William Randolph Hearst

TWO-CENT NEWSPAPERS BOUGHT HIM CASTLES IN SPAIN, CUCKOO CLOCKS, AND EGYPTIAN MUMMIES

Have you ever wondered what you would do if you had a million dollars? William Randolph Hearst has an income of a million dollars a month — or thirty thousand dollars a day. During the time it will take you to peruse this short chapter, his income will mount by approximately one hundred dollars.

No one ever calls William Randolph Hearst, William. Even his most intimate friends call him "W. R.,” and his seventy thousand employees always speak of him as "The Chief.”

 Millions of people read his twenty-four newspapers and nine magazines. He is the richest and most powerful publisher in the world. His name is a household word all over America; yet he himself is a man of mystery. The average person knows more about the private life of Mahatma Gandhi than he does about William Randolph Hearst.

The most astonishing thing I know about the most aggressive publisher in America is that he is reticent and shy. For half a century, he has been hobnobbing with celebrities; yet he actually dislikes being introduced to strangers.

He usually has anywhere from ten to sixty guests staying on his vast estate in California; but his favorite form of recreation is to steal away by himself and play solitaire. And when he is in New York, his favorite recreation is to go window shopping!

The most magnificent estate in the Western world is Hearst’s ranch in California. It contains a quarter of a million acres of land and stretches for fifty miles along the rockbound coast of the ocean.

High on a wind-swept spot two thousand feet above the roar of the Pacific, he has erected a lordly group of Moorish Castles which he calls "The Enchanted Hill.” He has lavished uncounted millions of dollars in furnishing these castles. The walls are adorned with Gobelin tapestries that once beautified the chateaux of France. The hushed halls are glorified by soft paintings from the brush of Rembrandt, Rubens and Raphael, canvasses that are immortal. His guests dine in a huge banquet hall surrounded by priceless objects of art; but at lunch, they are given paper napkins.

He has a collection of wild animals that would make Barnum’s circus look like a side-show. Herds of zebras, buffaloes, giraffes and kangaroos roam over the hills; thou¬ sands of exotic birds dart among the trees; and lions and tigers roar and snarl in his private zoo.

A friend of mine, Frank Mason, used to buy antiques for Hearst in France. Hearst purchases entire shiploads of art treasures — even entire castles — and brings them to America in packing boxes with every stone and brick and piece of timber numbered and labeled to show where it belongs so he can erect the buildings here with exact fidelity.

He purchased so many objects of art that he finally had to buy a huge warehouse in New York to store the things he isn’t using. This warehouse has twenty employees, it costs sixty thousand dollars a year to keep it going, and it contains everything from cuckoo clocks to Egyptian mummies.

William Randolph Hearst’s father was a Missouri farmer. He headed west during the gold rush of forty-nine, walked two thousand miles across the plains beside a team of oxen and a covered wagon, fought Indians, discovered gold and made millions. As he grew older, he loved to sit in the shade of a big tree on his estate. A few years ago, his son, William Randolph Hearst, noticed that this tree was blocking the view of the ocean from one of his windows. He couldn’t bear to think of destroying a tree his father had loved, so he paid $40,000. to have the tree moved thirty feet.

He is very fond of animals. For example, one day a group of motion picture executives flew up from Holly¬ wood to hold a conference with Mr. Hearst, but he kept them waiting while he comforted a pet lizard that had lost a part of its tail. On another occasion, he sent his private yacht for a doctor at midnight and paid a medical fee of $500. because a pet guinea pig had broken its leg.

Hearst is over seventy, yet he plays a fast game of tennis. He has been playing tennis for forty years, but he is still taking lessons to improve his game. He is an expert amateur photographer, and takes thousands of pictures every year. He is also an expert shot with a rifle. One day while out on his yacht, he surprised his guests by holding his revolver at his hip, firing at a sea gull, and bringing him down on the wing.

He is an expert clog-dancer, an excellent mimic, and a good story-teller. His memory is almost like an encyclopedia. For example, if you asked him to name the wives of Henry the Eighth, or to call off the presidents of the United States, the chances are a hundred to one that he could do it without a hitch.

One day Jimmie Walker and Charlie Chaplin were visiting at Hearst’s ranch, and they got into an argument over the exact phraseology of a certain quotation from the Bible; Hearst settled the argument by repeating the quotation word for word.

He loves to surround himself with young people; and he never permits anyone to mention death in his presence.

Hearst inherited thirty million dollars from his father. He could have led the life of an idler; but instead, he has worked from eight to fifteen hours a day for fifty years; and he vows he will never retire until God retires him.