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The clear adhesive tape upon the desk of David Paul Kane yellowed long ago, perhaps in the Nixon Administration. At one time, it held a wayward shard of false walnut to Kane's particleboard desk. Now the raw particle board itself is darkening with use and age.
"I am not in business to make money. What do I need money for? I am a bachelor," declares Kane, president and majority owner of Beverly Hills-based discount securities brokerage Kennedy Cabot Co. "I am in business to aggravate the competition and to support my television show, the American-Jewish Television Hour. And also to serve Uncle Charlie and Aunt Millie by keeping costs low. If you serve the masses, you'll eat with the classes."
Kane is a man of many homespun sayings and few pretenses -- indeed, he greets visitors without a retinue of secretaries and administrative aides, casually introducing himself.
"How're you doing?" he asks, tie and collar spread open to chest level, and hair askew. "Come on back."
In the "back" it is with observable zeal that Kane, in a hotly competitive discount brokerage market, approaches the task of keeping costs low.
The fabric of the drapes in his office lost its strength in some previous epoch, and now portions of the stained curtains sag away from exposed hooks. The tan carpet, in contrast, has large, black spots. Two white poodles, heads emblazoned with red ribbons, snooze contentedly. They are the pets of Linda Tallen, co-hostess of Kane's weekly television hour show. This has been Kane's professional domicile for 29 years, since he founded Kennedy Cabot.
For all the modesty of his firm's headquarters, Kane is one of the Los Angeles region's best-recognized business leaders.
Nearly all readers of business pages and business newspapers are familiar with the visage of Kane, whose photo accompanies the full-page he buys from several publications, including regional editions of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times as well as the Los Angeles Business Journal. The ads bring in 300 new customers a day, says Ish Manzanares, Kennedy Cabot executive. In total, Kennedy Cabot claims about 100,000 clients, served by 12 Southland offices. Kane personally negotiates newspaper ad rates and is said to be a very...