| "We hold that the greatest right in the world is the right to be wrong."
–William Randolph Hearst |
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So I'm signing my check for breakfast at Barbara's when Chris the Cook tells me William Randolph Hearst Jr. and his wife are sitting in the corner beneath the poster from the film, Citizen Kane. Suddenly I'm faced with an existential crisis while I stand there digesting my French toast: Should I risk public humiliation by asking the mighty Hearsts for an interview while they're eating lunch, or resign myself to the solid week of self-loathing sure to come if I don't make the most of the opportunity?
As usual, I opt for the risk of public humiliation. I am, after all, the Creative Director of the Cambria Independent. And so, wearing ratty sneakers and a black cardigan sweater full of holes, I present myself at the Hearst's table. My frantic but passably eloquent introduction intrigues Mr. Hearst enough to get him to look at the Year-in-Review issue of the Independent that I have along with me. His first words to me are: "I can't tell if you're a boy or a girl." "He's a young man," Mrs. Hearst says, already my ally in what is to become the most frustrating and embarrassing interview of my career. "He writes and takes pictures for this paper." "Do you own it?" Mr. Hearst asks me. A reasonable question for a Hearst, I suppose.... "No, I don't own it," I say, "but I've been a semi-involuntary volunteer for over a year now, so I guess that makes me an investment partner of sorts." The Hearsts are sufficiently pleased with this answer. They invite me out to their ranch in San Simeon for tea and an interview. We decide to do it on a Tuesday. In the meantime, I will spend the next four days researching the past of the Hearst family, in a Rosebud-like quest to discover the legacy William Randolph Hearst left to his namesake son. The major revelation of that quest still puzzles me to this day: His father built castles; Bill Hearst wants to build Holiday Inns. . Next Page: A Rather Famous Father |
