Page 63 - Forbes India (December 2015)

Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. “99% OF US ARE driveway. A former child actress who
Several anti-Res nick forces allege performed on a weekly variety show,
the couple’s immense water supply is BEING ASKED TO she dropped out of Los Angeles City
ill gotten. The Kern Water Bank and TAKE CUTS FOR College and founded an advertising
Westside Mutual Water, a company THE 1%: STEWART agency at 19; she married that year and
set up to control the Resnicks’ water, had three children before divorcing
have been sued three times since 2010. RESNICK.” just as the business started to struggle.
The water lawsuits—one reached More troubles came when she began
an interim settlement, one led to dating a man whose friend asked if
environmental review and one is on he could use her copier at night and
appeal—have alleged that the Resnicks one almond or one pistachio.) on weekends. She denies realising
had no ownership right to the water “When I first came to California that his friend Daniel Ellsberg
bank and that the bank is dipping 60 years ago, I should have bought was printing what would later be
into their neighbours’ water supply. property on Rodeo Drive. Now I known as the Pentagon Papers,
The Res nicks deny the allegations would like to go back and buy the but she eventually got entangled in
and say they are legally and morally property on Rodeo Drive for the legal proceedings with the federal
in the right. “I don’t even know what same price it was 60 years ago,” government. (In the end, she was
these are about, because my view says Resnick. “People that had subpoenaed but never charged.)
is we’re going to win,” says Stewart opportunities to buy into the water The Resnicks met in 1970 when
Resnick. “We’ve been sued over the bank—just like we did—didn’t do it. Stewart came looking for marketing
same thing over and over and continue Now they think it’s worthwhile.” help for the janitorial business.
to win. If I had a son who, god forbid, He led her on, and after several
should go to law school, I would he Resnicks miss few meetings, she bluntly asked whether
say go into water law. You get one opportunities. The son of she was going to get the account or
lawsuit that lasts 20 years.” He says T a New Jersey bar owner not. Also divorced with children,
that he simply invested in the storage who drank and gambled away his he told her that he wanted to start a
facility at an opportune time and also money, Stewart transferred in 1955 relationship instead. They married
cites the $25 million the company from Rutgers to UCLA. To make and in 1979, bought Teleflora, a
has spent on irrigation systems that ends meet, he started a janitorial failing flower-delivery service.
reduce the use of water by dripping it business while in college. By the Theirs was a symbiotic partnership
directly on the roots rather than using time he graduated, he had ten from the outset: He was level-
sprinklers to flood the fields. Even employees. He continued to operate headed and finance-minded; she
with these water-saving measures, he the business while in law school and was more dramatic with notable
says, Wonderful expects production eventually employed 100 people. marketing flair. The combination
of the superthirsty almond trees to By contrast, Lynda grew up in has proved unstoppable. Stewart
drop by 20 percent and pistachios Beverly Hills, the daughter of a bought his first parcel of farmland
to drop by 60 percent this year. (It wealthy Hollywood film producer, in California’s Central Valley in
takes one gallon to produce just with two Rolls-Royces in her 1978 as a hedge against inflation.
Lynda then took the fruits and nuts
of their labour and marketed the
heck out of them. “It takes a nut
to sell a nut,” she would later say.
Lynda branded mandarins as Cuties
and then, after a falling-out with a
partner, rebranded them as Halos.
She marketed pomegranate juice as
POM Wonderful, a magical elixir
filled with antioxidants. (Stewart,
who survived prostate cancer, drinks
eight ounces of POM Wonderful and
takes a pomegranate pill every day
and says that he hasn’t had a cold in
a decade. At 77, he cycled about 40
A 29-year tradition: Kooky Christmas kernels à la resnicks miles a day across Italy during a nine-

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