Part 1 |Citizen Hearst | American Experience

Explore the life of William Randolph Hearst. The model for Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane, he controlled a vast media empire, wielded unprecedented power and influence, and forever transformed the media’s role in American life and politics.

William Randolph Hearst believed he was not reporting history but was instead creating it. By the end of the 1920s, Hearst owned newspapers in almost every major city, as well as magazines and even radio stations.

Joseph Pulitzer was a newspaper editor and publisher. In 1883 he moved to New York City, where he purchased The New York World.
The World became the most popular newspaper at the time, printing a quarter million copies on weekday mornings.

Marion Davies was the mistress of media tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Hearst used his influence and wealth to launch a film career for Davies.

Millicent Hearst was married to the media tycoon William Randolph Hearst. She met W.R. in New York City in 1896, when he was 33 and she was a 16-year-old showgirl.

Explore the life of William Randolph Hearst, the pioneering media mogul and inspiration for Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane.

On the evening of February 15, 1898, a massive explosion tore through the battleship U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor, Cuba. The explosion sank the vessel, killed over 260 sailors and shocked the American public. Days later, William Randolph Heart’s newspaper, The New York Journal, ran a sensational headline.