This is to be a post about the Rockefeller Family (and don’t worry, there are pop culture angles, which ought to be obvious.) It’s customary to pick up the narrative with John D. (1839-1937), but I came across a delicious factoid when putting together my recent podcast about medicine shows that forever overwrote the conventional story in my own head, and I hope will find widespread adoption. And so we begin the story with John’s father, William Rockefeller Sr (1810-1906), known as “Devil Bill” or “Big Bill”.
Good Lord! It’s occurred to me that in this historically illiterate nation it’s quite possible that you don’t know who John D. Rockefeller was. I’m not sure when I first learned about him in school. Fifth grade? Seventh grade? We don’t seem to provide such information to our children anymore, so on the assumption that you never got the memo, John D. Rockefeller was America’s first billionaire and its wealthiest citizen at the turn of the 20th century. At his peak, he owned 2% of America’s weath, and controlled 90% of its oil. He founded Standard Oil in 1870. In time it became a monopoly and Federal action resulted in its being broken up into smaller companies such as Exxon (now ExxonMobil), Chevron, and others. He was a Social Darwinist, but also a philanthropist, founding the University of Chicago, Rockefeller University, and many charities. That’s the thumbnail. So you see why most Rockefeller stories start with him. He practically ran the country.
But I was delighted to learn that J.D. Rockefeller started one of his first entrepreneurial ventures with a loan from his father (at 10% interest) — and man was his father a character! That’s him in the photo at the top of this post — look at at that vest! Whereas John was famously religious, a teetotaller and osbtainer from tobacco and so forth in the approved Horatio Alger tradition, Devil Bill fully lived up to his nickname. Devil Bill was a patent medicine charlatan, a literal snake oil salesman, and con artist who sometimes went under the pseudonym of Dr. William Levingston. Claiming to be a “botanical physician” and an “herbalist” he sold dubious elixirs to people as one of his main revenue streams, although he also bought and sold horses, real estate, and whatever else could turn over a fast, easy profit (on one occasion it was a bargeload of salt). He was known to pretend that he was deaf and dumb sometimes in order to garner sympathy from his marks, writing his pitches on a slate with chalk. He once said “I cheat my boys every chance I get. I want to make ’em sharp!” He was also a bigamist, and was accused of rape. When he borrowed money for bail on the rape charge and didn’t pay it back, he also became a literal fugitive.
So there is really poetry and truth in making the rogue-ish Devil Bill the true founder of the Rockefeller family fortune, as opposed to the sanctimonious, priggish, pinch-faced John D., wouldn’t you say? But obviously Bill’s story was kept quiet back in the day, and has remained kept pretty quiet ever since.
Now a brief glimpse at succeeding generations.
It’s a particularly good time to talk about John D. Rockefeller Jr (1874-1960), as this year marks the 150th anniversary of his birth. John Jr. transects with my own family history in ways that make me more interested than I might usually be. In keeping with his identity as a Northern Baptist he attended Brown University in Providence (founded by some of my ancestors) and married Abby Aldrich, daughter of the powerful Rhode Island senator Nelson Aldrich, who was nicknamed “the general manager of the nation”.
Unlike most juniors, Rockefeller found many ways to escape the shadow of his powerful father. His most visible legacy is of course Rockefeller Center (1939). Originally intended to be a home for the Metropolitan Opera, the complex eventually came to house the headquarters of NBC, RCA and RKO, and hence one of its more prominent tenants to this day, Radio City Music Hall. The Today Show, Saturday Night Live, and 30 Rock are among the NBC shows to prominently feature the address in their telecasts.
Rockefeller also donated the land for the United Nations headquarters, the Museum of Modern Art (co-founded by his wife), and underwrote such projects as Colonial Williamsburg, The Cloisters branch of the Metropolitan Museum, and many of the historic properties in Sleepy Hollow (Washington Irving’s house Sunnyside, and Philipsburg Manor). He also donated the land for several our national parks, including Grand Teton, Mesa Verde, Acadia, Great Smoky Mountains, Yosemite, and Shenandoah.
Every single one of Rockefeller’s six children were facinating and significant people. It’s suprising to me that there hasn’t been some sort of bio-pic tv series about them, but I suppose there would be a certain amount of resistence to it on the part of the family.
The most notable was Nelson Aldrich “Rocky” Rockefeller (1908-1979), long time New York State Governor and Vice President of the United States under Gerald Ford. Rockefeller would have been a much better President than Nixon, Ford, or Ronald Reagan, in my view, and certainly a much better candidate than Barry Goldwater. “Rockefeller Republicans” were the liberal wing of the party, though there were certain ways (e.g. Rockefeller’s harsh drug laws and the crackdown at Attica Prison) that Rocky was less than ideal. Still, I can envision an alternative history in which many of the worst misteps in American policy of the last several decades might have been avoided with him at the helm. The office was never attained for the stupidest of reasons — Rockefeller was a divorcee, and the kingmakers at the time decided that that was a dealbreaker. We’ve since had a few divorcees in the office, and better Rocky than most of them. Equally scandalous was the manner of his death. It has always been rumored than he died of a heart attack while shtupping his 25 year old assistant. (An interesting digression, Nelson’s son Michael Rockefeller, 1938-1961, disappeared in Dutch New Guinea, and is thought by some to have been killed and eaten by locals).
Nelson’s older brother was John D. Rockefeller III (1906-1979) and he WAS the sort of semi-hapless character we normally associate with “juniors”. It would be too much to say that he was a ne’er-do-well, but in contrast with Nelson, who was highly accomplished in a thousand ways I didn’t even mention, JDR III was neither ambitious nor self-directed, more similar in temperament to the oldest of the siblings Abby II (1903-1976). He served on countless boards and committees and so forth. But in the end he made his own mark in history by spearheading the initiative that brought Lincoln Center into the world. The project has many echoes of his dad’s creation of Rockefeller Center (and this one actually succeeded in making a home for the Metroplitan Opera). John’s son Jay Rockefeller (John D. Rockefeller IV, b. 1937) was two term Governor of West Virginia and a Senator from that State from 1985 to 2015.
Winthrop Rockefeller (1912-1973) was the Governor of Arkansas. He was married to an actress name Bobo, who had bit parts in several movies.
And two businessmen brothers in that generation:
Laurance Rockefeller (1910 – 2004) was a major investment capitalist with a particular interest in aviation. He was the largest sharehiolder in Eastern Airlines and a backer of McDonnell Aircraft (now McDonnell Douglas) among numerous other ventures. He also had the distinction (if you can call it that) of being the member of the family with eccentric interests in phenomena like crop circles and UFOs.
David Rockefeller (1915-2017) was the Chairman and CEO of Chase Manhattan (now JPMorganChase, and was worth $3.3. billion at the time of his death. I actually met him once, at an event at the New-York Historical Society (I think perhaps it was the opening of the Luce Center). In his youth he had been secretary to Mayor LaGuardia! He was also known for many international political connections which might be deemed shady or unsavory.
Which brings us full circle to con men! While there are far too many legit Rockefellers from subsequent generations for me to write about, I want to mention two notable fraudsters who traded on the name.
“Clark Rockefeller” (Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, b. 1961) is a German born imposter who lived under a string of aliases, uncluding a pretended relation to the famous family. In addition to his many financial cons, he was once kidnapped his own daughter in a custody dispute, and is now serving time for a 1985 murder. There are many, many online articles and TV movies about this slippery character! (The Rockefeller family, btw, was originally from Germany).
And there is also “Christopher Rockefeller” (Christophe Thierry Daniel Rocancourt, b. 1967), a French born imposter who also claimed to be related to Sophia Loren, Oscar de la Renta, and Dino De Laurentiis. His celebrity victims include Mickey Rourke, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Jermaine Jackson — haha, all the best and the brightest! He has swindled scores of people out of millions, and has also had relationships with two Playboy Models and one Miss France. He, too, is currently in prison.
And so you see, we come back to what we have always known — it always comes back to snake oil.
For related stuff see No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous,