William Randolph Hearst’s home at San Simeon is now called the Hearst Castle, which it certainly is. A collector of art, he loved the Gothic, Renaissance, and Rococo periods. Hearst bought whatever he liked without focusing on any special needs for a collection or worrying about provenance --- as long as it appealed to him, he purchased it. Over a 28 year period, he worked with Julia Morgan, an accomplished architect trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Artes, to build his American version of a castle. She designed living spaces in which to set his church ceilings, marble sculptures, massive paintings, tapestries, refectory table, book collection and more. All this was a backdrop for his large house parties and designed for living the good life on a lavish scale. Guests included notables of the early 20th century -- Charlie Chaplin, Gary Cooper, Gene Autry, et al. In the midst of Prohibition, he stocked a complete wine cellar. However, Hearst strictly controlled the amount of alcohol consumed by his guests.
Like Bill Gates of Microsoft and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Hearst was a Harvard dropout with great ambitions. Although his father George had made a fortune in mining (see our blog entry -- May 2011, the Gold Rush), the son added to that fortune by building a publishing, radio, and movie empire of his own and on his own. They called William Randolph “The Chief,” and perhaps he may be considered the first media mogul. Like many driven and successful persons, he was able to get along on four hours of sleep. Clearly, this gave Hearst more time to think, plan, work and party.
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