But just to sketch this out, The Founding Mellon was Andrew, (1785-1856), and he had five children, but only one is particularly relevant to the Business side of the family line, Thomas Mellon, (1813-1908). Thomas had eight children, some died quite young, others (the girls) were not all that critical to business — but two of the sons, Andrew (1855-1937) and Richard Beatty Mellon, (1858-1933)are critical. It was Thomas Mellon who put the family fortune together, based on Real Estate, Coal Mining, Aluminum, Oil — not PA Oil, that was Rockefeller turf, but Gulf Oil down in LA and off shore, and a whole range of businesses involved with steel, ownership of tram systems in Pittsburgh and other PA cities, Railroads, and ultimately of course Banking and Finance. From the time Thomas died in 1908 until about the time of World War One, the family fortune was managed by Andrew and Richard from a Partners desk in the family bank, but their interests divided about the time the US got into WWI, with Andrew moving into Republic Party Orbits, much more involved with Finance as opposed to starting businesses in PA and all. Andrew eventually became Secretary of the Treasury in Republican Administrations in the 1920’s, and after the depression began, and Hoover needed to disappear him, Ambassador to the Court of St. James. While Sec of the Treasury, he furthered his interest in Art Collecting, eventually buying much of the French Impressionist wealth of the Tzar’s collection in the Hermitage in Leningrad from Stalin’s agents — so much that he actually financed the first Soviet Five Year Plan as it needed hard currency. This, plus much else eventually became the foundation collection for the National Gallery in DC, with Mellon financing the museum on the mall. FDR accepted the deed to all this from Andrew Mellon a few weeks before Mellon died in 1937. He left one son, Paul, who also made huge contributions from the Mellon fortune to the National Gallery of Art. Paul’s second wife was Bunny Mellon, who, if you have read New Frontier and Kennedy stuff you will know was Jacqui’s best friend during the WH years. Bunny Mellon designed the Rose Garden.

The other brother, Richard, stayed home and stuck to the banking business in Pittsburgh when Andrew exited from day to day management of the family partnership during WWI. Eventually Richard had two children, Richard King Mellon (1899-1970), and Sarah Cordelia, (1903-1965). It is Sarah who Married Alan Magee Scaife, resulting in the current Richard Mellon Scaife, who, as I said, is not in the Mellon Family Book, nor in the Index.

Butttttt — you can get an idea of what he (the unnamed Mellon) might be worth by looking at what his mum inherited when her dad, Richard died in 1933. The Richard Mellon estate was administered by Andrew, and was divided three ways, his wife got a third, Richard King got a third, and Sarah got a third — that is one third of the Richard & Andrew Partnership — with Richard’s estate including the Mellon National Bank, Alcoa, Gulf Oil, and a number of other investments including transit, railroads, coal mines, and other odd things. The estimated value in 1933, (highly depressed dollars) was 200 million. (the convention is to multiply depression dollars by 7 to get a 1990 sense of value — thus in 1990 dollars, 1.4 billion.) And one has to assume that between 33 and today, this kind of Capital would have significantly increased, especially considering it was based in stock in the Mellon Bank, Alcoa, Gulf Oil and the like.

During World War II both the Andrew and the Richard side of the Mellon Family were involved in OSS. Aside from Paul’s going into Omaha Beach, and eventually participating in OSS activity in both France and Germany behind the lines — not much else is known in specific terms. Alan Magee Scaife’s involvement is vague, but apparently RMS’s dad was involved with the financial side of OSS, and immediate post-war reorganization of French and German politics. Cannadine also tells us that the Richard Mellon side of the family in the post war era, was massively invested in South American projects — oil and mining. But he also tells us that in the 60’s and 70’s some of the Richard Mellon’s side assets lost money pretty big time, particularly the Bank. After Richard King’s death in 1970, professional non-family management was brought in to reorganize.

The Andrew and Richard sides of the Mellon Family split politically after WWII, with Paul identified more with Democrats, and Richard an early and strong supporter of Eisenhower and particularly Nixon. We know this carried on, as RMS gave over a million dollars altogether to Nixon Campaign Funds in 68 and 72, and then got the favor of a dirt cheap price on those “cultural” CIA Assets in 1974. Perhaps the clear picture would be RMS moving into playing in covert politics just as he was being edged out of Mellon Asset Management, because of loss of money on investments — in otherwords, he wasn’t a particularly good businessman. At least one of the questions I would ask would be about this.

I actually have another bag of factual evidence about Scaife, but I still cannot reconstruct dates. You see, I have actually met the guy. My Uncle who was President of a small investment bank in the 60’s, merged that bank with Mellon Bank, and during the merger negotiations, I was visiting Aunt, Uncle and Cousin, and RMS came for a visit. (more like an inspection tour), I am sure it was before his first divorce, because it was the first wife that I met. Once I confirm some dates — I’ll post my insight.

So why is he endorsing Hillary? I don’t think it is a conversion. I think it is his version of Business. The first act was not Hillary, it was lunch with Bill to talk about Africa, resulting in a nice big check to Bill’s African AIDS projects. What is it all about? Don’t know. Angolian Oil, Nigerian Oil, mining interests in several countries, problems recovering from earlier support for Apartheid Regimes in S. Africa? Maybe all of the above?

Then there was the case of the printmedia entity, which, I believe, resolved the payola scandal in FL by firing a reporter, but later rehiring him after the scandal ebbed; this is another case of psyops style compromising of an ethnic minority’s sense of deprivation, though a much more turbulent demographic than the PA case involving AW.
_____
*SONSHINE FAMILY TELEVISION, INC.
Licensee of Station WBPH-TV
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP, INC
Licensee of Stations WABM(TV), Birmingham,
Alabama, WVTV(TV), Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
WUXP-TV, Nashville, Tennessee, KOCB(TV),
WEAR-TV, Pensacola, Florida, WPMY(TV),
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, KABB(TV), San
Antonio, Texas, WTWC-TV, Tallahassee,
Florida, and former licensee of KSMO-TV,
Kansas City, Missouri

These were consolidated in the ruling FCC 07-152: formerly separately docketed:
File No. EB-06-IH-3489
File No. EB-06-IH-3486

A bit of Googling turned up the fact that Kai Ryssdal, the latest host of this [NPR] financial program does not have a background in finance, or in radio, or even in journalism. Before switching careers he was a briefing officer for the Pentagon Joint Chiefs of Staff, and has a master’s degree in national security studies from Georgetown University.

Simply maahveluhs what a little neocon pressure on PBS budget can do; they managed to turn the aircraft carrier of PBS to starboard within a few yards rather than three or four miles. Will we ever enjoy substantive professionals again, and cast aside the scores of “Pentagon briefers”, lobbyists turned agency heads and PR hacks-cum-senior advisers that this administration has thrust upon our public discourse?

Scaife’s role on the right is first and foremost to sustain and expand ideology. But by calling for withdrawal from Iraq, he works counter to almost all of the conservative ideological apparatus.