Samuel Bronfman

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Samuel Bronfman

Born February 27, 1889 (1889-02-27)
Soroki, Bessarabia
Died July 10, 1971 (aged 82)
Montreal
Occupation Entrepreneur
Spouse Saidye Rosner
Children Aileen Mindel "Minda" Bronfman de Gunzburg
Phyllis Lambert
Edgar Miles Bronfman
Charles Rosner Bronfman

Samuel Bronfman, CC (February 27, 1889 – July 10, 1971) founded Distillers Corporation Limited and a Canadian family dynasty, the Bronfman family. His father grew tobacco and was a grist mill owner in Imperial Russia. His surname, ironically, means "liquor man" in Yiddish.

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[edit] Early life

Born in Soroki, Bessarabia, then part of Imperial Russia but now in Moldova), Samuel was one of eight children of Mindel and Yechiel Bronfman. He and his parents were Jewish refugees of Czarist Russia's anti-Semitic pogroms[1] who immigrated to Wapella, Saskatchewan -- soon moving to Brandon, Manitoba. A wealthy family, they were accompanied by their rabbi and two servants. Soon Yechiel learned that tobacco farming, which had made him a wealthy man in his homeland, was incompatible with the cold Canadian climate. Yechiel was forced to work as a laborer for the Canadian Northern Railway and after a short time moved to a better job in a sawmill. Yechiel and his sons then started making a good living selling firewood and began a trade in frozen whitefish to earn a winter income. Eventually they turned to trading horses, a venture through which they became involved in the hotel and bar business.[2]

In 1903, the family bought a hotel business, and Samuel, noting that much of the profit was in alcoholic beverages, set up shop as a distributor, founding the Distillers Corporation in Montreal in 1924, specializing in cheap whiskey, and concurrently taking advantage of the U.S. prohibition on alcoholic beverages. The Bronfmans found great success bootlegging to the northern cities of the U.S. such as Boston and Chicago during the Prohibition era, while operating from the perimeters of Montreal, Quebec where alcohol production was still legal.

[edit] His empire

Bronfman's Distillers Corporation acquired Joseph E. Seagram & Sons of Waterloo, Ontario, from the heirs of Joseph Seagram in 1928. Bronfman eventually built an empire based on the appeal of brand names developed previously by Seagram - including Calvert, Dewars, and Seven Crown - to higher level consumers. His sales were boosted during the United States' abortive experiment with prohibition, and he was apparently able to do so while staying within the confines of both Canadian law where prohibition laws had been previously repealed and American law, while dealing with unsavory characters such as the Chicago Outfit of Al Capone.

His company, Seagram Co. Ltd., became an international distributor of alcoholic beverages, and a diversified conglomerate which included an entertainment branch.

Because of changes to US tax law in the Lyndon Johnson administration it became advantageous for Bronfman to purchase an oil company[3] which he did with the purchase of Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company in 1963 for $50 million. In 1980, the Bronfman heirs sold the Texas Pacific Oil holdings to Sun Oil Co. for $2.3 billion.[4]

The Seagram assets have since been acquired by other companies, notably General Electric, PepsiCo, Diageo, and Pernod Ricard.

[edit] Family life

On June 21, 1922, he married Saidye Rosner (1897 - July 7, 1995). They had four children:

  1. Aileen Mindel "Minda" Bronfman de Gunzburg (1925 - 1986)
  2. Phyllis Lambert (born January 24, 1927)
  3. Edgar Miles Bronfman (born June 20, 1929)
  4. Charles Rosner Bronfman (born June 27, 1931)

[edit] Philanthropy and honours

In 1952, he established the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation, one of Canada's major private granting foundations.

He was president of the Canadian Jewish Congress from 1939 to 1962.

Bronfman was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1967.

In 1971, he helped to establish The Bronfman Building at McGill University, which houses the Desautels Faculty of Management. The building was named in his honour as a token of appreciation for his donation to the university.

The Bronfman family continued its support of the University. In 1993 they created the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, and in 2002 donated the Seagram Building on Sherbrooke St. to McGill. [1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Samuel Bronfman: The Life and Times of Seagram's Mr. Sam (Hardcover, 1992); Author: Michael R. Marrus
  2. ^ The Seagram Company Ltd. - Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on The Seagram Company Ltd
  3. ^ Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy; Jim Marrs; pp. 276-277; ISBN-13: 978-0881846485
  4. ^ Samuel Bronfman - The Life and Times of Seagram’s Mr. Sam; Michael R. Marrus, published by Brandeis University Press of New England, copyright 1991, ISBN 0-87451-571-8; pages 372-373

[edit] See also