t name him president. He got his wish when financial services giant Primerica chose him as the first Chinese American to lead a Dow Jones Industrial company. He ended four marriages, too, and, at age 79, broke off an engagement to Sharon Bush, the ex-wife of Neil Bush, the brother of President George H.W. Bush. (He later sued her for the return of the 11-carat ring.)
I took my prom date to Benihana because it was the closest thing to chic I could afford — a nod to my Asian heritage but classier than the rumpled carpets of the local Chinese restaurant. (The date was a success; Rocky would have approved of the ending.) And I bought my first growth fund when I became engaged, figuring it was time to get fiscally responsible. (I did better with my prom date than I did with the mutual fund.)
Now, I’m a lawyer in Washington, where — as in most places — the legal scene still reflects its white, old boys’ club roots. I get an occasional pang of alienation when I look around a room and realize that no one looks like me.
I was in a room like that one summer in the 1980s. I was working at a big Manhattan law firm and working out at the storied New York City Athletic Club. In the men’s locker room, there wasn’t a minority face in sight until a wide Japanese guy with plastered-down curly hair came walking out of the steam room.
It was Rocky. He spotted me through the tinted sunglasses and, in the midst of joking with some guys, nodded affably towards me, as if saying, “Hey, good for you being here, too.”
He made me feel like I belonged. They both did. Rest in peace, brothers. You lived large. No, you lived huge.
Shanlon Wu practices law in Washington, D.C. His work has appeared in the The New York Times Sunday Magazine and various literary journals.
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5 Responses to “Bad Boys: Rocky Aoki and Gerry Tsai”
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Terrific piece! Engaging, down-to-earth, buoyant, humorous, self-affacing and literate! Shanlon Wu is a credit to BOTH the reading public and the legal community. The fact that he is Asian-American is a but a footnote to his contributions to American (and world) society that is, in my opinion, desperate for fresh ideas, integrity and ingenuity. Fortunately for us, it appears that Mr. Wu has them all.
I misspelled self-effacing…If you publish my response, would you please correct that oversight? thank you…SPKmd
Remarkable, isn’t it, how much the three lives (yours, Aoki’s and Tsai’s) reflect on/illuminate each other in such a short piece? Live huge, why don’t we?
Mr. Kruszewsski”
Interesting, entertaining, AND enlightening in its wayi, buit “self-effacing”?
“Restrictive covenants” and WASP-only clubs are a vanishing breed, thank Demos, but WHY would ANYone want to be THERE where they are mere “exceptions” or “join” those who condescend?
Altogether far too much acquiescence where none is required. And demand a return of a mere 11-carats from a Bush yet? Talk about provincial! AND wannabe.
So Frank, were do you live? In a cave? By yourself? It is imperative for successful minorities to fly the flag whenever and wherever they please. It has taken minorities decades to break down the barriers just to gain entry, it will take decades more before minority memberships are no longer mere tokens at exclusive clubs. Remember, separate and equal is no longer sufficient, and your attitude only marks you as a back-slider. Also, if a Bush does not have enough sense of decorum to return a ring after the engagement is broken off, by all means sue, because it is the proper thing to do.