Frank Winfield Woolworth

popular name: Hugh Hefner

date_of_death: September 27, 2017

age: 91

cause_of_death: Sepsis and cardiac arrest caused by an E. coli infection

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: Hugh Hefner transformed the adult entertainment industry with his groundbreaking publication Playboy. From the first issue featuring Marilyn Monroe in December 1953, Playboy expanded into a multimillion-dollar enterprise mirroring the often controversial, if not outright sleazy, sensibilities of its founder. By the early 1960s, it was a huge success, soon expanding to open its namesake clubs all over the world. It also moved into TV with Playboy After Dark. By the 1970s, Hefner set himself up at the Playboy Mansion West in California, remaining editor-in-chief of the magazine he founded while daughter Christie ran the day to day operations. Once worth in excess of $200 million, upon his death the Playboy empire was worth $55 million while the magazine folded in 2020.

popular name: David Sarnoff

date_of_death: December 12, 1971

age: 80

cause_of_death: Mastoid infection

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: David Sarnoff was an American businessman and pioneer of American radio and television. Throughout most of his career he led the Radio Corporation of America in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his retirement in 1970. It all began in 1920 when Sarnoff reiterated his “radio music box” memo and was given a small amount of money to develop a radio prototype. As RCA’s new general manager, he demonstrated radio’s market potential by broadcasting the boxing match between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier (July 2, 1921); the broadcast created a sensation. Within three years RCA sold more than $80 million worth of receiving sets. In 1926 RCA formed the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). As early as 1923, Sarnoff had perceived the potential of television, which the contributions of several inventors were making technically feasible. His meeting in 1929 with Westinghouse engineer Vladimir Zworykin convinced him that home television was possible, and Sarnoff persuaded Westinghouse to back Zworykin’s work. In 1930 Westinghouse’s television research and Zworykin were transferred to RCA. By 1939 Sarnoff was able to give a successful demonstration of the new medium at the New York World’s Fair. And as they say ... the rest is history. Upon his death, he was laid to rest at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.

popular name: Herman Armour

date_of_death: September 8, 1901

age: 64

cause_of_death: Heart attack

claim_to_fame: Business and Finance

best_know_for: At the young age of 18 Herman Armour left home and made his way to Milwaukee where he opened a butcher shop, eventually becoming Armour, Plankington & Co. With loads of ambition he left the business in charge of his partner, John Plankington, in 1862 and headed to Chicago where he established a grain commission business. Three years later he moved again, opening a branch office of Armour, Plankington & Co. (now a major pork packing business) in New York City. In 1868 Armour founded the commission house, H. O. Armour & Company, in New York City. By this time Herman's brother Philip oversaw the Midwestern packing business, renamed Armour & Co. in 1870. In 1875 that operation was moved to Chicago. With the death of his brother Philip in 1901, his son, J. Ogden Armour, took over the meatpacking business, hired thousands of African-American workers to break a union strike in 1904, and by 1923, as Armour Refrigerator Line was broken up for anti-trust violations, the business was at the brink of bankruptcy. After the younger Armour was fired, the company recovered and remained a major meatpacker for decades.