Samuel Bronfman
Encyclopedia
Samuel Bronfman, was a Canadian business magnate
and philanthropist
. He founded Distillers Corporation Limited, and is a member of the Canadian Jewish family dynasty, the Bronfman family
.
, Bessarabia
, then part of Imperial Russia but now in Moldova
, Samuel was one of eight children of Mindel and Yechiel Bronfman. He and his parents were Jewish refugees of Czarist Russia
's anti-Semitic pogroms, who migrated to Wapella, Saskatchewan
. They soon moved to Brandon
, Manitoba
. A wealthy family, they were accompanied by their rabbi
and two servants. Soon Yechiel learned that tobacco
farming, which had made him a wealthy man in his homeland, was incompatible with the cold Canadian climate of that region. Yechiel was forced to work as a laborer for the Canadian Northern Railway
, and after a short time moved to a better job in a sawmill. Yechiel and his sons then started making a good living selling firewood and began a trade in frozen whitefish
to earn a winter income. Eventually they turned to trading horses, a venture through which they became involved in the hotel and bar business.
in 1924, specializing in cheap whiskey, and concurrently taking advantage of the U.S. prohibition
on alcoholic beverages. The Bronfmans found great success bootlegging
to the northern cities of the U.S. such as Boston
, New York
and Chicago
during the Prohibition era
, while operating from the perimeters of Montreal
, Quebec
where alcohol production was legal
, from the heirs of Joseph Seagram in 1928. Bronfman eventually built an empire based on the appeal of brand names developed previously by Seagram -- including Calvert, Dewars, and Seven Crown -- to higher-level consumers. His sales were boosted during the United States' abortive experiment with prohibition
, and he was apparently able to do so while staying within the confines of both Canadian
law where prohibition laws had been previously repealed and American
law, while dealing with unsavory characters such as the Chicago Outfit
of gangster
Al Capone
.
His renamed company, Seagram Co. Ltd., became an international distributor of alcoholic beverages, and a diversified conglomerate which included an entertainment branch.
Because of changes to US tax law in the Lyndon Johnson administration, it became advantageous for Bronfman to purchase an oil company, which he did with the purchase of Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company in 1963 for $50 million. In 1980, the Bronfman heirs sold the Texas Pacific Oil holdings to Sun Oil Co. for $2.3 billion.
The Seagram assets have since been acquired by other companies, notably General Electric
, PepsiCo
, Diageo
, and Pernod Ricard
.
(1897 - July 7, 1995). They had four children:
from 1939 to 1962, and he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada
in 1967. In 1971, he helped to establish the Bronfman Building at McGill University
, which houses the Desautels Faculty of Management
. The building was named in his honour as appreciation for his donation to the university. The Bronfman family has continued its support of the university; in 1993 they created the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, and in 2002 donated the Seagram Building on Sherbrooke St. to McGill.
's 1989 novel Solomon Gursky Was Here is based strongly on Samuel Bronfman.
Business magnate
A business magnate, sometimes referred to as a capitalist, czar, mogul, tycoon, baron, oligarch, or industrialist, is an informal term used to refer to an entrepreneur who has reached prominence and derived a notable amount of wealth from a particular industry .-Etymology:The word magnate itself...
and philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
. He founded Distillers Corporation Limited, and is a member of the Canadian Jewish family dynasty, the Bronfman family
Bronfman family
The Bronfman family is a Canadian Jewish family. It owes its initial fame to Samuel Bronfman , who made a fortune in the alcoholic distilled beverage business during the 20th century through the family's Seagram Company. The family is of Russian Jewish and Romanian Jewish ancestry...
.
Early life
Born in SorokiSoroca
Soroca is a Moldovan city situated on the Nistru river about 160 km north of Chişinău. It is the administrative center of Soroca District.- History :The city has its origin in the medieval Genoese trade post of Olchionia, or Alchona...
, Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
, then part of Imperial Russia but now in Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
, Samuel was one of eight children of Mindel and Yechiel Bronfman. He and his parents were Jewish refugees of Czarist Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
's anti-Semitic pogroms, who migrated to Wapella, Saskatchewan
Wapella, Saskatchewan
Wapella is a village of 354 located Northwest of Moosomin on the Trans-Canada Highway.-Demographics:-Notable natives:Cyril Edel Leonoff is the grandson of Edel Brotman, a homesteader and rabbi of the Wapella, Saskatchewan, farm colony, 1889-1906....
. They soon moved to Brandon
Brandon, Manitoba
Brandon is the second largest city in Manitoba, Canada, and is located in the southwestern area of the province. Brandon is the largest city in the Westman region of Manitoba. The city is located along the Assiniboine River. Spruce Woods Provincial Park and CFB Shilo are a relatively short distance...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
. A wealthy family, they were accompanied by their rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
and two servants. Soon Yechiel learned that tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
farming, which had made him a wealthy man in his homeland, was incompatible with the cold Canadian climate of that region. Yechiel was forced to work as a laborer for the Canadian Northern Railway
Canadian Northern Railway
The Canadian Northern Railway is a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its demise in 1923, when it was merged into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton.-Manitoba beginnings:CNoR had its start in...
, and after a short time moved to a better job in a sawmill. Yechiel and his sons then started making a good living selling firewood and began a trade in frozen whitefish
Whitefish
Whitefish or white fish may refer to:In fishing terminology:* Whitefish , a fisheries term referring to the flesh of many types of fishIn fish species:...
to earn a winter income. Eventually they turned to trading horses, a venture through which they became involved in the hotel and bar business.
Early business career
In 1903, the family bought a hotel business, and young Samuel, noting that much of the profit was in alcoholic beverages, set up shop as a liquor distributor. He founded the Distillers Corporation in MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
in 1924, specializing in cheap whiskey, and concurrently taking advantage of the U.S. prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
on alcoholic beverages. The Bronfmans found great success bootlegging
Rum-running
Rum-running, also known as bootlegging, is the illegal business of transporting alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law...
to the northern cities of the U.S. such as Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
during the Prohibition era
Prohibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...
, while operating from the perimeters of Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
where alcohol production was legal
His empire
Bronfman's Distillers Corporation acquired Joseph E. Seagram & Sons of Waterloo, OntarioWaterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the smallest of the three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, and is adjacent to the city of Kitchener....
, from the heirs of Joseph Seagram in 1928. Bronfman eventually built an empire based on the appeal of brand names developed previously by Seagram -- including Calvert, Dewars, and Seven Crown -- to higher-level consumers. His sales were boosted during the United States' abortive experiment with prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
, and he was apparently able to do so while staying within the confines of both Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
law where prohibition laws had been previously repealed and American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
law, while dealing with unsavory characters such as the Chicago Outfit
Chicago Outfit
The Chicago Outfit, also known as the Chicago Syndicate or Chicago Mob and sometimes shortened to simply the Outfit, is a crime syndicate based in Chicago, Illinois, USA...
of gangster
Gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Some gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster....
Al Capone
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...
.
His renamed company, Seagram Co. Ltd., became an international distributor of alcoholic beverages, and a diversified conglomerate which included an entertainment branch.
Because of changes to US tax law in the Lyndon Johnson administration, it became advantageous for Bronfman to purchase an oil company, which he did with the purchase of Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company in 1963 for $50 million. In 1980, the Bronfman heirs sold the Texas Pacific Oil holdings to Sun Oil Co. for $2.3 billion.
The Seagram assets have since been acquired by other companies, notably General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
, PepsiCo
PepsiCo
PepsiCo Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Purchase, New York, United States, with interests in the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of grain-based snack foods, beverages, and other products. PepsiCo was formed in 1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company...
, Diageo
Diageo
Diageo plc is a global alcoholic beverages company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest producer of spirits and a major producer of beer and wine....
, and Pernod Ricard
Pernod Ricard
Pernod Ricard is a French company that produces distilled beverages. The company's eponymous products, Pernod Anise and Ricard Pastis, are both anise-flavoured liqueurs and are often referred to simply as Pernod or Ricard...
.
Family life
On June 21, 1922, he married Saidye RosnerSaidye Rosner Bronfman
Saidye Rosner Bronfman, was the mother and grandmother of the Bronfman family, one of the most influential Jewish families in the world. The family was made famous by her husband, Samuel Bronfman , who made a fortune in the distilled alcoholic beverages business during the 20th century through his...
(1897 - July 7, 1995). They had four children:
- Aileen Mindel "Minda" Bronfman de Gunzburg (1925–1986)
- Phyllis LambertPhyllis LambertPhyllis Barbara Lambert CC, GOQ, OAL, FRAIC, FRSC, RCA is a Canadian philanthropist and member of the Bronfman family....
(born January 24, 1927) - Edgar Miles BronfmanEdgar Bronfman, Sr.Edgar Miles Bronfman is a Canadian businessman. He is a member of the Bronfman family.-Biography:Bronfman is the son of Samuel Bronfman, the founder of Distillers Corporation Limited, who purchased Seagram's in 1928...
(born June 20, 1929) - Charles Rosner BronfmanCharles BronfmanCharles Rosner Bronfman, is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. With an estimated net worth of $US 2.0 billion , Bronfman was ranked by Forbes as the 15th wealthiest Canadian and 595th in the world....
(born June 27, 1931)
Philanthropy and honours
In 1952, he established the Samuel and Sadie Bronfman Family Foundation, one of Canada's major private granting foundations. Bronfman was President of the Canadian Jewish CongressCanadian Jewish Congress
The Canadian Jewish Congress was one of the main lobby groups for the Jewish community in the country, although it often competed with the more conservative B'nai Brith Canada in that regard. At its dissolution, the president of the CJC was Mark Freiman. Its past co-presidents were Sylvain Abitbol...
from 1939 to 1962, and he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
in 1967. In 1971, he helped to establish the Bronfman Building at McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
, which houses the Desautels Faculty of Management
Desautels Faculty of Management
The Desautels Faculty of Management is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University. The Faculty has been host to the McGill Management International Case Competition since 2001...
. The building was named in his honour as appreciation for his donation to the university. The Bronfman family has continued its support of the university; in 1993 they created the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, and in 2002 donated the Seagram Building on Sherbrooke St. to McGill.
In fiction
Mordecai RichlerMordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler, CC was a Canadian Jewish author, screenwriter and essayist. A leading critic called him "the great shining star of his Canadian literary generation" and a pivotal figure in the country's history. His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Barney's Version,...
's 1989 novel Solomon Gursky Was Here is based strongly on Samuel Bronfman.
Further reading
- Christopher G. Curtis, "Bronfman Family", The Canadian Encyclopedia: Year 2000 Edition (1999) - ISBN 0-7710-2099-6
- Michael R. MarrusMichael MarrusMichael Robert Marrus is a Canadian historian of France, the Holocaust and Jewish history. He was born in Toronto and received his BA at the University of Toronto in 1963 and his MA and PhD at the University of California, Berkeley in 1964 and 1968...
, Mr. Sam: The Life and Times of Samuel Bronfman (1991) - ISBN 0-87451-571-8 - Peter C. NewmanPeter C. NewmanPeter Charles Newman, CC, CD is a Canadian journalist and writer.Born in Vienna, Austria, Newman emigrated from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to Canada in 1940 as a Jewish refugee. His father, Oscar, was a self-made wealthy factory owner. Newman was educated at Upper Canada College, where he was...
, Bronfman Dynasty: The Rothschilds of the New World (1978; U.S. title: King of the Castle: The Making of a Dynasty) ISBN 0-7710-6758-5
See also
- Bronfman familyBronfman familyThe Bronfman family is a Canadian Jewish family. It owes its initial fame to Samuel Bronfman , who made a fortune in the alcoholic distilled beverage business during the 20th century through the family's Seagram Company. The family is of Russian Jewish and Romanian Jewish ancestry...