Author Description

At his death on December 10, 1990, Armand Hammer was hailed as one of the great entrepreneurs of all time - a man who came out of retirement at the age of 59 to build the virtually bankrupt Occidental Petroleum Corporation into one of the world's great international companies. The multimillionaire industrialist was also saluted as an art collector and philanthropist and was the recipient of countless humanitarian awards. Noted, too, were his friendships with presidents, Kings, and princes, and his self-appointed role as a peace-maker with unparalleled access to the leaders of the Soviet Union. The world, it was said, would never see the likes of Armand Hammer again. Now Carl Blumay reveals a very different man in a book that could never have been published while Hammer was alive. As both his public relations consultant and Director of Public Relations at Occidental, Blumay spent 25 years as Hammer's colleague and confidant, and was the. Chief architect of the carefully crafted public image that Hammer played to perfection on the world stage. Blumay was also, however, the only close associate of Hammer's who never signed a vow of silence. Now, in The Dark Side of Power, he gives us the full and often shocking truth about this complex and mysterious man. The Armand Hammer that Blumay introduces was a man of genuine charm and charisma, huge ambition and prodigious energy, but also a man driven to make. Money, not for its own sake but for the power it gave him over anyone and anything that stood in his way. The Dark Side of Power shatters the Hammer myth with startling revelations about his marriages and tormented family relationships, his shrewd and ruthless business deals, his sly maneuvers to win political favors from five American presidents, his self-serving manipulation of the media, his bribery schemes, and his many brushes with the law. Here, at last, is the. True story behind Hammer's fabled meeting with Lenin, and why he subsequently became a Soviet propagandist and "an agent of influence" for the KGB. Here, too, are the reasons why Hammer was relentlessly scrutinized by the IRS and the SEC, and how he attempted to evade conviction for passing an illegal contribution to the Nixon administration. Friends and family meant nothing to Hammer, Blumay also reveals, while his art collection and generous donations to various. Charities and causes were designed solely to perpetuate his own fame and prestige. This penetrating, uncompromising biography is a book that only an insider could have written. With intimately detailed descriptions of his actions and motivations, often in Hammer's own words, The Dark Side of Power gives us the explosive truth about the man behind the mask that Hammer himself created.