However, the data that the Fortune the staff compiled it was primarily for internal use. It was not until 1955, when the magazine’s deputy editor, Edgar P. Smith, argued that readers would be interested in the informationand it turned out he had made the right bet.
“As a whole, the 500 was a broad window into the American economy and a point of reference for all. It has been cited by presidents and members of Congress, dissected by economists, and seen by business leaders,” Fortune general editor Carol Loomis wrote for the 40th anniversary of the list.
In 1955, Fortune The magazine published the first list of the 500 largest companies in the United States by revenue, although with the less catchy title of “Annual Directory of the 500 Largest Companies.”
Topping the list, with $9.8 billion in revenue, was General engines, followed by Standard Oil of New Jersey, which was later renamed Exxon. The top five were US Steel, General Electricand the Swift meatpacking company, which eventually merged with JBS UNITED STATES.
These first top 50 companies, which had a combined revenue of $69.4 billion, were in manufacturing, defense, energy and other similar industries, as the original Fortune 500 was not a snapshot complete list of the biggest players in the American economy. Instead, the original list focused on these more tangible industries, and it wasn’t until 1994 that the methodology opened up to include all companies that file their financial information with a government agency.
This does not mean that the magazine did not look at other sectors of the economy. For example, banks had their own Fortune 50 List.
Of the first group of Fortune 50 companies, 14 are still on the list, including GM, Good yearLockheed Martin, then Lockheed Aircraft, and Boeing, which has recently been plagued by quality control controversies. The companies that topped the list in 1955 and have demonstrated their sustainability represent 28.5% of the total 49 companies that appeared on the list for all of its 70 publications. Even if this number remained stable since 2022there was 60 companies in 2016 which had managed to make a place on the list in all the years of publication.
Here is the list of the original top 50 companies from 1955:
https://app.datawrapper.de/archive/recently-edited?search=1955#/xvovo
