This episode is brought to you by Dashlane;
Try Dashlane Premium free for 30 days at www.dashlane.com/infographics and never forget another password and keep
all your online accounts secure! In the 1800s when the USA was growing into
the powerhouse it is today, a lot of families were getting rich. This was called the gilded age. Some made a fortune from things like the gold
rush, while others just had great ideas. Thanks to a guy called Levi Strauss we got
blue jeans, something he invented during the Gold Rush for people who needed sturdier work
pants. He amassed great wealth thanks to his nifty
invention. Prior to this some of the wealthiest people
were plantation owners, merchants, statesmen, and then came the bankers, real estate moguls,
and those working in the oil and railroad industries. In the 20th century others made fortunes,
too, or should we say fickle fortunes. Some families managed to retain their wealth,
while others lost it all, or most of it. Those are the people we’ll talk about today. The Pulitzers
We’ll start with a name we think many of you will be familiar with. The reason you might have heard the name is
because there is an award called the Pulitzer Prize. This is given to people who have created something
great, either in literature, journalism, music, and more. But do you know why we have this prize at
all? Well, that’s because a kind man called Joseph
Pulitzer gave Columbia University a bunch of money to start a journalism school in 1892. This was the world’s first journalism school. Joseph had amassed quite a fortune in the
newspaper business and wanted a country full of great reporters. He got depressed, sick, and died, but in 1917
his name lived on when the first Pulitzer prize as we know it today was awarded. But that’s not why we are here today. What we want to know is what happened to all
his cash? The answer is his grandson Peter Pulitzer
invested a lot of that fortune in an 800-acre citrus farm, but that didn’t go well because
the trees got sick from something called citrus canker. This is a bacterial disease that destroys
the trees. We are told this would have ruined him, but
the husband of his ex-wife bailed him out. That saved the citrus operation, so while
Joseph didn’t exactly lose it all, he would have without a little help from friends. The Strohs
This family we doubt you’ve heard of, unless you’re a big beer fan. The story goes that a young Bernhard Stroh
had learned how to make beer in his native Germany, but during the German revolution
he went to the USA with 150 bucks in his pocket and a recipe to make a decent beer. At age 28 in 1850 he started a brewery in
Detroit and his son, Bernhard Stroh Jr., took over after him. Prohibition obviously wasn’t good for these
beer makers, and they branched out into non-alcoholic beer and ice cream. When that ended the beer company just went
from strength to strength and its said by 1978 the Stroh’s were pumping out 6.4 million
US beer barrels to thirsty Americans. According to Forbes magazine in the 1980s
the Stroh’s were rolling in dough with a fortune of $700 million. Then came the decline. Apparently the new generation got into serious
debt after some shaky acquisitions. Then came some other mighty brewing companies
such as Miller and Coors and the Strohs got left behind. In 1999 after brewing beer for 149 years the
company was done and was taken over by other brewers. That 700 million fortune was gone. The then company president, John Stroh III
said in a statement, “Emotionally, it was an extremely difficult one to make, knowing
that it would impact our loyal employees, and recognizing that it would mean the end
of our family's centuries old brewing tradition that had become, in essence, an important
part of our identity.” The Hartfords
So far we haven’t had anyone who lost their fortune from living what you might call a
playboy lifestyle, but with the Hartfords we do. Before we get to the big spending kid of the
family, we’ll tell you how these people got their money. A man called George Huntington Hartford had
taken over a business called The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company. When he was head of that he branched out into
grocery stores and supermarkets under the name A and P. This became massive, a name
as big as McDonald’s is today. In fact, you might hear it being called the
Walmart before there was a Walmart. In the 60s it was the biggest retailer of
any kind in the USA and in the 70s was at least the biggest chain of grocery stores. Everyone went to A and P. At its peak it had
15,709 stores in the USA and as you can imagine it made the Hartford family very, very rich. They were ranked as one of the wealthiest
families in the USA for a while. So, what could go possibly go wrong? Well, it was basically competition from more
modern stores starting in the 50s. They tried to keep up, but kept failing. Over the decades it closed 100s of its stores,
got hurt badly by the Great Recession in the 2000s and finally filed for bankruptcy in
2015. And like that, it was gone. But there was still cash around, because we
are talking about extreme wealth here. Now we can talk about the playboy. His name was Huntington Hartford and according
to various reports he squandered his massive inheritance. He hung out with the stars, bought fast cars,
big houses, lots of art works, and we are told he lost it all. That was the end of the Hartford fortune. The Kluges
This story begins with something called Metromedia, which was a media behemoth. It was taken over by German-American entrepreneur
John Kluge in the 1950s and he expanded it and made a lot of money. In the 80s he sold it to 20th Century Fox
film studio and at one point Forbes had him as the richest man in America. The billionaire later turned to philanthropy
and did things like invest $60 million to build the John W. Kluge Center. In fact, he donated millions all over the
place. So again, what could possibly go wrong. Well, it seems Mr. Kluge was never settled
in his relationships and he got married four times. Now we don’t exactly know where all his
cash went, but we do know that one person who got quite a lot of it lost it all. Her name Patricia Kluge, one of those wives. After her divorce she got her hands on a 200-acre
estate and $1 million per year in the divorce settlement. She bought a vineyard and tried to expand
it, which got in her lots of debt. There was then a real estate crash that ruined
her and she declared bankruptcy. As for her vineyard, it was bought by the
man who is now President of the United States, Donald Trump. The Vanderbilts
We will finish with one of the most well-known of wealthy families in the USA. Their story starts with a man called Cornelius
Vanderbilt, the son of American-Dutch parents. As a young boy he worked on his father’s
ferry in New York Harbor. He was only 11. At age 16 he wanted to do his own ferry business
and he borrowed a bit of cash to start his own operation taking people between Staten
Island and Manhattan. You just couldn’t hold this boy back and
he was well known for his entrepreneurship. At 19 he married his first cousin and got
busy at home as well as at work. What we mean by that is he had 13 kids. He eventually branched out into regional steamboat
lines and ocean-going steamships and after that built a railroad empire and all kinds
of other business. At the time of his death in 1877 he had amassed
$100 million. According to an inflation calculator today
that would be two billion, three hundred eighty-two million, three hundred nineteen thousand,
six hundred thirty-five dollars. Quite a bit of cash. And you know what, he left 95 percent of that
to one son called Billy because he believed this son was capable of running his empire. Billy did just that and more, doubling the
family’s wealth in his lifetime. But it seems this family just ran out of steam
when it came to making cash, and over the years the fortune dried up. Some of the Vanderbilts over the years would
do well, but none remained ultra-wealthy and that’s why some people talk about the “Fall
of the House of Vanderbilt.” Is it really that good anyway to be born rich? In a book about the family the author wrote
that one of the grandsons of the great Cornelius once said, “Inherited wealth is a real handicap
to happiness.” There’s plenty of different ways to lose
your money, and we’re betting that if we made this video again in ten years, at least
one family would have lost their fortune to something that’s becoming more and more
common every day - hacking. But you, being the intelligent Infographics
Show viewer that you are, will rest easy because you’ll have Dashlane, the one and only tool
you need to keep your personal info and digital accounts safe and secure. And in addition to that, their Dark Web monitoring
services will immediately notify you if it finds any of your personal information for
sale on an online marketplace, so you can take steps to protect yourself right away! Don’t be like millions of victims every
day, get Dashlane and keep your digital life secure right now! Head on over to www.dashlane.com/infographics
for a free 30 day trial, and if you use the coupon code ‘infographics’ you can get
10% off a premium subscription today! Do you agree with that statement? Tell us in the comments. Also, be sure to check out our other video
Why Winning The Lottery Is The Worst Thing That Can Happen To You. Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t
forget to like, share and subscribe. See you next time.
