HOTELS: Luck from the Shamrock?

Glenn McCarthy, 47, the wildcatting rags-to-riches Houston oilman, last week lost his last fingerhold on the green-tinted Shamrock Hotel. For $625,000 he sold Hilton Hotels his redemptive right to the Shamrock, thus gave up the privilege of buying back the property that cost him $21 million. With that went the last significant chunk of the far-flung McCarthy empire, which in its heyday encompassed big Southwestern oil and gas fields, export-import companies, a Detroit steel plant, weekly newspapers, a Houston bank.

Publicly, McCarthy did not regret the loss of his Shamrock. Said he: "You can always build other hotels." It was not all bombast; actually, the sum that he received was what he thought he needed to put over his newest project and perhaps make another fortune.

For in the heart of a 970,000-acre oil concession, deep in the green hell of Bolivia's Gran Chaco Province. McCarthy has found a promising oil and gas field, there drilled three wells. The problem is to get the oil out. With his fresh money, McCarthy plans to build a feeder pipeline, tie in with a Bolivian pipeline recently completed to within 15 miles of his properties. Said McCarthy, as cocky as ever: "I want to speed things up down there. There's enough oil there to build bigger and better Shamrocks."