[00:00.00]William loved the ranch
[00:02.62]where he spent his summer vacations
[00:04.59]as a youngster and a youth,
[00:06.77]playing in the rugged canyons,
[00:08.85]descending the cliffs and camping
[00:11.15]in colorful Arabstyle tents
[00:13.67]in the mountains with his family.
[00:16.84]Phoebe was delighted in exposing
[00:20.12]her darling child to
[00:22.09]the beauties and wonders of
[00:23.95]the world and spared no expense doing so.
[00:27.56]During one of their adventures,
[00:30.19]an 18month tour of
[00:32.38]the historic palaces
[00:34.67]and castles of Europe,
[00:36.42]William began a lifelong
[00:38.28]love of collecting.
[00:39.70]With his first acquisitions,
[00:42.00]German picture books, he
[00:44.62]embarked on a 78year session
[00:47.14]of excessive spending.
[00:50.21]He confessed to a love
[00:53.05]of the finer things in life and,
[00:55.13]as he had a bottomless purse,
[00:57.87]would never deny himself
[00:59.51]anything he wanted.
[01:01.48]In 1887, while William
[01:05.85]was at Harvard University,
[01:07.38] he decided to take over
[01:09.14]the small newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner,
[01:13.18] which his father had accepted
[01:15.15]as payment for a gambling debt
[01:16.46]several years earlier.
[01:18.98]George would have preferred that
[01:21.16]his son be involved in the mining
[01:23.35]and ranching interests, but
[01:25.11]William declined this offer
[01:26.86]and was given ownership
[01:28.39]of the Examiner in March 1887.
[01:30.68]He was determined to
[01:34.52]increase the popularity of the paper
[01:36.92] and acquire the best equipment
[01:38.67] and writers available.
[01:40.64]William’s resolve to succeed
[01:43.27]inspired him to publish juicy tales
[01:46.88]of vice and stories full of drama
[01:49.61]and motivation. In 1895,
[01:53.01]he purchased the New York Morning Journal,
[01:57.49] putting him in direct competition
[01:59.46]with the distinguished Joseph Pulitzer
[02:02.41]and a circulation war began |