Company History

Electric Bond and Share – The Competition

Sidney Mitchel worked for Electric Bond and Share Company, which was owned by General Electric. EBASCO was building, financing and operating struggling new electric systems. By the early 1920s Mitchel had acquired all the electrical service in New Orleans and was expanding in other places including Little Rock and Memphis.

Like Couch, Mitchel knew the only way to grow his company was to expand. Soon EBASCO was competing directly with Couch as their expansion overlapped in Arkansas and Louisiana. Both men knew that they could not continue competing for territory so in 1925 they joined forces, consolidating their properties into one large, interconnected system. The new system was Electric Power and Light Corporation, owned by EBASCO and run by Couch. The system that would become Entergy was born.

The Great Depression that began in 1929 brought hard times, reduced sales and shriveling capital markets to utilities. The Electric Power and Light Corporation was no exception. Then MP&L president Rex Brown described company operations during the era: “Stockholders had to be continually assured that their investments were safe. At the same time, they had to be convinced that dividends, while in arrears, would eventually be paid. Our customers, hard-pressed for finances as our company, could not pay higher rates or increased utilization. In fact many discontinued service because they had to choose between electricity and food. The meeting of payroll was a continuous nightmare for company officers.”

Despite the hardships, AP&L, MP&L, LP&L, and New Orleans Public Service, the company serving the New Orleans area, made it through intact. Some of the nation’s largest utilities did not.