They Paid the Mafia. Then Befriended the Queen.
They appear on the walls of the Metropolitan Museum, in the names of journalism schools at Penn and USC, and in the guest books of Buckingham Palace. The Annenberg family is one of the most celebrated philanthropic dynasties in American history. But the fortune that built all of it was assembled by a man who ran a national wire service for illegal gambling, paid Al Capone's syndicate a million dollars a year for protection, counted Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky among his personal friends, and died thirty-nine days after leaving federal prison. This is the full story of Moses and Walter Annenberg — from a Prussian village and the streets of Bloody Maxwell, Chicago, through the circulation wars that left twenty-seven people dead, the racewire monopoly that served bookmakers in forty-four states, and the three-billion-dollar philanthropic conversion that turned a convicted felon's fortune into one of the most respected names in American public life. How does criminal wealth become institutional respectability? The Annenberg story is the most complete answer American history has ever produced. This video is intended for educational and historical purposes. All information is drawn from documented historical records, published biographies, congressional testimony, and court documents. Sources include John Cooney's The Annenbergs (1982) and Christopher Ogden's Legacy: A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg (1999). No claims are made beyond what is supported by the historical record. #AnnenbergFamily #AmericanHistory #MobHistory #OldMoney #WalterAnnenberg #MosesAnnenberg #QueenElizabeth #LuckyLuciano #MeyerLansky #AlCapone #PhiladelphiaInquirer #TVGuide #AmericanDynasty #Philanthropy #DocumentaryHistory #Sunnylands #OrganizedCrime #ChicagoHistory #RichardNixon #ArtHistory
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