Moses Louis Annenberg (February 11, 1877 – July 20, 1942) was an American
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...
publisher
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
, who purchased ''
The Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...
'', the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the United States
in 1936. ''The Inquirer'' has the sixteenth-largest average weekday U.S.
newspaper circulation
Print circulation is the average number of copies of a publication. The number of copies of a non-periodical publication (such as a book) are usually called print run. Circulation is not always the same as copies sold, often called paid circulat ...
, and has won eighteen
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
s.
He was the father of ''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...
'' creator
Walter Annenberg
Walter Hubert Annenberg (March 13, 1908 – October 1, 2002) was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and diplomat. Annenberg owned and operated Triangle Publications, which included ownership of ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' ...
.
Early life
Moses Louis Annenberg was born in Kalwischen,
East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...
(
German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
) in 1877 to a
Lithuanian Jewish
Lithuanian Jews or Litvaks () are Jews with roots in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania (covering present-day Lithuania, Belarus, Latvia, the northeastern Suwałki and Białystok regions of Poland, as well as adjacent areas o ...
family. He left Germany and immigrated to Chicago in 1900.
Career
Annenberg began his career as a Chicago newspaper salesman at the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'', then, for the
Hearst Corporation
Hearst Communications, Inc., often referred to simply as Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, televis ...
. He eventually built a fortune and the successful publishing company that became
Triangle Publications
Triangle Publications Inc. was an American media group based first in Philadelphia, and later in Radnor, Pennsylvania. It was a privately held corporation, with the majority of its stock owned by Walter Annenberg and his sisters. Its holding ...
, Inc., owning, among other publications, the ''
Daily Racing Form
The ''Daily Racing Form'' (DRF) (referred to as the ''Racing Form'' or "Form" and sometimes "telegraph" or "telly") is a tabloid newspaper founded in 1894 in Chicago, Illinois, by Frank Brunell. The paper publishes the past performances of race ...
''.
During the
Roosevelt
Roosevelt may refer to:
*Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th U.S. president
*Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd U.S. president
Businesses and organisations
* Roosevelt Hotel (disambiguation)
* Roosevelt & Son, a merchant bank
* Roosevel ...
administration, he was indicted for
tax evasion
Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxp ...
on August 11, 1939, for income tax evasion for the years 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935 and 1936, totaling $3,258,809.97 in income taxes evaded. On April 4, 1940, Annenberg pleaded guilty to the 1936 income tax evasion count in the indictment that charged him with evading $1.2 million in taxes ($ million today).
Judge
James Herbert Wilkerson
James Herbert Wilkerson (December 11, 1869 – September 30, 1948) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Education and career
Born in Savannah, Missouri, Wilkerson receive ...
, the same judge who previously sentenced
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel Capone (; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the ...
, sentenced Annenberg to three years in prison and a fine of $8.0 million ($ million today) "the largest single tax fraud penalty in history" at the time.
Personal life, death and legacy
Annenberg married Sadie Cecillia Freedman (1879–1965). They had one son, the publisher and
philanthropist
Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
Walter Annenberg
Walter Hubert Annenberg (March 13, 1908 – October 1, 2002) was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and diplomat. Annenberg owned and operated Triangle Publications, which included ownership of ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' ...
, and seven daughters; Diana Annenberg (1900–1905), Esther Annenberg Simon Levee (1901–1992),
Janet Annenberg Kahn Neff Hooker (1904–1997),
Enid Annenberg Haupt (1906–2005),
Lita Annenberg Hazen (1909–1985), Evelyn Annenberg Jaffe Hall (1911–2005), and Harriet Beatrice Annenberg Ames Aronson (1914–1976).
Annenberg was released from
Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary
The United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg (USP Lewisburg) is a medium-security United States federal prison in Pennsylvania for male inmates. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. ...
prison on June 3, 1942, and died in the Mayo Clinic on July 20, 1942, after having surgery for a brain tumor.
[ oses 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
Ranch A, near Beulah, Wyoming, was built as a vacation retreat for newspaper publisher Moses Annenberg. The original log ranch structures in Sand Creek Canyon were designed in the rustic style by architect Ray Ewing. The principal building, a ...
in eastern Wyoming
Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...
is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.
References
Further reading
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.
*Johnson, Curt and R. Craig Sautter. ''The Wicked City: Chicago from Kenna to Capone''. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998.
*Reppetto, Thomas A. ''American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power''. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2004.
*Schatzberg, Rufus, Robert J.Kelly and Ko-lin Chin, ed. ''Handbook of Organized Crime in the United States''. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1994.
*Winter-Berger, Robert N. ''The Washington Pay-Off: An Insider's View of Corruption in Government''. New York: Dell Publishing, 1972.
External links
Paper Trail Annenbergs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Annenberg, Moses
1877 births
1942 deaths
People from East Prussia
American people convicted of tax crimes
American people of German-Jewish descent
American magazine publishers (people)
American newspaper publishers (people)
Moses
Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...