J. Paul Getty

From New World Encyclopedia
Revision as of 07:38, 23 January 2007 by Igor Bali (talk | contribs) (→‎Work)
Previous (J. P. Morgan)
Next (J. R. Firth)

Jean Paul Getty (born December 15, 1892 – died June 6, 1976) was an American industrialist, the founder of the Getty Oil Company. He was one of the first people in the world with a fortune of over 1 billion U.S. dollars. He was also an avid collector of art and antiquities, and his collection forms the basis of the J. Paul Getty Museum in California.

Life

Jean Paul Getty was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, into a family already in the petroleum business. His father, George Franklin Getty, originally a lawyer, moved with his family to Oklahoma and became successful in oiling business. In 1906 his family moved to Los Angeles, California, where young Getty attended schools. He graduating from Polytechnic High School in 1909, and attended the University of Southern California and the University of California at Berkeley. During summers he worked on his father's oil rigs as a "roustabout”. In 1914 he graduated from Magdalen College, University of Oxford, with degrees in economics and political science.

After the graduation Getty moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and started his own oil company. He made his first million by 1916. His father’s Minnehoma Oil Company helped him significantly in loans and financial backing on stock market.

In 1917, however, Getty 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. In 1920 Getty started to buy and sell oil leases with his father, amassing even greater fortune. He spread his business to California and acquired a one-third interest in company that later became known as Getty Oil Company.

In 1930 George Franklin Getty died and Paul became president of the George Getty Oil Company (successor to Minnehoma Oil). His mother however kept the control of the company, as she and her husband did not approve the personal life of their son. By the end of the 1930s Getty managed to increase the wealth of his business, and bought a controlling interest in the Pacific Western Oil Corporation, one of the largest oil companies in California. He finally persuaded his mother, after a series of agreements, to turn to him the controlling interest in the George Getty Oil Company. By the same time he also started with the real estate dealings and purchased the Hotel Pierre in New York City. He taught himself Arabic to assist in his expansion into the Middle East.

In 1940s he obtained the control of the Tidewater Oil Company, and merged with the Standard Oil of New Jersey. After the outbreak of the World War II Getty volunteered to the service, but was rejected. He however personally took over the management of Spartan Aircraft, as a service for the Navy. The corporation produced parts for airplanes.

After the war Getty engaged into a risky business in the Middle East, but managed to get a vast profit from it. He purchased oil rights in a barren strap of land between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. In the early 1950s he found there a huge deposit of oil, which would make him a billionaire. In 1953, he founded the J. Paul Getty Museum near Malibu, California.

In 1957 magazine Fortune pronounced Getty the richest man in the world. Getty purchased a 16th-century, 700-acre Tudor manor in Surrey, England, featuring beautiful gardens, pools, and luxurious furnishings. In 1959 he entirely moved to England, where he mainly stayed for the rest of his life.

Getty died at Sutton Place on June 6, 1976, and was buried on his Malibu estate.

Work

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 in fact fully acknowledged 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." (As I See It, p.336).

Getty successfully continued the family business, becoming the reachest man in the world.

The Getty Oil Company

Unlike other oilmen of his time, who relied on instincts and experience in searching for the oil, Getty utilized modern geological data and contemporary technology. He liked the thrill of the gambling nature of oil business, and the possibility to strike it rich. When he was 24 years old he earned his first million, working as a wildcatter and oil-lease broker.

Getty had a vision to build up an independent, self-contained oil enterprise, which would involve the whole circle of oil business - from exploration and drilling, to refining, transportation, and selling of oil. He proceeded with his plan step by step, gaining first the control of the Tidewater Oil Company in 1930s, and then Skelly Oil, and the Mission Corporation. Getty saw his company as David fighting against Goliath, the giant "Seven Sisters" oil firms, which dominated oil industry at the time. He wanted to win that battle, and that was the internal motivation for him to push building a larger and larger fortune.

In 1949 Getty purchased rights to drill oil on seemingly barren piece of land in Saudi Arabia. He initially spent over $30 million in investments, but was able to find the huge oil deposits which eventually made him a billionaire. In 1967 Getty’s companies merged into the Getty Oil Company, which became the central pillar of Getty's fortune.

Getty never kept his fortune in cash, but continued to invest it and reinvest. He kept stocks, corporate assets, and real estate. By the time of his death he had a controlling interest in Getty Oil and 200 other affiliated and subsidiary firms.

Getty Villa and Museum

Fountain and countyard of the Villa

Jean Paul Getty was a famous art collector. He was particularly interested in European paintings, rare watches, furniture, and Greek and Roman art. In his collection were also 18th-century tapestries, and fine Persian carpets, including the 16th-century Ardabil carpet from Tabriz.

Getty initially kept his art collection at both Sutton Place, London and at his ranch house at Malibu, California. He turned one wing of the house in Malibu into the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1954. In 1969 constructions began on both places, and were completed in 1974. The huge building in California was a replica of an ancient Roman Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum, near the ruins of Pompeii. The biggest part of Getty collection was moved there after his death.

In 1997 the main part of the museum moved to its current location in Brentwood, California to become the “Getty Center” and the original Malibu museum, renamed the "Getty Villa", was closed for renovation. The “Getty Villa” became an educational center, dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome and Etruria.

Reopened on January 28, 2006, the Getty Villa now holds Greek and Roman sculptures once housed in the Getty Center. The Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities are arranged by themes including Gods and Goddesses, Dionysos and the Theater’’ and Stories of the Trojan War, housed within Roman-inspired architecture and surrounded by Roman-style gardens.

There is controversy surrounding the Greek and Italian governments claim that 52 objects in the collection were looted and should be repatriated.

The inner peristyle.

Getty’s personality

Getty was famous for his extravagant lifestyle, but also for his stinginess, reclusiveness, and uncompromising attitude. He was an object of public fascination and legend, envy and gossip. Nevertheless, he seemingly did not enjoy the fame, objecting that people “only wanted money from him”. He thus pretended to be poor, wearing wrinkled suits and worn off pants. With this attitude people perceived him as a particularly stingy man. From one side he lived in a luxury, surrounded by gardens, pools, trout streams, expensive furniture, and even two lions, Nero and Teresa. On the other he had installed a pay telephone in his Sutton Place manor, so that his guests do not call long-distance on his bill. His attitude during his grandson’s kidnapping has particularly contributed to this part of his image.

Kidnapping of John Paul Getty III

It is said that kidnapping of John Paul Getty III was one of the most infamous kidnappings of the 20th century. He was kidnapped at age 16, on July 10, 1973 in Rome, Italy, and a ransom of $17 million was demanded over the phone for his safe return. As Paul III was so rebellious, when the first ransom message arrived, the family suspected a ploy by the teenager to extract money from his miserly grandfather. A second demand was delayed by an Italian postal strike. John Paul Getty II asked his father for the money, but was refused due to his father’s disapproval of his son’s hippy lifestyle.

Finally, in November 1973 an envelope containing a lock of hair and a human ear was delivered to a daily newspaper, with a threat of further mutilation unless $3.2 million was paid over: "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." At this point J. Paul Getty agreed to pay a ransom, subject to him negotiating the fee, and Paul II repaying the sum at 4% interest. Still reluctant to part with the ransom, Getty senior negotiated a deal and got his grandson back for about $2 million. Paul III was found alive in southern Italy shortly after the ransom was paid. His kidnappers were never caught.

Legacy

Jean Paul Getty was once the richest man in the world. He created a huge oil empire, with the Getty Oil Company as the center of it. The Getty oil was bought in 1984 by Texaco, and in 2000, what was left of Getty was purchased by Russia-based Lukoil.

The rest of Getty’s fortune remains in the Getty Trust, under which umbrella are the J. Paul Getty Museum; the Getty Conservation Institute; the Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities; the Getty Education Institute for the Arts; the Getty Information Institute; the Getty Leadership Institute of Museum Management; and the Getty Grant Program.

Getty is often seen as a typical example of the saying that “money does not buy happiness”. He was married five times, to:

  1. Jeanette Dumont (1923-1925) - one son, George Franklin Getty (died 1973, suicide?)
  2. Allene Ashby (1926-1928)
  3. Adolphine Helmle (1928-1932) - one son, Jean Ronald Getty (excluded from the family trust)
  4. Ann Rork (1932-1935) - two sons, Paul Getty (1932-2003) and Gordon Getty (born 1934)
  5. Louise Dudley Lynch (1939 -1958); one son, Timothy Getty (died aged 12)

Getty had five sons, two of whom died before him (one possibly from a suicide). His third son, J. Paul Getty Jr. was a reformed drug addict, who turned to charitably work and eventually donated more than $200-million before dying of a chest infection in April 2003. Getty’s grandson, J. Paul Getty III was kidnapped in Italy in 1973. A part of his ear was cut off before being released for a ransom. He eventually became a drug addict himself, as well as several other Getty’s grandchildren.

Publications

  • Getty, Paul J. 1968. The Golden Age. Trident Press.
  • Getty, Paul J. 1979. How to Be a Successful Executive. Playboy Press Paperbacks. ISBN 0872166171
  • Getty, Paul J. 1982 (original published in 1965). How to be Rich. Jove Books. ISBN 0515073970
  • Getty, Paul J. 2003 (original published in 1976). As I See It: The Autobiography of J. Paul Getty . Getty Trust Publications. ISBN 0892367008

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

External links

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.

Retrieved from https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=J._Paul_Getty&oldid=186686

Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Copyright Logo
Powered by MediaWiki