Nightmare of Insolvency in a World at War

Abstract On August 10, 1937, John Francis Neylan, who had agreed several months earlier to return as the chief financial officer and attorney of the Hearst media empire, wrote to William Randolph Hearst concerning the desperate condition of the corporation’s finances-and his struggles to right them. Somewhat bewildered and definitely perturbed, he reviewed in this letter their hectic relationship. Over “the last nineteen months I have endeavored with whatever ability and ingenuity and earnestness I had to aid you … and I was frequently rebuffed for my pains:’ Consequently, he had resigned, in frustration, late in December 1935, only to be persuaded by a submissive Hearst, almost to the point of childlike compliance, not to abandon him. Early in June 1937, Neylan agreed to come on board again and “lay the foundation to restore … (Hearst’s] current credit which had been terribly shattered:’ After skillfully obtaining assurances of cooperation from the major banking creditors, he had directed his headstrong client, who was unaccustomed to accepting supervision of any kind, to follow an effective and advantageous course of action. And for almost two months all went smoothly, that is, until Hearst had second thoughts and sought other counsel. Neylan again submitted his resignation, lamenting that the rejection of his strategy would result in financial disaster.