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The Age
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
‘A terrible tragedy': The night in Sydney that changed Marlene Dietrich's life
This story is part of the June 7 edition of Good Weekend. See all 14 stories. When showbiz impresario Harley Medcalf warns me his North Sydney office is 'a bit of a museum', it soon becomes clear he is only half-joking. On the 16th floor of a nondescript office tower on Arthur Street, the space is filled to the rafters with the sort of celebrity detritus that comes from a long career working with some of the world's most famous names. Posters of his current clients, including a young magician named Jackson Aces and former cricketer Steve Waugh, adorn the walls, along with others he's 'looked after' in a long and storied career. Gazing down on us are Frank Sinatra, Barry Humphries, Suzi Quatro, Billy Connolly, Meatloaf, Elton John and 1970s Greek pop star Demis Roussos, with whom Medcalf became particularly close when he negotiated cash payments for the singer. 'I'm a bit of a hoarder, I guess … I also have two shipping containers full of stuff,' the 74-year-old says as we survey the money-can't-buy 'merch', including countless tour programs. When we get to one item, Medcalf stops talking and draws a long, wistful breath. 'There she is,' he declares with a smile, pulling down a black and white image taken at Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport in 1975 featuring him escorting arguably the most famous, enigmatic and enduring star of them all, Marlene Dietrich. 'She was a pretty big deal,' he says. There's another shot of Dietrich in a silver frame on his desk. 'I knew I had to be very professional, she did not suffer fools gladly, there was an air of formality around her which I liked … she had real star power.' Well, that was until the evening of September 29, 1975 and the tumultuous, tragic and morbidly comical events which unfolded around Dietrich in Sydney and robbed the world of one of its greatest stars. Medcalf now looks back at that fateful Monday night as 'probably the most extraordinary evening of my career'. It will soon be a half-century since Dietrich, sparkling in sequins and swaddled in her famous three-metre-long, spotlessly white swansdown coat, took a tumble on stage at the long-gone Her Majesty's Theatre in Sydney midway through her Australian tour. That fall would ultimately end one of the greatest showbiz careers of the 20th century and result in Dietrich living the next 17 years of her life in squalor, a tragic recluse in Paris. It would also see one of Australia's richest men, Kerry Packer, abandon his ambitions to become a major showbiz player, while the nuns, doctors and nurses at St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst, along with the local press, would bear witness to one of the more bizarre celebrity encounters to take place on these Antipodean shores. It culminated in the inglorious, haphazard departure of Dietrich at Sydney Airport, where she waited for her flight atop a stretcher, in agony and under the cover of a blanket to shield her from the press. It was a scene far removed from the bright lights of Hollywood, the neon of Las Vegas or the footlights of the West End theatres where she had once reigned supreme. There is no hint of what was to befall Dietrich as I study Medcalf's prized photo closely. She is wearing huge black sunglasses, trademark lipstick and a denim boiler suit. Her honey-coloured locks are swept up into a jaunty, oversized 'newsboy' cap ballooning atop her head. Her bird-like frame, taut complexion and swinging fashion sense belie that of an ageing cabaret singer. 'We shared a droll sense of humour, but with Marlene there were clear boundaries,' Medcalf recalls. 'She would hand-write me memos each day, and I'd type up her daily schedule each night and slip it under her hotel door. I had to tape down the curtains of her rooms so no light would get in, and some nights it was me who laced up her undergarments, a sort of plastic corset thing that kept it all in shape … so yeah, we had a pretty close working relationship.' Despite some unkind conjecture about her age in the local press at the time, Dietrich was 74, the same as Medcalf is today. She was photographed arriving for her third tour of Australia. Still a global superstar, Dietrich struck a deal – underwritten by Packer – to be paid upfront before the first curtain had been raised. Medcalf confirms Dietrich was no pushover. Already famous for rebelling against conservative gender stereotypes, she flagrantly pushed the boundaries of fluid sexuality decades before successors like Madonna had even been born, let alone worn a conical bra. Dietrich was the woman playwright Noël Coward called a 'legend', dancer and actor Robert Helpmann described as 'magic' and poet and writer Jean Cocteau billed as a living 'wonder'. She survived two world wars and famously spurned one of her biggest fans, Adolf Hitler, and his Third Reich, rubbing salt into the Führer's wounds by becoming a wartime poster girl for her adopted America after leaving her beloved German homeland. Packer never had a chance. 'I soon realised there were two kinds of days with Marlene. There were the champagne days… And then there were her 'whiskey days'.' Harley Medcalf Although Medcalf may have been playing it cool by Dietrich's side in this photo from 1975, he was undeniably chaperoning an icon. 'But I soon realised there were two kinds of days with Marlene,' he explains. 'There were the champagne days, when she could go through bottles of the stuff and still remain positive, effervescent and incredibly charming, her wit sparkling, absolutely beguiling everyone who met her. And then there were her 'whiskey days'. They were much darker … she would be angry and broody, they were very difficult days for everyone … she became mean.' Medcalf was working as operations manager for Encore Theatrical Services, an emerging tour company set up in Sydney by Packer, English-born international showbiz figure Danny O'Donovan and Sydney-based promoter Cyril Smith. From a small office in Packer's Park Street Australian Consolidated Press offices, Encore had quickly become a force in the Australian touring business, notching up early successes with Roberta Flack and Gladys Knight and the Pips. By the time Dietrich was in Australia, Encore had notched up more than $1 million in box office sales in less than two years. Medcalf's job was to get Dietrich on stage – and on time. 'On champagne days,' he says, 'she would walk with me arm in arm through the wings to her position, where she would come out holding on to the curtain as the overture started and the lights came on … very elegant and very Dietrich. As soon as the spotlight hit her, the icon we all remembered was there in full flight, blazing in sparkles … incandescent.' September 29, 1975, was not one of Dietrich's champagne days. According to her daughter Maria Riva's 1992 biography, Marlene Dietrich: The Life, her mother was drunk in her dressing room long before the show was due to start. Dietrich's dresser and a girlfriend of one of the musicians had 'tried desperately to sober her up in the dressing room with black coffee'. Adds Medcalf: 'It was definitely a whiskey day. She'd been drinking heavily. I knew something was wrong when she was not responding to the stage calls … 15 minutes, five minutes. When I finally got her out of the dressing room she did not want to be touched. We got to the side of the stage … she was really unsteady on her feet. 'I was trying to hook arms with her, but she was pushing me away. She reached out and grabbed the curtain. She wouldn't let me hold her and just held the curtain for support … but it started going up and took her with it. She must have gone up two feet before she hit the deck. Some of the orchestra saw it, too, and stopped playing. 'The audience could see what was going on and I got them to quickly drop the curtain, which came down on top of her, her legs on one side and her head the other. I picked her up and got her to the dressing room as quickly as I could. 'She flatly refused to leave the theatre in an ambulance. I still have no idea how she was coping with the pain, given what we later discovered. She demanded to leave the theatre in her Rolls-Royce. It must have been agony for her, but she wanted to wave to her fans, to maintain an appearance that everything was all right. That's real toughness and fortitude.' From the age of 60, Dietrich had been touring the globe, hauling her collection of sequinned, hand-stitched 'nude' dresses and the huge swansdown coat with her, for which Dietrich wryly claimed 2000 swans had 'willingly' given 'the down off their breasts'. 'She knew how to give the press what they wanted,' Medcalf laughs. For nearly 15 years Dietrich maintained a hectic touring schedule, gracing stages across South America, Canada, Spain, Great Britain, the US, Israel, France, Portugal, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Sweden, Holland, Russia, Belgium, Denmark, South Africa, Israel, Japan and, finally, Australia. Riva, her only child, harboured growing concerns for her mother's physical health and her constant need for public adulation, along with an increasingly self-destructive lifestyle propped up by booze and pills. 'Her drinking had accelerated, not only before and after a performance, but during it as well,' she writes of when Dietrich started touring in 1960. 'I knew the constant ache in her legs and back had become the perfect excuse to increase the intake of narcotics and alcohol she had been taking for years.' There had been other major falls and fractures during the years touring, though most had been kept quiet. Dietrich fell head first into an orchestra pit during her triumphal return to Germany in 1960, breaking her collarbone. Later that year an X-ray revealed massive occlusions of the lower aorta, effectively starving her legs of their normal blood supply. 'For the next 13 years my mother played her own deadly version of Russian roulette with her body's circulatory system and nearly got away with it,' Riva reveals. By all accounts, Dietrich's Australian fans and promoters were oblivious to just how frail she had become. Medcalf said he and his colleagues at Encore were unaware that on January 26, 1974, Dietrich, under her husband's name Mrs Rudolf Sieber, had secretly checked in to the Methodist Medical Centre in Houston and underwent surgery to 'save' her legs, consisting of an aorto right femoral, left iliac bypass, and a bilateral lumbar sympathectomy. Six weeks later she was back on stage, touring the US. In August 1975, as Dietrich prepared for her tour of Australia, her husband suffered a massive stroke that left him in a wheelchair and in need of around-the-clock care. Dietrich had been living independently for most of their open marriage and insisted she still go on tour. Her daughter's biography also reveals, somewhat surreptitiously, that the singer had conducted a long-term extramarital affair with an unnamed married Australian journalist several years earlier. However, there appears to be no further documentation of the relationship and Medcalf is equally unaware when asked about the claims. The details of her Australian paramour seem destined to remain in the grave with Dietrich. Regardless, it was not long after Medcalf collected Dietrich from Tullamarine that warning bells began ringing back in New York. Riva writes: 'Rumours of trouble began to filter back to me. The Australian tour was going badly. I received a call from one of the irate producers: Miss Dietrich was complaining constantly about the sound, the lights, the orchestra, the audiences, the management. She was abusive, she was drunk, both on and off the stage. Her concerts were not sold out, the management was considering cancelling the rest of the tour … we negotiated a compromise … to do our very best to persuade Miss Dietrich to consider terminating the tour, attempt to straighten out some of the more unpleasant disagreements if they, in turn, agreed to pay her contractual salary without any deductions. Fortunately, by now all they wanted was to get rid of her, cut their losses.' Dietrich refused to quit. Riva writes of her mother's abuse of powerful (now banned) drugs and booze: 'Filled with her usual [narcotic painkiller] Darvon, [stimulant-sedative] Dexamyl and Scotch, Dietrich opened in Sydney on the 24th of September, 1975.' On that night, Stuart Greene, then 21, was working as an usher at Her Majesty's Theatre. An ardent fan of Dietrich's, he tells Good Weekend she was much more gracious and coherent than she was given credit for. 'We all got to meet her in person when she arrived,' he says. 'She was very gracious. It was my job to give her the flowers on stage at the end of the performance; goodness, that was such a thrill for me, looking back. There had been some pretty horrible things written about her, but when she was giving it her best, she really was magnificent.' 'I distinctly remember everyone in that audience making a collective gasp as she fell.' Vicki Jones Indeed, Greene managed to get closer to Dietrich – or at least to her costumes – than even her most admiring fans. 'I remember sneaking into her dressing room before a show and trying on the swansdown coat.' Greene also remembers theatre workers meticulously cleaning the stage floor at Her Majesty's Theatre. 'She demanded it be spotless because she had that huge train of feathers dragging around behind her … they were pure white!' Not everyone in Australia was quite as enamoured. A week before she came to Sydney, Phillip Adams, after comparing her to an embalmed Egyptian mummy, wrote in The Age of her Melbourne show: 'Where other performers go through their paces, she goes through her inches. A gesture here, a raised eyebrow there. Nonetheless, the illusion of life is almost convincing.' But it was following her first Sydney show that the press fully unloaded. The Daily Telegraph 's Mike Gibson wrote: 'A little old lady, bravely trying to play the part of a former movie queen called Marlene Dietrich, is tottering around the stage of Her Majesty's Theatre. When I say bravely I mean it. Without a doubt her show is the bravest, saddest, most bittersweet concert I have ever seen. When it is over the applause from her fans is tremendous … Hanging onto the red curtains for support, she takes bow after bow. She is still bowing, and waving, still breathing it all in as we leave.' Five days later, Dietrich was lying under that same curtain in a crumpled, sparkling, fluffy heap. Among those in the audience, sitting with a group of managers from the Packer camp, was former head of Channel Nine publicity Vicki Jones, who vividly remembers the audience's reaction watching Dietrich fall. 'I do distinctly remember everyone in that audience making a collective gasp as she fell, it was like the entire theatre had reacted exactly on cue,' Jones says. 'It really was quite something to witness, and upon reflection a terrible tragedy for her … and the public.' Riva writes that the 'shock' of falling had sobered her mother sufficiently to realise something was wrong with her left leg, which would not support her. Dietrich had to be spirited out of the theatre as fast as possible. 'But she absolutely refused to have her fans, waiting for her at the stage door, see her close up in the stage dress and insisted on changing first. As she had to be held upright in order to remove the dress without tearing it, my mother locked her arms around the neck of the distraught producer, and just hung there, while two women peeled off her costume and dressed her into her Chanel suit.' Dressed in her designer bouclé, Dietrich returned to her Sydney hotel – the Boulevard on William Street, on the edge of Kings Cross – while her daughter alerted her doctors in New York, who were soon in contact with doctors at St Vincent's Hospital. Orthopaedic surgeon Brett Courtenay had only just started working at St Vincent's. He was mentored by the same surgeon who treated Dietrich, the late head of orthopaedics and keen sailor Dr John Roarty. 'John had a great sense of humour and would tell us stories about treating Marlene … she even gave him a signed photo of herself as a thank you,' Courtenay recalls. An international convention of orthopaedic surgeons was taking place in Sydney the same week Dietrich was performing. Within the hour, Roarty, resplendent in his tuxedo, having come straight from a gala evening, attended her suite. She refused to be taken to hospital, though Roarty suspected her femur was fractured. 'All that night my mother lay in her bed, hardly daring to breathe,' Riva writes. Early the next morning Dietrich finally allowed herself to be smuggled out of the hotel into St Vincent's Hospital, where she was made slightly more comfortable with the aid of sheepskins placed under her brittle, delicate frame, the same Australian sheepskins she would lie on until her death in Paris 17 years later. X-rays confirmed the doctor's suspicions. She had a broken femur of the left leg. Dietrich refused to remain in Australia. Roarty convinced her she needed to be placed in a protective body cast if she insisted on flying back to the US, and she was photographed in it being hauled out of St Vincent's into an ambulance when she was discharged. Dietrich would remain horizontal for almost all her remaining days. Dietrich's more glamorous image now hangs on the wall of St Vincent's. The caption claims she was a 'difficult' patient but that her 'departure was that of a great star'. (The hospital's archivists were unable to find any more details for Good Weekend.) Loading Riva and Dietrich's medical team made arrangements for a Pan Am jet to remove four seats so that Dietrich could be accommodated horizontally for the long flight back to Los Angeles. The cancelled shows left a huge hole in Encore's coffers. Co-founder Cyril Smith told The Sydney Morning Herald at the time it would account for a $100,000 hit (equivalent to $890,000 today). Having already agreed to pay Dietrich, an unimpressed Kerry Packer pulled the pin on the touring business. Encore was kaput. And Medcalf? 'I discovered I didn't have a job when I pulled into the Australian Consolidated Press car park a few days later,' he says, chuckling. 'Not only had Marlene cost me my job, the security guard told me I no longer had a parking spot, either.'
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘A terrible tragedy': The night in Sydney that changed Marlene Dietrich's life
This story is part of the June 7 edition of Good Weekend. See all 14 stories. When showbiz impresario Harley Medcalf warns me his North Sydney office is 'a bit of a museum', it soon becomes clear he is only half-joking. On the 16th floor of a nondescript office tower on Arthur Street, the space is filled to the rafters with the sort of celebrity detritus that comes from a long career working with some of the world's most famous names. Posters of his current clients, including a young magician named Jackson Aces and former cricketer Steve Waugh, adorn the walls, along with others he's 'looked after' in a long and storied career. Gazing down on us are Frank Sinatra, Barry Humphries, Suzi Quatro, Billy Connolly, Meatloaf, Elton John and 1970s Greek pop star Demis Roussos, with whom Medcalf became particularly close when he negotiated cash payments for the singer. 'I'm a bit of a hoarder, I guess … I also have two shipping containers full of stuff,' the 74-year-old says as we survey the money-can't-buy 'merch', including countless tour programs. When we get to one item, Medcalf stops talking and draws a long, wistful breath. 'There she is,' he declares with a smile, pulling down a black and white image taken at Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport in 1975 featuring him escorting arguably the most famous, enigmatic and enduring star of them all, Marlene Dietrich. 'She was a pretty big deal,' he says. There's another shot of Dietrich in a silver frame on his desk. 'I knew I had to be very professional, she did not suffer fools gladly, there was an air of formality around her which I liked … she had real star power.' Well, that was until the evening of September 29, 1975 and the tumultuous, tragic and morbidly comical events which unfolded around Dietrich in Sydney and robbed the world of one of its greatest stars. Medcalf now looks back at that fateful Monday night as 'probably the most extraordinary evening of my career'. It will soon be a half-century since Dietrich, sparkling in sequins and swaddled in her famous three-metre-long, spotlessly white swansdown coat, took a tumble on stage at the long-gone Her Majesty's Theatre in Sydney midway through her Australian tour. That fall would ultimately end one of the greatest showbiz careers of the 20th century and result in Dietrich living the next 17 years of her life in squalor, a tragic recluse in Paris. It would also see one of Australia's richest men, Kerry Packer, abandon his ambitions to become a major showbiz player, while the nuns, doctors and nurses at St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst, along with the local press, would bear witness to one of the more bizarre celebrity encounters to take place on these Antipodean shores. It culminated in the inglorious, haphazard departure of Dietrich at Sydney Airport, where she waited for her flight atop a stretcher, in agony and under the cover of a blanket to shield her from the press. It was a scene far removed from the bright lights of Hollywood, the neon of Las Vegas or the footlights of the West End theatres where she had once reigned supreme. There is no hint of what was to befall Dietrich as I study Medcalf's prized photo closely. She is wearing huge black sunglasses, trademark lipstick and a denim boiler suit. Her honey-coloured locks are swept up into a jaunty, oversized 'newsboy' cap ballooning atop her head. Her bird-like frame, taut complexion and swinging fashion sense belie that of an ageing cabaret singer. 'We shared a droll sense of humour, but with Marlene there were clear boundaries,' Medcalf recalls. 'She would hand-write me memos each day, and I'd type up her daily schedule each night and slip it under her hotel door. I had to tape down the curtains of her rooms so no light would get in, and some nights it was me who laced up her undergarments, a sort of plastic corset thing that kept it all in shape … so yeah, we had a pretty close working relationship.' Despite some unkind conjecture about her age in the local press at the time, Dietrich was 74, the same as Medcalf is today. She was photographed arriving for her third tour of Australia. Still a global superstar, Dietrich struck a deal – underwritten by Packer – to be paid upfront before the first curtain had been raised. Medcalf confirms Dietrich was no pushover. Already famous for rebelling against conservative gender stereotypes, she flagrantly pushed the boundaries of fluid sexuality decades before successors like Madonna had even been born, let alone worn a conical bra. Dietrich was the woman playwright Noël Coward called a 'legend', dancer and actor Robert Helpmann described as 'magic' and poet and writer Jean Cocteau billed as a living 'wonder'. She survived two world wars and famously spurned one of her biggest fans, Adolf Hitler, and his Third Reich, rubbing salt into the Führer's wounds by becoming a wartime poster girl for her adopted America after leaving her beloved German homeland. Packer never had a chance. 'I soon realised there were two kinds of days with Marlene. There were the champagne days… And then there were her 'whiskey days'.' Harley Medcalf Although Medcalf may have been playing it cool by Dietrich's side in this photo from 1975, he was undeniably chaperoning an icon. 'But I soon realised there were two kinds of days with Marlene,' he explains. 'There were the champagne days, when she could go through bottles of the stuff and still remain positive, effervescent and incredibly charming, her wit sparkling, absolutely beguiling everyone who met her. And then there were her 'whiskey days'. They were much darker … she would be angry and broody, they were very difficult days for everyone … she became mean.' Medcalf was working as operations manager for Encore Theatrical Services, an emerging tour company set up in Sydney by Packer, English-born international showbiz figure Danny O'Donovan and Sydney-based promoter Cyril Smith. From a small office in Packer's Park Street Australian Consolidated Press offices, Encore had quickly become a force in the Australian touring business, notching up early successes with Roberta Flack and Gladys Knight and the Pips. By the time Dietrich was in Australia, Encore had notched up more than $1 million in box office sales in less than two years. Medcalf's job was to get Dietrich on stage – and on time. 'On champagne days,' he says, 'she would walk with me arm in arm through the wings to her position, where she would come out holding on to the curtain as the overture started and the lights came on … very elegant and very Dietrich. As soon as the spotlight hit her, the icon we all remembered was there in full flight, blazing in sparkles … incandescent.' September 29, 1975, was not one of Dietrich's champagne days. According to her daughter Maria Riva's 1992 biography, Marlene Dietrich: The Life, her mother was drunk in her dressing room long before the show was due to start. Dietrich's dresser and a girlfriend of one of the musicians had 'tried desperately to sober her up in the dressing room with black coffee'. Adds Medcalf: 'It was definitely a whiskey day. She'd been drinking heavily. I knew something was wrong when she was not responding to the stage calls … 15 minutes, five minutes. When I finally got her out of the dressing room she did not want to be touched. We got to the side of the stage … she was really unsteady on her feet. 'I was trying to hook arms with her, but she was pushing me away. She reached out and grabbed the curtain. She wouldn't let me hold her and just held the curtain for support … but it started going up and took her with it. She must have gone up two feet before she hit the deck. Some of the orchestra saw it, too, and stopped playing. 'The audience could see what was going on and I got them to quickly drop the curtain, which came down on top of her, her legs on one side and her head the other. I picked her up and got her to the dressing room as quickly as I could. 'She flatly refused to leave the theatre in an ambulance. I still have no idea how she was coping with the pain, given what we later discovered. She demanded to leave the theatre in her Rolls-Royce. It must have been agony for her, but she wanted to wave to her fans, to maintain an appearance that everything was all right. That's real toughness and fortitude.' From the age of 60, Dietrich had been touring the globe, hauling her collection of sequinned, hand-stitched 'nude' dresses and the huge swansdown coat with her, for which Dietrich wryly claimed 2000 swans had 'willingly' given 'the down off their breasts'. 'She knew how to give the press what they wanted,' Medcalf laughs. For nearly 15 years Dietrich maintained a hectic touring schedule, gracing stages across South America, Canada, Spain, Great Britain, the US, Israel, France, Portugal, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Sweden, Holland, Russia, Belgium, Denmark, South Africa, Israel, Japan and, finally, Australia. Riva, her only child, harboured growing concerns for her mother's physical health and her constant need for public adulation, along with an increasingly self-destructive lifestyle propped up by booze and pills. 'Her drinking had accelerated, not only before and after a performance, but during it as well,' she writes of when Dietrich started touring in 1960. 'I knew the constant ache in her legs and back had become the perfect excuse to increase the intake of narcotics and alcohol she had been taking for years.' There had been other major falls and fractures during the years touring, though most had been kept quiet. Dietrich fell head first into an orchestra pit during her triumphal return to Germany in 1960, breaking her collarbone. Later that year an X-ray revealed massive occlusions of the lower aorta, effectively starving her legs of their normal blood supply. 'For the next 13 years my mother played her own deadly version of Russian roulette with her body's circulatory system and nearly got away with it,' Riva reveals. By all accounts, Dietrich's Australian fans and promoters were oblivious to just how frail she had become. Medcalf said he and his colleagues at Encore were unaware that on January 26, 1974, Dietrich, under her husband's name Mrs Rudolf Sieber, had secretly checked in to the Methodist Medical Centre in Houston and underwent surgery to 'save' her legs, consisting of an aorto right femoral, left iliac bypass, and a bilateral lumbar sympathectomy. Six weeks later she was back on stage, touring the US. In August 1975, as Dietrich prepared for her tour of Australia, her husband suffered a massive stroke that left him in a wheelchair and in need of around-the-clock care. Dietrich had been living independently for most of their open marriage and insisted she still go on tour. Her daughter's biography also reveals, somewhat surreptitiously, that the singer had conducted a long-term extramarital affair with an unnamed married Australian journalist several years earlier. However, there appears to be no further documentation of the relationship and Medcalf is equally unaware when asked about the claims. The details of her Australian paramour seem destined to remain in the grave with Dietrich. Regardless, it was not long after Medcalf collected Dietrich from Tullamarine that warning bells began ringing back in New York. Riva writes: 'Rumours of trouble began to filter back to me. The Australian tour was going badly. I received a call from one of the irate producers: Miss Dietrich was complaining constantly about the sound, the lights, the orchestra, the audiences, the management. She was abusive, she was drunk, both on and off the stage. Her concerts were not sold out, the management was considering cancelling the rest of the tour … we negotiated a compromise … to do our very best to persuade Miss Dietrich to consider terminating the tour, attempt to straighten out some of the more unpleasant disagreements if they, in turn, agreed to pay her contractual salary without any deductions. Fortunately, by now all they wanted was to get rid of her, cut their losses.' Dietrich refused to quit. Riva writes of her mother's abuse of powerful (now banned) drugs and booze: 'Filled with her usual [narcotic painkiller] Darvon, [stimulant-sedative] Dexamyl and Scotch, Dietrich opened in Sydney on the 24th of September, 1975.' On that night, Stuart Greene, then 21, was working as an usher at Her Majesty's Theatre. An ardent fan of Dietrich's, he tells Good Weekend she was much more gracious and coherent than she was given credit for. 'We all got to meet her in person when she arrived,' he says. 'She was very gracious. It was my job to give her the flowers on stage at the end of the performance; goodness, that was such a thrill for me, looking back. There had been some pretty horrible things written about her, but when she was giving it her best, she really was magnificent.' 'I distinctly remember everyone in that audience making a collective gasp as she fell.' Vicki Jones Indeed, Greene managed to get closer to Dietrich – or at least to her costumes – than even her most admiring fans. 'I remember sneaking into her dressing room before a show and trying on the swansdown coat.' Greene also remembers theatre workers meticulously cleaning the stage floor at Her Majesty's Theatre. 'She demanded it be spotless because she had that huge train of feathers dragging around behind her … they were pure white!' Not everyone in Australia was quite as enamoured. A week before she came to Sydney, Phillip Adams, after comparing her to an embalmed Egyptian mummy, wrote in The Age of her Melbourne show: 'Where other performers go through their paces, she goes through her inches. A gesture here, a raised eyebrow there. Nonetheless, the illusion of life is almost convincing.' But it was following her first Sydney show that the press fully unloaded. The Daily Telegraph 's Mike Gibson wrote: 'A little old lady, bravely trying to play the part of a former movie queen called Marlene Dietrich, is tottering around the stage of Her Majesty's Theatre. When I say bravely I mean it. Without a doubt her show is the bravest, saddest, most bittersweet concert I have ever seen. When it is over the applause from her fans is tremendous … Hanging onto the red curtains for support, she takes bow after bow. She is still bowing, and waving, still breathing it all in as we leave.' Five days later, Dietrich was lying under that same curtain in a crumpled, sparkling, fluffy heap. Among those in the audience, sitting with a group of managers from the Packer camp, was former head of Channel Nine publicity Vicki Jones, who vividly remembers the audience's reaction watching Dietrich fall. 'I do distinctly remember everyone in that audience making a collective gasp as she fell, it was like the entire theatre had reacted exactly on cue,' Jones says. 'It really was quite something to witness, and upon reflection a terrible tragedy for her … and the public.' Riva writes that the 'shock' of falling had sobered her mother sufficiently to realise something was wrong with her left leg, which would not support her. Dietrich had to be spirited out of the theatre as fast as possible. 'But she absolutely refused to have her fans, waiting for her at the stage door, see her close up in the stage dress and insisted on changing first. As she had to be held upright in order to remove the dress without tearing it, my mother locked her arms around the neck of the distraught producer, and just hung there, while two women peeled off her costume and dressed her into her Chanel suit.' Dressed in her designer bouclé, Dietrich returned to her Sydney hotel – the Boulevard on William Street, on the edge of Kings Cross – while her daughter alerted her doctors in New York, who were soon in contact with doctors at St Vincent's Hospital. Orthopaedic surgeon Brett Courtenay had only just started working at St Vincent's. He was mentored by the same surgeon who treated Dietrich, the late head of orthopaedics and keen sailor Dr John Roarty. 'John had a great sense of humour and would tell us stories about treating Marlene … she even gave him a signed photo of herself as a thank you,' Courtenay recalls. An international convention of orthopaedic surgeons was taking place in Sydney the same week Dietrich was performing. Within the hour, Roarty, resplendent in his tuxedo, having come straight from a gala evening, attended her suite. She refused to be taken to hospital, though Roarty suspected her femur was fractured. 'All that night my mother lay in her bed, hardly daring to breathe,' Riva writes. Early the next morning Dietrich finally allowed herself to be smuggled out of the hotel into St Vincent's Hospital, where she was made slightly more comfortable with the aid of sheepskins placed under her brittle, delicate frame, the same Australian sheepskins she would lie on until her death in Paris 17 years later. X-rays confirmed the doctor's suspicions. She had a broken femur of the left leg. Dietrich refused to remain in Australia. Roarty convinced her she needed to be placed in a protective body cast if she insisted on flying back to the US, and she was photographed in it being hauled out of St Vincent's into an ambulance when she was discharged. Dietrich would remain horizontal for almost all her remaining days. Dietrich's more glamorous image now hangs on the wall of St Vincent's. The caption claims she was a 'difficult' patient but that her 'departure was that of a great star'. (The hospital's archivists were unable to find any more details for Good Weekend.) Loading Riva and Dietrich's medical team made arrangements for a Pan Am jet to remove four seats so that Dietrich could be accommodated horizontally for the long flight back to Los Angeles. The cancelled shows left a huge hole in Encore's coffers. Co-founder Cyril Smith told The Sydney Morning Herald at the time it would account for a $100,000 hit (equivalent to $890,000 today). Having already agreed to pay Dietrich, an unimpressed Kerry Packer pulled the pin on the touring business. Encore was kaput. And Medcalf? 'I discovered I didn't have a job when I pulled into the Australian Consolidated Press car park a few days later,' he says, chuckling. 'Not only had Marlene cost me my job, the security guard told me I no longer had a parking spot, either.'
Business Wire
09-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Custom Glass Solutions Establishes Upper Sandusky as New Corporate HQ
UPPER SANDUSKY, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Custom Glass Solutions (CGS), a proud American manufacturer of engineered glass solutions and portfolio company of Stellex Capital Management, is pleased to announce that Upper Sandusky, OH, is now the official corporate headquarters for all CGS operations nationwide. The recent tariff policies have created a favorable environment for domestic manufacturers. Macroeconomic tailwinds combined with our commitment to innovation and service are propelling our business forward. This move marks a significant step forward for CGS as the company ramps up production to meet a surge in demand, driven in part by customers seeking to onshore their supply chains. To support the growth opportunities, the Upper Sandusky facility is adding at least 30 new manufacturing jobs and actively seeking motivated individuals to join the team. 'Choosing Upper Sandusky as our corporate headquarters was a natural decision,' said Matt Dietrich, CEO of CGS. 'We've been a part of this community since 1974 so our roots are here. As we continue to grow, invest in our people and lead through innovation, it just makes sense that Upper Sandusky should be the center of our operations.' In addition to the ramp-up in Upper Sandusky, CGS is expanding in Fostoria, OH, where 70 new jobs have been added to support a facility expansion and new capital equipment that adds automation, throughput and capacity. And at its Broken Arrow, OK, facility, CGS is investing in new capabilities to further enhance its product portfolio. This growth comes alongside the strategic consolidation of operations in Trumbauersville, PA, and CGS's previous headquarters in Worthington, OH. 'We have realigned our footprint to drive efficiencies and focus,' said Dietrich. 'In turn, we are reinvesting in our operations and focusing our resources to support our growth goals.' CGS has seen an increase in demand from current and prospective customers looking to secure their supply chains with U.S.-based suppliers. 'The recent tariff policies have created a favorable environment for domestic manufacturers,' Dietrich said. 'Macroeconomic tailwinds combined with our commitment to innovation and service are propelling our business forward.' The company is also developing into a leader in bullet- and blast-resistant glass technologies with its Optishield™ line of transparent armor products. Optishield Tactical is designed to provide invisible, level NIJ3A ballistic protection for windshields and side glass in Law Enforcement vehicles. Together with Dana Safety Supply, CGS's exclusive distributor and installer of Optishield Tactical, the companies are setting the standard for vehicle armoring solutions. In addition to law enforcement applications, CGS is also deploying Optishield in a first-of-its-kind, fully-ballistic bus barrier dubbed Transit Assault Barrier that protects transit operators from the ever-increasing risk of assault. To meet the influx of demand, CGS is actively recruiting and hiring with open positions posted at Offering a range of shifts, competitive benefits and a culture rooted in internal promotion, CGS provides career opportunities for entrepreneurial, hard-working individuals. New employees may look forward to wage increases at 90 and 180 days as well as an improved and comprehensive benefits package. The Fostoria team will host a ribbon-cutting event in June for employees and the community to see the growth and new technology firsthand. 'Our future is built on the talent and passion of our people,' Dietrich said. 'We're offering more than just a job — we're building careers with purpose, growth and impact.' About Custom Glass Solutions Custom Glass Solutions, LLC is North America's leading producer of large-format, laminated glass systems. In addition to laminated glass, CGS also manufactures flat, bent, and tempered glass systems, offering a broad range of capabilities and the most diverse selection of products for many different transportation and mobile equipment segments. Through its Network business, CGS also works with insurance companies, fleet operators and OEM customers to coordinate glass replacement services. Today, the company operates two facilities in Ohio and one in Oklahoma and employs 600 hundred dedicated employees serving customers across the North American market. About Stellex Capital Management With offices in New York, Detroit, Pittsburgh and London, Stellex Capital is a private equity firm with $5 billion in AUM. Stellex seeks to identify and deploy capital in opportunities that stand to benefit from its operationally focused and hands-on approach to investing. Portfolio companies are supported by Stellex's industry knowledge, operating capabilities, network of senior executives, strategic insight, and access to capital. Sectors of particular focus include aerospace, defense & government services, transportation & logistics, manufacturing, real economy & business services, food processing and tech-enabled services. Additional information may be found at
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Minerals Technologies Inc. Announces 2025 First Quarter Financial Results
--- Establishes Reserve for BMI OldCo Chapter 11 Case --- --- Initiates a $10 Million Cost Savings Program --- NEW YORK, April 24, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Minerals Technologies Inc. (NYSE: MTX) ('MTI' or 'the Company') today reported a loss per share for the first quarter ended March 30, 2025, of $4.51 due to the establishment of a reserve in connection with the Chapter 11 case of its subsidiary BMI OldCo. Excluding special items, earnings were $1.14 per share. First Quarter 2025 Consolidated Results Worldwide net sales were $492 million, down 8 percent versus the prior year, driven by uncertainty in the Company's end markets resulting in softer demand conditions in both segments. Foreign exchange had an unfavorable impact on sales of 2 percent. 'Throughout the quarter, we experienced slower demand from customers in both of our business segments. This was a result of destocking activities and shifting order patterns, primarily in January and February. We saw a significant improvement in sales in March, which we expect to continue through the second quarter,' said Douglas T. Dietrich, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. 'We adapted quickly to changing market conditions to ensure MTI is well positioned to meet its financial targets and growth initiatives going forward.' Reported operating loss was $160 million. Operating income excluding special items was $63 million and represented 12.9 percent of sales. The Company recorded special items of $223 million in the first quarter, including a provision to establish a reserve of $215 million for estimated costs to fund a trust to resolve all current and future talc-related claims as well as fund its subsidiary BMI OldCo's Chapter 11 case and related litigation costs. Included in this provision is $30 million of additional debtor-in-possession financing by Minerals Technologies Investments LLC (a wholly owned subsidiary of MTI) to BMI OldCo. 'We remain confident in BMI OldCo's path to resolving these liabilities certainly and fairly through the Chapter 11 process, and believe this reserve is appropriate to cover the anticipated financial impact of talc-related claims,' said Mr. Dietrich. 'We continue to believe the lawsuits against BMI OldCo are meritless and that all talc sold by BMI OldCo is and always has been safe.' Cost Savings Initiative The Company has proactively identified efficiency cost savings of approximately $10 million on an annualized basis, primarily through workforce reductions. MTI recorded a charge of $5.5 million for severance and other related costs associated with this program. The program was initiated in the first quarter of 2025, and the Company expects to achieve full run rate savings by early 2026. First Quarter 2025 Segment Results Consumer & Specialties segment sales were $268 million, down 10 percent from the prior year. Foreign exchange had an unfavorable impact on sales of 2 percent. Household & Personal Care sales were $123 million, down 11 percent from the prior year, driven by customer inventory destocking and inconsistent order patterns. Specialty Additives sales were $145 million, down 8 percent from the prior year, driven by delayed shipments due to tariff uncertainty and customer maintenance outages at paper and packaging sites. Sales improved and order patterns stabilized in both product lines in March. Segment operating income was $30 million excluding special items. The Company incurred higher operating costs in the first quarter primarily through unfavorable volume leverage and product mix. Operating margin was 11.2 percent of sales. MTI's Consumer & Specialties segment provides technologically enhanced products to consumer-driven end markets, including mineral-to-market household products as well as specialty additives that become functional components in a variety of consumer and industrial goods. This segment includes two product lines, Household & Personal Care and Specialty Additives. Engineered Solutions segment sales were $224 million, down 6 percent from the prior year. Foreign exchange had an unfavorable impact on sales of 1 percent. High-Temperature Technologies sales were $169 million, down 4 percent from the prior year as soft demand conditions in some industrial end markets persisted in the first quarter. Environmental & Infrastructure sales were $54 million, down 10 percent from the prior year as continued stability in environmental and construction projects was offset by lower sales in offshore water filtration and services. Sales improved in both product lines in March. Segment operating income was $34 million, down 11 percent from the prior year due to lower sales levels as well as unfavorable mix in the Environmental & Infrastructure product line. Operating margin was 15.4 percent of sales. MTI's Engineered Solutions segment provides advanced process technologies and solutions that are designed to improve customers' manufacturing processes and projects. This segment includes two product lines, High-Temperature Technologies and Environmental & Infrastructure. ----------------- MTI will host a conference call tomorrow, April 25, 2025, at 11 a.m. Eastern Time. The live earnings webcast can be accessed at A presentation for the call will be available at the same location at approximately 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on April 25, 2025. ----------------- FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release may contain "forward‐looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations and forecasts of future events such as new products, revenues, and financial performance, and are not limited to describing historical or current facts. They can be identified by the use of words such as 'believes,' 'expects,' 'plans,' 'intends,' 'anticipates,' and other words and phrases of similar meaning. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on assumptions, estimates, and limited information available at the time they are made. A broad variety of risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, as well as the inaccuracy of assumptions and estimates, can affect the realization of the expectations or forecasts in these statements. Actual future results may vary materially. Significant factors that could affect the expectations and forecasts include worldwide general economic, business, and industry conditions; the cyclicality of our customers' businesses and their changing regional demands; our ability to compete in very competitive industries; consolidation in customer industries, principally paper, foundry, and steel; our ability to renew or extend long term sales contracts for our satellite operations; our ability to generate cash to service our debt; our ability to comply with the covenants in the agreements governing our debt; our ability to effectively achieve and implement our growth initiatives or consummate the transactions described in the statements; our ability to successfully develop new products; our ability to defend our intellectual property; the increased risks of doing business abroad; the availability of raw materials and access to ore reserves at our mining operations, or increases in costs of raw materials, energy, or shipping; compliance with or changes to regulation in the areas of environmental, health and safety, and tax; risks and uncertainties related to the voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code filed by our subsidiaries BMI OldCo (f/k/a Barretts Minerals Inc.) and Barretts Ventures Texas LLC; claims for legal, environmental, and tax matters or product stewardship issues; operating risks and capacity limitations affecting our production facilities; seasonality of some of our businesses; cybersecurity and other threats relating to our information technology systems; and other risk factors and cautionary statements in our 2024 Annual Report on Form 10‐K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward‐looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. ----------------- About Minerals Technologies York-based Minerals Technologies Inc. (MTI) is a leading, technology-driven specialty minerals company that develops, produces, and markets a broad range of mineral and mineral-based products, related systems, and services. MTI globally serves a wide range of consumer and industrial markets, including household, food and pharmaceutical, paper, packaging, automotive, construction, and environmental. The Company reported global sales of $2.1 billion in 2024. For further information, please visit our website at Investor Relations ContactLydia Media ContactStephanie CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME (LOSS) MINERALS TECHNOLOGIES INC. AND SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES (in millions, except per share data) (unaudited) Quarter Ended % Growth Mar. 30, Dec. 31, Mar. 31, 2025 2024 2024 Prior Qtr. Prior Year Net sales $ 491.8 $ 518.1 $ 534.5 (5)% (8)% Cost of goods sold 372.2 385.4 398.6 (3)% (7)% Production margin 119.6 132.7 135.9 (10)% (12)% Marketing and administrative expenses 50.6 52.8 53.0 (4)% (5)% Research and development expenses 5.8 5.7 5.6 2% 4% Provision for litigation reserve 215.0 0.0 0.0 * * Restructuring and other items, net 5.5 0.0 0.0 * * Gain on sale of assets, net 0.0 (12.3) 0.0 * * Litigation expenses 2.8 2.4 2.1 17% 33% Income (loss) from operations (160.1) 84.1 75.2 * * Interest expense, net (14.2) (12.6) (14.9) 13% (5)% Debt extinguishment expenses 0.0 (1.8) 0.0 * * Other non-operating deductions, net (2.0) (0.3) (0.2) * * Total non-operating deductions, net (16.2) (14.7) (15.1) 10% 7% Income (loss) before tax and equity in earnings (176.3) 69.4 60.1 * * Provision (benefit) for taxes on income (32.1) 16.2 13.9 * * Equity in earnings of affiliates, net of tax 1.2 1.5 1.4 (20)% (14)% Net income (loss) (143.0) 54.7 47.6 * * Less: Net income attributable to non-controlling interests 1.0 0.7 0.9 43% 11% Net Income (loss) attributable to Minerals Technologies Inc. (MTI) $ (144.0) $ 54.0 $ 46.7 * * Weighted average number of common shares outstanding: Basic 31.9 31.9 32.3 Diluted 31.9 32.2 32.4 Earnings (loss) per share attributable to MTI: Basic $ (4.51) $ 1.69 $ 1.45 * * Diluted $ (4.51) $ 1.68 $ 1.44 * * Cash dividends declared per common share $ 0.11 $ 0.11 $ 0.10 * Percentage not meaningful MINERALS TECHNOLOGIES INC. AND SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES NOTES TO CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME (LOSS) 1 ) For comparative purposes, the quarterly periods ended March 30, 2025, December 31, 2024, and March 31, 2024 consisted of 89 days, 93 days, and 91 days, respectively. 2 ) To supplement the Company's consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with GAAP, the following is a presentation of the Company's non-GAAP earnings per share, excluding special items, for the quarterly periods ended March 30, 2025, December 31, 2024, and March 31, 2024, and a reconciliation to reported earnings per share for such periods. The Company's management believes these non-GAAP measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding its performance as inclusion of such special items are not indicative of the ongoing operating results and thereby affect the comparability of results between periods. The Company believes inclusion of these non-GAAP measures also provides consistency in its financial reporting and facilitates investors' understanding of historic operating trends. (millions of dollars) Quarter Ended Mar. 30, Dec. 31, Mar. 31, 2025 2024 2024 Net income (loss) attributable to MTI $ (144.0 ) $ 54.0 $ 46.7 % of sales * 10.4 % 8.7 % Special items: Provision for litigation reserve 215.0 0.0 0.0 Restructuring and other items, net 5.5 0.0 0.0 Debt extinguishment expenses 0.0 1.8 0.0 Gain on sale of assets, net 0.0 (12.3 ) 0.0 Litigation expenses 2.8 2.4 2.1 Related tax effects on special items (42.9 ) 2.3 (0.5 ) Net income attributable to MTI, excluding special items $ 36.4 $ 48.2 $ 48.3 % of sales 7.4 % 9.3 % 9.0 % Diluted earnings per share, excluding special items $ 1.14 $ 1.50 $ 1.49 In the first quarter of 2025, the Company recorded a $215 million provision to establish a reserve for estimated costs to fund a trust to resolve all current and future talc-related settlements as well as fund the bankruptcy of Oldco and BVT, and related litigation costs. Included in this provision is $30 million of additional debtor-in-possession financing by Minerals Technologies Investments LLC to the Debtors. In the first quarter of 2025, the Company initiated a cost savings program and recorded a $5.5 million charge relating to severance and other costs related to this program. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the Company recorded a $12.3 million net gain on an installment sale of refractories manufacturing assets in China. 3 ) Free cash flow is defined as cash flow from operations less capital expenditures. The following is a presentation of the Company's non-GAAP free cash flow for the quarterly periods ended March 30, 2025, December 31, 2024, and March 31, 2024 and a reconciliation to cash flow from operations for such periods. The Company's management believes this non-GAAP measure provides meaningful supplemental information as management uses this measure to evaluate the Company's ability to maintain capital assets, satisfy current and future obligations, repurchase stock, pay dividends and fund future business opportunities. Free cash flow is not a measure of cash available for discretionary expenditures since the Company has certain non-discretionary obligations such as debt service that are not deducted from the measure. The Company's definition of free cash flow may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. Quarter Ended (millions of dollars) Mar. 30, Dec. 31, Mar. 31, 2025 2024 2024 Cash flow from operations $ (4.4 ) $ 70.4 $ 55.9 Capital expenditures 18.3 28.1 16.5 Free cash flow $ (22.7 ) $ 42.3 $ 39.4 Depreciation, depletion and amortization expense $ 23.5 $ 24.3 $ 23.5 4 ) 'Adjusted EBITDA' is a non-GAAP financial measure and refers to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), excluding special items. The following is a presentation of the Company's non-GAAP EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA for the quarterly periods ended March 30, 2025, December 31, 2024, and March 31, 2024 and a reconciliation to net income for such periods. The Company's management believes these non-GAAP measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding its performance and facilitates investors' understanding of historic operating trends. Quarter Ended (millions of dollars) Mar. 30, Dec. 31, Mar. 31, 2025 2024 2024 Net income (loss) $ (144.0 ) $ 54.0 $ 46.7 Add back: Depreciation, depletion and amortization expense 23.5 24.3 23.5 Interest expense, net 14.2 12.6 14.9 Equity in earnings of affiliates, net of tax (1.2 ) (1.5 ) (1.4 ) Net income attributable to non-controlling interests 1.0 0.7 0.9 Provision (benefit) for taxes on income (32.1 ) 16.2 13.9 EBITDA (138.6 ) 106.3 98.5 Add special items: Provision for litigation reserve 215.0 0.0 0.0 Restructuring and other items, net 5.5 0.0 0.0 Debt extinguishment expenses 0.0 1.8 0.0 Gain on sale of assets, net 0.0 (12.3 ) 0.0 Litigation expenses 2.8 2.4 2.1 Adjusted EBITDA $ 84.7 $ 98.2 $ 100.6 % of sales 17.2 % 19.0 % 18.8 % 5 ) The following table reflects the components of non-operating income and deductions: (millions of dollars) Quarter Ended Mar. 30, Dec. 31, Mar. 31, 2025 2024 2024 Interest income $ 1.2 $ 1.8 $ 1.1 Interest expense (15.4 ) (14.4 ) (16.0 ) Foreign exchange gains (losses) (0.2 ) 1.4 0.9 Debt extinguishment expenses 0.0 (1.8 ) 0.0 Other deductions (1.8 ) (1.7 ) (1.1 ) Non-operating deductions, net $ (16.2 ) $ (14.7 ) $ (15.1 ) 6 ) The analyst conference call to discuss operating results for the first quarter is scheduled for Friday, April 25, 2025 at 11:00 am and will be broadcast over the Company's website ( The broadcast will remain on the Company's website for no less than one year. SUPPLEMENTARY DATA MINERALS TECHNOLOGIES INC. AND SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES (millions of dollars) (unaudited) Quarter Ended % Growth SALES DATA Mar. 30, % of Dec. 31, % of Mar. 31, % of 2025 Total Sales 2024 Total Sales 2024 Total Sales Prior Qtr. Prior Year United States $ 262.4 53 % $ 264.7 51 % $ 275.1 51 % (1 )% (5 )% International 229.4 47 % 253.4 49 % 259.4 49 % (9 )% (12 )% Net Sales $ 491.8 100 % $ 518.1 100 % $ 534.5 100 % (5 )% (8 )% Household & Personal Care $ 123.1 25 % $ 133.9 26 % $ 138.4 26 % (8 )% (11 )% Specialty Additives 145.2 30 % 144.8 28 % 158.5 30 % 0 % (8 )% Consumer & Specialties Segment $ 268.3 55 % $ 278.7 54 % $ 296.9 56 % (4 )% (10 )% High-Temperature Technologies $ 169.4 34 % $ 176.4 34 % $ 177.3 33 % (4 )% (4 )% Environmental & Infrastructure 54.1 11 % 63.0 12 % 60.3 11 % (14 )% (10 )% Engineered Solutions Segment $ 223.5 45 % $ 239.4 46 % $ 237.6 44 % (7 )% (6 )% MTI Consolidated Net Sales $ 491.8 100 % $ 518.1 100 % $ 534.5 100 % (5 )% (8 )% SUPPLEMENTARY DATA MINERALS TECHNOLOGIES INC. AND SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES (millions of dollars) (unaudited) Quarter Ended % Growth Mar. 30, Dec. 31, Mar. 31, Prior Prior SEGMENT OPERATING INCOME (LOSS) DATA 2025 2024 2024 Qtr. Year Consumer & Specialties Segment $ 27.5 $ 37.9 $ 42.0 (27)% (35)% % of Sales 10.2% 13.6% 14.1% Engineered Solutions Segment $ 33.6 $ 52.0 $ 38.5 (35)% (13)% % of Sales 15.0% 21.7% 16.2% Unallocated and Other Corporate Expenses $ (221.2) $ (5.8) $ (5.3) * * MTI Consolidated $ (160.1) $ 84.1 $ 75.2 * * % of Sales * 16.2% 14.1% SPECIAL ITEMS Consumer & Specialties Segment $ 2.5 $ 0.0 $ 0.0 * * Engineered Solutions Segment $ 0.8 $ (12.3) $ 0.0 * * Unallocated and Other Corporate Expenses $ 220.0 $ 2.4 $ 2.1 * * MTI Consolidated $ 223.3 $ (9.9) $ 2.1 * * To supplement the Company's consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with GAAP, the following is a presentation of the Company's non-GAAP operating income, excluding special items (set forth in the above table), for the quarterly periods ended March 30, 2025, December 31, 2024 and March 31, 2024, constituting a reconciliation to GAAP operating income (loss) set forth above. The Company's management believe these non-GAAP measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding its performance as inclusion of such special items are not indicative of ongoing operating results and thereby affect the comparability of results between periods. The Company believes inclusion of these non-GAAP measures also provides consistency in its financial reporting and facilitates investors' understanding of historic operating trends. Quarter Ended % Growth SEGMENT OPERATING INCOME, Mar. 30, Dec. 31, Mar. 31, EXCLUDING SPECIAL ITEMS 2025 2024 2024 Prior Qtr. Prior Year Consumer & Specialties Segment $ 30.0 $ 37.9 $ 42.0 (21)% (29)% % of Sales 11.2% 13.6% 14.1% Engineered Solutions Segment $ 34.4 $ 39.7 $ 38.5 (13)% (11)% % of Sales 15.4% 16.6% 16.2% Unallocated and Other Corporate Expenses $ (1.2) $ (3.4) $ (3.2) (65)% (63)% MTI Consolidated $ 63.2 $ 74.2 $ 77.3 (15)% (18)% % of Sales 12.9% 14.3% 14.5% * Percentage not meaningful MINERALS TECHNOLOGIES INC. AND SUBSIDIARY COMPANIES CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS ASSETS (In Millions of Dollars) March 30, December 31, 2025* 2024** Current assets: Cash & cash equivalents $ 306.6 $ 333.1 Short-term investments 5.6 4.0 Accounts receivable, net 405.9 385.2 Inventories 352.5 342.1 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 65.6 66.6 Total current assets 1,136.2 1,131.0 Property, plant and equipment 2,261.6 2,236.6 Less accumulated depreciation 1,269.7 1,246.9 Net property, plant & equipment 991.9 989.7 Goodwill 914.6 913.8 Intangible assets 215.8 218.1 Other assets and deferred charges 142.7 141.3 Total assets $ 3,401.2 $ 3,393.9 LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY Current liabilities: Short-term debt $ 19.7 $ 5.1 Current maturities of long-term debt 6.6 6.5 Accounts payable 189.9 185.5 Other current liabilities 383.7 200.6 Total current liabilities 599.9 397.7 Long-term debt 960.1 959.6 Deferred income taxes 87.9 130.5 Other non-current liabilities 118.5 122.9 Total liabilities 1,766.4 1,610.7 Total MTI shareholders' equity 1,598.2 1,747.0 Non-controlling Interests 36.6 36.2 Total shareholders' equity 1,634.8 1,783.2 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $ 3,401.2 $ 3,393.9 * Unaudited ** Condensed from audited financial statements. 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Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Genesee County woman win $3 million on Mega Millions ticket
A Genesee County woman had an itch to play Mega Millions this month — and it won her $3 million. Pamela Dietrich, 58, of Linden purchased a ticket online for the April 11 drawing that matched the five white balls — 15, 37, 38, 56 and 58 — according to the Michigan Lottery. She won a $1 million prize that increased to $3 million because of the multiplier. "I don't consistently play Mega Millions, but I do play from time to time,' Dietrich told the Michigan Lottery. 'I had an itch to play for this drawing, so I logged into my Lottery account and purchased a ticket. More: Michigan man puts winning lottery ticket worth $1 million in jar, buries it in yard 'The next morning, I saw an email from the Lottery regarding a prize. I had a hard time believing it when I saw I had won $3 million! I called the Lottery first thing Monday morning to verify that it was real and schedule an appointment to claim my big prize. I'm still trying to wrap my head around this!' Dietrich recently claimed her prize and plans to use the money to remodel her home, pay off her vehicle and save the rest. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Genesee County woman win $3 million on Mega Millions ticket
