Moses Annenberg
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Moses Louis Annenberg (February 11, 1877 – July 20, 1942) was an American newspaper publisher who owned the Daily Racing Form<ref name="NYTimes Archive">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the Philadelphia Inquirer.<ref name="Pressa">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He also owned General News Bureau, a wire service that reported the results of horse races.<ref name="NYTimes Archive" /><ref name="Slate">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
An immigrant who rose from a newspaper boy to newspaper owner, he was the father of TV Guide creator Walter Annenberg.
Early lifeEdit
Moses Louis Annenberg was born in Kalwischken, Province of Prussia (German Empire) in 1877 to an Orthodox Jewish family.<ref>Legacy: A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg by Christopher Ogden,
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/o/ogden-legacy.html</ref> He left Germany and emigrated to Chicago in 1900.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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CareerEdit
After starting out as a newspaper boy hawking papers on the street, Annenberg rose through the ranks, first as a newspaper salesman at the Chicago Tribune, later for the Hearst Corporation, which owned the Chicago American, the Chicago Examiner and the Chicago Herald, rising to circulation manager. Annenberg bought the Daily Racing Form in 1922 and The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1936. He also owned The New York Morning Telegraph, a broadsheet that was focused on entertainment and horse racing.
In the fall of 1934, Annenberg purchased the defunct Miami Beach Tribune, moved operations to Miami, and relaunched it as a tabloid called the Miami Tribune. In an asset swap involving cash, Annenberg sold it to John S. Knight, owner of the Miami Herald, for $600,000 and the Massillon Independent, a profitable newspaper based in Massillon, Ohio. The last edition was published on December 1, 1937, and then the Miami Tribune was absorbed by the Herald.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The assets of his publishing company, the Cecelia Corporation (named after his wife) became the foundation of Triangle Publications, which was created in 1947 by his son Walter to hold his and his sisters' inherited assets.
Tax evasion caseEdit
During the Roosevelt administration, he was indicted for tax evasion on August 11, 1939, for income tax evasion for the years 1932–1936, totaling $3,258,809.97 in income taxes evaded.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Page needed On April 4, 1940, Annenberg pleaded guilty to the 1936 income tax evasion count in the indictment that charged him with evading $1.2 million in taxes ($Template:Inflation million today).<ref name="Folsom">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Page needed
Judge James Herbert Wilkerson, the same judge who previously sentenced Al Capone, sentenced Annenberg to three years in prison and a fine of $8.0 million ($Template:Inflation million today) "the largest single tax fraud penalty in history" at the time.<ref name="Folsom"/>
Personal lifeEdit
Annenberg married Sadie Cecillia Freedman (1879–1965). They had one son, the publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg, and seven daughters;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Diana Annenberg (1900–1905), Esther Annenberg Simon Levee (1901–1992), Janet Annenberg Kahn Neff Hooker (1904–1997),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Enid Annenberg Haupt (1906–2005),<ref name=Guardian>Template:Cite news</ref> Lita Annenberg Hazen (1909–1985),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Evelyn Annenberg Jaffe Hall (1911–2005),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Harriet Beatrice Annenberg Ames Aronson (1914–1976).
DeathEdit
Annenberg was released from Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary prison on June 3, 1942,<ref>[Moses Annenberg Released from Prison, The Journal Times, Racine, Wisconsin, June 3, 1942 https://www.newspapers.com/image/334154530/?terms=moses%2Bannenberg]</ref> and died at the Mayo Clinic on July 20, 1942, after having surgery for a brain tumor.<ref>[Moses Annenberg, Immigrant Boy Who Made Fortune, Dies, The Daily Courier, Connellsville Pennsylvania, July 21, 1942 https://www.newspapers.com/image/38657274/?terms=moses%2Bannenberg]</ref> His Ranch A in eastern Wyoming is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Moses Annenberg's connection to Chicago's organized crime: Part 2 of 3
- Moses Annenberg's connection to Chicago's organized crime: Part 3 of 3
- Cooney, John E. The Annenbergs. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982.
- Cooney, John "Annenberg, Moses Louis" American National Biography (1999) https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1602545
- Fried, Albert. The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980. Template:ISBN
- Johnson, Curt and R. Craig Sautter. The Wicked City: Chicago from Kenna to Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998. Template:ISBN
- Reppetto, Thomas A. American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2004. Template:ISBN
- Schatzberg, Rufus, Robert J.Kelly and Ko-lin Chin, ed. Handbook of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1994. Template:ISBN
- Winter-Berger, Robert N. The Washington Pay-Off: An Insider's View of Corruption in Government. New York: Dell Publishing, 1972.