José Menendez Worked Hard for His Money — What Did He Do for a Living?

It's no secret that José Menendez put a lot of pressure on his two sons, Erik and Lyle Menendez. According to the Los Angeles Times, when Erik and Lyle were 9 and 12 respectively, José "started them on a demanding regimen calculated to make them into tennis stars." He shelled out a ton of money for top-notch coaches and equipment in order to mold them into the perfect athletes. It was all about looks and perception for the patriarch of the Menendez family.

This extended to José's clothing, home, and even his wife Kitty, though she reportedly could not keep up with his Beverly Hills demands. He wanted and expected the best from his family which makes sense as José was a Cuban immigrant who worked hard for what he got. What did José Menendez do for a living? It's an interesting path.

When Fidel Castro rose to power in Cuba, a 16-year-old José Menendez was sent to America in 1960 to live with his cousin. He ended up in Hazelton, Pa., and had to stay in the attic of his cousin's house. This was undoubtedly a far cry from what he was used to, as the child of successful business people and athletes.

José excelled in swimming while in high school, which earned him an athletic scholarship to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. While there, José met the woman he would eventually marry. Mary Louise Andersen, who was nicknamed Kitty, was a stunningly gorgeous blonde beauty queen who fit in nicely with José's idea of what the American dream is. They wed in 1963 when José was 19 and Kitty was 21, then moved to New York so José could attend Queens College.

He washed dishes while getting a degree in accounting which led to his first job at the distinguished accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand. One of his clients, Lyon’s Container Service, was so impressed with José that they lured him away to Illinois where he became comptroller of their company. Three years later, José was president. In 1979 at the age of 35, José was working at Hertz as executive vice president in charge of U.S. operations. Incidentally, this is also when O.J. Simpson was a spokesperson for Hertz.

Hertz was a subsidiary of RCA Corporation and in 1980, they decided to hand over the reins of a new division to the 36-year-old José. He was put in charge of their new record division, RCA-Ariola, while earning a whopping $500,000 a year (nearly $2 million in 2024). John Mason, an entertainment attorney and close friend, told the Los Angeles Times that, "His attitude was, ‘I’m a winner. I’m going to take this dog company and make it No. 1.'"

José left RCA in 1986 after General Electric Co. bought the company and did not hire him on as its president. This is when José dipped his toes into Hollywood waters, which resulted in their move to Beverly Hills from New Jersey. Carolco Pictures, best known for the hit film Rambo, hired José who shifted his focus to their subsidiary: International Video Entertainment Inc. (IVE).

Through José's cutthroat business practices, IVE earned $8 million in 1987. They then merged with Lieberman Enterprises Inc., a Minnesota record distributor, to become LIVE. With that decision, José was riding pretty high in terms of his finances. LIVE would go on to become a wildly successful video distribution company, doing over $140 million in sales in 1996, seven years after José's murder.