X-Nico

2 unusual facts about Harold Fowler McCormick


Harold Fowler McCormick

Orson Welles claimed that McCormick's lavish promotion of his second wife's opera career—despite her renown as a terrible singer—was a direct influence on the screenplay for Citizen Kane, wherein the titular character does much the same for his second wife.

(Samuel Insull, Thomas Edison's private secretary and later president of a utilities holding empire that included Commonwealth Edison, built the Chicago Civic Opera House (now the Lyric Opera) for his wife, Gladys Wallis, and was another influence, along with actresses Hope Hampton and Marion Davies.


Duchess of Marlborough Egg

The egg was bought by Ganna Walska, the second wife of Harold Fowler McCormick, chairman of the International Harvester Company of Chicago.


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