The East River Ferry

     The East River Ferry was launched in June 2011 as a three-year pilot project. The project was so successful that it was extended this winter to continue through at least 2019. The East River Ferry currently stops at terminals in Long Island City, Brooklyn Bridge  DUMBO  stop (Brooklyn side), Williamsburg, Green Point, Wall Street, and Midtown Manhattan. The ferry runs in two directions from Brooklyn Bridge - southbound to Wall street ( 5 minutes ride)  and northbound – to East 33 in Manhattan.  

If you ride the full length of the route as I did on early July morning - from DUMBO(  acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) up to Midtown , you feel like you are on an attraction. You can see The Freedom Tower rising in the south, United Nations building   to the north.

You'll pass under three bridges, each over 100 years old - Brooklyn bridge, Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge. The views from the ferry are amazing! The price is $4 for a one way trip and $12 for an all-day pass.

     And there is free connecting shuttle bus that runs on a loop through Midtown. The ferry runs every 15- 20 minutes in morning and afternoon rush hours of working days , and every hour during the weekend day. Total ride form DUMBO to Midtown is 20 minutes. The full schedule can be found here.

     The first East River ferry was established in 1642 by Cornelius Dircksen, connecting present day Williamsburg, Brooklyn to  a small Peck Slip street in Manhattan, where Dircksen kept an inn.

     Originally, all East River ferry boats were either row-boats or pirogues (small, light, flat-bottomed boats). In 1814, the Catherine Street Ferry became the first horse-boat ferry to cross the river. Horse-boats were twin boats connected by a wheel at the center, which horses would power by treadmill. At the same year Nassau of the Fulton Ferry Company became the first steamboat ferry on the East River. Although steamboats were much faster than horse-boats, they were more expensive to make.

     In 1824 Supreme Court ordered an end to the Fulton and Livingston monopoly and the steamers became open to public competition.As the Brooklyn population quickly grew, transportation between Long Island and Manhattan became increasingly valuable. By the end of XIX century the Union Ferry Company of Brooklyn had 17 vessels and carried about 40,000 passengers annually. The vessels were really large with the biggest being over 651 tons, 180 ft., Those ships were so strong that the government chose to borrow seven of them during the Civil War. In 1883 there were twelve ferry routes using ten different ferry terminals in Brooklyn and eleven in Manhattan. 
    The famous American poet Walt Whitman wrote in a poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” in 1900: 

Others will enter the gates of the ferry, and cross from shore to shore;
Others will watch the run of the flood-tide;
Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east;
Others will see the islands large and small;
Fifty years hence, others will see them as they cross, the sun half an hour high;
A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will see them,
Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring in of the flood-tide, the falling back to the sea of the ebb-tide.

     The Brooklyn Bridge was built in in 1883. It was the first bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Between 1907 and 1917, ferry traffic decreased by 35%. By the 1920s, the Union Ferry Company’s Fulton Ferry House, once referred to as the “Great Gateway to Brooklyn,” was serving only few passengers and horse-drawn vehicles. The Fulton Ferry House was closed in 1924.

The free ferry from Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park to   Pier 11 in Lower Manhattan was started just days after the terror attack, 9/11.  This ferry was a blessing  for commuters at this time- Brooklyn Army Terminal has a huge parking lot. This ferry was shut down in the spring of 2003, after the N and R subway lines have been restored.

     New York Water Taxi runs a daily shuttle from Wall Street's Pier 11 in Manhattan to Brooklyn's IKEA  superstore dock.

The shuttle runs from 2:00pm – 8:00pm on weekdays and costs $5.00, And you can even get $5 back if you spend more than $10 in IKEA.

     Now City and federal officials are looking now for funding from Washington to expand the East River Ferry, launched in 2011, and push a plan that would bring the waterway service to Astoria's developing Hallets Point peninsula and several other city neighborhoods.

New York city  Ferry  info is here

There is a ferry service between Beach 108th Street and Beach Channel Drive on the Rockaway Peninsula (temporary landing was installed) and Pier 11 in Lower Manhattan in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, that destroyed Far Rockaway in October 2012. The price is on the weekday is only $2! 

The service starts at 5:45 a.m. in the Rockaways with ferries departing for Manhattan regularly until 9:20 a.m.
Weekday ferry service will continue to operate on its current schedule through Labor Day weekend 2013. 
There is a weekend beach service with more expensive  fares: $30 roundtrip for adults.

Celebrity roasters and Time Capsule in Friars Club

     More than 100 years ago press agents met once a week at Browne’s Chophouse, in Manhattan to talk about their problems.  Later   the actors and musicians started to join them.  

     “The group realized they needed a broader name to incorporate the ever-diversifying membership. The term Friars stems from the Latin “frater” meaning brother – the perfect name for a fraternal organization whose motto would soon become Prae Omnia Fraternitas (brotherhood forever in Latin).”  

     The club made a name for itself being as vulgar and unorthodox as any group can be.  At the same time the members of the club  call their club house Monastery and add monastic labels to its officers: the Abbot is the head of the organization, the Dean is president.

     Their first club Monastery was on 107 West 45 street in the St James hotel.  The first Friars Frolic  ( as the club members named fundraiser event) was inaugurated in 1911, for which Irving Berlin wrote Alexander’s Ragtime Band. Frolics were successful, the number of the members was enlarging  and the Club purchased three lots on  West 48th Street and built it’s own house in 1916.

     This new Monastery had  suites for sleeping, a ballroom, dining room, poolroom, a gym, bars, and meeting rooms.  After the Great Depression the Friars lost their beloved building. During next 20 years the club had been hopping from one hotel to another. But the club survived and moved to their current  Monastery on 55^th in 1957.

     This German Renaissance townhouse was constructed in 1909 as the private house for investment banker Martin Erdmann. In 1910, he lived here on his own income, with no family members, but with eight servants. Erdmann himself was born in New York, but his father was from Germany.  This is the only remaining house on what was once a residential block. The original deed of the house restricted the building’s usage from any noisy or smelly activities.

      The Friars Club   on 55th Street hosts about 175 events a year, including stand-up comedy shows, concerts and a film festival. The restaurant is open six days a week.  The club  has it’s club's legendary “roasts” in which comedians pepper a celebrity with good-natured insults. 

In 1949 with Maurice Chevalier, a French actor  and singer, as the guest of honor, the club members  held their first “Roast.” 

Lisa Lampanelli,  an Italian-American stand-up comedian, said: “A Friars Club roast is a great place to bring a drunken sailor who wants to learn some new words.”

The Friars Club started out as an all-male Club.  In  1988 the Friars welcomed women, and   Liza Minnelli  became the first official card-carrying female member. The list of celebrities- the members of the club -  is really long and includes Irving Berlin, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Kirk Douglas, Barbra Streisand, Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg, Donald Trump, John Travolta.   

     Club bylaws say a maximum of 30 percent of club members may come from outside entertainment . The club charges are correlated to the  member’s age: members under 40 pay half the cost of the initiation fee and annual dues, and those under 30 pay quarter of those charges. Admittance requires recommendation by two club members .

     New York Friars club celebrated its 100th birthday in 2006. At the celebration event Freddie Roman, the club's dean for the past 35 years, said: “We have some of the funniest people in the world here today. Our history is the history of show business. We survived vaudeville, burlesque, eight-track tapes, Chevy Chase's talk show and Mayor Bloomberg's smoking ban".

The club had recently opened an earlier “time capsule” buried a hundred years prior. The capsule had clippings from local newspapers like the World, The Telegram, The Times, The American, The Sun, The Herald, The Journal and the Tribune.

In the new capsule each Friar was offered a page in the new container Gregory Alexson was one such Friar and he told the story.

The Friars Foundation, established in 1977 , has raised over $5 million dollars to  help prepare the next generation of performers and musical artists through scholarship programs for students studying the performing arts.

Every year the Sunshine Committee during the holidays invites 1,500 underprivileged children to a movie screening at a mid-Manhattan theater. After the movie each child receives a “goody bag” filled with toys, hats, scarves, books and a variety of other items guaranteed to make their holidays brighter.

In 2004 the City of New York named the South East Corner of 55th Street “Friars Way.”

There is a joke of the day published on the Friar’s page. You can subscribe to Webmonk to have the joke delivered to you every day. 

Alwyn Court: clay and caviar

     Façade of the residential building Alwyn Court, built in the beginning of the XX century and located at 58th Street and Seventh Avenue, is considered the most ornate in the entire New York. The architects of this building were inspired by the style of Francois I, King of France in 16 century. The style  combines Renaissance and Gothic ornamental forms. Every inch of the building is covered with  shapes and figures such as urns, flowers and leaves, animals, grotesque human faces and cherubs, fabricated by the Atlantic Terracotta Company of Staten Island.

     Terra cotta, meaning “cooked earth” in Italian, is a “high-heat-fired”, porous natural clay that can be molded into anything from construction material to ornamental structures. Terra cotta was introduced in the United States by immigrant artisans from England in the mid-19th century. At the beginning of the XX century Atlantic Terracotta was the largest producer of architectural terra cotta in the world.

   Steel-framed skyscrapers needed decorative, inexpensive and lightweight fire-resistant materials for decoration and protection from the elements. There were two plants in Staten Island, New York. Atlantic Terra Cotta manufactured products for forty percent of the terra cotta buildings in New York City. The company was created in 1846 in Perth Amboy, Staten Island, due to rich supplies of clay.

   The architects took advantage of the economy of terra cotta, since a single mold could be used many times to create a shape. Terra cotta had become popular with architects at the turn of the century because of its versatility and affordability. 

     The building opened in 1909. There were  12 floors  with only two apartments on each floor and a square courtyard in the middle.   Every apartment had fourteen rooms and five baths. Each unit had its own living room, library and music rooms and wine cellar.

     Just a year after the building was built there was a fire that destroyed several apartments. The damage was quickly repaired and within a year the Alwyn Court was at full occupancy. But the prosperity did not last long. Great Depression hit hard and by 1937 the Alwyn Court sat empty. After the foreclosure apartments were reconstructed and became smaller, the number of apartments was tripled, but the remarkable terra cotta façade was left intact. In April 2013 two-bedroom apartment was sold for 1.5 million. And you have to be ready to pay $2000 per month for maintenance.

    The premier location and opulent decorations attracted upscale restaurant “Petrossian” that was open in  1984 on the first floor of the building. The restaurant sits the next door to food boutique, with caviar, smoked salmon, foie gras, tea, preserves, and pastries. 

     Armenian brothers, Melkoum and Mouchegh Petrossian, émigrés from Russia, had opened their Paris shop in the early 1920's to introduce the pleasures of caviar to a willing world.

   Hotel impresario César Ritz helped to popularize the delicacy. Champagne and caviar soon became inseparable from the idea of deluxe dining.

Petrossian now buys its caviar from the US and other farms in Israel, Europe, and China, and maintains its reputation for excellence. “If our American ossetra is put next to wild ossetra, I dare anyone to tell me the difference,” says Alexandre Petrossian,  the third generation of the Armenian family. 

Residents of the Alwyn Court were evacuated in March this year. Extell company had to restore the crane on the newly constructed One57 that crashed during the storm Sandy- I published a post about One57 several weeks ago. Michael Gross, chronicler of high-end real estate, author of 740 Park and resident of Alwyn Court said  to Observer:   “Frankly, I was not worried about the apartment so much as the corruption of the city and the unfairness of all this. Cranes go up and down in the city all the time and no one gets evacuated” 

New York, Minus 5 ( 23 F)

     The city’s first ice bar is now open at the New York Hilton Midtown on Sixth Avenue,  just north of Times Square.  The  bar  is small- about 1,200 square feet and can accommodate about 30 people.

 

  The temperature inside is 23 degrees Fahrenheit. Translated into Celsius scale it is “Minus 5”. Everything is made of ice- the walls, the chairs, the glasses.

          The $20 admission includes gloves and a parka. Or for an extra $75 visitors get the VIP package, which combines a faux fur coat plus hat, cocktail and a souvenir photo.  Be aware- pictures are not allowed, and it is not written anywhere. 

      There is a girl with a camera inside  and   you have to pay $20  for one picture, or 3 for $40. You also can not use your cell phone-  all electronic devices have to  be deposited in temperature-proof lockers at the door - any device that could melt the Arctic freeze  is not allowed in "Minus 5".

     Bar is open daily from 2 p.m. Before  7p.m  children and families are welcome. When I was there on Thursday night there was already a line at 5:15 PM.

       "We put a couple of million dollars into some serious computerized refrigeration equipment that really take into effect ambient heat, body heat, humidity, summertime, wintertime, volume of people coming in and out. It's a science to keep this whole environment, no window, humidity at the right temperature,” said NoelBowman, President of Minus5 Management Company.

 

       The first Ice Bar was established at the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi , about 17 km from Kiruna, Sweden. Each year, the Ice Hotel melts by April and a new one is constructed in the fall.

   In spring 1990, French artist Jannot Derid held an exhibition of ice art  in a cylinder-shaped igloo in the area. One night there were no rooms available in the town, so some of the visitors asked for permission to spend the night in the exhibition hall. They slept in sleeping bags on top of reindeer skin – the first guests of the "hotel."

     Each spring,   Icehotel  harvests tons of ice from the frozen river  and stores it in a nearby production hall. The ice is used for creating Icebar designs and ice glasses, for ice sculpting classes, events and product launches all over the world.  About 1,000 tons of what is left is used in the construction of the next Ice Hotel.   The developer of the Icehotel had an idea of opening a permanent, year-round ice bar in Stockholm.

     Since then, the franchise has spread and there are now ice bars in London, Tokyo, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Orlando, Seoul, Dubai, and most recently Shanghai, China.

     "Minus 5" Ice Bar was  created in New Zealand by Craig Ling, who opened the original ice bar in Auckland, New Zealand. There are "Minus 5"  bars in Australia and  Portugal. The bar in Manhattan is the third one in USA- two other bars are in Las Vegas at Mandalay Place and at Monte Carlo Casino.
 

     Ling is now a partner in the New York venture.      Promoters  of the “Minus 5” say that everything  is  carved out of “100 percent Canadian ice.” The truth is, it’s special, extra-clear “carvers” ice — some from Canada, the rest from Philadelphia, Las Vegas and Minneapolis.  About 350 blocks of it, each weighing up to 100 pounds, was used to create the cool surroundings.

The initial investment for a Minus5 Ice Bar franchise is between $1.5 million and $2.38 million, which includes a $90,000 franchise fee.

Fishing time in Sheapshead Bay, Brooklyn

     Sheepshead Bay is a bay separating the mainland of Brooklyn, New York City. The name also applies to the neighborhood north of the bay, not just the bay itself.  The bay was originally connected to Gravesend Bay to the west by Coney Island Creek, which was actually a saltwater inlet that separated Coney Island from the land to the north.   Starting in the 1870s there was talk of dredging the creek and creating a 200-foot-wide, 15-foot-deep canal.  The plan was never implemented. 

Sheepshead Bay is one of the most sturdy inlets on the East Coast. Manhattan Beach is directly to the south of Sheepshead Bay,  with Brighton Beach in the middle and Coney Island to the west. You can fish in the deep blue off shore waters in less than thirty minutes. Everything in this area is closely connected to fishing – even the name. 

Sheepshead fish are a common North American marine species that span from Cape Cod through to Florida. Fish can grow up to around 1.5  feet    in length and weigh up to 18 pounds and  eat clams, oysters, crabs, and other crustaceans.  The sheepshead fish has human-like teeth, including incisors in front and multiple rows of molars. It's also called a convict fish because of  vertical bars running down the  silvery body.  Sheepsheadbites blog  published a article about the sheapshead fish this year.

Due to Sheepshead Bays convenient and quick access to the open ocean, it started attracting boat building and fishermen during the late 1800s.

In 1931, the city took control of the bay and force to move all the building to the northern side of the street.  The city designed the piers at an angle, which would prevent trucks from entering them. The piers are still used today as a launching-point for daily deep-sea party-boat tours.

The Sheepshead Bay fishing fleet has about fifty boats, that are moored to the nine concrete piers along Emmons Avenue. Some of these boats take as many as two hundred passengers on fishing trips, other are small.   There  is a choice of half day or full day fishing. The most popular fish caught in Sheepshead Bay  are Striped Bass, Porgies, Porgys, Blackfish, Sea Bass, Stripers, Fluke, Bluefish.

 Parking is one of the biggest problems  on Emmons avenue,  but there is a Bay #2 Municipal Parking Field  close by, between Voorhies Avenue and Shore Parkway Service Road, near Sheepshead Bay B,Q train station with  77 spaces, that works Monday to Saturday, 6 am to 10 pm.  There is Cherry Hill Gourmet Market   with   a large selection of prepared cooked food and salads on the corner of Ocean Ave/Emmons Avenue that works 24/7.

There is Applebee, Clam Bar ,Greek restaurant and  Chinese buffet   on Emmons Avenue, just across the street from piers.  

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The famous publisher William Hearst, “The greenest” skyscraper and castle in California. Part 2

Hearst Empire. Part 1

Hearst Corporation is one of the largest diversified media companies in the world. The corporation now includes about 200 separate businesses. Each day, nearly 20,000 people are at work at Hearst.  

     The founder of the corporation is William Randolph Hearst. He built the nation’s largest newspaper chain, his methods deeply influenced American journalism. He was a multi-millionaire  and a son  of a millionaire. A new building for Hearst corporation was built  in 2008 on the top of the old one,build on 1928. It is located near Columbus circle  and Central Park . 

     Hearst mother  left  him the family’s fortune, which included a 168,000-acre ranch in San Simeon, California half way between Los Angeles and  San Francisco.  Hearst spent his child years there and loved the place and built a castle on the lot of more than 15 square miles.

His  original idea was to build a bungalow, according to a draftsman who recounted Hearst's words from the initial meeting: I would like to build something upon the hill at San Simeon. I get tired of going up there and camping in tents. I'm getting a little too old for that.

     Construction started in 1919 and continued through 1947. There are 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms and  19 sitting rooms, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, a movie theater, an airfield, and the world's largest private zoo in the castle - so it is not a bungalow at all!

     The castle was designed by architect Julia Morgan - the first female graduate of the prestigious  "Ecole Des Beaux Arts"  in Paris. She was the first woman architect licensed in California. She started on the castle in 1919 and ended only by Hearst's declining health in 1947.   During her 45-year career, she designed more than 700 homes, churches, office buildings, hospitals, stores, and educational buildings. Julia wrote: ”Never turn down a job because you think it’s too small;  you don’t know where it can lead.”

     One of the highlight of the estate is the outdoor Neptune Pool, located near the edge of the hilltop. The Neptune Pool patio has an ancient Roman temple front ( not a copy!) , transported from Europe and reconstructed at the site.  The pool the holds 345,000 gallons of water and includes the oil burning heating system.

A tiled indoor Roman pool is styled after an ancient Roman bath. Hearst was affected by the beauty of the mosaics in the 5th Century Mausoleum in Ravenna, Italy and implemented  similar styles into his pool.

     Eight marble statues, decorating the pool, were carved starting in 1930 by Italian Sculptor  and are the  copies of ancient Greek and Roman statues. Hearst spent millions of dollars expanding the property, building a Baroque-style castle, filling it with European artwork, and surrounding it with exotic animals and plants.

     The Hollywood and political elite often visited the castle. There is a small private  airport   at the bottom of the hill. Guests also could take a private Hearst-owned train car from Los Angeles.  Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, the Marx Brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Clark Gable, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were among Hearst's guests.

   In 1957, the Hearst Corporation donated the property to the state of California. Hearst Castle became a United States National Historic Landmark on May 11, 1976.  The site attracts about one million visitors per year and you can become one of them.  I was there several years ago. Believe me - it’s amazing!

     When Randolph Hearst left his castle for health reasons, he moved into this Beverly Hills mansion that girlfriend Marion Davies purchased for him in 1946.  The house has 29 bedrooms, three swimming pools, tennis courts, its own cinema and a nightclub. Hearst  spent there the last twenty years of his life. John and Jacqueline Kennedy stayed in this house for their honeymoon.

     The property was briefly listed at $165 million in 2007, and in  2012 price was  $95 million.

     According to the LA Times, the Beverly House’s 4th and current owner, attorney-investor Leonard M. Ross, purchased the mansion over 30 years ago. Unfortunately, it appears Mr. Ross has run into recent financial difficulty and he filed for bankruptcy on May 2013.   Estate is  on the market for  $117.5 million. Anyone interested?

Visit Hearst Castle in California

The Hearst Empire, “The greenest” skyscraper and castle in California. Part 1

Hearst Empire. Part 2

The Hearst Tower, home for the headquarters of the Hearst Corporation, is located at 300 West 57th Street, near Columbus Circle in Midtown Manhattan. It is was the first "green" high rise office building in New York, and the first skyscraper built after  9/11/2001. The founder of the corporation William Randolph Hearst built the nation’s largest newspaper chain. He is considered to be the father of the “yellow” press and had an extraordinary estate sitting on more than 150,000 acres in between Los Angeles and San Francisco with it's own airport and a zoo.  

     The tower on 57 has 46 stories and uncommon triangular framing pattern.  It was built in 2006 on the top of the six-story base completed 78 years  earlier, in 1928. The building was considered the best world sky scrapper of the year 2006  and received the prestigious annual  Emporis Skyscraper Award.

     The old building, designed by architect Joseph Urban, was completed in 1928 and was named “The International Magazine Building”. At that time Hearst owned 12 magazines. From the beginning, the building was structurally reinforced for an office tower.  Plans were filed in 1946, but never executed. The original building has cast stone façade with limestone columns and allegorical figures representing music, art, commerce and industry.  

    Hearst Tower is one of the most environmentally friendly office towers in New York City and is among the top 10% of energy-efficient buildings in the nation. The roof collects rainwater, reducing the amount of water dumped into the City's sewer system during rainfall by a quarter .90% of the Tower's structural steel contains recycled materials. Light sensors inside control the amount of artificial light on each floor, based on the amount of natural light available at any time. The floor of the atrium is paved with heat conductive limestone. The building is naturally ventilated for up to three quarters of the year.

     William Hearst was born in California in 1863. His father was a California Gold Rush multimillionaire. William   was taught in private schools and attended Harvard College.  Later William run his father’s newspaper “San Francisco Examiner”. He upgraded the equipment and hired the most talented writers of this time, including Mark Twain and Jack London. In 1891 his father died, and Hearst inherited   about $15 million dollars ( half of his father’s estate).

     During his college years Williams was inspired by the well-known publisher Joseph Pulitzer and later he bought his newspaper New York Morning Journal  in 1895. This was the beginning of  Hearst Empire.

     William Hearst dominated journalism for nearly a half century. As an editor,  Hearst adopted a sensational brand of reporting later known as "yellow journalism".  Wardman, the editor of   New York Press, was the first to publish the term but he had never defined the term exactly. In 1898 the paper simply elaborated: "We called them Yellow because they are Yellow".

The term was widely popular at the late nineteenth century during the battle between “New York World” by Joseph Pulitzer's and William Randolph Hearst's “New York Journal” .

    The unproved information about the reason of the explosion on the battleship “Maine” and a private letter, published by Hearst,   could be one of the stimulus for a Spanish American War at the end of XIX century.  However, after the war started,   Hearst sailed to Cuba as a war correspondent and provided accurate information about the war.  Four days after the tragedy (more than 250 sailors were killed) , Hearst's New York Morning Journal called for a public collection for a monument to honor the sailors. The monument stands on the Columbus Circle, half a mile from the Hearst Tower. You can read more about the monument in one of my previous  posts.

     In the beginning of the XX century Hearst entered politics.  Hearst did win election to the House of Representatives in 1902 and 1904 and  spent more than  2 million dollars for United States presidential election in  1904.

     By the 1920s, one in every four Americans read a Hearst newspaper. Media empire had grown to include 20 daily and 11 Sunday papers in 13 cities. Hearst  and his empire were at their zenith.

     The Great Depression hit Hearst hard and he was forced   to sell the Washington Times and merge most of his remaining papers late in the decade. Exploring other emerging non-print media, Mr. Hearst began acquiring radio stations in the 1920s. In 1948, he became the owner of one of the first television stations in the country. William Hearst died in 1951 at age 88.

"Citizen Hearst," a documentary about the 125-year-old Hearst Corp. and founder William Randolph Hearst had world premier  at the 2012 Hamptons International Film Festival .

Books about Hearst from Amazon:

William Randolph Hearst: The Later Years, 1911-1951

The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph