J. Paul Getty
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Jean Paul Getty (December 15, 1892 – June 6, 1976) was an American industrialist and founder of the Getty Oil Company.
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota into a family already in the petroleum business, he was one of the first people in the world with a fortune of over $1 billion U.S. dollars. He was an avid collector of art and antiquities, and his collection forms the basis of the J. Paul Getty Museum in California.
He enrolled at the University of Southern California, then at Berkeley before graduating in 1914 from Magdalen College, Oxford with degrees in economics and political science. He worked during the summers 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.
He moved to England in the 1950s, where he lived and worked at his 16th-century Tudor estate, Sutton Place near Guildford, until his death.
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Marriages
Getty married five times: to Jeanette Tremont (1923–25), Allene Ashby (1926–28), Adolphine Hemle (1928–32), Ann Rork (1932–35), and Theodora Lynch. He had five sons: George Franklin Getty (d. 1973) by his first wife, Jean Ronald Getty by his third wife, John Paul Getty and Gordon Getty by his fourth wife, and Timothy Getty (died aged 12) by his fifth wife.
Views on His Own Success
Getty wrote a very successful book entitled How to be Rich. Note that it was not "How to get Rich." His oil business was handed to him by his father, who started the business.
Getty fully acknowledges this in his autobiography, I enjoyed the advantage of being born into an already-wealthy family, and when I began my business career I was subsidized by my father. While I did make money-and quite a bit of it-on my own, I doubt if there would be a 'Getty Empire' today if I had not taken over my father's thriving oil business after his death. (Getty, 1976, pg.336).
Common Myths about Jean Paul Getty
Coin-box Telephone
It is true that Getty had a pay phone installed at Sutton Place manor. However, the reason behind it is fairly simple. In Getty's own autobiography (Getty, 1976, pg.319):
"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."
Hence, the only solution was to place dial-locks on all the regular telephones, limiting their use to authorised staff, and the coin-box telephone was installed for others.
Getty's Initial Refusal to Pay Ransom
In 1973, his grandson, John Paul Getty III, was kidnapped. It is often reported that Getty refused to pay the ransom until he was sent the boy's severed right ear. In the end his grandson was released. However, this account oversimplifies the facts in the case.
Getty defends his initial refusal to pay the ransom on two points. Firstly he argues that he had fourteen other grandchildren, and to submit to the kidnappers demands would immediately place his other fourteen grandchildren at the risk of copy-cat kidnappers.
Secondly, "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
- How to be Rich, a collection of Getty's essays.
- As I See It: The Autobiography of J. Paul Getty , Getty's autobiography published shortly before his death.
See also
References
- As I See It: The Autobiography of J. Paul Getty , Getty's autobiography published shortly before his death.
Further reading
- Ralph Hewins, J. Paul Getty: the Richest American, Sidgwick and Jackson, London (1961).
- Robert Lenzner, The Great Getty: the Life and Loves of J. Paul Getty, Richest Man in the World (1986). ISBN 0517562227.
- Russell Miller, The House of Getty (1986). ISBN 0805000232.
- John Pearson, Painfully Rich: J Paul Getty and His Heirs (1995). ISBN 0333590333.