Assis Chateaubriand

Chateaubriand was born in Umbuzeiro, a state of Paraíba, in the Northeast of Brazil, on October 4, 1892, as the son of Francisco José Bandeira de Melo and his wife, Maria Carmem Guedes Gondim.

Chateaubriand married only once, to Maria Henriqueta Barroso do Amaral, daughter of an attorney named Judge Zózimo Barroso do Amaral, with whom he had Fernando, their first son.

From a troublesome youth in the northeast of Brazil, Chateaubriand followed the trail of a self-made man into a well-off position in the Brazilian press.

Chateaubriand began as a journalist at the age of 15, working for the newspaper Gazeta do Norte.[7] He also wrote for Jornal Pequeno and Diário de Pernambuco. In 1917, having moved to Rio de Janeiro, he worked for Correio da Manhã. In this newspaper, he would publish his impressions about his trip to Europe in 1920.

In the state of Pernambuco, as a young lawyer, he rapidly grew to fame through a series of verbal clashes, or polemics, with political and literary figures. At this time, still in his twenties, he managed to become a Professor of Roman Law at the Law Faculty of Recife, after a hard-fought examination, being formally appointed for the post only after various clashes with the state's politicos, among them General Dantas Barreto and Dr. Manuel Borba. What finally settled the battle was a telegram from the president of the republic, Venceslau Brás, on December 8, 1915. His victory in attaining the position as professor further became a platform for his next goal which was to own a newspaper of his own by the age of thirty.

In 1924, Chatô became the director of O Jornal. In the following year, a newspaper from São Paulo was added to his press conglomerate: Diário da Noite. In 1929, Chateaubriand added another newspaper to Diários Associados: Estado de Minas.

After moving to Rio de Janeiro, Chateaubriand worked as a journalist and lawyer, and it was in the latter capacity that he made friends with influential people, among them the public utilities trust Light & Co's CEO Alexander McKenzie and the American mining magnate Percival Farquhar.[8]

Chateaubriand was a media mogul in Brazil between the late 1930s and the early 1960s and the owner of Diários Associados, a conglomerate that counted at its peak more than a hundred newspapers, radio and TV stations, magazines and a telegraphic agency. He is also known as the co-creator and founder, in 1947, of the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP),[9] together with Pietro Maria Bardi.

On September 25, 1935, Chateaubriand inaugurated Rádio Tupi (pt) in a ceremony attended by the inventor of radio Guglielmo Marconi, who, ten days earlier, had broadcast the first musical program with a 120-voice orchestra performing the Brazilian National Anthem and was conducted by conductor Villa-Lobos. In its beginning, the station was known as "Cacique do Ar", also being called by its prefix PRG-3 or, simply, G-3.

Chateaubriand also founded the first television network of Latin America and the fifth in the world (Tupi TV).[10] He was Senator of the Republic between 1952 and 1957.[11]

After becoming a press tycoon, his main tool for money making was the most extensive use of libel and blackmail, directed against magnates and authorities.[8] In the promotion of his pet projects, as in his campaign for the building of airports and training of pilots across Brazil, he would resort to any means whatsoever, having even ordered his subordinates to shoot a German businessman who refused to be blackmailed by him.[12] Later in life, he would refurbish his São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) with a whole collection of old European masters' works purchased at bargain prices in an impoverished post-WWII Europe, by using funds extorted through blackmail from various Brazilian businessmen.[12] Chateaubriand never made a great secret about his peculiar business strategies: "excellency in business means buying without money" he once allegedly said.[13]

He died on April 4, 1968, in São Paulo, after fighting the effects of a stroke for a number of years.

An often polemic and controversial figure, hated and feared, Chateaubriand has also been nicknamed "the Brazilian Citizen Kane".[14][15] He was also accused of unethical behavior, for allegedly blackmailing companies[16] that did not place ads in his media vehicles, and for insulting entrepreneurs with lies.[17] His empire would have been built based on political interests and agreements,[18] including tumultuous ties with Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas.[19]

On August 20, 1966, the journalist, already in very poor health due to a thrombosis, landed in the then city of Toledo in the interior of the state of Paraná. The village that until then was known as "Tupãssi" or "Campo dos Baianos" was elevated to the status of municipality, receiving the name of Assis Chateaubriand. A ceremony was held and since he could no longer speak, his speech was read by his friend and employee Lima Duarte who had accompanied him pushing his wheelchair. According to Rudy Alvarez, the first elected mayor of the municipality, future governor of the state of Paraná Ney Braga (then general chief of police of the state) intended to void all land titles in the municipality due to irregularities such as the seizure and resale of land by armed groups linked to the former governor, Moisés Lupion. David Nasser, a regional lobbyist and journalist employed by Assis Chateaubriand, worked to elevate the area to municipality status to ensure that property titles were made official while honoring his boss. In the late 1960s, the city had a population of 130,000 but as of 2019 the city is home to 33,362 people. [20]

Francisco de Assis Chateaubriand Bandeira de Melo's power over the Brazilian media during his height from the 1920s and well into the '60s can be compared to that of William Randolph Hearst in the USA. He was known for having strong ties to the current leaders within both politics and the economy. At the same time, he always lacked a clear ideological agenda – except for being a staunch partisan of the untrammeled Free Market and of consented submission to imperialist interests. At the end of his life – particularly after a stroke in 1960 that left him unable to speak, he used a wheelchair and communicated with others mostly by means of notes typed in a specially adapted typewriter.[21] His media empire quickly declined after his death.[22] In the new ambience of a modernized Brazil, he was quickly dislocated by Rede Globo.[23]

• Morais, Fernando (1994). Chatô – O rei do Brasil (1st ed.). São Paulo: Editora Schwarcz LTDA (Cia. das Letras). ISBN 85-7164-396-2.