[1] The company was able to shrewdly weather the Wall Street crash of 1929, and continue to grow through the 1930s and 1940s.

With Floyd Odlum as president and Boyd Hatch as vice-president, Atlas invested, managed or controlled numerous industries, including Greyhound Lines, Bonwit Teller (acquired 1934) and Franklin Simon & Co. (acquired 1936) ladies' apparel stores, Madison Square Garden, and various mines, utility companies, aviation related businesses, and banks.

[2][3][4] After Atlas Corporation acquired the Bonwit Teller ladies' apparel stores, Floyd Odlum convinced his wife, Hortense Odlum, to become involved in the store's operations.

[5][6][7] In 1948, Howard Hughes acquired controlling interest in RKO Pictures from Atlas.

[8][9] The Atlas Missile program was named after the Atlas Corporation,[10] the contractor through its Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, (later Convair) subsidiary, which was used in the Mercury missions to send astronauts into orbit.