Word: zaharoff
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...birthday--is kept a closely guarded corporate secret within Mars Inc., a secretive company. He has reportedly given but one interview in his entire career and that to a candy-industry trade paper in 1966. Yet even Mars' and Hughes' penchant for anonymity pales before that of Basil Zaharoff (1849-1936), a munitions king aptly called the "Mystery Man of Europe." Zaharoff systematically stole or destroyed all records of his youth and early manhood, making snooping into his past impossible. He employed several doubles and never permitted himself to be photographed until late in life, after he had retired...
...very notion of "public" in the mind of most library users. But the prevailing mood is still one of gratitude. A few days ago, Sidney Carroll, 66, a television writer and a library addict, leaned back from his notes on the turn-of-the-century Arms Tycoon Basil Zaharoff and reflected aloud: "One of the reasons I live in New York is this library. I love this room. It's hot, but not too much. The types outside the library have changed, but the caliber in side doesn...
...sophisticated communications network, the companies employed "agents." bagmen who, for exorbitant fees, greased palms and took advantage of contacts. Kermit Roosevelt, Teddy's grandson who engineerred a coup for the benefit of the present Shah of Iran, was merely following the example set 65 years ago by Sir Basil Zaharoff. The arms market flourished in this past era, when the industrialized nations traded amongst each other as well as exploiting the undeveloped countries. By "gingering up" a few Chilean generals or instigating a local war between Arab chieftains, Zaharoff claimed to have sold "more arms than anyone else...
...still deal in original sin," says a European arms trader. That somewhat mystical remark typifies the reputation of the arms trade, both within and without its own ranks. Arms salesmen apparently can never quite get over the fact that they are the heirs of Sir Basil Zaharoff, the archetypal death merchant who gave the trade its bad name. Bribing, cheating, lying fluently in eight languages and playing upon nations' fears of their neighbors, Zaharoff-as chief salesman for Britain's Vickers company-amassed a huge fortune by selling weapons to both sides in the Boer War, Balkan conflicts...
...pleasantest ways in which a man of wealth can lose money is to back a ballet troupe. Distinguished losers at ballet in recent decades have included the Aga Khan and Sir Basil Zaharoff (original Ballet Russe of Monte Carlo), Cincinnati's yeast king, Julius Fleischmann (Universal Art, Inc.), Manhattan's rug widow, Lucia Chase (Ballet Theatre), Boston's department-store prince, Lincoln Kirstein (American Ballet). Last week another prospective loser cheerfully bet his chips: Chilean-born George de Cuevas, onetime Marqués de Piedrablanca de Guana, who married the late John D. Rockefeller's granddaughter...