# RAMJAC > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/RAMJAC > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/RAMJAC.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAMJAC > Source revision: 1341206185 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Fictional multinational conglomerate RAMJAC First appearance 1979 Created by Kurt Vonnegut Owner Mary Kathleen O'Looney (bequeathed to the people of the United States upon her death) Key people Jack Graham Subsidiaries (see list) **The RAMJAC Corporation** is a fictional multinational conglomerate, or [megacorp](/source/Megacorp), featured in several novels by [Kurt Vonnegut](/source/Kurt_Vonnegut). In Vonnegut's 1979 novel, *[Jailbird](/source/Jailbird_(novel)),* the company, at its height, owns 19 percent of the [United States](/source/United_States), twice as large as the next largest conglomerate in the "Free World".[1][2] Copyrights on Vonnegut's later books are also held by RAMJAC, much like [Isaac Asimov](/source/Isaac_Asimov)'s later copyrights are held by [Nightfall, Inc.](/source/Nightfall_(Asimov)) According to *Jailbird*, RAMJAC was established by Jack Graham, a mining engineer from West Virginia, and then passed on to his widow, known to the world as Mrs. Jack Graham (in "reality," the former Mary Kathleen O'Looney, the ex-lover of the book's narrator, Walter F. Starbuck). Mrs. Graham ordered her surrogates to "acquire, acquire, acquire," instructions which eventually produced the conglomerate's vast holdings. Two years after her death (her will being concealed by Starbuck for that time), it was discovered that she had transferred ownership of RAMJAC to the "people of the United States," as part of a misguided attempt to bring about widespread [state ownership](/source/State_ownership) – Mrs. Graham had been a Communist since college. The U.S. government immediately began selling off RAMJAC's assets. ## "Divisions and holdings" of The RAMJAC Corporation RAMJAC is said to have vast holdings in other businesses, including both real companies and media products along with fictional elements: - *[All in the Family](/source/All_in_the_Family)* - American Harp Company - [Anheuser-Busch](/source/Anheuser-Busch) - [AT&T](/source/American_Telephone_and_Telegraph) - [Barnum and Bailey Circus](/source/Barnum_and_Bailey_Circus) - [Bergdorf Goodman](/source/Bergdorf_Goodman) - [Bloomingdale's](/source/Bloomingdale's) - [Chrysler](/source/Chrysler) Air Temp - *[The Plain Dealer](/source/The_Plain_Dealer)* - [Colonel Sanders](/source/Colonel_Sanders) - Diamond Match Company[3] - Down Home Records - [Dell Publishing](/source/Dell_(publisher)) - [Gulf+Western](/source/Gulf%2BWestern) - [Henri Bendel](/source/Henri_Bendel) - Hospitality Associates, Ltd., including the Arapahoe Hotel and the [Hilton](/source/Hilton_Hotel) Department - The Illinois Institute of Instruction - [Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company](/source/Manufacturers_Hanover_Trust_Company) - Marlborough Gallery - [McDonald's](/source/McDonald's) - *[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)* - *[Peanuts](/source/Peanuts)* comic strip - [Pinkerton Detective Agency](/source/Pinkerton_Detective_Agency) - *[Playboy](/source/Playboy)* magazine - [Plymouth Cordage Company](/source/Plymouth_Cordage_Company) - [Ringling Brothers Circus](/source/Ringling_Brothers_Circus) - [The Rosewater Foundation](/source/Eliot_Rosewater) - *[Sesame Street](/source/Sesame_Street)* - Sloane's department store - [Tiffany's](/source/Tiffany_%26_Co.) department store - Transico - [Kilgore Trout](/source/Kilgore_Trout) and Sons - [Universal Pictures](/source/Universal_Pictures) - [Lawrence Welk](/source/Lawrence_Welk) - *[Who's Who](/source/Marquis_Who's_Who)* - Youngstown Steel ## See also - *[Acme Corporation](/source/Acme_Corporation)* – fictional company in Warner Bros. cartoons - *[Weyland-Yutani](/source/Weyland-Yutani)* – fictional [megacorporation](/source/Megacorporation) from the [*Alien* film franchise](/source/Alien_(franchise)) - *[Yoyodyne](/source/Yoyodyne)* – fictional company featured in [Thomas Pynchon](/source/Thomas_Pynchon)'s novels ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Vonnegut, Kurt; *Jailbird*; Delacorte; New York: 1979. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-44005-449-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-44005-449-4) 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Swartz, J. ["AOL Time Warner, the real RAMJAC Corporation"](https://www.forbes.com/2000/01/24/swartz_0124.html). *Forbes*. Retrieved 2024-03-28. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** P 171, Vonnegut, K (1979) *Jailbird*, New York, NY, Dell Publishing v t e Kurt Vonnegut Bibliography Novels Player Piano (1952) The Sirens of Titan (1959) Mother Night (1961) Cat's Cradle (1963) God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965) Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) Breakfast of Champions (1973) Slapstick (1976) Jailbird (1979) Deadeye Dick (1982) Galápagos (1985) Bluebeard (1987) Hocus Pocus (1990) Timequake (1997) Novellas God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (1999) We Are What We Pretend to Be: The First and Last Works (2013) Collected short fiction Canary in a Cat House (1961) Welcome to the Monkey House (1968) Bagombo Snuff Box (1999) Armageddon in Retrospect (2008) Look at the Birdie (2009) While Mortals Sleep (2011) Sucker's Portfolio (2013) Complete Stories (2017) Short stories "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" (1950) "EPICAC" (1950) "All the King's Horses" (1951) "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" (1954) "Deer in the Works" (1955) "Miss Temptation" (1956) "Harrison Bergeron" (1961) "Who Am I This Time?" (1961) "2 B R 0 2 B" (1962) "Welcome to the Monkey House" (1968) Collected non-fiction Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons (1974) Palm Sunday (1981) Fates Worse Than Death (1991) A Man Without a Country (2005) Armageddon in Retrospect (2008) Kurt Vonnegut: Letters (2012) If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice to the Young (2013) Vonnegut by the Dozen (2013) Plays and screenplays Fortitude (1968) Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1970) Between Time and Timbuktu (1972) Interviews Like Shaking Hands with God (1999) Adaptations Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971) Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) Between Time and Timbuktu (1972) Next Door (1975) Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1979) Slapstick of Another Kind (1982) Who Am I This Time? (1982) Displaced Person (1985) Kurt Vonnegut's Monkey House (1991) Harrison Bergeron (1995) Mother Night (1996) Breakfast of Champions (1999) 2081 (2009) 2BR02B: To Be or Naught to Be (2016) Characters and concepts Kilgore Trout Eliot Rosewater Rabo Karabekian RAMJAC Ilium Granfalloon Tralfamadore Ice-nine Related Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library Vonnegut (Mercury crater) Family Jill Krementz (second wife) Mark Vonnegut (son) Edith Vonnegut (daughter) Kurt Vonnegut Sr. (father) Bernard Vonnegut (brother) Bernard Vonnegut Sr. (grandfather) Clemens Vonnegut (great-grandfather) --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [RAMJAC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAMJAC) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAMJAC?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.