In his heyday, the man often considered to be the first modern media mogul owned over two dozen daily newspapers in 18 cities and had a daily readership of over 20 million. He controlled newspapers, magazines, and radio stations; produced films; and also ventured into television.
His brand of journalism was sensational. The public doesn't wish to be informed, he said, as much as they wish to be entertained. Hearst gave them entertainment, all right, and if nothing interesting was happening, he was not above manufacturing something. An oft-repeated story is that on the eve of the Spanish-American War he sent artist Frederic Remington down to Havana to check on hostilities there and illustrate them. When Remington reported that there were none, he asked Hearst whether he should come home. His boss famously replied, "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."
Hearst also had political ambitions and briefly embarked on a political career. He served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 11th District and ran unsuccessfully for mayor of New York City (twice) as well as for governor. He also sought the Presidency, although he was ultimately denied his party's nomination.
His personal life, too, was anything but quiet. After having been married for several years, the 6-foot-3 publishing giant began an openly adulterous relationship with actress Marion Davies which continued on for decades. They lived together without benefit of marriage long before such arrangements became fashionable.
His antics were, if not the stuff of legend, then at least the subject of several films. The most famous of these is undoubtedly Citizen Kane, Orson Welles' 1941 magnum opus, which many consider to be the greatest film of all time. Though Hearst's name isn't mentioned, it is clear who served as the inspiration for Charles Foster Kane. In fact the name "Rosebud" supposedly didn't refer to a sled at all but was instead a pet name that Hearst gave to one of Miss Davies' more private physical attributes. When Hearst learned about the film, he tried to shut the production down - an effort which itself became the subject of a film, 1999's RKO 291.
More recently The Cat's Meow, starring Kirsten Dunst and Edward Herrmann, is a speculative dramatization of another incident in Hearst's controversial life, the mysterious death of film director Thomas Ince aboard Hearst's private yacht in 1924. The details of the tragedy are lost to history - everyone involved in the incident kept remarkably mum - but one popular theory is that Hearst caught Davies kissing yacht guest Charlie Chaplin. Hearst fired his revolver at Chaplin and missed, killing Ince. Although Ince was obviously the loser, one of the clear benefactors was columnist Louella Parsons, who was also on board and ended up with a lifetime contract with the Hearst organization.
