by David Nasaw
As she approached her sixtieth birthday, Marion’s health, after decades of heavy drinking, continued to deteriorate. She had increasing trouble with her balance, and had to be accompanied everywhere she went by Horace or one of her nurse/companions. In 1956, she suffered a minor stroke. In 1959, doctors discovered a growth in her jaw which was diagnosed as cancer. She refused to have surgery and was given cobalt treatments that discolored her jaw, but did little to retard the spread of the cancer or stop her pain.
In January 1961, Marion flew to Washington to attend John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, as an honored guest of the Kennedy family. In May, she was admitted to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles for treatment of her cancer. Joe Kennedy arranged for three cancer specialists to be flown out from the East Coast to examine Marion. On their recommendation, she underwent jaw surgery for malignant osteomyelitis on June 7. Ten days later, recovering from what she thought had been a successful operation, she fell and broke her leg. Her condition continued to worsen through the summer months. She died in the hospital at 7 P.M. on September 22, 1961. At her bedside were her husband, her sister Rose, her nephew Charlie Lederer, and her niece, Rose’s daughter Pat Lake. She was sixty-four years of age.
Though Marion had had no contact with the Hearst family or corporate executives since the settlement of Hearst’s estate in 1951, Richard Berlin, the chief executive officer of the corporation, joined Bing Crosby and Joseph Kennedy as an honorary pallbearer.2
When the Chief died in August of 1951, the Hearst Corporation’s first-half net income was $1.3 million, which is the equivalent of an annual net income of $16.8 million in today’s currency. In 1998, the annual net income of the Hearst Corporation is estimated by reliable sources to be in the vicinity of $450 million. With revenues of about $5 billion, the Hearst Corporation was among the nation’s largest privately held companies in 1999.3
The corporation is today wholly owned by the Hearst Family Trust, run by a thirteen-member board of trustees, five of whom are family members and the other eight members of management. In 1975, the Family Trust purchased the remaining nonvoting common stock of the Hearst Corporation, which, on Hearst’s death, had been left to the two charitable trusts he had established in his will. According to the terms of that will, the Family Trust will expire with the death of the last family member alive in August of 1951, when the Chief died. Actuarial tables indicate that this should occur around the year 2042 or 2043.
Richard Berlin, who was appointed president of the corporation in 1943, became its chief executive officer in 1951 and remained in that position through the early 1970s. While each of Hearst’s five sons was given a seat on the corporation’s board in 1951, only Bill and Randolph took active leadership roles. Bill, who had been publisher of the Journal-American, was named editor in chief of the Hearst newspapers in 1955 and served as chairman of the board of directors from 1960 until 1973. Randolph, who was president of the San Francisco Examiner in 1974 when his daughter Patty was kidnapped, succeeded Bill as chairman of the board and remained in that position until 1996.
Under Richard Berlin’s tenure, the Hearst Corporation closed down, merged, or sold Hearst newspapers in Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Boston, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, and New York, while expanding its magazine division. The corporation today owns a total of twelve daily papers, only three of them—the San Francisco Examiner, the Seattle PostIntelligencer, and the Albany Times Union —holdovers from the Chief’s regime. It is the largest publisher of monthly magazines in the world, with distribution in more than one hundred countries. Hearst magazines include Esquire, Smart Money, Redbook, Country Living, Marie Claire, Popular Mechanics, and Sports Afield, all of which were acquired after the Chief’s death—and Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar, House Beautiful, Motor Boating & Sailing, and Town and Country, which the Chief bought and developed. The corporation is currently a 50 percent owner of Talk magazine, edited by Tina Brown, and is developing a new magazine with Oprah Winfrey.
Berlin was succeeded by two chief executives, Frank Massi (1973–75) and John R. Miller (1975–78), who served relatively short tenures but oversaw several critical events, including the recapitalization that moved ownership of the company from the foundations to the Family Trust. Under the leadership of Frank A. Bennack, Jr., who became president and chief executive officer in 1979, the corporation acquired nine newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News, and extended its communications and entertainment holdings into broadcast and cable television and new media. In 1997, the corporation created Hearst-Argyle Television, a publicly traded company in which the Hearst Corporation holds the majority stake. Hearst-Argyle Television today has twenty-six television stations broadcasting in twenty states. The Hearst Corporation also owns 20 percent of ESPN, Inc., and is a founding partner of the A&E Television Networks, the History and Biography Channels, and Lifetime Entertainment Services. Among the traditional media companies, it holds perhaps the strongest position in Internet businesses and services.
In the nineteenth century, William Randolph Hearst’s major rivals were Michel H. de Young, publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle, and Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York World.
In March of 1999, the Hearst Corporation closed out the twentieth century with the purchase by Hearst-Argyle Television of the Pulitzer Publishing Company’s nine television and five radio stations. Five months later, in August of 1999, the corporation announced that it had bought the San Francisco Chronicle from the de Young family.
Notes
In the notes that follow, I reference primary source materials and direct citations. I have used abbreviations wherever possible to refer to manuscript collections, newspapers and periodicals, and individuals.
Some of the letters in the Hearst family collections in the Bancroft Library have had dates appended. When these dates were not part of the original letter, I have put them within brackets. They are supplied for identification purposes only; many are inaccurate.
Selections from the Writings and Speeches of William Randolph Hearst, privately published by the San Francisco Examiner in 1948, contains several of his newspaper editorials and “In the News” columns, abbreviated as ITN. Those editorials and columns not collected in Selections can be found in the New York American, the San Francisco Examiner, the Los Angeles Examiner, or Hearst’s other newspapers.
Abbreviations for Manuscript Collections and Repositories
ABp Brisbane Family Papers, Special Collections, Syracuse University.
ASOp Adolph Ochs Papers, New York Times Archives, New York City
AZp Adolph Zukor Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, California.
Barry Diary of Thomas F. Barry, transcript, 1879 May-Aug., Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley.
BH Bunkhouse papers (William Randolph Hearst, correspondence and business papers), San Simeon, California.
BI Bureau of Investigation, Justice Department, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
Boettiger John Boettiger Papers, Franklin Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York.
Brewing United States Senate, 66th Congress, 1st Session, Document No. 61, Brewing and Liquor Interests and German and Bolshevik Propaganda: Report and Hearings of the Subcommittee on the Judiciary, vol. 2 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1919).
BRTC Billy Rose Theatre Collection, New York Public Library at Lincoln Center.
BW Bronx warehouse papers (William Randolph Hearst, correspondence and business papers), Hearst Corporation, New York City
CHS Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, Illinois.
DWG D. W. Griffith Papers, Museum of Modern Art, New York City.
Early Stephen Early Papers, Franklin Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York.
EDCp E. D. Coblentz Papers, Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley.
EMPp Eleanor Medill Patterson Papers, S
pecial Collections, Syracuse University.
Fall Albert Fall Papers, Department of Manuscripts, Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
FDRp Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York.
GHauto George Hearst Autobiography, Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley
HSSSHM Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument, San Simeon, California.
HUA Harvard University Archives, Nathan Marsh Pusey Library, Harvard University
JAMp Joseph A. Moore Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.
JCp James Creelman Papers, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Ohio State University Libraries, Columbus, Ohio.
JFNp John F. Neylan Papers, Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley.
JM-oh Julia Morgan Architectural History Project Interviews, Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley.
JMp Julia Morgan Collection, Special Collections, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California.
JPp Joseph Pulitzer Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.
JPKp Joseph P. Kennedy Papers, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts.
JSp James G. Phelps Stokes Papers, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Columbia University.
JUp Joseph Urban collection, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Columbia University.
Kilroe Kilroe Collection, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Columbia University.
KVW Karl von Wiegand Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford University
LAE Los Angeles Examiner archives, Regional History Collection, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.
Mannix Eddie Mannix ledger, Howard Strickland Papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, California.
MID Military Intelligence Division Correspondence, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
Morgenthau Morgenthau diaries, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York.
MPAA MPAA papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, California.
NCF National Civic Federation, Special Collections, New York Public Library.
Oh-CU Oral History Research Office, Columbia University, New York City.
Oh-DN Oral histories in author’s possession.
Oh-SS Oral History Project, Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument, San Simeon, California.
PAHdiary In author’s possession.
PAHp Phoebe A. Hearst Papers, Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley.
Peck Orrin M. Peck Collection, Department of Manuscripts, Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
PeckFamily Peck Family Collection, Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley
Pershing General John Joseph Pershing Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.
Presidentes Presidentes Series, Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico City, Mexico.
Stimson Henry Lewis Stimson Papers, Manuscripts and Archives, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University.
TRp Theodore Roosevelt Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.
TVRp Than Vanneman Ranck Papers, Manuscripts and Archives, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University.
Warner Jack Warner Collection, USC Cinema-Television Library, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.
WAS William A. Swanberg Papers, Special Collections, Columbia University.
WB USC Warner Bros. Archives, School of Cinema-Television, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.
Wheeler Charles Stetson Wheeler, “In the matter of the estate of Phebe Hearst, deceased, re estate tax. Brief in support...” Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley.
WJBp William Jennings Bryan Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.
WHTp William Howard Taft Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.
WMp William McKinley Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.
World New York World Papers, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Columbia University.
WRHp W. R. Hearst correspondence (1977), Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley.
WRH82 William Randolph Hearst papers (1982), Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley
WRH85 Hearst Family Papers (1985), Bancroft Library, University of California at
Berkeley
WRH87 William Randolph Hearst letters: to Phoebe Apperson Hearst (1987), Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley
WRH, Jr.91 William Randolph Hearst, Jr. Papers (1991), Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley.
Abbreviations for newspapers and magazines
BA Boston American
CDT Chicago Daily Tribune
CR-H Congressional Record-House
EP Editor and Publisher
LAE Los Angeles Examiner
MPN Motion Picture News
MPW Motion Picture World
NYA New York American
YDN New York Daily News
NYDT New York Daily Tribune
NYEJ New York Evening Journal
NYEP New York Evening Post
NYEW New York Evening World
NYH New York Herald
NYHT New York Herald Tribune
NYJ New York Journal
NYS New York Sun
NYT New York Times
NYTr New York Tribune
NYW New York World
SAL San Antonio Light
SFE San Francisco Examiner
SFNL San Francisco News-Letter
SFS The [San Francisco] Star
SJ Syracuse Journal
TT Town Topics
V Variety
WP Washington Post
Abbreviations of individual names
AB Arthur Brisbane
AH Alice Head
AP Arthur Poole
ASO Adolph Simon Ochs
AZ Adolph Zukor
CEH Charles Evans Hughes
CMG Christy MacGregor
CS Judge Clarence Shearn
DLG David Lloyd George
EC Edward Clark
EDC Edmond D. Coblentz
EH Eddie B. Hatrick
EMP Eleanor Medill (Cissy) Patterson
EP Elizabeth Pike
FK Frank Knox
FZ Florenz Ziegfeld
GBS George Bernard Shaw
GH George Hearst
HCL Henry Cabot Lodge
IS Irwin Stump
IT Irving Thalberg
JAM Joseph A. Moore
JC James Creelman
JFN John Francis Neylan
JM Julia Morgan
JP Joseph Pulitzer
JPK Joseph Patrick Kennedy
JU Joseph Urban
JW Joseph Willicombe
KVW Karl von Wiegand
LBM Louis B. Mayer
LOR Lawrence O’Reilly
LP Louella Parsons
MH Millicent Hearst
MHu Martin Huberth
MU Mary Urban
OP Orrin Peck
PAH Phoebe Apperson Hearst
PP Phil Payne
RB Richard Berlin
RH Randolph Hearst
SC Simon Carvalho
TJW Thomas J. White
TR Theodore Roosevelt
TVR Than Vanneman Ranck
VW Victor Watson
WC William Curley
WJB William Jennings Bryan
WRH William Randolph Hearst
WRH, Jr. William Randolph Hearst, Jr.
WW Woodrow Wilson
Preface
1. Winston Churchill–Clementine Churchill, September 29,1929, in Winston and Clementine: The Personal Letters of the Churchills, ed. Mary Soames (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998), 347.
1. A Son of the West
1. WRH, “In the News” [hereafter abbre
viated as ITN], March 27,1940.
2. Philip Ethington, The Public City (New York: Cambridge U.P., 1994), 425; William Issel and Robert Cherny, San Francisco, 1865–1932 (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1986), 13–18, 24–30.
3. GHauto.
4. J. S. Holliday, The World Rushed In: The California Gold Rush Experience (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1981), 45–49.
5. GHauto.
6. Holliday, 304–5.
7. Ralph Mann, After the Gold Rush: Society in Grass Valley and Nevada City, California: 1849–1870 (Stanford: Stanford U.P., 1982), 224.
8. Robert Silverberg, Ghost Towns of the American West (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1968), 99–102.
9. GHauto, 15–16; W. W. Allen and R. B. Avery, California Gold Book (SF and Chicago: Donohue and Henneberry, 1893), 332–33.
10. Judith Robinson, The Hearsts (New York: Avon, 1992), 49–51,55.
11. Mark Twain, Roughing It (New York: Penguin, 1981), 314.
12. Robinson, 58.
13. Cora Older, William Randolph Hearst, American (New York: Appleton-Century, 1936), 9.
14. PAH-EP, June 16,1864, PAHp.
15. PAH-EP, July 2,1865, PAHp.
16. PAH-EP, July 7,1865, November 18,1866, PAHp; Older, 12.
17. January, 1, 1866, PAHdiary.
18. January 4, 10, February 11, 15, 16, 1866, PAHdiary.
19. William Randolph Hearst, Jr., The Hearsts: Father and Son (Niwot, Col.: Roberts Rinehart, 1991), 9.
20. WRH, ITN, in Edmond D. Coblentz, ed., William Randolph Hearst: A Portrait in His Own Words (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1952), 7–19.
21. January 18, 21, February 1,1866, PAHdiary.
22. February 4,1866, PAHdiary.
23. February 7,1866, PAHdiary.
24. PAH-EP, September 18,1866, PAHp.
25. PAH-EP, November 18,1866, PAHp.
26. PAH-EP, December 9,1866, PAHp.
27. PAH-EP, February 20,1867, PAHp.
28. PAH-EP, September 19, November 18,1866, June 19,1867, July 21,1867, PAHp.
29. PAH-GH, July 14, 1868, PAHp.
