J. Paul Getty

J. Paul Getty

As I See It, J. Paul Getty Autobiography
Born December 15, 1892(1892-12-15)
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Died June 6, 1976(1976-06-06) (aged 83)
near London, England
Occupation Businessman
Net worth USD $2 billion at the time of his death (approximately 1/893rd of US GNP)[1]
Spouse Jeanette Demont, Allene Ashby, Adolphine Helmle, Ann Rork, Louise Dudley Lynch
Children George Franklin Getty II, Jean Ronald Getty, Eugene Paul Getty, later Jean Paul Getty Jr, Gordon Peter Getty, Timothy Ware Getty
Parents George Franklin Getty and Sarah Catherine McPherson Risher

Jean Paul Getty (December 15, 1892 – June 6, 1976) was an American industrialist.[2] He founded the Getty Oil Company, and in 1957 Fortune magazine named him the richest living American,[3] whilst the 1966 Guinness Book of Records named him as the world's richest private citizen, worth an estimated $1,200 million. [4] At his death, he was worth more than $2 billion.[5] A book published in 1996 ranked him as the 67th richest American who ever lived, based on his wealth as a percentage of the gross national product.[6]Despite his wealth, Getty was known for being a miser.

Getty was an avid collector of art and antiquities; his collection formed the basis of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California, and over $661 million of his estate was left to the museum after his death.[5] He established the J. Paul Getty Trust in 1953. The trust is the world's wealthiest art institution, and operates the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Foundation, the Getty Research Institute, and the Getty Conservation Institute.[7]

Contents

Biography

"The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights."
— dictum attributed to John Paul Getty[8]

Born into George Getty's family in the petroleum business in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he was one of the first people in the world with a fortune estimated at over one billion U.S. dollars.

He enrolled at the University of Southern California, then at University of California, Berkeley before graduating in 1914 from Magdalen College, Oxford with degrees in economics and political science. He spent his summers between studies working on his father's oil fields in Oklahoma. Running his own oil company in Tulsa, he made his first million by 1916. However, in 1917, he announced that he was retiring to become a Los Angeles-based playboy. Although he eventually returned to business, Getty had lost his father's respect. Just before George Franklin Getty died in 1930, he believed that Jean Paul would destroy the family company, and told him so.

After taking a few years off from the money-making grind to enjoy spending his earnings on women, Getty returned to Oklahoma in 1919. During the 1920s he added about $3 million to his already sizable estate. His succession of marriages and divorces (three during the 1920s, five throughout his life) so distressed his father, however, that J. Paul inherited a mere $500,000 of the $10 million the senior Getty left at his death in 1930.

Shrewdly investing his resources during the Great Depression, Getty acquired Pacific Western Oil Corporation, and he began the acquisition (completed in 1953) of the Mission Corporation, which included Tidewater Oil and Skelly Oil. In 1967 the billionaire merged these holdings into Getty Oil.

Beginning in 1949, Getty paid Ibn Saud $9.5 million in cash and $1 million a year for a 60-year concession to a tract of barren land near the border of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. No oil had ever been discovered there, and none appeared until four years and $30 million had been spent. From 1953 onward, Getty's gamble produced 16,000,000 barrels (2,500,000 m3) a year, which contributed greatly to the fortune which made him one of the richest people in the world.

Getty increased the family wealth, learning to speak Arabic which enabled his unparalleled expansion into the Middle East. Getty owned the controlling interest in nearly 200 businesses, including Getty Oil. Associates identified his overall wealth at between $2 billion and $4 billion. It didn't come easily, perhaps inspiring Getty's widely quoted remark—"The meek shall inherit the earth, but not the mineral rights."[9]

He moved to England in the 1950s and became a prominent Anglophile. He lived and worked at his 16th-century Tudor estate, Sutton Place near Guildford; the traditional country house became the centre of Getty Oil and his associated companies and he used the estate to entertain his British and Arabian friends (including the British Rothschild family and numerous rulers of Middle Eastern countries). Getty lived the rest of his life in the British Isles, dying of heart failure at the age of 83 on June 6, 1976.

Marriages, divorces, and children

Getty was married and divorced five times. He had five sons with four of his wives[5][10]:

  1. Jeanette Demont (married 1923 – divorced 1926); one son George Franklin Getty II (1924–1973)
  2. Allene Ashby (1926–divorced 1928) no children [11]
  3. Adolphine Helmle (1928–1932); one son Jean Ronald Getty (born 1929)
  4. Ann Rork (1932–1936); two sons Eugene Paul Getty, later Jean Paul Getty Jr (1932–2003) and Gordon Peter Getty (born 1933)
  5. Louise Dudley Lynch (1939–1958); one son Timothy Ware Getty (1946–1958)

He was quoted as saying "A lasting relationship with a woman is only possible if you are a business failure".[10]

Success as an autobiographical author

Getty wrote a very successful book entitled How to Be Rich.

Coin-box telephone

Getty famously had a pay phone installed at Sutton Place, helping to seal his reputation as a miser.[12] In his autobiography, he described his reasons:

Now, for months after Sutton Place was purchased, great numbers of people came in and out of the house. Some were visiting businessmen. Others were artisans or workmen engaged in renovation and refurbishing. Still others were tradesmen making deliveries of merchandise. Suddenly, the Sutton Place telephone bills began to soar. The reason was obvious. Each of the regular telephones in the house has direct access to outside lines and thus to long-distance and even overseas operators. All sorts of people were making the best of a rare opportunity. They were picking up Sutton Place phones and placing calls to girlfriends in Geneva or Georgia and to aunts, uncles and third cousins twice-removed in Caracas and Cape Town. The costs of their friendly chats were, of course, charged to the Sutton Place bill.[13]

Getty placed dial-locks on all the regular telephones, limiting their use to authorised staff, and the coin-box telephone was installed for others. When speaking in a televised interview with Alan Whicker, Getty said that he thought guests would want to use a payphone .

Grandson's kidnapping

On July 10, 1973 in Rome, 16 year old John Paul Getty III was kidnapped and a ransom of $17 million was demanded over the phone for his safe return. However, "the family suspected a ploy by the rebellious teenager to extract money from his miserly grandfather."[14] John Paul Getty II asked his father for the money, but was refused.[15]

In November 1973 an envelope containing a lock of hair and a human ear was delivered to a daily newspaper. The second demand had been delayed three weeks by an Italian postal strike.[14] The demand threatened that Paul would be further mutilated unless $3.2 million was paid: "This is Paul’s ear. If we don’t get some money within 10 days, then the other ear will arrive. In other words, he will arrive in little bits."[14]

When the kidnappers finally reduced their demands to $3 million Getty senior agreed to pay no more than $2.2 million - the maximum that would be tax deductible. He loaned his son the remaining $800,000 at 4% interest. Paul III was found alive in southern Italy shortly after the ransom was paid. After his release Paul III called his grandfather to thank him for paying the ransom but Getty refused to come to the phone.[16] Nine people were later arrested for the kidnapping, but only two were convicted.[17] Paul III was permanently affected by the trauma and became a drug addict. After a stroke brought on by a cocktail of drugs and alcohol in 1981, Paul III was rendered speechless, nearly blind and partially paralyzed for the rest of his life. He died thirty years later on February 5, 2011 at the age of 54.[18]

Getty defended his initial refusal to pay the ransom on two points. First, he argued that to submit to the kidnappers' demands would immediately place his other fourteen grandchildren at the risk of copy-cat kidnappers. He added:

The second reason for my refusal was much broader-based. I contend that acceding to the demands of criminals and terrorists merely guarantees the continuing increase and spread of lawlessness, violence and such outrages as terror-bombings, "skyjackings" and the slaughter of hostages that plague our present-day world. (Getty, 1976, pg.139).

Published works

References

  1. ^ Klepper, Michael; Gunther, Michael (1996), The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates—A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present, Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group, p. xiii, ISBN 9780806518008, OCLC 33818143 
  2. ^ Whitman, Alden. J. Paul Getty dead at 83; amassed billions from oil. New York Times, June 6, 1976. Retrieved September 6, 2008.
  3. ^ List of 76 said to hold above 75 millions. New York Times, October 28, 1957.
  4. ^ Norris & Ross McWhirter, Guinness Book of Records, London, 1966, p.229
  5. ^ a b c Lenzner, Robert. The great Getty: the life and loves of J. Paul Getty, richest man in the world. New York: Crown Publishers, 1985. ISBN 0-517-56222-7
  6. ^ Klepper, Michael M., and Robert E. Gunther. (1996). The wealthy 100: from Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates-- a ranking of the richest Americans, past and present. Secaucus, N.J.: Carol Publishing Group. ISBN 0806518006. 
  7. ^ Edward Wyatt, "Getty Fees and Budget Reassessed," The New York TImes, April 30, 2009, p. C1.
  8. ^ Manser, Martin H. (April 2007). The Facts on File dictionary of proverbs. Infobase Publishing. p. 186. ISBN 9780816066735. http://books.google.com/books?id=fgaUQc8NbTYC&pg=PA186. Retrieved 26 May 2011. 
  9. ^ "Thoughts On The Business Of Life" at Forbes
  10. ^ a b Vallely, Paul. Don't keep it in the family. The Independent (London), July 19, 2007. Retrieved September 6, 2008.
  11. ^ Getty, Jean Paul (1976 (2003)). As I see it: the autobiography of J. Paul Getty. Getty Publications. p. 91. http://books.google.com/books?id=k-_hLLdVhCwC&pg=PA91#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved September 13, 2011. 
  12. ^ Woo, Elaine (Feb 8, 2011). "J. Paul Getty III oil Scion..". The Desert Sun: p. B4. 
  13. ^ Getty, 1976, pg.319
  14. ^ a b c Sir Paul Getty (obituary). Telegraph, April 17, 2003.
  15. ^ Profile: Sir John Paul Getty II. BBC News, June 13, 2001.
  16. ^ Weber, Bruce (February 7, 2011). "J. Paul Getty III, 54, Dies; Had Ear Cut Off by Captors". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/world/europe/08gettyobit.html?hp. 
  17. ^ J. Paul Getty III, 54, Dies; Had Ear Cut Off by Captors The New York Times, February 7, 2011.
  18. ^ J. Paul Getty III, 54, Dies; Had Ear Cut Off by Captors The New York Times, February 7, 2011.

Further reading

External links