Kinney Parking Company was a New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

 parking lot company owned by Manny Kimmel

Manny Kimmel

Manny Kimmel, born Emmanuel Kimmel, was a notable underworld figure between the 1930s and 1960s. Founder of the Kinney Parking Company, a chain of parking lots and garages. According to Connie Bruck, he cooperated with the major racketeer and bootlegger in Newark, Abner Zwillman, leasing his...

, Sigmund Dornbusch and mob figure Abner Zwillman

Abner Zwillman

Abner "Longie" Zwillman , known as the "Al Capone of New Jersey," was an early Prohibition gangster, founding member of the "Big Seven" Ruling Commission and a member of the National Crime Syndicate, who was also associated with Murder Incorporated.-Biography:According to the Social Security Death...

. Prior to its public listing in 1960, it merged with a funeral home company, Riverside, and then expanded into car-rentals, office cleaning firms and construction companies.

Kinney National

In 1966, the firm merged with the National Cleaning Company to form Kinney National Company

Kinney National Company

Kinney National Services, Inc. was formed in 1966 when the Kinney Parking Company and the National Cleaning Company merged. The new company was headed by Steve Ross....

, headed by Steve Ross

Steve Ross (Time-Warner CEO)

Steve Jay Ross was CEO of Time Warner Inc., Warner Communications, and Kinney National Services, Inc.-Early life and career:...

, who had joined Riverside after marrying Carol Rosenthal, owner Edward Rosenthal's daughter. .

Warner Communications

Ross pursued an aggressive expansion of the company's properties, first acquiring Ashley-Famous

Ashley-Famous

Ashley-Famous was a talent agency started in 1951 by talent agent Ted Ashley. The agency had a successful 16 year run under that name and owner; it was responsible for many hit television shows and had several famous clients...

 talent agency, then Panavision

Panavision

Panavision is an American motion picture equipment company specializing in cameras and lenses, based in Woodland Hills, California. Formed by Robert Gottschalk as a small partnership to create anamorphic projection lenses during the widescreen boom in the 1950s, Panavision expanded its product...

, and then in 1969 Warner Bros.-Seven Arts

Warner Bros.-Seven Arts

Warner Bros.-Seven Arts was formed in 1967 and became defunct in 1970, when Seven Arts Productions acquired Jack Warner's controlling interest in Warner Bros. for $32 million and merged with it. The deal also included Warner Bros. Records, Reprise Records and the B&W Looney Tunes library...

. After a financial scandal in the parking division, the non-entertainment assets were spun off again in 1971 as National Kinney Corporation, and the remaining company was renamed Warner Communications

Warner Communications

Warner Communications or Warner Communications, Inc. was established in 1971 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations and changed its name....

, a precursor to today's Time Warner

Time Warner

Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...

 media empire.

National Kinney

National Kinney expanded from parking and building services into real estate development by purchasing the Uris Buildings Corp, but the timing was bad as the NY real estate market collapsed in the 1973-75 recession and the main Uris Building

Paramount Plaza

Paramount Plaza is a 48-story skyscraper on Broadway in New York City that houses two Broadway theatres. In 2007 it was listed as number 46 on the list of tallest buildings in New York City.-History:...

 asset was soon lost to foreclosure.

In 1979, after some protracted negotiations, National Kinney attempted to purchase The Aladdin hotel and casino in Las Vegas in a joint venture with Johnny Carson

Johnny Carson

John William "Johnny" Carson was an American television host and comedian, known as host of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for 30 years . Carson received six Emmy Awards including the Governor Award and a 1985 Peabody Award; he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987...

, planning to rename it after the star. However, Carson's wife Joanna gossiped about the deal, and subsequent trading in National Kinney stock led to insider trading charges against third parties by the SEC and the disgorgement of profits.

In 1982, National Kinney sold its National States Electric division to an undisclosed buyer, and then agreed to sell its parking subsidiary, Kinney System Inc., to that division's chairman Daniel Katz and a group of investors. National Kinney subsequently renamed itself to Andal Corporation and sold its remaining majority interest in Kinney System parking. Andal invested in the declining Steve's Ice Cream

Steve's Ice Cream

Steve's Ice Cream was an ice-cream parlor chain which attracted media attention and long lines when owner Steve Herrell opened his first establishment at 191 Elm Street in Somerville, Massachusetts in 1973. It introduced the concept of super-premium ice cream and customized ice cream desserts using...

 and merged in Swensen's

Swensen's

Swensen's is a global chain of ice cream restaurants that started in San Francisco, California.-History:The company was started in 1948 by Earle Swensen. Swensen opened his first shop at the corner of Union and Hyde Streets, along the cable car tracks in Russian Hill in San Francisco at what had...

before selling them off and unwinding its last operating subsidiary.