(UNTITLED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000400050005-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 10, 1998
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: March 10, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

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Sanitized - A p p r o v e d F
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~I I-Ze. e l ea in a U-b ,
?Theater =L .eei!:tWe and Banker;
A Leader in Civic Activities-
His Foundation Was Named
as Conduit for the C.I.A. .
LAS, March 9 (AP)-
Karl Hoblitzelle, theater execu-
tive, banker and a civic and po-
litical leader, died in his sleep
at his home here yesterday. He
was 87 years old.
He established the Hoblitzelle
Foundation, which was recently
named as one of the organiza-
tions through which the Central
Intelligence Agency funneled
money to various groups.
He leaves a sister, Mrs. J. S.
Tritle of St. Louis. His wife, the
former Esther Thomas of Louis-
ville, Ky., died in 1943.
philanthropist-Businessman
1For more -than half a century,
Karl St. John Hoblitzelle was a
1 d
ea er in the financial, cultural,
political and educational affairs
of Dallas.
By 1933, Mr. Hob]itzelld hadi A Director of Utility
created the Interstate Circuitli He had been a director of the
Inc., and in six years he had! National Gas Com-!
become a member of the boardlpany and Southwestern Life In-I
of directors of 18 other or I- surance Company, and served as}
za:ice s. They included the president of the Texas Research
Dall:r; Chamber of Commerce,. Foundation and board chairman
the Art Association, Historic
of the Southwestern Medical:
yniphony Society and the Civic
Federation of which. he was.
president.
he set up the Hoblitzelle
Foundation in 1942 to channel
cash grants to educational,
scientific, literary and charit-
able agencies.
Fr: sm 1960 through 1965, the
Iioblitzelle Foundation, accord-
ing to information supplied to
tlic Internal Revenue Service on
Contributions received and con-
uubuies, are ann a orotlier start-
ed with .2,500 in savings and,'
of Texas Consolidated Theatres
Inc. He was board chairman
emeritus of the Republic Na-
tio
n al Bank of Dallas,. one of
nation's largest. He also headed
Hoblitzelle Properties Inc.,
which.had vast real-estate hold-
ings in the Dallas area.
He was born in St. Louis,
where he began 'his business
career in 1904 as a clerk in 'the
,headquarters of the St. Louis
Jhelp support his family, which
His taste of show business at
the fair conditioned his appe-
tite. He set out immediately to
organize a t7ieatrical circuit and
chose the Southwest as the re-
gion with the greatest future.
For 10 years he lived in Chicago,
making the now defunct Or
pheum Circuit home office his
headquarters.
In 1915, he moved his office
to Dallas, Mr. Iioblitzelle often,
used the name Majestic for the
key theaters in most cities. The
ixcc.nii: was ilerivetl rrori the old'
Majestic In Chicago, which was,
to theaters of 1900-1910 what
the Radio City Music Ball is to
t
presen
-day movie houses.
The managers of the theaters
in the various cities took active
roles in civic life and the then-,
thea-
rs
art In many. philvi-
ters pa
In addition, he had been a'
regent of the Texas Tcchno-'
logical College In Lubbock and
a director of Southern Methodist
University. His own formal edu-
cation ended with high school.
He received In 1952 the na-
tional good citizenship award of
the National Society of the
Sons of the American Revolu-
tion, Adrian Holbitzelle of Phil-
adelphia, one of his forbears,
carried a musket in the Revolu-.
I In July, 1961, he served as
a member of an interracial
committee to' bring about the
karl St. John Hoblitzelle
Itrlbutions made, acted as a con-1
duit for funds supplied by the'
Central Intelligence Agency.
In the five years beginning .in
1961, the foundation gave ? a
total of .S'1i10,7Q0 to the Con-
gress for Cultural Freedom in
Paris.. It gave the International
Cooperative Development. Fund`.
550,000 in 1060 and $25,000 in
1965.
In Texas civic affairs, Mr.,'
Iioblitzelle, was chairman of thel
T
Irxas Commission for the 1039
rnric,fl 1039-
1-1_0 Xcw York World's Fair, andl
te
rt
~
in Wld W I h
_ -orar,eaded the
amusement division of the Red
Cross.
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP75-00149R000400050005-1
FOIAb3b