Summary
"The Allies, it was said, 'floated to victory on a sea of oil,'" [Bryan Burrough] writes, "and by and large it was Texas Oil, a good deal of it owned by the Big Four families. Between 1941 and 1945 the Axis powers produced an estimated 276 million barrels; in the same time span, Texas produced more than 500 million, 100 million from Hunt's East Texas fields alone."
One of the biographical oddities explored by Burrough is the relatively low profile - given their influence these Texas rebels enjoyed. "In the first years after World War II, H.L. Hunt, [Hugh Roy Cullen], [Sid Richardson], and Glint Murchison had emerged as a handful of the richest men in America," but no one really knew it, Burrough writes. The anonymity began to come to an end in 1948 with an issue of Life magazine picturing H.L. Hunt as potentially the richest man in America. Shortly thereafter, books such as John Bainbridge's The Super Americans portrayed the outlandish behavior of these new-money millionaires, who did not fare well in media caricatures of "funny, silly, harmless Texans who rode ostriches, wooed Hollywood stars, and scattered silver dollars on the sidewalks of Houston and Dallas like so much pocket lint."During the McCarthy era, Richardson was quoted as saying, "I don't see how I could be friendly with [Sam Rayburn] and Lyndon Johnson and be friendly with [Joe McCarthy] too," but Murchison and [Herbert Hunt] embraced McCarthy enthusiastically. In 1950 McCarthy raised $10,000 from Murchison to help defeat Senator Millard Tydings of Maryland, an early McCarthy critic. Murchison kicked in another $10,000 in 1952 to defeat another McCarthy enemy and began "placing his personal planes at McCarthy's disposal." In 1951 Murchison built a resort, the Hotel Del Charro, in La Jolla, California, which became a favored watering hole for many political figures, including McCarthy, who one night in a drunken fit pushed Murchison's fully clothed wife into the swimming pool. It was J. Edgar Hoover who most enjoyed Del Charro and Murchison's hospitality, first coming to stay in 1952 and returning every summer until his death in 1972.See the full content of this document
Extract
Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous
Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous BY DAVE RICHARDS The Big Rich The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes By Bryan Burrough Penguin Press 464 pages, $29.95
Bryan Burrough's new book, The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes, covers almost a century of Texas oil, and the players who prospered and failed in its pursuit.For those with an interest in contemporary Texas history this is a must- read; indeed, its rea...See the full content of this document
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