Jean Paul Getty 1892 -1976 Poem by Sheena Blackhall

Sarah Catherine McPhersonwas his mother
Reared as a Methodist by his teetotal parents.
His schoolboy nickname "Dictionary Getty"
Flagged up his love of reading.

Six foot tall, and lean, he swam, walked, lifted weights
He boxed and womanised. Called Death
‘Joining the great majority'
Was fluent in French, Italian, German
Conversed in Spanish, Arabic and Russian.
Read the classics in Ancient Greek and Latin
Enrolled at the University of Oxford
Was tutored at Magdalen College.
Became a millionaire aged 21
A Caesar amongst Caesars of the oil world

When he was ten, the Wright Brothers rickety plane took flight
Over eight decades of change, he saw men walk on the moon,
The sky grow thick with aircraft
He lived a time with his parents in Indian territory
In Kansas City, he watched ten great chiefs dining
Wrapped in blankets, fierce in feathered headdress
Chief Two Keys sporting gold rings in his earlobes

At fifteen, Getty became a roustabout
Learning his trade in his father's oil business
Three dollars for a twelve hour day of drudgery
Bunk house living, grub shack eating
Drinking bootleg whiskey with the boys
Nicknamed Red, his blisters formed callouses

His Methodist frugal parents, were teetotal
Faithful like swans until death parted them
Whilst Paul had five divorces and five wives
Five sons and fifteen wives. One grandson
Paul III, ‘The Golden Hippy of Rome'
Was kidnapped, his severed ear, sent by the Mafia
To put screws on for a handsomeransom payout

Paul's shoemaker was Lobb
His tailor: Kilgour, French & Stanbury
He owned a Cadilac to drive around
Kept a menagerie in his Malibu home
Took his lioness walking on a leash

He made up set replies to unwanted mail
One for personal pleas, another from organizations
1,000 letters per day poured through his letterbox
A team of secretaries batted them back to sender
Fund hunters, favour seekers, beggars for loans or contributions
Marriage proposals…all these he styled ‘barracudas'…
The constant snappers at the rich man's heels

In Britain, he bought Sutton Place to live in
Edward the Confessor hunted here
This Tudor mansion, in the Domesday Book
Henry VIII met Anne Boleyn therein
Its Red Room haunted by the dead girl's ghost
Mr Getty held a party for 2,000 guests
Ambassadors, performers, MPs, minor royalty
Winning a spread in Tatler magazine

Caviar, consommé, roast veal, strawberries,
A milk bar and a real life wandering cow
Champagne, lobsters, other delicacies
Celebrities dining, dancing, chatting…
Three orchestras played on till three am

At Xmas for the Woking Orphanage,
He opened his home to host a xmas party
This officer in the Legion d'Honneur

His Getty Museum was based on an ancient villa
Villadei Papyrie in Herculaneum
His drive for collecting Art
He called the gorilla sitting on his back
Amassing drawings, manuscripts, antiquities…
Rembrandt, Fragonard, Holbein
Manet, Cezanne, Goya, Rubensand Steen
Van Gogh, Turner, David, Da Vinci and Monet
Raphael, Degas and Durer, reeling them in like fish

Tight fisted, frugal in his personal ways
But open handed, shared his artistic treasures
Free to posterity for any and all to savour.