Annenberg, Walter H.

▪ 1995

      In 1994 many people considered the life of Walter Annenberg an American success story: an immigrant's son who gained renown as a publisher, an ambassador, an art collector, and one of the most important philanthropists in the U.S. It was also the story of a quiet boy with a speech impediment who lived in the shadow of his flamboyant father until he took over the family's scandal-plagued legacy and turned it into one of the most profitable communications empires in the country.

      Annenberg was born into a life of ease and privilege on March 13, 1908, in Milwaukee, Wis. His father, Moses ("Moe") Annenberg, an immigrant from East Prussia, had been the general-circulation manager of Hearst newspapers, but he made his fortune after he took control of the popular horse-racing publications the Daily Racing Form and Morning Telegraph, as well as a wire service that sent racetrack results to betting parlours nationwide. Annenberg joined the family business in 1928. He was a company vice president when his father was indicted (1939) for tax evasion and bribery. Annenberg was also indicted, but the charges against him were later dropped, and upon his father's death (1942) shortly after being paroled, he gained full control of what was left of Triangle Publications, Inc. Although the company was deep in debt, Annenberg turned it around quickly by taking it in new directions in publishing and in radio and television. The cornerstone of its fortune was laid in 1953 when Annenberg merged several local TV publications into one national magazine, TV Guide, which came to be one of the most popular magazines in the U.S. He also served as the editor and publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer (which his father had purchased in 1936). In 1969, after his friend Richard Nixon was elected president, Annenberg was appointed ambassador to the Court of St. James's, where he served until 1974.

      Annenberg sold his interests in Triangle for a reported $3.2 billion in 1988 and turned his energies to philanthropy and art collecting. He purchased numerous high-priced pieces in the soaring art market of the 1980s, notably Pablo Picasso's "At the Lapin Agile" for $40.7 million in 1989. Annenberg made headlines when he announced that after his death his collection—Impressionist and Postimpressionist works worth an estimated $1 billion—would be donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

      It was as a philanthropist that Annenberg gained wide respect late in life. He founded the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania (his alma mater) in 1958, and he went on to donate to hundreds of organizations, large and small. By 1993 the Annenberg Foundation, worth about $1.6 billion, was one of the nation's wealthiest. That year it was announced that he was donating $500 million toward efforts to reform the public schools.

      (CHERYL L. COLLINS)

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▪ American publisher and philanthropist

in full  Walter Hubert Annenberg 

born March 13, 1908, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.

died October 1, 2002, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania

      publisher, philanthropist, and art collector who served as U.S. ambassador to Britain from 1969 to 1974.

      Annenberg was the only son of Moses L. Annenberg (1878–1942), a poor immigrant from East Prussia who became the millionaire publisher of The Philadelphia Inquirer and the horse-racing publications Daily Racing Form and Morning Telegraph. In 1939 Moses Annenberg was indicted for tax evasion and bribery. Walter was also indicted, but the charges against him were dropped. When his father died shortly after being paroled in 1942, Walter inherited the debt- and scandal-ridden Triangle Publications, Inc. He successfully took the company in new directions—founding the magazine Seventeen (1944), acquiring several television and radio stations, and developing TV Guide (1953), which became one of the most popular magazines in the United States. In 1988 Annenberg sold his interests in Triangle for a reported $3.2 billion.

      Annenberg was also renowned for his collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings and for his philanthropy. He donated millions to various museums, libraries, schools, and hospitals, and he established the Annenberg Foundation. In 1993 he announced a $500 million challenge grant to support education reform in American public schools and donated $365 million to a preparatory school and three universities; this gift included funding for the communication schools at the Universities of Pennsylvania and Southern California, both of which carry the Annenberg name. The Presidential Medal of Freedom (awarded by President Ronald Reagan in 1986) and the National Medal of Arts (awarded in 1993) are among the many honours he received.

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