X-Nico

unusual facts about Samuel Insull


Buchanan Dam

Construction of the then-named George W. Hamilton Dam was started in 1931 by a company controlled by Samuel Insull, but soon ended with the dam less than half completed when his highly leveraged public utility holding company collapsed during the Great Depression.


Harold Fowler McCormick

(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.

The Battle Over Citizen Kane

However, Chicago inventor and utilities magnate Samuel Insull, Chicago Tribune publisher Robert R. McCormick, and even Welles' own life were used in creating Kane.


see also