Let’s talk about the Hearst Empire for a short moment.
William Randolph Hearst was born on this date, April 29, 1863. A pretty good date, I suppose. Although Bernie Madoff was born on the same date, as was Hirohito. And Eve Plumb. That is the scorned child on Brady Bunch. You know the middle girl Jan. It’s always “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!”
Anyway, back to Mr. Hearst. Of course, he made his money in the print newspaper business, a thing that is almost impossible to do these days. He was the publisher of many rags, including the San Francisco Examiner, and the Seattle P-I. That’s the Post-Intelligencer, as I had to sleuth to find out.
Speaking of names, I wonder what his friends called him. Or his wife. Was it Bill? Or Willy. What about Will Randy? I’ll just use WRH to be safe, from here on out. Back to his life.
By the 1930s, WRH had built the nation’s largest media empire. He was like the father in “Succession,” on HBO Max, I bet. Anyway, that huge conglomerate included more than two dozen newspapers in major cities nationwide. He also ran magazines. There were radio stations and film production. WRH produced newsreels and more.
And he did something else. He started using sensationalized news. WRH implored attention-grabbing techniques that would forever change the way journalism worked. Sensationalism.
He started all of this by taking charge of his father’s struggling newspaper, which was the San Francisco Examiner. This, in 1887. Yes, WRH was the only son of George Hearst, a mining tycoon, who started to dabble in other things, like politics. Daddy George, who was elected as a U.S. senator in 1886, had picked up the SF Enquirer as a platform for his political career.
Being from that kind of family, I would have figured Willy Randy would have been a Harvard boy. Turns out, he was. But. But. There is always a but. He was eventually expelled for skipping classes and other fine shenanigans.
Yet, getting thrown out of school doesn’t mean you aren’t smart. At the age of 24, WRH got a hold of that newspaper. And, he used his family’s money to hire top newspaper talent. Not just reporters, but guys like Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, and Jack London, just to drop a few names. They ran completely catchy headlines and used never-before-seen images. He juiced up that traditionally dull newspaper.
The Examiner, prior to WRH, had long been losing money. Once he got it? The thing began turning a profit within three years. Circulation jumped from 5,000 to over 55,000.
He moved into politics too. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1902, from New York. He wanted to be President of the U.S.
But first, he married former chorus girl Millicent Willson in 1903. They made five babies, all boys — George, William Randolph Jr., John, Randolph, and David.
Back to that presidential race. In 1904 he lost to Alton B. Parker in the primary. And Parker got thumped by Theodore Roosevelt. So.
Hearst had become romantically involved with a young actress named Marion Davies. Those two really had it going on. They lived together openly, even though he was still married to Millicent. Poor, wealthy Millicent.
He had lavish homes around the world. but the most notable was his castle on a hilltop in San Simeon, California. It sat on 250,000 acres. WRH furnished the castle with all sorts of art, furniture, and antiques. It was / is unbelievable.
How do they say? Easy come, easy go? The Great Depression of the 1930s hit him hard. WRH had to sell a bunch of failing newspapers. He also had to sell off some of his treasured art collection.
By 1940 he had lost personal control of his communications empire. He lived the last years in seclusion. He died in 1951. He was 88.
And. Hearst’s life was the basis for the 1941 movie Citizen Kane. Rosebud.
Yet. All of this? It is a good example concerning our lives. The things we think are ours, can be taken away in a single moment, without any given notice. A swift kick. A drop of a hat. It is a reminder, to be grateful for the moments we know in our lives, for it all changes. All the time.
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“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
― Epictetus
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“Seek not greater wealth, but simpler pleasure; not higher fortune, but deeper felicity.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
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“There is no point in getting rich if we lose our soul along the way.”
― Farahad Zama, The Marriage Bureau for Rich People
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