From the 60 Minutes Archive: Billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad

60 minutes rewind in this era of bell tightening  it's kind of refreshing to take a look at people   whose happiest pastime is to give money  away such a man is 77 year old eli broad   a self-made billionaire art collector and for  the past 10 years one of the most consistently   generous philanthropists in america supporting  education reform medical research and the arts   who also wants to transform that  sprawling monster of a city los angeles   into a cultural capital eli broad thinks big  but his critics say he can act very small   that he may give billions away but he tries to  micromanage almost every dollar he gives eli bro   doesn't really care what they say all he  wants to do is die poor well relatively poor   i believe in two things one andrew carnegie  said he who does with wealth dies in shame   and someone said he who gives while  he lives also knows where it goes there's no one quite so civic-minded in america  eli broad and his wife edie have become paparazzi   pets because of the money they lavish on los  angeles so far more than half a billion dollars   who says money can't buy your love right here  please to hold his footprint on los angeles   he's a driving force behind 16 major public  institutions in the center of downtown   a cultural corridor anchored by the magnificent  disney hall home of the los angeles philharmonic   next to it the home of the los angeles opera the  museum of contemporary art the high school for the   performing arts and the school of music in greater  los angeles three scientific research centers a   theater an art center and another contemporary  art museum he puts his name on almost all of them you've said that your sense of being a wealthy man  actually increased the more you gave money away   i think it's true i don't feel i'm here to just  maintain a status quo i'm here to make things   better or different and you want the world to know  about it by putting your name and all the things   you do support i don't keep it a secret that's  for sure brode took us to grand avenue this is   quite a vista which he plans to transform into  a vibrant city center rivaling new york's museum   mile disney hall designed by frank gehry almost  did not get built brode rescued the project by   putting up his own money and putting the squeeze  on fellow plutocrats it's really become the symbol   of our city and then there's his own museum the  broad this is a rendering it's still a parking lot   but it will eventually hold his 1.6 billion dollar  art collection how much is is this going to cost   something approaching a billion dollars more  more more we were interrupted by an angelino   driving by the dodgers eli by the dodgers you  could be the george steinbrenner of los angeles   i've got enough on my plate brode runs his  philanthropic foundation like a for-profit   business not a charity charity he says is just  writing checks he practices what he calls venture   philanthropy we don't give it away we invest it  and we want to return remember i started work   as a cpa so that gave me fiscal discipline and  everything i did in business i guess some of it   carries over to philanthropy eli broad says i  want results and if you're not going to show me   results i'm not going to give you the money and  incidentally after one year if you don't show me   results i'm going to stop funding you new york  mayor michael bloomberg no mean philanthropist   himself admires broad's uncuddly approach and the  32 million dollars he's given to new york schools   eli broad sets the standard i think it's really  being a role model for others and they look at eli   and because of him they get the ideas i'm going to  be innovative and be philanthropic and and do some   other things the leverage of eli broad is really  quite amazing amazing to the extent of almost half   a billion dollars he's put into improving public  education he spends even more on medical research   eight years ago he teamed up with harvard and  mit to create you guessed it the broad institute   in cambridge massachusetts the road is the world's  leading genomic medicine institute all discoveries   are free available to anyone let me be rude and  ask how much have you put into this institute   600 million dollars total broad grew up in detroit  the only child of immigrant shopkeepers at 21 he   married edie lawson we borrowed twenty  five thousand dollars from our parents   and that twenty five thousand led ultimately to a  lot of money in 1957 broden the partner launched   a no-frills home building business he was a  millionaire by 27. he bought sun life insurance   in 1971 and sold it in 1999 for 18 billion  dollars and that's when he and edie decided   to give most of it away you're giving 75 percent  of your wealth away maybe more by the time it's   over or maybe more you have two children yes  what about them they're well taken care of   they're different than their dad different how  they don't have frankly the the the ambition to   build a great business that i had you've been open  about admitting that you were not a great father   look when i started it was 24 7 as they say  and i didn't spend enough time with the kids   when they were growing up i admit that is that  something you regret now i do to some degree   we all go back and we do things over differently  in our lives the story will continue after this today bro balances his life with his passion for  contemporary art like this richard serra sculpture   civilizations are not remembered by their business  people or bankers or lawyers they're remembered by   the arts he's collected over 2000 works of art  unlike most collectors almost all of broad's art   is available for loan to museums he loaned  these pieces to the la county museum of art   and threw in a 50 million dollar building  to house them one of his favorite artists is   the irrepressible jeff coons and here a veritable  cornucopia of kunsan genius all of course painted   and sculpted by hired craftsmen kurds is nothing  if not worshipful of eli bros you know morley and   eli i just have to say uh standing here what a  fantastic location i mean look at the the natural   light that's coming in on these works it's just a  tremendous gallery and the balloon dog what does   it do to you do you get some kind of emotional  care i do it makes me smile makes me feel good   it makes me proud it especially makes me proud  when i see young people and others looking at   the work and it introduces them the art in a  way that no other work really does and a piece   that quite honestly mystifies me michael  jackson and chimp is it michael jackson bubbles   when i made this series the banality series a  banality of images i was trying to communicate to   people that whatever you respond to it's perfect  if you find code's art speak incomprehensible   we'll just wait these are to make references to be  in the womb a little bit before birth and uh prior   to any kind of concept of death do you totally  get what he's talking about not to the extent that   jeff does but but i i do i do listen understand  and learn from artists especially jeff but not all   artists are as respectful as jeff coons take  architect frank gehry eli's a control freak   i worked on a house for him i didn't want to do  it why didn't you want to do it i just told him   i didn't like him he said you'll learn to like me  road fired gary then built the house anyway using   gary's drawings after two years in seven different  models i was impatient i think he wanted to spend   another year or two designing it i said frank a  work of art has never finished it's only abandoned   they worked together again three years later to  build disney hall and once again broad fired gary   but he had to eat humble pie when the disney  family insisted that he hire gary back we did   it we built it we weren't friends you've made your  piece with him at the same time you i won't do a   project for him that's true eli's middle name  is strings attached eli strings attached broad   christopher knight the art clinic for the los  angeles times has been broad watching for years he   is a first generation male self-made gazillionaire  and people in that category typically   believe and with good evidence that they know  how to make something a success and that can   be a problem with science brod leaves the details  to the experts but when he dangles his money and   his art in front of most major museums in la he  sees himself as the expert and if they don't play   he won't pay well i'm a perfectionist and on  things i know something about i do get involved   we've talked to a number of people who say that  you can turn into a bully i don't think i'm a   bully but on the other hand i'm not a potted plant  either no i'm sure you're not a part of the plant   but these people who say some pretty unkind things  about you will not talk publicly they clearly are   scared of you i don't know why they're  scared of me well because you're a rich guy   and therefore a powerful guy and you've got  a temper i've got some strong views on things   but even your good friend frank gehry  says eli can be a real pain in the ass   i can understand why frank could say that because  i am impatient and patience has its limits   number one it's his money and you don't  have to take it so i'm sympathetic with that   eli is not a micromanager as much as he has  ideas on how you can make society better   and he's devoting his own money to doing it kind  of hard to argue with that he doesn't have the   right to do it and you don't have to play the  game if you don't want to when you've got one   800 pound gorilla in the room you're scared to  death of the guy everybody does want something   from eli and since he is the biggest game in town  nobody wants to alienate him i just appreciate you   all so much just watch this crowd of the recent  gala for the los angeles museum of contemporary   art which broad bailed out two years ago for 30  million dollars it was a scrum of culture vultures   fashion victims and art victims dealers and  collectors a night when skinniness was next only   to godliness when philanthropy and social climbing  self-aggrandizement and greed dissolved into one   gigantic air kiss all under the benevolent eye  of that feared and admired dictator eli brode   beyond the altruistic part of it ego plays a  part in this oh absolutely a desire to be loved a   desire to be respected i'm not doing these things  to become the most popular person in the city   i want to be the most respected person we  left him on the roof of his art foundation   this fully contented man this master of all  he surveys what's this at the very end here   i know what this is what is it it's bigfoot   it is bigfoot and who is the biggest foot in los  angeles right now i don't know i don't think so

Channel: 60 Minutes

Views: 44,602

Keywords: 60 Minutes, CBS News, Eli Broad, Los Angeles

Id: 3k_GIIcY-aE

Length: 13min 29sec (809 seconds)

Published: Sat May 01 2021