| George Huntington Hartford II | |
|---|---|
 Hartford in 1968 |
|
| Born | April 18, 1911 New York, New York, U.S. |
| Died | May 19, 2008 (aged 97) Lyford Cay, The Bahamas |
| Education | St. Paul's School, Harvard University |
| Occupation | Heir (The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company), businessman & philanthropist |
| Net worth | US $ 2.6 billion (pre-1975) |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Lee Eppling, Marjorie Steele, Diane Brown |
| Children | Catherine Hartford, John Hartford and Juliet Hartford |
| Parents | Edward V. Hartford, Henrietta Guerard Hartford |
| Website http://www.huntingtonhartford.com/ |
|
George Huntington Hartford II (April 18, 1911 – May 19, 2008) was the heir to the A&P supermarket. He was an American businessman, philanthropist, filmmaker, and art collector. He owned Paradise Island in the Bahamas, and had numerous other business holdings including Oil Shale, real estate properties and other companies. On his death in 2008, Time magazine wrote "Hartford was once one of the world's richest people" and The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times all averred that "Hartford had once ranked among the world's richest people". "[1] "[2]
Contents |
His grandfather George Huntington Hartford and his uncles John Augustine Hartford (1872–1951) and George Ludlum Hartford (1864–1957) privately owned the A&P Supermarket, which at one point had 16,000 stores in the US and was the largest retail empire in the world. When his uncles died without heirs of their own, he inherited their fortune. The money also went to the The John A. Hartford Foundation, valued at $800 million as of 2007.
In the 1950s A&P was the world's largest grocer and, next to General Motors, sold more goods than any other company in the world. The A&P in 2007 had revenue of 6.9 Billion. Time magazine reported that A&P had sales of $2.7 billion. The Time magazine published on November 13, 1950 had both John Augustine Hartford and George Ludlum Hartford on its front cover.[3] Time wrote that "the familiar red-front A & P store is the real melting pot of the community, patronized by the boss's wife and the baker's daughter, the priest and the policeman. To foreigners A & P's vast supermarkets are among the wonders of the age; to the U.S. middle class, they are one of the direct roads to solvency. 'Going to the A & P' is almost an American tribal rite."[4]
Huntington Hartford was the original owner and developer of Paradise Island in the Bahamas.[5] He built the Ocean Club on the island from the unassembled stones of a monastery that William Randolph Hearst had in a warehouse in Florida ("The Ocean Club" featured in the recent James Bond film "Casino Royale"). Hartford wanted Paradise Island to be the new Monte Carlo and got a gambling license for the island. After Hartford asked Resorts International to join his Company, they formed a consortium which made a failed Pan Am takeover attempt.
Hartford grew up on a 1,000-acre (4.0 km2) plantation in South Carolina called "Wando", a house in Newport called "Seaverge" and an apartment on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. He purchased a penthouse duplex at One Beekman Place in the 1950s on the 13th and 14th floors after moving from an apartment at the River House. He owned a home called "Pompano" in Palm Beach, a 150-acre (0.61 km2) estate in Wyckoff, New Jersey called "Melody Farm", a 160-acre (0.65 km2) Hollywood estate known as "The Pines" also known as Runyon Canyon Park, a townhouse in London, a home in Juan-les-Pins France as well as on Paradise Island.
Hartford was interviewed in the 1960s by David Frost on television. He stated that he had a flag for Paradise Island in the shape of a "P" and that he wanted to put it on the moon as a symbol of Peace for the world. [6]
He co-produced the Broadway show, Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, along with Philip Rose, at the Belasco Theater in 1969, which starred a then-unknown actor named Al Pacino who won a Tony for his performance. Hartford sought to purchase RKO from Howard Hughes. Hartford owned Huntington Hartford Productions which produced several films, including the Abbott and Costello film, Africa Screams in 1949.
Hartford published a magazine, Show, from 1961-72. He was a patron of Edward Durell Stone, whom he commissioned to build The Gallery of Modern Art at 2 Columbus Circle in NYC to showcase his great art collection. The Museum opened in 1964. Hartford commissioned Salvador Dali to paint "The discovery of America by Christopher Columbus" in 1959 for the museum's opening. He owned Rembrandt's Portrait of a man, half-length, with his arms akimbo, which sold at Christie's auctionhouse in London on December 8, 2009 for $33,210,855. a world record for Rembrandt.[7][8]
Huntington Hartford founded Oil Shale with Herbert Linden and set up the Denver Research Institute at University of Denver to research alternate methods of oil extraction, working with Standard Oil and Atlantic Richfield. He was the largest stockholder of Oil Shale corporation, which was later known as the Tosco Corporation, owned by ConocoPhillips.
He lived in Lyford Cay, The Bahamas with his daughter, Juliet, where he died on May 19, 2008, aged 97.
   | The John A. Hartford Foundation - Welcome to The John A. Hartford Foundation's Website |
| | Cover showing Hartford's uncles - TIME Magazine Cover: George & John Hartford - Nov. 13, 1950 - Food - Retailing - Business |
| | 1,049 articles on Huntington Hartford - ProQuest Archiver: Newspaper Home |
| | 113 articles on Huntington Hartford - huntington hartford TIME Magazine - Search Results |
| | Article on wealthy eccentrics - Wealthy eccentrics | 8 | FORTUNE |
| | Oral History Interview - Huntington Hartford Oral History Interview Conducted by Paul Cummings for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1970 - Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution |
|
|
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
