LOT   /  AIA Sale 65 - March 10th, 2021 - U.S., Chinese &...  / 

1129

William Randolph Hearst Photograph Quartet with Signature & Book, ca.1930-1943.

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:425.00 USD Estimated At:600.00 - 1,000.00 USD
William Randolph Hearst Photograph Quartet with Signature & Book, ca.1930-1943.
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The auction will take place on March 10, 2021 at AIA's office located at 1060 Main St., Suite #202, River Edge, NJ 07661 beginning at 11:00 AM
New York, France and California. Circa 1930-43, Lot of 5 pieces: 4 are original photographs of William Randolph Hearst, one which bears his signature. Also included in this lot is the book, W.R. Hearst: An American Phenomenon by John K. Winkler, a First Edition published in 1928 with the outer paper book jacket included but it needs repair. Photographs are: A 1930, 6 x 8.5 inch photograph of Hearst in Paris, France, as he appeared just before the French Government ruled him barred from that country for his publishing of the secret Anglo-French Naval Pact; A ca.1937-1940, 6.5 x 8.5 inch photograph of Hearst playing a game of tennis at the age of 73, with his son William, Jr. in the background; A 1937, 10 x 8 inch photograph of Hearst at the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, California, seated next to John Boettiger and his wife Anna Roosevelt. The highlight of this lot is a 10 x 12.75 inch very rare photograph signed "W.R. Hearst" with a humorous inscription from his 80th birthday party. He is shown in formal dress standing by film mogul Louis B. Mayer (of MGM fame). He inscribed the image, "Dear Ida, This is a very good picture of me with my grandson Louis. You can plainly see that [manly beauty?] runs in our family. W.R. Hearst" The brown ink is light in places with a few words difficult to decipher. This piece is especially interesting because the film Citizen Kane was based off of Hearst's career and life. When he learned of it, he attempted to kill the film. Several Hollywood executives, including Mayer, tried to buy the movie in order to burn it. They were unsuccessful, but this photograph highlights the close relationship Hearst had with powerful people. William Randolph Hearst Sr. (April 29, 1863 Ð August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboyant methods of yellow journalism influenced the nation's popular media by emphasizing sensationalism and human interest stories. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887 with Mitchell Trubitt after being given control of The San Francisco Examiner by his wealthy father, Senator George Hearst. Moving to New York City, Hearst acquired the New York Journal and fought a bitter circulation war with Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. Hearst sold papers by printing giant headlines over lurid stories featuring crime, corruption, sex, and innuendo. Acquiring more newspapers, Hearst created a chain that numbered nearly 30 papers in major American cities at its peak. He later expanded to magazines, creating the largest newspaper and magazine business in the world. Hearst controlled the editorial positions and coverage of political news in all his papers and magazines, and thereby often published his personal views. He sensationalized Spanish atrocities in Cuba while calling for war in 1898 against Spain. Historians, however, reject his subsequent claims to have started the war with Spain as overly extravagant. He was twice elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives. He ran unsuccessfully for President of the United States in 1904, Mayor of New York City in 1905 and 1909, and for Governor of New York in 1906. During his political career, he espoused views generally associated with the left wing of the Progressive Movement, claiming to speak on behalf of the working class. After 1918 and the end of World War I, Hearst gradually began adopting more conservative views and started promoting an isolationist foreign policy to avoid any more entanglement in what he regarded as corrupt European affairs. He was at once a militant nationalist, a fierce anti-communist after the Russian Revolution, and deeply suspicious of the League of Nations and of the British, French, Japanese, and Russians. He was a leading supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932Ð34, but then broke with FDR and became his most prominent enemy on the right. Before the fallout, Hearst provided prominent and lucrative employment for FDR's son Elliott Roosevelt and in November 1936, for John and Anna, who are photographed with Hearst in this group. John became publisher of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and Anna was editor of the paper's women's pages. Hearst agreed to give the Boettigers editorial freedom to "make it the best paper in Seattle." Hearst's empire reached a peak circulation of 20 million readers a day in the mid-1930s. He was a bad manager of finances and so deeply in debt during the Great Depression that most of his assets had to be liquidated in the late 1930s. Hearst managed to keep his newspapers and magazines. His life story was the main inspiration for Charles Foster Kane, the lead character in Orson Welles's film Citizen Kane (1941). His Hearst Castle, constructed on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean near San Simeon, has been preserved as a State Historical Monument and is designated as a National Historic Landmark. Condition varies from VG to XF condition. The backs of the photos have the information about them for use by newspapers. Historic group. (5) (John E. Herzog Collection)
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