8
Tuesday, March 5th, 1985, 7:50 P.M.
Charlotte was now on the Pacific Coast Highway and judged herself to be about twenty minutes away from her house. Many other celebrities lived on the beach alongside of her, but Charlotte didn’t really socialize with them very much. On occasion, she would manage to wander over to one of their cozy, beach parties in her bare feet, have the obligatory tropical drink, and do the necessary PR. But, mostly, she wanted to keep her actual home separate from excessive entertaining or large gatherings. The Go-Go’s mansion and estate in North Palm Springs was the designated setting for those types of activities. In Malibu, Charlotte preferred to keep things quiet.
Also occupying space in her “neighborhood” were several prominent, California businessmen and their families. As well as being an entertainer, Charlotte felt she belonged in their community as well because of what she had achieved in her brief, yet, fabulous life. It was the result of something she never remotely dreamed of when she was in her early twenties, for sure. Rather unwittingly, and certainly surprising to her and everyone around her, Charlotte had become somewhat of a financial savant.
It all started out innocently enough. In the beginning, Charlotte had no idea what to do with her newfound, fat paychecks. Actually, aside from partying like it was 1999, none of the other girls did either. Charlotte always knew that actors and actresses got paid a lot, but, this was ridiculous. Then, before she could blink an eye, she started receiving royalty payments from her songwriting credits. After that, she took a producers position(yes, the same position she’s been fretting about) at the network, for which she received additional income on top of her acting fees. Eventually, money also started pouring in from all the merchandising and branding that the Go-Go’s were doing. And, finally, there was income from the live concerts and personal appearances that were crammed into their schedules. All in all, Charlotte and the gang were making big bucks.
That’s when it started. With the urging from a family member, Charlotte started dabbling in the stock market. She mostly bought blue-chip stock on the NYSE, as that was deemed as the normal thing to do. But, then she started investing in smaller technology companies on the NASDAQ. Her broker was an older, genteel man, who believed in stark fundamentalism and established companies. He didn’t mind that Charlotte took chances on these smaller companies, but naturally advised her against going hog-wild.
Charlotte, however, soon became obsessed with taking chances. She became fascinated with new technology such as personal computers, paging devices, and cellular telephones. She was willing to “go long” on these start-up companies, something that made her broker and her other advisers extremely nervous. On the other hand, it seemed as if every time that someone advised her against something, Charlotte would invariably prove them wrong. She hit more home runs than she struck out, and had numerous, joyous opportunities to tell these macho schmucks— “In your face, pretty boy!”
In the end, what did anyone care if Charlotte proved them wrong? She was making tons of money for herself, her well-compensated advisors, and everyone else around her. Just like in the entertainment world, Charlotte was a smash hit once again.
It didn’t take long before Charlotte had earned quite a reputation in the investment community. She partnered in with some venture capitalists and increased her buying power. Everyone liked doing business with her because she was a member of the Go-Go’s and they were the talk of the town.
One of her biggest breaks came when she received a stock tip on an airplane, of all places. The man sitting next to her recommended a firm that was making computer chips. This was exactly the kind of thing that she was intrigued with. It was a nascent company that her fellow passenger was personally invested in and Charlotte couldn’t resist.
The following morning, she started buying huge blocks at $4.56 per share. The stock fluctuated slightly for the next several months while Charlotte was accumulating thousands upon thousands of shares. She couldn’t believe it wasn’t going up. Surely, someone must know that she was a major investor, she thought to herself. She maneuvered funds around in order for her to buy more shares and place them in different accounts. The whole thing was absolutely bananas.
Then, came jackpot time.
After the company started reporting massive quarterly earnings, the stock subsequently soared to $36.89 per share, and Beatnik Productions, one of Charlotte’s many “dummy” companies, had nearly one million shares.
Now, she had some fun money to play with. Charlotte cashed out and went on a spending spree.