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Money
Secrets of the Rich and Famous
By
Michael Reynard, $24.95
Allworth
Press
İMoney
Magic, Inc. 3/11/00
Saturday Daybreak KATV, Chn. 7
Mary Ann Campbell, CFP
Checkbook
confessions of the Wealthy,
Glamorous, and Well-Known
When
it comes to the private finances of celebrities,
there is no sure formula for success,
according to the array of intimate financial
biographies featured in this compelling
book by historian Michael Reynard. It's
about luck and fate.
In
looking at the financial lives of private
and not-so-private famous people, Reynard
explores how they acquired money, what
they did with it, what their day-to-day
lives were really like, and to whom they
wrote checks and for how much.
Some
interesting revelations:
- Thomas Jefferson,
undoubtedly one of the most talented and intelligent of American
presidents, died deeply in debt and his heirs had to sell
his beloved Monticello home.
- Judy Garland's
fortunes were so mismanaged that she died with a debt of more
than $4 million. In the worst of times, she was notorious
for leaving hotels in the middle of the night to avoid paying
bills. The Hotel St. Moritz in New York even impounded her
clothing.
- At the time
of her death, Hollywood megastar Marilyn Monroe's net estate
value was only $370,426 due to extravagant shopping sprees,
lavish gifts to friends, and a turbulent earning history.
Posthumous revenue from royalties and licensed products have
since generated countless millions of dollars for the estates
of her acting coach, psychotherapist, and secretary.
- Beneath her
on-screen ditsy demeanor and trademark red hair, Lucille Ball
quietly employed a phenomenal business savvy to fuel her meteoric
rise from $25-a-week.
- In 1918,
the great baseball player Ty Cobb borrowed $10,800 to buy
300 shares of Coca-Cola stock. When he died in 1961, he owned
$2 million worth of those shares and $10 million of General
Motors shares. But he died alone in his hospital room estranged
from his family. At his bedside was an old paper bag holding
$1 million in cash and securities and a loaded Luger pistol.
- Babe Ruth
was a wild spender and bought at least one new Cadillac a
year and lost thousands of dollars betting on horses and buying
diamonds for women trying to capture their attention. He was
the first professional athlete to have a business manager.
As a result, he left a sizeable fortune when he died in 1948.
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