DRAFT SECTION TWO
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Pg. 74 Getty loves Spain. Pride. Dignity. “In these regards, I believe them to be closer lineal descendants of the Ancient Romans than any other Mediterranean races or nationalities.”
Pg. 75 While in France, 1914, Getty is at Grand Prix. French President Poincare is near. He gets news Austrian Crown Prince Ferdinand and his wife had just been assassinated by Serbian terrorists in Sarajevo. Month later, Austria declares war on Serbia. Then, Germany on Russia, then France. Then, Brits on Germany. Belgium tried to be neutral.
Pg. 76 No one thought it would last more than 4 years.
Pg. 77 Woodrow Wilson was too easily manipulated, Getty writes. Democratic President 1913-1921. Died 1924.
Fourteen Points. Ivory Tower academician, little grasp of political reality, writes Getty. Was too easily manipulated by French Clemenceau, British George, Italian Orlando. The Europeans wanted vengeance on Germany for political credit at home. End product was Versailles Treaty, which Germany was nearly threatened into signing, Getty writes.
Pg. 78 The vindictive treaty forced Germany into impossible payments. Sure to lead to German anger, nationalism. Ebert in Germany tamed these early signs of German anger, like Hitler’s first rise in Bavaria. Getty maintains through discussion of these events that a reasonable treaty with Germany after WWI could have let us avoid Nazis, Hitler, or would have made it improbable that Hitler ever get far.
Pg. 80 Duke of Windsor. He foresaw war in 1912. One of few who did. Also favored more peaceful settlement than Versailles. He liked Austria, not Germany. The Duke met Hitler to “buy time.” It was useless.
Pg. 86 Duke was asked by Getty if Hitler was insane.
“Clinically insane, yes. I never doubted it,” Duke of Windsor replied.
Winston Churchill liked Edward VIII, or David, as Getty calls him. He abdicated Dec. 11, 1936. Married Wallis Simpson. The marriage lasted until his death in May 1972.
Pg. 87-88 Getty compares his failures in marriage to Duke of Windsor’s romance with Wallis Simpson. Abdication of 1936. He saw them 1952 Paris at Dorothy Spreckels’ apartment, 12 Rue Murillo. Five marriages, 5 failures, Getty says of himself.
Pg. 101-103 “Before marriage, many couples are very much like people rushing to catch an airplane; once aboard, they turn into passengers. They just sit there.”
Pg. 25 Getty asks his father if he can work on Lot 50. “It’s alright with me – if you’re willing to start at the bottom.”
Pg. 111 Successful businessman must and does take responsibility for his actions. Mediocrities and failures blame everyone/thing else.
Pg. 113 Key points from Getty about male/female relations:
Women respond to warmth, affection. Snarls and shouts engender resentment.
Women can’t be treated as ornaments, possessions. They must be able to contribute, mutual efforts.
Must spend time with wife and kids to allow family to survive as is. It adds to man’s depth.
Intimate relations have to also be mutual, require time, study, Getty says.
Can’t treat wife as another employee. She’ll walk out, or cheat.
To be the dominant partner is separate thing than to be literally domineering.
Sex conquests by number is a phase men go through. Intellectual gratification needed with age.
Key Points by Getty regarding women, Pg. 115
The closer a man gets to the top, the lonelier he becomes. He needs loyalty, understanding.
Patience key. The man is sometimes still mentally at the office when with wife. He has not changed gears.
Woman is contributing to his business week with her personal behavior toward him. The suggestion style can’t take form of “nagging.”
A woman who can’t find her own activities as wife of successful businessman is lazy, unimaginative, not smart, is what Getty essentially says.
If you watch his every step like a grade-school teacher, he’ll run out for real.
Men, as creators, have mood swings. The banker and the artist have more in common than society acknowledges, says Getty. Both jobs require creativity.
Marriage a 60/40 enterprise, with one playing 60% sometimes, 40% at others.
[Skip now to chapter 20, pg. 158. Return to skipped chapters later.]
Pg. 158 Miguel Aleman was 1940 minister in Mexican President Manuel Camacho’s government. Getty has lunch with him July 12, 1941. Aleman talks about working with Camacho to throw out Mexican politician. Why? Going over spending limits.
Pg. 159 Getty remarks that this is best way to control government over-spending. He then discusses U.S. government over-spending.
“The insane over-spending by Federal, State and Local governments is literally devouring the future of our society.”
Getty is writing this about 1974. U.S. debt, he writes, was 475 billion at end fiscal year 1974. Getty was astonished at this.
Pg 160 Getty quotes Captain Ian Constable-Maxwell, one of founders of London’s Clermont Club.
“There has never been a gaming casino in the world that wouldn’t go bankrupt if it weren’t for the house-limit on stakes.”
Getty says governments should learn from casinos. They should set a house limit.
Pg. 160 Too much government money spent to subsidize the indolent. Govt. is “buying” loss of initiative.
Pg. 161 Getty discusses welfare recipients on strike in large city. They finally got their demands met. More cash.
Pg. 162 Getty discusses Melville Jack Forrester. Came from poverty in NYC slums. Made profitable career in entertainment. Lost all in WWII. Rose up again after war by creating World Commerce Corporation, France. Became millionaire by time he died in 1963. Never minded being knocked flat, he said, because he knew he’d get up again, Getty writes.
Notice Getty’s story of the executive who refused lower-status jobs. Getty considered him “spoiled.” Would not work with him.
Pg. 163 His Royal Highness Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh, had similar philosophies about self-initiative. He took hell by British public. Getty discusses large number of jobs that stay unfilled. [Note: Like 2012, too few plumbers, etc. – l]
Pg. 165 Mr. Harold Wilson, was Prime Minister England in mid-1970s. Getty liked him. Liked Aristotle Onassis. Getty quotes his first wife as saying Ari could only think in massive scales. Getty says that’s common trait to many entrepreneurs. Imagination. Initiative. Enterprise. Love of huge risk. Gambles in business. [Think of Soros. – l]
Pg. 170 Getty thinks govt. is in too many financial affairs now. Is deeply opposed to welfare. Welfare applicants not required to do enough to justify their receipt of govt. cash. “Give away spending mania.” Vocational training for poodle groomers, Getty cites as ridiculous.
Pg 171 Govts charged by contractors for cost overruns. It’s a scam.
Pg. 172 Getty cites Milton Friedman. “Printing Press Inflation.” The govt. prints too much cash. Federal Govt. creates money out of thin air, Getty says.
Pg 173 Getty predicts that in future the less productive segments of population will need to be pushed to rural areas. [Note: He has some foresight in this matter, but we call them suburbs today. – l]
Pg 174 Then, Getty sees the U.S. as becoming more like China with its one-child policy. Abortion being required by state. [He’s off in this, at least for U.S. But it’s worked out this way in China. – l]
Further predicts ruin for great cities because of growing crime, growing entitlement costs.
Pg. 175 Getty says executive and legislative branches of U.S. have idea they are superior to rest in world, must keep peace.
Pg. 176 Getty says some areas of world can only stand small amount of democracy. Hoover was a good man but poor politician, Getty writes. But depression was not his fault. Hoover avoided meddling in economy.
FDR was opposed to Hoover’s view. Getty supported FDR staunchly. Getty thought FDR was a master politician. [Note: This area a bit confusing for me. – l]
Pg 177 Getty mentions politely refusing to support w/donation 1941 America First Committee. Many were pro-Nazi sympathizers, it was later found. Getty supported FDR staunchly.
Pg. 178 Getty sent telegram of support for FDR Sept. 11, 1941. He said FDR probably never saw it, but later, Getty learned that FDR did.
FDR had associate call Getty to offer thanks.
Respected Truman. Never met. Korean War president. Made mistake in ignoring advice of MacArthur. MacArthur would have been great president. Did not care for Truman because he was too active/meddling in world affairs.
JFK had charisma, but did not consider it [White House/JFK presidency] “Duke of Leinster’s house in Dublin,” or “Camelot.”
LBJ’s Great Society programs undermined economy. Vietnam involvement increase. GHASTLY blunder.
Loved Nixon. Considered him personal friend. Getty ranks him with FDR. Getty is looking to race of 1976 at chapter end on page 183.
[NOTE: It’s impossible to know what Getty would have said by 1980, but Getty seems to have thought in the 1970s that Nixon’s Impeachment was over-circulated media rubbish, and would fall out of the public mind fast. In 2012, however, the public still takes this matter as a serious 1970s crisis in government. – l]
Pg. 184 Getty sees traits common to oil men and movie-making men. “The fate of people in both industries was decided by wild and unpredictable swings of fortune,” writes Getty.
Pg. 185 You could be a billionaire one day and a pauper the next in both oil and film. Film extras could be highly-paid stars overnight. Both were high-risk professions.
“Never-but-never be rude to a doorman, any doorman…who else will help pick you up off the sidewalk,” remarked John Gilbert, probably a studio head, to Getty.
Getty was friends with Rudolph Valentino, who died at just 31. Hollywood’s heartthrob. Italian immigrant. Died in 1926. Blood and Sand smashed all box office records. Valentino was personally shy. Modest. Comedic with his friends. Joked about hair oils he had to wear for film studios.
Valentino was friends with Charlie Chaplin, Fairbanks and Pickford, too.
Pg. 191 Getty met Charlie Chaplin in 1918, 1919. They had difficult friendship. Women.
Pg. 201 Baghdad, 1932, Getty had representatives there. But he broke off negotiations. He regrets.
By end of WWII, Getty thought the company needed to enter Mideast commercial agreements. Neutral Zone, 2,400 Sq. mile wasteland between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Kuwait decided to make contract with American Independent Oil Company. AMINOIL.
AMINOIL was a consortium of 10 U.S. companies. Saudis were still half-available. Getty made fast agreement with Saudis. Getty agreed to unbelievable benefits for Saudis, it would seem today.
But the Saudis had IMMENSE reserves underground that only scientists calculated with any accuracy. Getty had a few of these scientists. Still, they didn’t strike oil until 1953, 3,500 ft. underground.
Pg 204 Getty spoke French, German, Spanish, Russian, “fair” Italian.
Pg. 205 Now, Getty had to learn Arabic. He meets in 1954 with Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia, half-brother of Saud. Elaborate greeting in palace courtyard. Retainers with falcons on arms. Thirty retainers. Dinner is in vast dining room. Sixty are seated at table.
Pg. 206 Getty writes about King Saud meeting: “You are praising the neutral zone so highly, I feel I should pay it a visit myself,” said King Saud to Getty.
[Note: Leaders of what would become the Arab oil states honestly did not know much about oil. This is information available from books on the early oil industry of Mideast. – l]
Pg. 207 By 1974, crude production in neutral zone was around 82,000 barrels per day. Getty is polite in writing about OPEC, oil crisis of 1970s:
“Although I am an oilman, I am forced to admit the OPEC countries have their side of the story – and I believe it deserves a hearing.” [Note: The Oil Crisis, October 1973-March 1974 – l]
[Note: Of course it does, Sir! At least that, if we’re talking about 82,000 barrels a day! Go on with your story….– l]
Pg. 208 OPEC raised oil prices to compete with other energy sources, in part, like coal and….
OPEC countries would argue:
Prices for oil were artificially low;
Oil their only resource for export;
Their oil will run out one day;
Arabs had to buy almost everything manufactured from abroad;
Prices of whatever they bought from abroad – items made with oil – continued rising, while oil price remained low.
So, maybe not shocking they raised prices, Getty argues. The world protested, but it was, for OPEC, more about raising the VALUE of oil, thereby, increasing the purchasing power of the oil states abroad.
Pg. 210 The old days when oil states were under West are “long gone.” They do not feel the West understands this, Getty says. [Note: Remember, Getty is writing this from the 1970s. – l]
Getty is glad there was no Western military action used to break oil embargo.
[Note: He’s talking about the gas crisis of 1970s, as Americans learn it. Getty died June 6, 1976, though. He could not have seen events of the next two decades, the wars and associated conflicts in the region associated with oil.-- l].
Military action would have been a disaster of incalculable proportions, Getty writes.
[Note: I remember as 10-year-old kid the long lines of cars at gas stations in Fremont, California. –l]
Pg. 211 Arabs had a powerful financial weapon and they used it. Getty felt they had that right, and were not violating economic standards.
Pg. 212 In 1970s, public often thought leaders of oil companies were in deep cooperation with one another.
Getty writes that this is impossible. Outside some sharing of risks or costs, oil producers compete against one another greatly for the supply that they think/suspect exists.
How? Why? Oil migrates underground. The law of capture applies. So, if different companies owned adjacent parcels of land with oil beneath, it’s a matter of who can get it up with drills.
“This does not lend itself to the formation of cabals,” wrote Getty.
Pg. 213 Before WWII, it was easier to find and “produce” oil. In 1914, Getty could drill and complete a producing oil well in Oklahoma for as little as $2,500. By 1970, depending on where the oil was, it was costing between $50,000 and $75,000 per day, considering the deep-sea rigs required.
The deep-sea rig itself was $50 million in the 1970s. [Note: Think of the costs today. – l]
Pg. 214 John L. Loftis of Exxon said, “Exponential increases in costs cannot be covered by constant prices.”
Costs of building oil refineries had soared by 1972. Refinery construction required seeing years of court actions, protests, demonstrations. Environmental movement made whole process more expensive. [Note: This is still the case in 2012. – l]
Pg. 215 Getty predicts increased production in future, but if governments levy taxes, pass much restrictive law, it will grow more dismal.
“’Oilmen scare easily’ is an old saying,” Getty writes.
Pg. 217 1954, Getty is in Europe, Paris, working with Ari Onassis.
Ari had monopoly on tanker transport of oil out of Saudi Arabia. Oil companies had own tankers, so were up in arms
Getty mentions Charles Wrightsman, millionaire.
Pg. 220 Mentions Heinrich “Heinie” Thyssen. Art collector. When Getty lost his son, George, Thyssen offered to help any way he could. Also helped Getty at other times.
Pg 221-222 Getty still in Mideast Neutral Zone in 1956. Considered Italy, Germany, France. In May 1958, France in political crisis. Charles de Gaulle became Premier. Businessmen started to have reservations about France. Getty focused on London because of its commercial stability. In 1959, he bought Sutton Place.
Sutton Place a 72-room manor on 750 acres, 30 miles outside London. Perfect as Getty’s “Eastern Hemisphere Liason Center” for next 16 years.
Pg. 226-234 Sutton was standing by 1526. Sir Richard Weston. English manor. Tudor period. Sir Richard Weston’s son, Francis Weston, was beheaded as the queen’s lover. The queen was beheaded, too. [Note: England sounds like such a nice country. I don’t know why I have not yet toured this area of world. – l]
Pg. 253 Getty says he sometimes feels similar to William Randolph Hearst because of Sutton Place. Hearst had Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California. But Sutton Place was a manor, not a palace. [Note: Getty in this area is writing from perspective of 1959, when he decided to finally buy Sutton. But when he mentions here Hearst Castle, you nearly fall back in your chair. The Hearst and Getty families ended up having more in common than attractive real estate…Wait until February 4, 1974, Mr. Getty…
Pg. 254 Getty felt better relying on cash than credit. “There is nothing that can ever take the place of cash,” Getty wrote. He trusted the real thing. Yet, most of his wealth was not in cash.
Pg. 256 Getty thought President Kennedy risked too much in Cuban Missile Crisis. Nuclear war was too easy to start.
Pg. 258-265 Getty writes about the bags of letters he’d get each day begging him for money. He sent polite refusals.
Pg. 266 Getty discusses art; his museum, his diet, health, popular rumors about him.
Pg. 324 [Skipped a lot to reach this area of book – l] Getty seemed miserly to others probably because thrift seemed a virtue since days he grew up. “People lived within their means, saved for rainy days.”
Pg. 325 When he was in his spending for status years, he bought yachts. He entertained friends, attracted some number of freeloaders. There are “professional freeloaders.” He also went through the fancy car phase. It passed. He finally reached a point where he did not feel he had to prove himself. If people want to call him miser, he writes, go ahead.
Pg. 330 Getty is wondering about why he was so attracted to generating wealth. He was already rich. “…it is by likening myself to a tennis player. Once into the game, I did my damndest to be competitive. I always sought to return the ball – no matter from which direction or with what velocity it came into my side of the court.”
He also thinks his being an only child played a part.
He is sorry he never visited India, Iran, gone on camera safari in Africa. But overall, felt in 1975, Thanksgiving, grateful rather than glum about what he did not do. [?]
Pg. 338 He discusses Rockefeller’s oil empire, says Getty Oil can’t be compared. Yet, he has no qualms about calling Getty an Empire, himself “Caesar.” [ check this area out carefully. He might have used slightly different words in book. – lurene]
Pg. 338 He uses Caesar analogy because he remains top dog. But he realizes that this sort of business structure is past.
Now, he says, we’re in era of Megacorps. The individual can’t matter in most cases, he says, with the modern corporation.
Pg. 340 He discusses Italy, his 1960 purchase of 55-room villa. Posta Vecchia. Not far from Rome. Had 2 horses in Italy.
Pg. 341 He fears Italy’s economic future. Deficits, welfare, socialism, entitlements. Unions. “I would not want to be in Italy today. The economic landscape there is bleak.”
Pg. 343 “The parastatale Megacorps are – to a frightening degree – directed by men who are bureaucrats and politicians, not businessmen.” Says Italy managed by businessmen, not politicians with legitimate public interests.
Even in 1970s, he hopes economic decline in Italy does not set off chain reaction.
[Note: He could be writing this in 2012. – l]
Pg. 344 Getty says time is the acid test of friendship. He feels his true friends know his failings. He felt by then he would not make true friendships any longer. At around 75 or 80 years, he felt he no longer had time to examine people so closely.
“They are free to take or leave…damn or deride my remarks.”
[Note: This is how I think, too. I can’t change people. Take them as they are and vice versa. – l]
Pg. 345 Liked G.A. Henty book, old children’s book author. 1832-1902. He treats these books with care, regularly pulls from shelf.
Henty was good vs. evil. His heroes were unrealistically good, perfect. Yet, Getty says, it was easy to relate to him in early 1900s, and easier to find those who did. By 1970s, he uses books as a tonic, is 83.
Pg. 347 Getty discusses how people treat him in normal life. You feel Warren Buffet must go through a lot of this. People feel there is a secret to being rich, some magic. The very rich, as result, develop a thick skin.
Pg. 350 Quotes Abraham Lincoln, basic Republican philosophy regarding finance. “You can’t bring prosperity by discouraging thrift….”
Pg. 352 to end of book: Long list of Getty’s companies as they were in late 1975/76. #
Lurene Gisee
lurenexyz@gmail.com
September 6, 2015
https://assadinsyria1973.blogspot.com/
