Entertainment Software a Hit : Profit Doubles in 6 Months for Former Talk Show Host
One of the most popular computer programs Les Crane sells is Chessmaster 2100, the updated version of a wildly successful chess program he has been selling for 2 years. One feature allows a user to play chess “blindfolded” against a computer by making moves that do not show up on the screen.
Getting into the computer software business for Crane was a lot like playing chess with a blindfold when he first jumped into it five years ago. Previously, he hosted an ABC late-night talk show in 1964 that failed to dislodge Johnny Carson and “The Tonight Show,” acted in some forgettable movies, recorded a Grammy-winning record called “Desiderata” and ran seminars for corporations.
So far, Crane’s gambit has worked. Last week, the Sherman Oaks company he controls, Software Toolworks, disclosed that its profit more than doubled in the 6 months that ended Sept. 30, to $798,000. Sales in the 6 months also more than doubled, to $3.8 million, which is more than the company’s sales in its entire previous fiscal year.
Chess and Typing
Fueling the company’s growth is the chess program, of which Crane says he has sold more than 400,000 copies. In addition, a typing tutorial he sells called Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, which a New York Times software reviewer called “the best we’ve seen” at teaching typing by computer, has sold more than 100,000 copies. Both the typing program and the newest chess program sells at retail for about $49.95 for most computers.
Crane’s newest software program is called “Life and Death.” The computer user plays surgeon at “Toolworks General” hospital. The player’s skill, the company’s promotional materials say, “will determine if your patient makes it to recovery . . . or the morgue.”
Crane has big plans. In January, Software Toolworks went public via a merger with a shell company in Utah, with Crane retaining a controlling stake of 40%. Crane said that he took the company public so that he can ultimately raise money to buy small software publishers with one or two hit titles.
Software Toolworks has made him rich on paper. His 2.36 million shares are worth more than $15 million, based on Monday’s closing price of $6.38 a share in over-the-counter trading.
In September, Crane bought for an undisclosed price Intellicreations/Datasoft, a software publisher in Chatsworth whose titles include “The Hunt for Red October,” a computer game based on the popular Tom Clancy novel.
Crane has since repackaged the game so that it includes a paperback copy of the book with each disk. He also plans to move the company next month to the Chatsworth offices formerly occupied by Intellicreations/Datasoft to accommodate Software Toolworks’ growing business of duplicating and packaging software for other software publishers.
Hardly Missed
Crane hardly misses television. Twenty-four years ago--long before Geraldo, Oprah, Morton Downey Jr. and just about everyone else had their own talk show--Crane was the nation’s “bad boy” of television when he hosted his ABC late-night show. He booked controversial guests such as Malcolm X and George Wallace, and aimed a microphone made to look like a shotgun at members of his audience who had questions for his guests.
Today, he dislikes what critics are calling the move by talks shows into “tabloid television” with such topics as devil worship and other bizarre subjects.
“Being part of the trivialization of television is not my idea of a worthy pursuit. It’s the television version of yellow journalism at its worst. It’s the National Enquirer of the tube,” Crane said.
