Willaim Randolph Hearst

William Randolph Hearst, who lived to the age of 88, was born on April 29th, 1863 in San Francisco California, and died on August 14th, 1951 in Beverly Hills California. Hearst studied at Harvard with his mind set on writing, inspired by Joseph Pulitzer. Hearst strived to become a better writer through out his life. After Harvard, Hearst met Marion Davies and eventually moved in with her, living in a very elaborate mansion nicknamed Hearst’s Castle. (http://www.zpub.com/sf/history/willh.html). Hearst and Davies were known for their costume parties and big bashes held at their house, until Davies, who lived through polio, died after the long struggle of cancer. Hearst, who loved the theater, met Millicent Willson there and often escorted her and her sister out at night. Knowing Willson for years, Hearst and her soon became wedded on April 28th, 1903 at Grace Church in New York City. (William Randolph Hearst, Nancy Frazier p. 62) Not but a year later, George Randolph was born on April 10th, 1904, William’s first son. Hearst said to be an amazing father, raced around the city getting fans, and ice buckets to make an air conditioning system for George during his first heat wave. (William Randolph Hearst, Nancy Frazier p. 63) Eventually the Hearst family would consist of five sons.

William Randolph Hearst is best known for his ability to not just write, but make his readers believe anything and everything he wrote about. Hearst was 23 when he became Proprietor of the “San Francisco Examiner”. Hearst soon turned the newspaper into a reformist investigative reporting and lurid sensationalism newspaper., then soon got a reputation for employing the best journalists available. (http://www.zpub.com/sf/history/willh.html).

Many people believed that Hearst actually initiated the Spanish American War just to encourage sales of the newspaper. Hearst loved war and drama, it gave him something to publish. William Randolph Hearst would take yellow journalism to a new level with his great experience in writing and blow the littlest news facts into big time stories that would pull his readers in to believing just about everything that was published in his newspaper. Hearst’s biggest challenger was Joseph Pulitzer, a fellow writer. The irony was that both Pulitzer and Hearst were considered outsiders when they arrived at New York City. Their papers both appealed to the same situations and what not. The thing was that, these situations were usually ignored by the public but the writings of Pulitzer and Hearst drew readers in. They wrote about Democrats, immigrants, woman, and leaders. Hearst disliked immigrants greatly, he believed that jobs should not be taken by immigrants, Americans should have the jobs they earn. Hearst frequently wrote about immigration (www.onlineconcepts.com/pulitzer/yellow.htm).

William Randolph Hearst took plan old news and made it into the most interesting material to read about. Hearst was said to have initiated the Spanish American War with this