Moses Louis Annenberg (February 11, 1877 – July 20, 1942) was an American newspaper publisher who owned the Daily Racing Form and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He also owned General News Bureau, a wire service that reported the results of horse races.

A German immigrant who rose from a newspaper boy to newspaper owner, he was the father of TV Guide creator Walter Annenberg.

Early life

Moses Louis Annenberg was born in , a village in East Prussia (German Empire), the third of eleven children to Orthodox Jewish parents Sheva and Tobias Annenberg. Tobias was a merchant in nearby Insterburg, whose last name was assigned by local officials in 1871, under a decree by Wilhelm I making surnames a requirement for future census records. "Annenberg" was derived from Low German, as a colloquial spelling of "on am Berg" ("of the mountain"), in reference to their residence between two hills.

As a child, Annenberg was known as "Schwarzer Zigeuner" ("Black Gypsy") for his "dark complexion and penetrating eyes". His family was one of only seven with Jewish origins in Gumbinnen region, totalling under fifty people in Kreis Insterburg. At the storefront, travellers were mystified by Tobias Annenberg's daily morning prayer, complete with tallit and tefillin, and his refusal to touch lard, instead calling a non-Jewish cohabitant of the house to weigh and handle the fat for customers. A neighbouring blacksmith named Harder made a habit out of feuding with Annenberg's father and eldest brother Jakob, such as feeding Annenberg and his sister Eve pork sandwiches and dropping a ham hock into the family's well. When Harder was fined 10 mark by Prussian authorities after complaint by Insterburg's synagogue, he built a fence to block the road to the Annenberg house. Annenberg, who was a long-time friend of Harder's daughter, recalled this to be his first experience with antisemitism.

Career

Annenberg started out as a newspaper boy hawking papers on the street with his older brother Max, with both becoming gang leaders during the Chicago circulation wars.

Gradually, Annenberg rose through the ranks, first as a newspaper salesman at the Chicago Tribune, later for the Hearst Corporation, which owned the Chicago American, the Chicago Examiner and the Chicago Herald, rising to circulation manager. Around 1900, he moved to Milwaukee's Yankee Hill neighborhood, from where he ran the Wisconsin News, as well as the publishing business M.L.A. Investment Co. Annenberg bought the Daily Racing Form in 1922 and The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1936. He also owned The New York Morning Telegraph, a broadsheet that was focused on entertainment and horse racing.

In the fall of 1934, Annenberg purchased the defunct Miami Beach Tribune, moved operations to Miami, and relaunched it as a tabloid called the Miami Tribune. In an asset swap involving cash, Annenberg sold it to John S. Knight, owner of the Miami Herald, for $600,000 and the Massillon Independent, a profitable newspaper based in Massillon, Ohio. The last edition was published on December 1, 1937, and then the Miami Tribune was absorbed by the Herald.

The assets of his publishing company, the Cecelia Corporation (named after his wife) became the foundation of Triangle Publications, which was created in 1947 by his son Walter to hold his and his sisters' inherited assets.

Tax evasion case

During the Roosevelt administration, he was indicted for tax evasion on August 11, 1939, for income tax evasion for the years 1932–1936, totaling $3,258,809.97 in income taxes evaded. On April 4, 1940, Annenberg pleaded guilty to the 1936 income tax evasion count in the indictment that charged him with evading $1.2 million<!--- 1,217,296 ---> in taxes ($ million today).

Judge James Herbert Wilkerson, the same judge who previously sentenced Al Capone, sentenced Annenberg to three years in prison and a fine of $8.0 million ($ million today) "the largest single tax fraud penalty in history" at the time. Diana Annenberg (1900–1905), Esther Annenberg Simon Levee (1901–1992), Janet Annenberg Kahn Neff Hooker (1904–1997), Enid Annenberg Haupt (1906–2005), Lita Annenberg Hazen (1909–1985), Evelyn Annenberg Jaffe Hall (1911–2005), and Harriet Beatrice Annenberg Ames Aronson (1914–1976).

Death

Annenberg was released from Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary prison on June 3, 1942, and died at the Mayo Clinic on July 20, 1942, after having surgery for a brain tumor. His Ranch A in eastern Wyoming is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

References

Further reading

  • Moses Annenberg's connection to Chicago's organized crime: Part 2 of 3
  • Moses Annenberg's connection to Chicago's organized crime: Part 3 of 3
  • Cooney, John E. The Annenbergs. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982.
  • Cooney, John "Annenberg, Moses Louis" American National Biography (1999) https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1602545
  • Fried, Albert. The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Gangster in America. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980.
  • Johnson, Curt and R. Craig Sautter. The Wicked City: Chicago from Kenna to Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998.
  • Reppetto, Thomas A. American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2004.
  • Schatzberg, Rufus, Robert J.Kelly and Ko-lin Chin, ed. Handbook of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1994.
  • Winter-Berger, Robert N. The Washington Pay-Off: An Insider's View of Corruption in Government. New York: Dell Publishing, 1972.
  • Paper Trail Annenbergs
  • The origins of the Mob and the Atlantic City Conference