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Show quit school at age 8 and started in business with a boat he salvaged for $25. He granted one interview in 1931 and, apparently dissatisfied with it, has never granted another. A close second to Ludwig in the hidden-ric- h batting order, and beyond him in anonymity, is Forrest Mars Sr. of Mars. Inc. lite to a trade paper. He has carried (M&M's. Three Musketeers. Milky secrecy to such a point that, until he "Howard Hughes surfaced recently in another brief trade Way), the Mars of Candy." permits no pictures item, most people assumed he was and has given one interview in his dead a fact that his executives, faced with instant dismissal upon giving out personal information about him, would neither confirm nor deny. With all their vast holdings, the hidden rich nevertheless take pains to avoid owning what might be termed "the public's toys." The late Aristotle Onassis once told me. "If you buy a public plaything, you become, ipso facto, a playboy yourself. I was never even a celebrity until I bought the casino at Monte Carlo." Mr. Onassis was too modest. His yacht Christina alone would have brought him. if not fame, at least notoriety. Among other attractions, which he rarely failed to point out to intimates, the Christina had barstools made from the penises of whales. There is no question that the ownership of a professional sports franchise. a movie studio, a television network, a magazine or a newspaper, or even a company that makes an actual play thing like a video game thrusts rich men into the limelight. Some, like the current generation of Hunts and Murchisons. obviously relish this attention. But others obviously do not and have found handling fame far more difficult than handling money. I once asked Howard Hughes how he felt about all this. "If I had my life to live over again." he said. I wouldn't go near a movie studio." Another reason the rich hide is. ot course, that this is the only way they believe they can be themselves. For them, any kind of personal relationship is not easy. "One price every man pays for success." said Florida empire-builde- r Henry Morrison Flagler, "is the envy and jealousy of those he would have thought wished him well." There is not a successful person alive who has not experienced the truth ol that observation at a school reunion, a return to the scene of his or her childhood. or meeting, after a separation someone once thought to be a real friend The late Hetty Green perhaps put it best. A millionairess so reclusive that she spent virtually her entire life incognito. her closest associate was a mongrel dog who had a habit of occasionally biting Hetty's few friends who still came to call. One of these finally could put up w ith it no longer. "I letty." she scolded, "that dog just bit me again. You've got to get rid of him." Hetty s ret usal was memorable. "He loves me." she said, and he doesn't know how rich I am " PACE 8 OCTOBER 17, 1982 PARADE MAGAZINE |