Story Highlights
- Historical event:
- 29 April 1863
- The media magnate William Randolph Hearst owned over a million acres of land, i.e. more than 400,000 hectares. He built the Hearst Castle on his vast ranch in California, known as the Hearst Ranch. The castle was one of the largest private residences in the United States.
American media magnate and multimillionaire William Randolph Hearst was born on this day in 1863.
He was probably one of the role models for the development of the lead character of Charles Foster Kane in Orson Welles` film Citizen Kane (1941). Like Kane, William Randolph Hearst built a huge castle in California (the Hearst Castle).
William Randolph Hearst was born in San Francisco as the son of a wealthy senator George Hearst. William inherited his father’s wealth, multiplied it, and built the largest newspaper empire in the United States.
Hearst created a chain which numbered 28 newspapers by the mid-1920s, owned magazines (Cosmopolitan and Harper’s Bazaar), and radio stations.
Hearst owned over a million acres of land, i.e. more than 400,000 hectares. He built the Hearst Castle on his vast ranch in California, known as the Hearst Ranch. The castle was one of the largest private residences in the United States.
That castle was particularly famous for its spectacular swimming pool, which was an example of the ancient Roman architecture (the Neptune Pool). An indoor pool and a private cinema were also present.
Near the castle, William Randolph Hearst owned the largest private zoo in the world at the time.
