Norton Simon

Norton Winfred Simon (February 5, 1907-June 1, 1993), in the United States was a billionaire industrialist and philanthropist based in California. nortonsimon This work is copyrighted. ... February 5 is the 36th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1907 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... June 1 is the 152nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (153rd in leap years), with 213 days remaining. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003) Events Media:January January 1 - Czechoslovakia divides. ... Industrialist mainly refers to a person who takes a leading or visionary role in the process of building up an industry over a long time. ... State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd)  - Land 404,298 km²  - Water 20,047 km² (4. ...

Born into a successful Jewish family in Portland, Oregon, he attended high school in San Francisco, graduating in 1924. At his father's insistence, in 1925 he enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley, but left his pre-law studies within the first six weeks to found a sheet metal distribution company. He enjoyed early success and invested $7000 in 1927 in an orange juice bottling plant in Fullerton which was insolvent and renamed it Val Vita Food Products Company. He soon added other fruit and vegetables to the product lines and purchased canning equipment. The word Jew (Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... Portland is the largest city in Oregon, and county seat of Multnomah County. ... This article is about the city in California. ... 1924 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1925 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (also known as Cal, UC Berkeley, UCB, or simply Berkeley) is a public coeducational university situated in the foothills of Berkeley, California, USA to the east of San Francisco Bay, overlooking the Golden Gate. ...

As one of the first of his significant corporate moves, Simon sold Val Vita to Hunt Inc. in return for a controlling interest in the combined business. By 1943 he changed the company's name to Hunt Foods, Inc. and ran it with strict cost-controls and an unorthodox approach to marketing. During and after World War II, Simon focused on product visibility. Uncharacteristically for a food company at the time, he acquired full page advertisements in Vogue and Life magazines with full-color photos of Hunt's ketchup bottles and tomato sauce cans. His aggressive advertising ensured the company's slogan "Hunt for the best" was prominent. His marketing strategy worked, and by 1945 Hunt Foods became a household name and one of the largest food processing businesses on the West Coast. Hunts is now part of ConAgra Foods, Inc. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... For other meanings, see vogue. ... This article concerns the primary meanings of life in biology. ... ConAgra Foods, Inc. ...

With the growing profits from Hunt Foods, he began buying stock in other undervalued companies with growth potential, many of which were still undervalued following the loss of confidence in equities after the Great Depression. He diversified through acquisition into well known businesses such as McCall's Publishing, the Saturday Review of Literature, Canada Dry Corporation, Max Factor cosmetics and Avis Car Rental, through his holding company Norton Simon Inc. Many of these businesses had extensive interests outside the United States. Canada Dry is an American brand of soft drinks marketed by Dr. Pepper & Seven-Up, Inc. ... The cosmetic firm Max Factor was named after Max Factor, Sr, a make-up artist for the Russian royal ballet who emigrated to the United States in 1904. ...

Simon also accumulated one of the world's most significant private art collections which included works of the Impressionists, Old Masters and modern and native art. He served as a trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art and supported the development of the LA County Museum of Art. Simon initially lent most of his art collection to that Museum although as it expanded he pioneered the "museum without walls" concept by actively lending his collection to different museums around the world. See also Impressionist (entertainment): A girl with a watering can by Renoir, 1876 Impressionism was a 19th century art movement, which began as a private association of Paris-based artists who exhibited publicly in 1874. ... An Old Master (or old master) is one of the great European painters who lived 1500 through 1800, or a painting by one of these painters. ...

In 1969, his son Robert Simon committed suicide. The following year, he and his wife Lucille Ellis were divorced. He was married to actress Jennifer Jones in 1971. He also retired from active involvement in his business in 1969. He accepted appointments to the University of California Board of Regents, the Carnegie Commission on the Future of Higher Education, the boards of Reed College, the Los Angeles Music Center, the California School of Professional Psychology, and the Institute for Advanced Study. In 1970, Mr. Simon contested the California Republican Primary for the United States Senate unsuccessfully. For the Canadian curler of the same name, see Jennifer Jones (curler) Jennifer Jones in a publicity photo for Duel in the Sun by Al St. ...

By early 1974, Mr. Simon had begun to seek a permanent home for his large collection. He welcomed an overture from the financially strapped Pasadena Museum of Modern Art, and ultimately assumed control and secured naming rights.

He was diagnosed in 1984 with the neurological disorder Guillain-Barré syndrome although remained active in the Norton Simon Museum until his death in Beverly Hills in 1993. Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), is an acquired immune-mediated inflammatory disorder of the peripheral nervous system (i. ...

External Links

• [Article on Norton Simon's Art Collection (http://www.forbes.com/2004/05/25/cx_0525conn.html|Forbes)]
• [Corporate History (http://www.hunts.com/A04-Then.jsp?mnav=about|Hunts)]