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Samuel Insull is mostly forgotten today by the general public, but from the 1890s through the 1930s he was one of the most prominent figures in the U.S. economy. Indeed, Insull was such a notable personality that Orson Welles borrowed a chapter from his life and fashioned it into a segment of the landmark film “Citizen Kane.”
At the peak of his power, Insull’s fortune totaled roughly $100 million. But by the time of his death, he had only $1,000 to his name which had been sullied during the wreckage created by the Great Depression.
Shining in Edison’s Glow: Insull was born in London in 1859, the son of a tradesman who focused his Sunday energies on being a Congregationalist lay preacher. Insull’s education was patchy and by the age of 14, he began a series of clerking jobs in London-based offices, including a stint as a stenographer for the publication Vanity Fair.