Hearst Plays With Marion Davies

Hearst plays croquet with longtime mistress Marion Davies at his palatial estate near Sam Simeon, Calif., in 1935. Among the acts often attributed to Hearst: leading the U.S. into the Spanish-American War, criminalizing marijuana, covering up the murder of Thomas Ince, ruining the career of Orson Welles (whose was a thiny veiled biography of the publisher), and if not inventing then at least perfecting “yellow journalism” (sensational reportage that emphasizes selling papers over delivering accurate information).