Citizen Hearst: A Comparison of William Randolph Hearst and Citizen Kane
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Citizen Hearst: A Comparison of William Randolph Hearst and Citizen Kane
Orson Welles was undoubtedly one of the most talented filmmakers of his time. Along with the innovative camerawork and advanced cinematic techniques that made Citizen Kane a success, Welles also allowed for viewers to connect with his film by providing them with a real life example of the main character. Citizen Kane owned a massive estate called Xanadu that was based upon Hearsts San Simeon. Kane and Hearst were also newspaper magnates who used very similar techniques to gain readers and also operated their newspapers in a comparable manner. Finally, both individuals had affairs with young women involved in the entertainment industry and both Kane and Hearst forced their partners into careers that did not complement their talents. By drawing parallels between the fictional Charles Foster Kane and real-life newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, Orson Welles was able to effectively communicate the message that wealth and power can destroy human values, and thus enhanced the audiences enjoyment of the movie.
After the death of his mother, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, William inherited 250,000 acres of ranch land that had previously belonged to his father. Originally coined “camp hill”, this land had been used for family camping trips. However, after obtaining the land in 1919, Hearst acquired the help of noted architect Julia Morgan to construct what became known as San Simeon.
Hearts oceanside estate at San Simeon, 175 miles (282 kilometers) south of San Francisco, was one of the most lavish private dwellings in the country. It included 240,000 acres (97,100 hectares) of land, four castles, and a priceless art collection (McKerns 131).
Said art collection has been declared one of the most impressive of the time. Along with valuables such as antique vases and oriental carpets, Hearst owned a multitude of priceless paintings and statues. In Citizen Kane, Charles Foster Kane owned a manor called Xanadu that resembled San Simeon. This vast estate consisted of numerous buildings, an extensive art collection, and one of the largest privately owned zoos, much like Hearsts estate. In fact, during the newsreel documenting Kanes life at the beginning of the film, the reporter declared that Xanadu contained “the loot of the world. (Citizen Kane).” Furthermore, both men were known to use their mansions to host extravagant Hollywood parties that catered to the elite of America. The similarities in their estates aided in illustrating the resemblance between Charles Foster Kane and William Randolph Hearst. This, in turn, reinforced the movies message that wealth and power are destructive to human values because viewers could refer to a real life example of the main character.
In addition to their respective manors, both Kane and Hearst were successful businessmen who were primarily recognized for their roles in the American newspaper industry. Biographist David Narsaw claims:
There has never been – nor, most likely, will there ever again be – a publisher like William Randolph Hearst[Hearst] built the nations first media conglomerate by extending his newspaper empire horizontally into syndicated feature, photo, and wire services; magazines; newsreels; serial, feature, and animated films; and radio (Narsaw xiii).
In 1887, Hearst took over a newspaper that his father had received as payment for a gambling debt. Determined to make the San Francisco Examiner a success, he scoured the industry for the most talented journalists and bought top-quality equipment. Within only a few years, the Examiner dominated the streets of San Francisco. Kane, too, inherited the New York Inquirer from his guardian after his education at Harvard. In 1985, Hearst purchased his second newspaper, the New York Morning Journal. In doing so, he gained Joseph Pulitzers New York World as a competitor. It was at this point that Hearst established himself as one of the most successful publishers in the nation by demonstrating his superior business strategies and use of resources. Hearst recruited prized journalists among the likes of Stephen Crane and Julian Hawthorne and even went as far as to “steal” popular cartoonist Richard F. Outcault from Pulitzer, thus increasing the rivalry between the two newspapers. Hearst is also famous for his use of fictional articles in order to increase interest in the paper. Moreover, Hearst lowered the price of the newspaper to a mere one-cent, which caused its circulation to increase drastically. Charles Foster Kane used similar tactics to compete against the Inquirers rival, the Chronicle. Like Hearst, Kane gathered a team of able writers and printed fictitious stories in order to promote his newspaper. Kane and Hearst were similar in that