The chief: the life of William Randolph Hearst

Abstract

David Nasaw's biography of William Randolph Hearst is based on private and business papers and interviews. Documentation of Hearst's interactions with Hitler, Mussolini, Churchill, and every American president from Grover Cleveland to Franklin Roosevelt, as well as with movie giants Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner, and Irving Thalberg, completes the picture of this colossal American. Hearst, known to his staff as the Chief, was a man of prodigious appetites. By the 1930s, he controlled the largest publishing empire in the country, including twenty-eight newspapers, the Cosmopolitan Picture Studio, radio stations, and thirteen magazines. As the first practitioner of what is now known as synergy, Hearst used his media stronghold to achieve political power unprecedented in the industry. Americans followed his metamorphosis from populist to fierce opponent of Roosevelt and the New Deal, from citizen to congressman, and we are still fascinated today by the man characterized in the film classic Citizen Kane. In Nasaw's portrait, questions about Hearst's relationships are addressed, including those about his mistress in his Harvard days, who lived with him for ten years; his legal wife, Millicent, a former showgirl and the mother of his five sons; and Marion Davies, his companion until death.

Contents

A son of the West -- To Europe again and on to Harvard -- "Something where I could make a name" -- At the Examiner -- "I can't do San Francisco alone" -- Hearst in New York: "Staging a spectacle" -- "How do you like the Journal's war?" -- Representing the people -- "Candidate of a class" -- "A force to be reckoned with" -- Man of mystery -- Party leader -- Hearst at fifty: Some calm before the storms -- "A war of kings" -- "Hearst, Hylan, the Hohenzollerns, and the Habsburgs" -- Building a studio -- Builder and collector -- Marion, Millicent, and the movies -- A return to normalcy -- Another last hurrah -- "Do you know Miss Marion Davies, the movie actress?" -- Family man -- Dream houses -- Businesses as usual -- A new crusade: Europe -- The talkies and Marion -- "Pretty much flattened out" -- "An incorrigible optimist" -- The Chief chooses a president -- Hearst at seventy -- Hearst and Hitler -- The last crusade -- The fall -- "All very sad, but we cannot kick now" -- Citizen Kane -- Old age.