WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.799 Welcome to the Deep Dive. I am so glad you are 00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:04.919 joining us today. Yeah, we really have a truly 00:00:04.919 --> 00:00:07.679 fascinating journey ahead of us today. We really 00:00:07.679 --> 00:00:10.339 do. You know, when you think of a massive business 00:00:10.339 --> 00:00:12.910 empire. your mind probably jumps straight to 00:00:12.910 --> 00:00:15.650 modern tech giants. Right, or maybe historic 00:00:15.650 --> 00:00:19.289 oil barons. Exactly. But today, we are looking 00:00:19.289 --> 00:00:22.030 at an empire built on the most everyday items 00:00:22.030 --> 00:00:24.109 imaginable. Things you probably have sitting 00:00:24.109 --> 00:00:26.210 in your desk drawer right now. Or your bathroom 00:00:26.210 --> 00:00:28.949 cabinet right this very second. And we're going 00:00:28.949 --> 00:00:31.730 to look at how the man behind those items quietly 00:00:31.730 --> 00:00:34.789 shaped mid -century American culture. It really 00:00:34.789 --> 00:00:37.350 is an incredible multi -layered story. We are 00:00:37.350 --> 00:00:39.710 talking about the life of Patrick Joseph Frawley 00:00:39.710 --> 00:00:43.270 Jr. And we have been poring over a comprehensive 00:00:43.270 --> 00:00:46.109 Wikipedia biographical article that maps out 00:00:46.109 --> 00:00:48.990 his sprawling business portfolio. The sheer scale 00:00:48.990 --> 00:00:51.929 of his reach is staggering. It is a perfect study 00:00:51.929 --> 00:00:54.070 in how corporate power functioned in the 20th 00:00:54.070 --> 00:00:56.350 century. Our mission for this deep dive is to 00:00:56.350 --> 00:00:58.950 explore exactly that. we are going to trace how 00:00:58.950 --> 00:01:01.390 a high school dropout managed to build a massive 00:01:01.390 --> 00:01:03.969 business portfolio. One that spanned from papermate 00:01:03.969 --> 00:01:07.370 pens to schick razors. All the way to Technicolor 00:01:07.370 --> 00:01:11.230 and eventually into a massive conservative media 00:01:11.230 --> 00:01:14.730 and film empire. It is a wild ride. Okay, let's 00:01:14.730 --> 00:01:17.349 unpack this, starting with his incredibly unique 00:01:17.349 --> 00:01:20.170 origins. Because he didn't exactly start out 00:01:20.170 --> 00:01:22.950 on Wall Street, did he? Not at all. His background 00:01:22.950 --> 00:01:25.709 is entirely unconventional for an American corporate 00:01:25.709 --> 00:01:29.730 titan of that era. Frawley was born in 1923 down 00:01:29.730 --> 00:01:33.069 in Leon, Nicaragua. Wow. Nicaragua. Yeah. And 00:01:33.069 --> 00:01:36.040 his heritage was. wonderfully diverse. His father 00:01:36.040 --> 00:01:38.939 was Irish -born, and his mother was of French 00:01:38.939 --> 00:01:40.900 -Spanish descent. Right. And even though he was 00:01:40.900 --> 00:01:42.640 born in Nicaragua, he actually grew up in San 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:44.700 Francisco. He did. But I read in the sources 00:01:44.700 --> 00:01:46.359 that he didn't stay there for his education. 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:47.939 That's right. He actually dropped out of high 00:01:47.939 --> 00:01:50.319 school as a teenager. Just left entirely. Yeah, 00:01:50.359 --> 00:01:52.400 but he didn't just run away or drift aimlessly. 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:56.019 He moved back to Nicaragua, specifically to learn 00:01:56.019 --> 00:01:58.299 the ways of business directly from his father. 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:01.359 So he opted for a hands -on, real -world education 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:03.659 in commerce. Instead of a traditional classroom. 00:02:03.849 --> 00:02:06.069 Yes. I love that. Yeah. He essentially traded 00:02:06.069 --> 00:02:08.610 a high school diploma for an apprenticeship in 00:02:08.610 --> 00:02:10.949 international trade. It was a bold move. And 00:02:10.949 --> 00:02:14.370 then global circumstances stepped in. When World 00:02:14.370 --> 00:02:17.330 War II broke out, Frawley wanted to serve. Right. 00:02:17.870 --> 00:02:20.710 But how did a kid born in Nicaragua and raised 00:02:20.710 --> 00:02:23.650 in San Francisco end up flying for Canada? It 00:02:23.650 --> 00:02:26.349 comes back to his father. Because his father 00:02:26.349 --> 00:02:29.360 held United Kingdom citizenship. Frawley was 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:31.719 legally able to enlist in the Royal Canadian 00:02:31.719 --> 00:02:34.759 Air Force during the war. That is fascinating. 00:02:35.099 --> 00:02:37.159 It really highlights how internationally connected 00:02:37.159 --> 00:02:40.120 his life was from the very beginning. After the 00:02:40.120 --> 00:02:43.180 war wrapped up in 1945, he married a Canadian 00:02:43.180 --> 00:02:46.110 woman named Geraldine. And the newlyweds then 00:02:46.110 --> 00:02:48.090 decided to settle down back in San Francisco. 00:02:48.210 --> 00:02:50.789 Which sets the stage for his first massive leap 00:02:50.789 --> 00:02:53.110 into the business world. Because the post -war 00:02:53.110 --> 00:02:55.990 economic boom is just kicking off. Exactly. America 00:02:55.990 --> 00:02:58.569 is transitioning from a wartime economy to a 00:02:58.569 --> 00:03:00.810 consumer economy. And Frawley is right there 00:03:00.810 --> 00:03:02.750 looking for an opportunity. And he finds one 00:03:02.750 --> 00:03:05.449 in a rather unexpected place. A defaulted loan. 00:03:05.590 --> 00:03:08.479 Exactly. Shortly after the war, Frawley found 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:11.539 a ballpoint pen parts manufacturer that had defaulted 00:03:11.539 --> 00:03:14.139 on its loan. So he swooped in. He acquired the 00:03:14.139 --> 00:03:16.979 struggling business and renamed it the Frawley 00:03:16.979 --> 00:03:20.340 Pen Company. Now I want to pause here because 00:03:20.340 --> 00:03:23.599 we have to put ourselves in the shoes of a consumer 00:03:23.599 --> 00:03:26.680 in the late 1940s. Right. Pens were a hassle 00:03:26.680 --> 00:03:29.439 back then. They really were messy. Fountain pens 00:03:29.439 --> 00:03:31.840 leaked everywhere. And the early ballpoints were 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:34.259 notorious for smudging and skipping across the 00:03:34.259 --> 00:03:37.169 page. So Frawley didn't just buy a pen company 00:03:37.169 --> 00:03:40.009 to make the same old product. He drove some serious 00:03:40.009 --> 00:03:42.409 innovation right. He fundamentally changed the 00:03:42.409 --> 00:03:45.849 product. In 1949, the Frawley Pen Company developed 00:03:45.849 --> 00:03:48.650 an ink that dried instantly. Which was a huge 00:03:48.650 --> 00:03:51.330 deal. A massive quality of life upgrade for the 00:03:51.330 --> 00:03:54.189 average consumer. No more smudged documents or 00:03:54.189 --> 00:03:56.930 ink -stained hands. But the true stroke of genius 00:03:56.930 --> 00:03:59.680 came the following year. By 1950, the company 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:01.960 claimed to have created the very first pen with 00:04:01.960 --> 00:04:04.340 a retractable ball quote tip. They dubbed it 00:04:04.340 --> 00:04:06.539 the Paper Mate. Yes, they did. I want you, our 00:04:06.539 --> 00:04:08.680 listener, to think about that for a second. Picture 00:04:08.680 --> 00:04:10.900 the last time you were sitting in a meeting or 00:04:10.900 --> 00:04:14.400 on a phone call mindlessly clicking a retractable 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:17.529 pen. Click, click, click. Exactly. That satisfying 00:04:17.529 --> 00:04:20.089 little mechanism that protects the ink without 00:04:20.089 --> 00:04:22.269 needing a separate cap. It is ubiquitous now. 00:04:22.470 --> 00:04:24.550 You are literally holding Patrick Frawley's legacy 00:04:24.550 --> 00:04:26.790 in your hand. It was the perfect product for 00:04:26.790 --> 00:04:29.129 a culture that was just beginning to embrace 00:04:29.129 --> 00:04:32.149 fast, disposable, convenient consumer goods. 00:04:32.389 --> 00:04:35.199 It was a monumental success. He solved a highly 00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:37.980 practical problem and commercialized it perfectly. 00:04:38.220 --> 00:04:40.139 And the financial reward for that innovation 00:04:40.139 --> 00:04:44.339 was staggering. In 1955, the Frawley Pen Company 00:04:44.339 --> 00:04:47.160 was acquired by the Gillette Company. For $15 00:04:47.160 --> 00:04:51.300 .5 million. Yes. That acquisition actually formed 00:04:51.300 --> 00:04:53.839 the entire basis for Gillette's papermate division. 00:04:54.699 --> 00:04:59.519 $15 .5 million in 1955. Adjusted for inflation, 00:04:59.699 --> 00:05:01.920 that is an absolute fortune. A life -changing 00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:04.620 generational windfall. Most people would take 00:05:04.620 --> 00:05:06.560 that money, buy an island, and never look at 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:08.589 a balance sheet again. What's fascinating here 00:05:08.589 --> 00:05:11.029 is that Frawley did the exact opposite. He didn't 00:05:11.029 --> 00:05:12.870 just retire with his millions. He immediately 00:05:12.870 --> 00:05:15.750 turned around and used those profits to buy controlling 00:05:15.750 --> 00:05:19.350 shares into incredibly iconic brands. Schick 00:05:19.350 --> 00:05:22.370 the Razor Company and Technicolor Inc., the famous 00:05:22.370 --> 00:05:24.750 motion picture film company. So he's not cashing 00:05:24.750 --> 00:05:26.990 out. He is actively leveling up. He's building 00:05:26.990 --> 00:05:29.670 an empire across consumer goods and Hollywood 00:05:29.670 --> 00:05:32.029 tech. But just as he is sitting at the absolute 00:05:32.029 --> 00:05:34.949 pinnacle of corporate America, global politics 00:05:34.949 --> 00:05:37.660 crash right into his boardroom. Let's talk about 00:05:37.660 --> 00:05:41.560 1958 because this is a major plot twist in Frawley's 00:05:41.560 --> 00:05:44.879 story. It is a profound turning point. In 1958 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:48.220 Fidel Castro's revolution takes hold in Cuba. 00:05:48.379 --> 00:05:51.939 Right. And amidst that political upheaval, the 00:05:51.939 --> 00:05:54.759 new Cuban government takes over a Schick manufacturing 00:05:54.759 --> 00:05:57.740 factory located on the island. Now, for a massive 00:05:57.740 --> 00:06:00.160 corporation, losing a single factory is obviously 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:02.220 a headache. You have to reroute your supply chain. 00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:04.620 You lose some equipment. But the sources point 00:06:04.620 --> 00:06:06.879 out that for Frawley, this wasn't just a line 00:06:06.879 --> 00:06:08.959 item on a balance sheet. It wasn't just a business 00:06:08.959 --> 00:06:12.019 loss. No, it was deeply personal. According to 00:06:12.019 --> 00:06:14.480 the biographical sources, this specific event. 00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:17.199 fundamentally awakened him politically. It shifted 00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:20.100 his entire worldview. He saw firsthand how a 00:06:20.100 --> 00:06:22.800 shift in geopolitical ideology could directly 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:25.139 strip him of his private property and disrupt 00:06:25.139 --> 00:06:28.699 his business. And from that moment forward, Frawley 00:06:28.699 --> 00:06:31.500 became a dedicated advocate and a major financial 00:06:31.500 --> 00:06:34.360 backer for anti -communist causes. He really 00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:36.759 threw his weight behind it. Now, to be completely 00:06:36.759 --> 00:06:39.139 clear with you, our listener. We are looking 00:06:39.139 --> 00:06:41.899 purely at the historical record here to understand 00:06:41.899 --> 00:06:44.259 the mechanics of his impact. Right. We aren't 00:06:44.259 --> 00:06:46.920 taking any political sides. The sources simply 00:06:46.920 --> 00:06:49.540 map out a very specific pattern of financial 00:06:49.540 --> 00:06:52.500 support that grew out of this ideological shift 00:06:52.500 --> 00:06:56.089 in 1958. Precisely. The historical facts show 00:06:56.089 --> 00:06:59.189 that Frawley, alongside Walter Knott, provided 00:06:59.189 --> 00:07:02.269 significant financial support to Barry Goldwater's 00:07:02.269 --> 00:07:05.430 1964 presidential campaign. And listeners might 00:07:05.430 --> 00:07:07.329 recognize Walter Knott as the founder of the 00:07:07.329 --> 00:07:09.689 Knott's Berry Farm theme park. Yes. Exactly. 00:07:09.689 --> 00:07:11.629 He didn't stop at presidential campaigns either. 00:07:11.769 --> 00:07:14.389 He funded Fred Schwartz's anti -communist rallies. 00:07:14.670 --> 00:07:16.889 And even before the Goldwater campaign back in 00:07:16.889 --> 00:07:20.189 1961, he provided funds to the Information Council 00:07:20.189 --> 00:07:23.100 of the Americas. also known as INCA, which was 00:07:23.100 --> 00:07:25.660 a prominent anti -communist organization. This 00:07:25.660 --> 00:07:28.040 represents a remarkable synthesis of international 00:07:28.040 --> 00:07:30.839 geopolitics intersecting directly with American 00:07:30.839 --> 00:07:33.300 corporate leadership. You have a man who made 00:07:33.300 --> 00:07:36.459 his fortune in everyday consumer goods like click 00:07:36.459 --> 00:07:39.220 pens and shaving razors. Who transforms into 00:07:39.220 --> 00:07:41.180 a behind -the -scenes political heavyweight, 00:07:41.319 --> 00:07:44.040 specifically because of a geopolitical event 00:07:44.040 --> 00:07:46.680 in Cuba. He weaponized his corporate wealth, 00:07:46.839 --> 00:07:49.319 turning it into the engine for his ideological 00:07:49.319 --> 00:07:52.889 advocacy. It really illustrates how deeply interconnected 00:07:52.889 --> 00:07:55.370 the business world and the political world were 00:07:55.370 --> 00:07:57.689 becoming during the height of the Cold War. Absolutely. 00:07:57.970 --> 00:08:00.790 But while Frawley was navigating these massive 00:08:00.790 --> 00:08:04.629 global currents, he was also fighting some very 00:08:04.629 --> 00:08:07.750 intense private battles. He was. Here's where 00:08:07.750 --> 00:08:10.209 it gets really interesting because the sources 00:08:10.209 --> 00:08:13.250 reveal a much more vulnerable personal side of 00:08:13.250 --> 00:08:15.790 the man. Yes. Despite his immense outward success, 00:08:16.029 --> 00:08:17.949 Frawley struggled deeply with alcohol addiction. 00:08:18.600 --> 00:08:20.399 And his approach to treating his addiction was, 00:08:20.480 --> 00:08:22.660 frankly, as uniquely Frawley as his approach 00:08:22.660 --> 00:08:25.980 to business. In 1964, seeking help, he checked 00:08:25.980 --> 00:08:28.079 himself into the Shadle Sanatorium in Seattle. 00:08:28.259 --> 00:08:30.459 And he went there specifically to undergo something 00:08:30.459 --> 00:08:32.840 called aversion therapy. Can you explain what 00:08:32.840 --> 00:08:35.240 that entails? Aversion therapy is a psychological 00:08:35.240 --> 00:08:38.720 treatment where a patient is exposed to a stimulus, 00:08:39.139 --> 00:08:42.500 in this case alcohol, while simultaneously being 00:08:42.500 --> 00:08:45.509 subjected to some form of discomfort. Okay. The 00:08:45.509 --> 00:08:48.330 goal is to condition the patient's brain to associate 00:08:48.330 --> 00:08:50.909 the alcohol with the negative feeling, thereby 00:08:50.909 --> 00:08:53.669 breaking the addiction. That sounds intense. 00:08:53.970 --> 00:08:56.230 That is a very intense approach. Intense, but 00:08:56.230 --> 00:08:58.509 for Frawley, it clearly had a profound impact. 00:08:58.850 --> 00:09:01.529 It did. Because he found the treatment so incredibly 00:09:01.529 --> 00:09:04.289 valuable that he didn't just write a glowing 00:09:04.289 --> 00:09:07.090 testimonial for the doctors. He literally bought 00:09:07.090 --> 00:09:09.590 the hospital. He bought the hospital. That is 00:09:09.590 --> 00:09:12.129 correct. He purchased the sanatorium on behalf 00:09:12.129 --> 00:09:16.190 of Schick and officially renamed it Hold on, 00:09:16.210 --> 00:09:18.509 I have to stop you there. He used the profits 00:09:18.509 --> 00:09:21.129 from Schick, a publicly known razor company, 00:09:21.289 --> 00:09:24.110 to buy his own rehab center. Yes, he did. How 00:09:24.110 --> 00:09:26.610 does that even work? How does a corporate board 00:09:26.610 --> 00:09:30.110 of directors allow a CEO to just purchase a hospital 00:09:30.110 --> 00:09:33.230 because he personally liked the treatment? It 00:09:33.230 --> 00:09:35.590 is a stunning example of mid -century corporate 00:09:35.590 --> 00:09:38.200 power. Today, a move like that would face immense 00:09:38.200 --> 00:09:40.539 scrutiny from shareholders and regulators regarding 00:09:40.539 --> 00:09:43.940 conflicts of interest. But analytically, it highlights 00:09:43.940 --> 00:09:46.299 an incredible blurring of Frawley's personal 00:09:46.299 --> 00:09:49.159 life and his corporate acquisitions. He used 00:09:49.159 --> 00:09:51.639 his corporate apparatus to acquire a medical 00:09:51.639 --> 00:09:54.559 facility that addressed a deeply personal challenge. 00:09:54.990 --> 00:09:57.409 It's the ultimate expression of consumer satisfaction. 00:09:57.490 --> 00:09:59.289 I like the product so much I bought the company. 00:09:59.409 --> 00:10:01.330 Exactly. But you're right. It shows that for 00:10:01.330 --> 00:10:04.210 Frawley, his business empire wasn't just a portfolio 00:10:04.210 --> 00:10:07.049 of detached investments. It was increasingly 00:10:07.049 --> 00:10:09.330 becoming a direct reflection of his own life, 00:10:09.490 --> 00:10:12.950 experiences, his values and even his personal 00:10:12.950 --> 00:10:15.470 healing. And that blurring of the personal and 00:10:15.470 --> 00:10:17.649 the professional sets the stage for his next 00:10:17.649 --> 00:10:20.490 massive pivot. Because as we move into the late 00:10:20.490 --> 00:10:24.039 1960s. Frawley isn't just satisfied with pens, 00:10:24.100 --> 00:10:27.139 razors and hospitals. He decides to build a media 00:10:27.139 --> 00:10:29.700 empire to broadcast his worldview. And once again, 00:10:29.740 --> 00:10:32.120 he uses that corporate umbrella to do it. In 00:10:32.120 --> 00:10:35.899 1967, Frawley establishes the Twin Circle Publishing 00:10:35.899 --> 00:10:39.100 Co. But he sets it up as a subsidiary of the 00:10:39.100 --> 00:10:41.419 Schick Investment Corp. So there's Schick again 00:10:41.419 --> 00:10:43.960 funding a completely different industry. This 00:10:43.960 --> 00:10:46.919 is where we see his ideological shift. The one 00:10:46.919 --> 00:10:50.139 sparked by that lost factory in Cuba fully manifest 00:10:50.139 --> 00:10:53.000 in the public sphere. Through Twin Circle Publishing, 00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:55.720 he founded a Catholic weekly newspaper called 00:10:55.720 --> 00:10:58.179 Twin Circle. But he knew print wasn't enough 00:10:58.179 --> 00:11:01.559 on its own. By 1970, this media operation had 00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:04.860 expanded into daily radio broadcasts and a weekly 00:11:04.860 --> 00:11:07.759 half -hour television show. All of these platforms 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:10.399 were dedicated to espousing Frawley's conservative 00:11:10.399 --> 00:11:13.340 Catholic views. He also took over the publication 00:11:13.340 --> 00:11:15.320 of the National Catholic Register newspaper. 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:18.340 The National Catholic Register acquisition is... 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:21.259 Particularly notable, right? Yes. When Frawley 00:11:21.259 --> 00:11:24.580 assumed control, he explicitly changed its editorial 00:11:24.580 --> 00:11:27.279 focus. He shifted the paper away from its previously 00:11:27.279 --> 00:11:29.759 progressive stance to a strictly conservative 00:11:29.759 --> 00:11:32.279 one. He wasn't just funding media. He was actively 00:11:32.279 --> 00:11:34.480 shaping the theological and political discourse 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:37.120 within his religious community. So he's funding 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:40.019 newspapers, radio, and television aimed at adults. 00:11:40.779 --> 00:11:43.460 Did he stick strictly to traditional news and 00:11:43.460 --> 00:11:45.659 religious media? Actually, no. He went after 00:11:45.659 --> 00:11:47.779 younger demographics and popular culture, too. 00:11:48.250 --> 00:11:51.309 In 1967, he bought Gilberton's Classic Illustrated 00:11:51.309 --> 00:11:53.809 line of comic books from its founder, Albert 00:11:53.809 --> 00:11:56.769 Cantor. He operated this under the name the Frawley 00:11:56.769 --> 00:11:58.769 Corporation. For those who might not remember, 00:11:59.009 --> 00:12:01.750 Classics Illustrated was a massive brand that 00:12:01.750 --> 00:12:04.549 adapted famous literary classics into comic book 00:12:04.549 --> 00:12:06.929 format. Frawley published the final titles of 00:12:06.929 --> 00:12:10.110 the original series in 1969. Specifically titles 00:12:10.110 --> 00:12:13.049 like In Fordham's Cause, and Negro Americans. 00:12:13.470 --> 00:12:16.110 However, the print line of those comics faded 00:12:16.110 --> 00:12:18.889 by the early 70s. After that, he mainly concentrated 00:12:18.889 --> 00:12:21.950 on foreign sales and reprinting older titles. 00:12:22.129 --> 00:12:24.129 But Frawley was already pivoting again. He's 00:12:24.129 --> 00:12:25.990 got his hands in print radio and TV, but then 00:12:25.990 --> 00:12:28.549 he sets his sights on Hollywood. In 1971, he 00:12:28.549 --> 00:12:31.169 co -founded Schick's Son Classic Pictures in 00:12:31.169 --> 00:12:33.929 Park City, Utah. Alongside Charles E. Sellier 00:12:33.929 --> 00:12:36.470 Jr. and Raylan Jensen. Notice the name once more. 00:12:36.940 --> 00:12:39.419 Schick's Son Classic Pictures. The corporate 00:12:39.419 --> 00:12:41.600 foundation of the razor company is once again 00:12:41.600 --> 00:12:44.600 funding a totally new venture. This time independent 00:12:44.600 --> 00:12:47.600 film production. This company produced indie 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:50.179 feature films, documentaries, and made for television 00:12:50.179 --> 00:12:53.080 movies. And he actually leveraged that Classics 00:12:53.080 --> 00:12:54.879 Illustrated brand he'd bought a few years earlier. 00:12:55.279 --> 00:12:59.320 Between 1977 and 1982, Schick's Son Classic Pictures 00:12:59.320 --> 00:13:02.139 produced a bunch of TV films based on those classic 00:13:02.139 --> 00:13:05.159 stories. We're talking about adaptations of... 00:13:05.559 --> 00:13:07.559 the time machine Donner passed the road to survival, 00:13:07.700 --> 00:13:10.519 and the legend of Sleepy Hollow. If we connect 00:13:10.519 --> 00:13:12.860 this to the bigger picture, you are looking at 00:13:12.860 --> 00:13:15.639 a masterclass in platform building and vertical 00:13:15.639 --> 00:13:18.940 integration. Frawley systematically constructed 00:13:18.940 --> 00:13:22.179 a pipeline across nearly every major communication 00:13:22.179 --> 00:13:24.700 medium of the era. From print newspapers and 00:13:24.700 --> 00:13:28.000 comic books to daily radio to weekly television 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:30.799 and finally to independent film production. He 00:13:30.799 --> 00:13:33.759 built an entire self -sustaining ecosystem to 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:35.620 convey his worldview to the American public. 00:13:35.860 --> 00:13:37.639 It's breathtaking when you lay out the mechanics 00:13:37.639 --> 00:13:40.059 of it. He is taking the profits from your morning 00:13:40.059 --> 00:13:42.799 shave and using them to fund the newspaper you 00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:44.980 read, the radio show you listen to on your commute, 00:13:45.080 --> 00:13:46.659 and the movie you watch on a... Friday night. 00:13:46.759 --> 00:13:49.240 But empires of this size built on the sheer force 00:13:49.240 --> 00:13:51.799 of one man's will are incredibly difficult to 00:13:51.799 --> 00:13:54.279 maintain. And the sources show that the early 00:13:54.279 --> 00:13:58.220 1970s marked a major shift in Frawley's control 00:13:58.220 --> 00:14:02.019 over his domain. Yes, the timeline here is critical. 00:14:03.070 --> 00:14:06.289 The year 1970 was a massive turning point, and 00:14:06.289 --> 00:14:09.070 it wasn't a positive one for Frawley. That was 00:14:09.070 --> 00:14:11.269 the year Schick, the company that had been the 00:14:11.269 --> 00:14:13.789 primary financial engine for so many of his side 00:14:13.789 --> 00:14:17.009 ventures, became a subsidiary of Warner Lambert. 00:14:17.149 --> 00:14:19.750 Losing control of Schick is huge. That's his 00:14:19.750 --> 00:14:21.909 piggy bank. But that wasn't the only devastating 00:14:21.909 --> 00:14:25.269 loss that year. In 1970, he also lost control 00:14:25.269 --> 00:14:27.919 of Technicolor. The sources mention that a Canadian 00:14:27.919 --> 00:14:30.860 producer named Harry Saltzman actually won control 00:14:30.860 --> 00:14:33.120 of the company from Chairman Frawley in a proxy 00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:35.840 fight. Wait, how does a Canadian producer win 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:38.179 a proxy fight to take a company away from its 00:14:38.179 --> 00:14:40.779 own chairman? What exactly happens in a scenario 00:14:40.779 --> 00:14:43.360 like that? A proxy fight is essentially a corporate 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:46.059 coup. Okay. It happens when a group of shareholders 00:14:46.059 --> 00:14:49.159 join forces to try and vote out the current corporate 00:14:49.159 --> 00:14:51.580 management. Instead of needing to own the majority 00:14:51.580 --> 00:14:54.080 of the shares outright, the challenger convinces 00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:56.059 other shareholders to let him use their votes. 00:14:56.139 --> 00:14:57.580 Exactly. They use their proxy at the corporate 00:14:57.580 --> 00:15:00.179 meeting. So Saltzman successfully rallied enough 00:15:00.179 --> 00:15:03.240 shareholder dissatisfaction to outvote Frawley 00:15:03.240 --> 00:15:06.960 and remove him from power. Wow. So in a single 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:09.759 year, the financial engine of Schick is absorbed 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:12.679 by another conglomerate and he is ousted from 00:15:12.679 --> 00:15:15.379 Technicolor by his own shareholders. That has 00:15:15.379 --> 00:15:17.840 to be a jarring reality check for a guy who had 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:20.279 been unilaterally calling the shots for decades. 00:15:20.990 --> 00:15:24.169 Losing control of two major pillars of his portfolio 00:15:24.169 --> 00:15:26.690 in a single year certainly changed the landscape 00:15:26.690 --> 00:15:29.210 of his influence. He no longer had that endless 00:15:29.210 --> 00:15:32.029 stream of consumer goods capital to instantly 00:15:32.029 --> 00:15:35.029 fund any new hospital or movie studio he wanted. 00:15:35.210 --> 00:15:37.779 However he didn't disappear. He remained heavily 00:15:37.779 --> 00:15:40.200 involved in his media ventures for quite some 00:15:40.200 --> 00:15:42.639 time. Right. He held on to the ideological media 00:15:42.639 --> 00:15:45.039 pieces. It wasn't until much later in life, in 00:15:45.039 --> 00:15:47.799 1995, that Frawley finally sold the National 00:15:47.799 --> 00:15:50.240 Catholic Register and the renamed Catholic Twin 00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:52.460 Circle. He sold them to the Legion of Christ. 00:15:52.700 --> 00:15:54.879 And just three years after selling off those 00:15:54.879 --> 00:15:57.679 final pieces of his media empire, Patrick Frawley 00:15:57.679 --> 00:16:00.740 passed away on November 3, 1998, in Santa Monica, 00:16:00.820 --> 00:16:03.419 California. He was 75 years old. Right. He left 00:16:03.419 --> 00:16:05.500 behind quite a legacy, not just in the corporate 00:16:05.500 --> 00:16:08.100 world, but personally. He had a massive family 00:16:08.100 --> 00:16:11.940 tree. A sister, two sons, five daughters, and 00:16:11.940 --> 00:16:14.980 20 grandchildren. It is a remarkable sweep of 00:16:14.980 --> 00:16:17.580 a life. You have a teenager who left high school 00:16:17.580 --> 00:16:20.440 to learn business in Nicaragua, who grows up 00:16:20.440 --> 00:16:23.019 to be a patriarch with 20 grandchildren in California. 00:16:23.379 --> 00:16:25.820 Having left a permanent mark on almost every 00:16:25.820 --> 00:16:28.340 major industry in between. So what does this 00:16:28.340 --> 00:16:30.879 all mean? When you step back and look at the 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:33.799 whole picture. We've traced the journey of a 00:16:33.799 --> 00:16:37.740 man who saw a problem with messy ink and revolutionized 00:16:37.740 --> 00:16:40.740 the way the world writes. By inventing the retractable 00:16:40.740 --> 00:16:43.779 paper mate pen. He parlayed that fortune into 00:16:43.779 --> 00:16:46.879 razors and film technology. He experienced a 00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:49.480 geopolitical shock in Cuba that turned him into 00:16:49.480 --> 00:16:52.700 a major Cold War political funder. He possessed 00:16:52.700 --> 00:16:55.919 the sheer corporate audacity to buy a hospital 00:16:55.919 --> 00:16:58.539 to cure his own addiction. And ultimately built 00:16:58.539 --> 00:17:02.039 a massive multi -platform media ecosystem. It 00:17:02.039 --> 00:17:05.059 is a profound story of cause and effect and the 00:17:05.059 --> 00:17:07.720 unseen forces that shape our culture. I want 00:17:07.720 --> 00:17:09.720 to leave you with a final thought to mull over 00:17:09.720 --> 00:17:11.799 drawing directly from the mechanics of the empire 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:14.259 we've discussed today. Consider how a single 00:17:14.259 --> 00:17:18.099 isolated incident, a razor company losing just 00:17:18.099 --> 00:17:22.380 one manufacturing factory in Cuba in 1958, didn't 00:17:22.380 --> 00:17:24.759 merely change a corporate bottom line. It acted 00:17:24.759 --> 00:17:27.680 as a profound catalyst. The loss of that factory 00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:30.599 pushed Frawley to actively fund and shape the 00:17:30.599 --> 00:17:33.440 American media landscape of the Cold War. It 00:17:33.440 --> 00:17:35.680 really makes you wonder how many of the cultural 00:17:35.680 --> 00:17:38.259 touchstones, the news outlets and the media platforms 00:17:38.259 --> 00:17:41.900 we consume today are actually the unseen ripple 00:17:41.900 --> 00:17:44.839 effect of a CEO's personal behind -the -scenes 00:17:44.839 --> 00:17:47.359 experiences. That is such an incredible perspective. 00:17:47.500 --> 00:17:49.299 It really makes you look at the world and the 00:17:49.299 --> 00:17:51.140 media we consume a little bit differently. The 00:17:51.140 --> 00:17:52.799 next time you click a pin, you might just be 00:17:52.799 --> 00:17:55.680 holding a piece of Cold War history. Thank you 00:17:55.680 --> 00:17:57.680 so much for joining us on this deep dive into 00:17:57.680 --> 00:17:59.900 the extraordinary life of Patrick Frawley. We 00:17:59.900 --> 00:18:01.740 hope you enjoyed exploring these sources with 00:18:01.740 --> 00:18:04.359 us. And as always, keep asking questions and 00:18:04.359 --> 00:18:04.859 stay curious.