Goldsmith James

French-British financier and politician, tycoon and founder of the Referendum Party. He was one of the most charismatic, controversial, and colorful tycoons of the past four decades, singularly bold and a fearless risk taker. He was elected as a French Member of the European Parliament in 1994 but became quite disillusioned with the project and took to warfare against the growth of a super state. In Britain, however, his Referendum Party was outflanked by the two major parties when both pledged themselves to hold a referendum before entering a European single currency. His father, named Goldschmidt, was a Conservative MP for eight years. They were distant cousins to the Rothschilds of the banking dynasty. Most of the family left Frankfurt when Bismarck ended the citys independence in 1866. His grandparents settled in London with a stylish house in Mayfair and a 2,500 acre estate near Newmarket in Suffolk. His father, Frank, changed the family name to Goldsmith. Jimmy was the second son, born when his dad was 55. His mom was a beauty, from a peasant family in the Auvergne. Jimmy learned young that one of the advantages of wealth and position was the opportunity to cultivate a taste for promiscuity, following the example of his dad. As an adult, he was impervious to any criticism of his adultery, though the least breath of disapproval of his skills in the world of commerce was met with ferocity. Both boys were such delinquents that their father finally sent them to a boarding school in Canada. Though the school was strict, it failed to reign in young Jimmy. Once, at age ten, he took himself off for a weekend in New York where he booked a room at the Waldorf-Astoria. After the war, attending Eton proved to be hopeless. The youth threw grand parties in the better hotels as well as encouraging companionship for his junkets to the race tracks. Math was the only subject that grabbed him, an enthusiasm that lasted a lifetime. Just months before Jimmy turned 16, he made a bet at the track that paid back some 8,000 pounds, an equivalent of a U.S. sum of $300,000 in the 90s. He promptly left Eton to join his brother at Oxford. There his education in hedonism, gambling and sexual adventures began in earnest. Going through his money in short order, he ended up in debt. When his dad picked up the tab, it was on the condition that he enter the National Service in Britain. He ended up a second lieutenant and later admitted that the experience was rewarding. On his return to Paris, Jimmy met and fell in love with 18-year-old Isabel Patino, the daughter of the Bolivian tin magnate Don Antenor Patino. Daddy was not impressed by the young Jewish playboy, but the young lovers eloped, arranging a furtive marriage in Scotland. Their adventure made the front page of newspapers around the world. Just three months later, the fairytale romance had a tragic ending. Isabel suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage and died 12 hours after a daughter, Isobel, had been delivered by Caesarean section. The funeral was a state occasion, however, the bad blood between Patino and Goldsmith meant that Goldsmith had to go to court to obtain custody of his daughter. Needing money, Goldsmith took over a failing pharmaceutical company. He expanded rapidly but his lack of experience and education was a handicap; he went bankrupt. The strain caused him to go prematurely bald. Creditors were closing in when he found a buyer and cleared his debts. He lea Read less