Jean Paul Getty was an American industrialist. He founded the
Getty OilGetty Oil is an oil company founded by J. Paul Getty. It was at its height during the 1960s. In 1971, the Getty Realty division was formed to manage the real estate needs of Getty stations. The division was later spun off, but now owns the rights to the Getty brand...
Company, and in 1957
FortuneFortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
magazine named him the
richest living AmericanIn 1957 Fortune magazine developed a list of the seventy-six wealthiest Americans; the list was republished in many American newspapers. The primary source of wealth was indicated as being inherited or stemming from a particular business or industry...
, whilst the 1966 Guinness Book of Records named him as the world's richest private citizen, worth an estimated $1,200 million. At his death, he was worth more than $2 billion. 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 productA variety of measures of national income and output are used in economics to estimate total economic activity in a country or region, including gross domestic product , gross national product , and net national income . All are specially concerned with counting the total amount of goods and...
.Despite his wealth, Getty was known for being a
miserA miser, cheapskate, snipe-snout, penny pincher, piker, scrooge, skinflint or tightwad is a person who is reluctant to spend money, sometimes to the point of forgoing even basic comforts and some necessities...
.
Getty was an avid collector of
artArt is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
and
antiquitiesAntiquities, nearly always used in the plural in this sense, is a term for objects from Antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures...
; his collection formed the basis of the
J. Paul Getty MuseumThe J. Paul Getty Museum, a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust, is an art museum. It has two locations, one at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, and one at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California...
in
Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, and over $661 million of his estate was left to the museum after his death. He established the
J. Paul Getty TrustThe J. Paul Getty Trust is the world's wealthiest art institution with an estimated endowment in April 2009 of $US 4.2 billion. Based in Los Angeles, California, it operates the J. Paul Getty Museum, which has two locations, the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Getty Villa in Pacific...
in 1953. The trust is the world's wealthiest art institution, and operates the J. Paul Getty Museum, the
Getty FoundationThe Getty Foundation, based in Los Angeles, California, at the Getty Center, awards grants for "the understanding and preservation of the visual arts". In the past, it funded the Getty Leadership Institute for "current and future museum leaders", which is now at Claremont Graduate University. Its...
, the
Getty Research InstituteThe Getty Research Institute , located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts". A program of the J...
, and the
Getty Conservation InstituteThe Getty Conservation Institute , located in Los Angeles, California, is a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust. It is headquartered at the Getty Center but also has facilities at the Getty Villa, and commenced operation in 1985. The GCI is a private international research institution dedicated to...
.
Biography
| "The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights." |
| — dictum attributed to John Paul Getty |
Born into
George GettyGeorge Franklin Getty was an American lawyer, father of industrialist J. Paul Getty and patriarch of the Getty family.-George Franklin Getty:...
's family in the
petroleumPetroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
business in Minneapolis,
MinnesotaMinnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, 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 CaliforniaThe University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, then at
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
before graduating in 1914 from
Magdalen College, OxfordMagdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
with degrees in
economicsEconomics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
and
political sciencePolitical Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
. He spent his summers between studies working on his father's oil fields in
OklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
. 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 GettyGeorge Franklin Getty was an American lawyer, father of industrialist J. Paul Getty and patriarch of the Getty family.-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 OilTidewater Oil Company was a major petroleum refining and marketing concern in the United States for more than 80 years. Tidewater was best known for its Flying A-branded products and gas stations, and for Veedol motor oil, which was known throughout the world.Tidewater was founded in New York City...
and
Skelly OilSkelly Oil Company was a medium sized "major" oil company founded in 1919 by William Grove Skelly, Chesley Coleman Herndon and Frederick A. Pielsticker in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Previously, about 1915, Mr. Skelly had formed Skelly Sanky Oil Company in Duncan, Oklahoma. Mr...
. 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 16000000 barrels (2,543,796,720 l) 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."
He moved to England in the 1950s and became a prominent Anglophile. He lived and worked at his 16th-century
TudorThe Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...
estate,
Sutton PlaceSutton Place, 3 miles NE of Guildford in Surrey is a Grade I listed Tudor manor house built c.1525 by Sir Richard Weston, courtier of Henry VIII. It is of great importance to art history in showing some of the earliest traces of Italianate renaissance design elements in English architecture. In...
near
GuildfordGuildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...
; 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 familyThe Rothschild banking family of England was founded in 1798 by Nathan Mayer von Rothschild who first settled in Manchester but then moved to London. Nathan was sent there from his home in Frankfurt by his father, Mayer Amschel Rothschild...
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:
- Jeanette Demont (married 1923 – divorced 1926); one son George Franklin Getty II (1924–1973)
- Allene Ashby (1926–divorced 1928) no children
- Adolphine Helmle (1928–1932); one son Jean Ronald Getty (born 1929)
- Ann Rork (1932–1936); two sons Eugene Paul Getty
Sir John Paul Getty KBE , born Eugene Paul Getty, was a wealthy American-born British philanthropist and book collector. He was the elder son of Jean Paul Getty, Sr...
, later Jean Paul Getty Jr (1932–2003) and Gordon Peter GettyGordon Peter Getty was born on December 20, 1934. He is the fourth child of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. His mother, Ann Rork, was his father's third wife. When his father died in 1976, Gordon assumed control of Getty's US$2 billion trust...
(born 1933)
- 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".
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. In his autobiography, he described his reasons:
- Now, for months after Sutton Place
Sutton Place, 3 miles NE of Guildford in Surrey is a Grade I listed Tudor manor house built c.1525 by Sir Richard Weston, courtier of Henry VIII. It is of great importance to art history in showing some of the earliest traces of Italianate renaissance design elements in English architecture. In...
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.
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 IIIJean Paul Getty III , also known as Paul Getty, was the eldest of the four children of John Paul Getty, Jr. and Abigail , and the grandson of oil tycoon Jean Paul Getty...
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."
John Paul Getty IISir John Paul Getty KBE , born Eugene Paul Getty, was a wealthy American-born British philanthropist and book collector. He was the elder son of Jean Paul Getty, Sr...
asked his father for the money, but was refused.
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. 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."
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. Nine people were later arrested for the kidnapping, but only two were convicted. 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.
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
- Getty, J. Paul. The history of the bigger oil business of George F.S. F. and J. Paul Getty from 1903 to 1939. Los Angeles?, 1941.
- Getty, J. Paul. Europe in the eighteenth century. [Santa Monica, Calif.]: privately printed, 1949.
- Le Vane, Ethel, and J. Paul Getty. Collector's choice: the chronicle of an artistic odyssey through Europe. London: W.H. Allen, 1955.
- Getty, J. Paul. My life and fortunes. New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1963.
- Getty, J. Paul. The joys of collecting. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1965.
- Getty, J. Paul. How to be rich. Chicago: Playboy Press, 1965.
- Getty, J. Paul. The golden age. New York: Trident Press, 1968.
- Getty, J. Paul. How to be a successful executive. Chicago: Playboy Press, 1971.
- Getty, J. Paul. As I see it: the autobiography of J. Paul Getty. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice-Hall, 1976. ISBN 013049593X
Trivia
J. Paul Getty and J. Paul Getty II are cited on
Leonard CohenLeonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
's song Jazz Police.
J. Paul Getty also mentioned in
AerosmithAerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
's song "
Last Child"Last Child" is a song performed by American hard rock band Aerosmith. It was written by Steven Tyler and Brad Whitford. It was released as the first single from the band's hard rock album Rocks in 1976...
" from the album
RocksRocks is the fourth album by American rock band Aerosmith, released May 3, 1976. Allmusic described Rocks as having "captured Aerosmith at their most raw and rocking". Rocks also ranked #176 on Rolling Stones list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time...
" and in
SparksSparks is an American rock and pop band formed in Los Angeles in 1968 by brothers Ron and Russell Mael , initially under the name Halfnelson...
's song "In My Family" from "
Kimono My House-21st Century Edition:-Personnel:*Russell Mael, vocals*Ron Mael, keyboards*Martin Gordon, bass*Adrian Fisher, guitar*Norman "Dinky" Diamond, drums-Other credits:*Recording engineers - Richard Digby-Smith, Tony Platt*Mixdown engineer - Bill Price...
".
J. Pauline Spaghetti, a character portrayed by
Spring ByingtonSpring Byington was an American actress. Her career included a seven-year run on radio and television as the star of December Bride. She was a key MGM contract player appearing in films from the 1930s through the 1960s.-Early life:Byington was born Spring Dell Byington in Colorado Springs,...
in the episodes "The Sandman Cometh" and "The Catwoman Goeth" of the 1966
BatmanBatman is an American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin — two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City. It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to...
series, is a female parody of J. Paul Getty, whether to emphasize the show's sense of humor or to avoid
lawsuitA lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
for illegal usage of Getty's likeness.
Further reading
- Hewins, Ralph. The richest American: J. Paul Getty. New York: Dutton, 1960.
- Lund, Robina. The Getty I knew. Kansas City: Sheed Andrews and McMeel, 1977. ISBN 0836266013.
- Miller, Russell. The house of Getty. New York: Henry Holt, 1985. ISBN 0-8050-0023-2.
- de Chair, Somerset Struben
Somerset Struben de Chair DSC was a British author, politician and poet.-Early and personal life:Younger son of Admiral Sir Dudley Rawson Stratford de Chair, KCB, KCMG, MVO...
. Getty on Getty: a man in a billion. London: Cassell, 1989. ISBN 0304318078.
- Pearson, John. Painfully rich: J. Paul Getty and his heirs. London: Macmillan, 1995. ISBN 0-333-59033-3.
External links
- J. Paul Getty Diaries, 1938-1946, 1948-1976. The Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California.
- Guide to the J. Paul Getty Family Collected Papers, 1880s-1989. The Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, California. Collection primarily contains letters, photographs, financial records, legal documents, and publications created or collected by J. Paul Getty and his parents, George F. Getty I and Sarah C. Getty.
- J. Paul Getty and Ashby sisters papers, 1926-1992. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, California. Personal correspondence and telegrams, clippings, a book, and photographs, 1926-1992 and undated, related to J. Paul Getty, Allene Ashby (Getty's second wife), and Belene Ashby.
- J. Paul Getty Trust
- J. Paul Getty Museum
- Insecula biography
- Wiki-Genealogy
- http://butler-bowdon.com/how-to-be-rich.htmlGetty's How To Be Rich: A commentary by Tom Butler-Bowdon
Tom Butler-Bowdon is a non-fiction author based in Oxford, England, most notable for the 50 Classics series of books, which provide commentaries on key writings in the personal development field....
]
- Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Getty, J. Paul
- Ranch House Records, 1921, 1945-1960s, 1980s, 1999-2007, undated The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, California. These records are organized in four series: Series I. Historic American Buildings Survey documentation, 1999, 2001; Series II. Renovation and administration records, 1954-1982; Series III. Architectural drawings, 1921, 1945-1951, 1975-1976 and undated; Series IV. Photographs and miscellaneous file, circa 1950s-1960s, 1980s, 1999-2007.
- Collected papers for biography of J. Paul Getty, circa 1890s-1973, 1984, undated (bulk 1957-1973) The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, California. The collection comprises material created or collected by Ralph Hewins
Ralph Hewins was a British biographer. Amongst his most famous works are Count Folke Bernadotte: his Life and Work , The Richest American: J. Paul Getty and the Vidkun Quisling biography Quisling: Prophet without Honour , which was translated into Norwegian in 1966 under the title Quisling:...
in the course of researching and writing the biography The Richest American: J. Paul Getty (1960).