1955: Good deal or bad deal? Sun Records owner and producer Sam Phillips sold Elvis Presley's contract to RCA for $35,000, at the time the largest amount ever paid to sign a recording artist. Phillips then gives Elvis $13,500 of the total!
While RCA goes on to make mega-millions off of Presley, Phillips invests his remaining money in a risky start-up company in the hotel/motel business - Holiday Inns. Maybe Sam was a pretty shrewd businessman after all.