My children say that my one true talent is a tireless tracing of credit or blame for something, all the way back to the primordial goop which covered our shoeless feet as we left the swamp to stand upright.
In any business, everybody should look up to the Boss. So as a proud contributor to The Examiner, I give credit to George Hearst as our First Boss and somebody I admire.
History says I can and should. HBO Sunday Night says I can?t, describing him as a “ruthless sociopath” in the storyline of the just-completed “Deadwood.” It startled and cut me that the fine folks at HBO would treat the founding father of our Examiner family this way. The only ointment on my wound is the fact that no less a bearded alpha male than 59-year-old consummate actor, Gerald McRaney, gives a riveting performance as George Hearst.
The official biography admits that George, born in 1820, worked as a boy on the family farm, where he received little formal education, and aquired limited reading skills. HBO notes this fact. It also shows him bitterly criticizing those who can?t read, testing the abilities of new hires before they are allowed to work for him.
His biography says at age 26 George leased lead mines and discovered his unusual gift for picking profitable rock formations. Local Indians referred to him as the “boy that the earth talks to” because of this ability to commune with Mother Earth who whispered the secret locations of hidden precious metals to George.
The Hearst of HBO sees himself with a messianic mission to help “my own kind” with his gift for finding gold, which he refers to delicately as “the color.”
He reasons that God wants him to make himself rich first, then take over and invest in a town?s economy, letting the trickle-down effect work until the last drunk on the corner can buy all the whisky he wants. His reputation hits Deadwood first. He?s the “murderous engine” of a giant earthmover clawing its way through the west. Those who will not sell their claims to him mysteriously die.
He becomes obsessed with acquiring Deadwood?s Homestake Mine. Real history says the Homestake was and still is the largest producer of gold in the country. HBO says the Ellsworth family owned it. Not true I hope, since Ellsworth and Esworthy were interchangeable surnames in the murk of genealogy, and I wouldn?t want to think our first boss had my rich ancestor Whitney Ellsworth killed in order to acquire our gold mine for $70,000. Is this why I?m not rich? The series ends as Hearst rides off after announcing to the stunned but relieved populace, “I am not the fine man you take me for.”
In reality, Hearst married at 41 and had one son, William Randolph Hearst. Along the way, in 1880, he acquired the small San Francisco Examiner. For the next seven years the Examiner struggled under this hands-off owner with little interest in reading or journalism. George Hearst had hoped that his only child would take over his mining empire.
But in 1887, George received a letter from 24-year-old William Randolph Hearst, pleading for control of The Examiner. Gravely disappointed, George reluctantly agreed and the Hearst publishing empire was born.
Outrageous myth and legend with skewed fact grows around the rich and famous. Was George Hearst saint or sinner or was his life the usual swirl of gray tones? With all due respect to HBO, George rules. Even though the Fang family of San Francisco purchased The Examiner in 2000, I?m sure they wouldn?t object if we hung a portrait of our First Boss in the lobby at 400 East Pratt Street.
Stephanie Esworthy was director of Media and Public Relations and the Baltimore City Film Commission for former Mayors William Donald Schaefer and the late Clarence “Du” Burns and served as head of Baltimore City?s Bureau of Music in every city administration since Mayor Theodore R. McKeldin. Her personal experiences in local politics started in the early 1950s as the daughter of state?s attorney and chief judge of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Anselm Sodaro, now deceased. She may be reached at [email protected]
