In ‘Blackstone Town,’ a Treasure Hunt for Private Equity Firms

Scene: The Gold Rush, 1849. Prospectors gaze up at a snow-capped peak.

“Now let’s go get that gold!” a newcomer exclaims, trudging up the trail to the twang of spaghetti-western music.

“I got a better idea,” says another. His brainstorm: Rather than hunt for gold, they’ll get rich selling picks and shovels.

Welcome to “Blackstone Town,” as a crew member later calls it – the set of an old-timey TV western that’s been repurposed for, of all things, an advertisement for the world’s largest private equity firm.

Long the preserve of institutions and the wealthy, Blackstone Inc., Apollo Global ...