Edward Beale McLean was an American newspaper publisher.
Background
Edward Beale "Ned" McLean was born in Washington, D. C. He was the only child of Emily (Beale) and John Roll McLean. His paternal grandfather, Washington McLean, a successful merchant and one of the founders and owners of the Cincinnati Enquirer, had moved to Washington in the 1880's. His father inherited the Enquirer and then consolidated his wealth by investing in local utility companies and by purchasing the Washington Post; an influential figure in the Democratic party, he was several times considered as a vice-presidential candidate. John McLean married the socially prominent daughter of Edward Fitzgerald Beale, and their home, a large Renaissance structure covering half a city block, became a center for Washington's social elite.
Education
Young McLean, known as Ned, was educated at home by private tutors and, forgoing college, briefly read law with Wilton J. Lambert, attorney for the Washington Post. Pampered by an overprotective mother, he had little need of a formal occupation; he never practiced law, and aside from an occasional stint as a cub reporter on the Post, he rarely took an interest in his father's newspapers.
Career
In 1916 until 1933, McLean was owner of The Washington Post Newspaper. As a newspaper publisher, McLean left an undistinguished record. He devoted more time to the high society of Palm Beach, Newport, and Bar Harbor than to the management of the Enquirer and the Post. Nevertheless, the editorial control he exerted over two important newspapers brought him political influence, as well as the friendship of Warren G. Harding, with whom he shared a fondness for poker, golf, and liquor. Supporting Harding for the presidency, McLean changed the editorial policies of the Democratic Enquirer and the independent Post to a strong pro-Republican stand. During the Harding administration, the McLeans were close to the President's friends. When the Teapot Dome scandal exploded, a Senate committee probed the source of $100, 000 that Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall had received at a time when he had leased valuable government-owned oil lands to private companies. To protect Fall, McLean at first declared, through his attorneys, that he had loaned him the money but he later admitted that he had not. On June 1, 1933, the Washington Post, suffering from years of mismanagement and neglect, was sold at a public auction to Eugene Meyer, a former governor of the Federal Reserve Board. That same year, after experiencing an apparent emotional breakdown, McLean entered the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital in Towson, Md. , and in October a jury, acting on the testimony of psychiatrists, declared him insane. He remained in the hospital until his death from a heart attack in 1941.
Achievements
Edward Beale McLean was mainly known for the owner of "The Hope Diamond. " On January 28, 1911 he purchased "The Hope Diamond" for US $180, 000 from Pierre Cartier of Cartier Jewelers on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
Personality
On July 22, 1908, Ned McLean eloped with Evalyn Walsh, daughter of Thomas F. Walsh, an Irish-born carpenter who, after striking it rich in a Colorado gold mine, had moved to Washington, D. C. , where he and his wife became friends of the McLeans. Though both sets of parents objected to the elopement, each contributed $100, 000 for a European honeymoon, a sum which proved insufficient when the bride, an impulsive girl who spent money as recklessly as her young husband, purchased the Star of the East diamond for $120, 000. She later paid even more for the famous Hope diamond. At Friendship, an eighty-acre estate in Washington, the young couple maintained a household staff of thirty and entertained lavishly, once giving a reception for the Russian ambassador at the cost of $30, 000. In a belated attempt to curb his son's extravagance, McLean's father limited him to an allowance of $1, 000 a month, but this was generously supplemented by the Walshes. When John McLean died in 1916, his will stipulated that the family fortune, estimated at $25, 000, 000, be kept in trust and not be distributed until twenty years after the death of his son's youngest child. Ned McLean, who was barred from administering the estate, tried to break the will, and in a compromise settlement was given a voice in the management of the trust and control of the two newspapers. He also received the estate's net income, which amounted to more than $500, 000 a year. The last years of McLean's life were unhappy. His excessive drinking led to the disintegration of his marriage, and around 1928 he was permanently separated from his wife. Two years later she successfully brought suit against him for separate maintenance, charging adultery.
Connections
Edward McLean married in 1908 to Evalyn Walsh. He was survived by his wife, who contined to be active in Washington society until her death in 1947, and by three of their four children: John Roll, Edward Beale, and Evalyn. The eldest, Vinson, had been killed by an automobile at the age of nine. Although McLean left no estate, his will, written ten years before his death, included a bequest of $300, 000 to Rose Davies (sister of the film star Marion Davies), whom he described as "my common-law wife who has given me her association and affection. "
