J. Paul Getty x
A billionaire (perhaps twice over). who
claims a billion dollars isn't nearly as much
as it used to be, this Minneapolis-born oil
baron had made his first million by the age
of 24. He controls more than 50 companies but
says, "The fun is not in having money, but
in making it" Getty hates offices and formerly
worked out of hotel rooms and telephone
booths in Paris and London. But because "if
your name is Getty, you can't expect to be
allowed to live in a hotel for less than $100 a
day," the frugal money-maker recently picked
up a four-century-old Tudor manor (34 bed
rooms, 14 bathrooms, 200 acres) for more than
$1 million. Every day from all over the globe,
he receives letters appealing for money, any
where from $1 million "to build a factory" to
$50 "to buy a wife." Getty himself has had five
wives, four divorces, and is separated from his
fifth mate.
Arthur Vining Davis
. After being graduated Phi Beta Kappa
from Amherst in 1888, he went to Pitts
burgh to take his first job, which had been
solicited for him by his father, a Congre
. gational minister. The job turned out to
be in the then-infant aluminum industry,
and Davis grew with it, becoming board
chairman of the Aluminum Company of
America. Now 92, he also is a director
of several other companies, has offices in
Pittsburgh, New York, and Miami and is
said to be worth about $400 million. Flor
ida has been Davis' special preoccupation
for the last 10 years, during which he has
acquired and developed large areas around
Tallahassee, St. Augustine, Miami, and
Boca Raton. A widower with no children,
Davis calls his estate at Coral Gables,
"Journey's End," but there seems to be
no end to his energy.
' . - - J t
V
Family Weelcly
February 28, 1960
Stavros Spyros Niarchos
i
In his native Greek, Niarchos
means "master of ships," and
Stavros Spyros lives up to his
name. He has about 2,700 oil tank
ers, as well as the largest privately
owned sailing ship in the world,
the 700-ton yacht Creole. With an
estimated fortune of $400 million,
Niarchos maintains homes in New
York, London, Bermuda, Paris,
and the Riviera which are adorned
with an art collection worth mil
lions. He dabbles in antiques,
horses, automobiles (four), and
speedboats (eight), but is particu
larly partial to swimming and wa
ter skiing in the Mediterranean.
He also keeps a twin-engine plane
handy should a quick business trip
become necessary.
The Nizam of Hyderabad
Usman Aii
Stripped of his princely power
when India won independence, the
Nizam still possesses an estimated
fortune of $2 billion. But his an
nual income is down from $50 mil
lion to a paltry $2 million on
which he pays 96 percent tax
so he limits himself to $20 a month
spending money. In a further effort
to make ends meet, he uses a re
modeled 1934 Ford and has only a
cot and table in his 10-by-12-foot
bedroom. The Nizam has three
wives, 42 concubines, 33 children,
and hundreds of servants. Such
-famous jewels as the $4-million
Jacob diamond have been his play
things, and gold bars from his pri
vate mines have been neatly
stacked in his garden.
The
Richest Men
in the World
Some stingy, some shy, they've got
money by the hundreds of millions and,
in some cases, troubles to match
by JERRY KLEIN
The men whose faces you see here comprise the most exclu-
sive group in the world. Membership in this unique "Society
of Ten" is not necessarily based on talent, sagacity, or social
standing though these qualities may be found among the
members but on cold cash.
For these are believed to be the 10 richest men in the world.
Eight of these individuals derive their wealth from oil, either
drilling, shipping, or refining the "black gold." Five of them
started out in life "oil-rich" by accident of birth. Only four
may be considered self-made successes.
Adding up the columns of figures which reflect their for
tunes, these men would admit they can have anything in the
world that money can buy. But whether money equals happi
ness is a problem to which the arithmetic of life gives no
certain answer.
6 Family Weekly, February 2S, 1960