Max Palevsky
Encyclopedia
Max Palevsky was an American
art collector, venture capitalist, philanthropist, and computer technology pioneer.
[now in Belarus
], died September 27, 1969, in Los Angeles
), and Sarah Greenblatt (born May 16, 1894, died December 28, 1949, in Chicago). Both were recent immigrants. Izchok had arrived in Baltimore
from Bremen
, Germany
, on the S.S. Brandenburg on March 18, 1910, while Sarah immigrated around 1916. Palevsky's parents spoke Yiddish fluently, but little English. His father, a house painter, did not have a car and had to use the Chicago streetcars to transport his equipment.
The youngest of three children, Palevsky grew up at 1925½ Hancock Street in Chicago. His older brother, Harry (September 16, 1919 — September 17, 1990), was a physicist who helped develop the atomic bomb at Los Alamos National Laboratory
; his sister, Helen (born 1920), married Melvin M. Futterman (December 28, 1918 – March 14, 1989).
After graduating from public high school in Chicago, Palevsky volunteered for the US Army Air Corps as a weatherman during World War II
and served from 1943 to 1946. For his training he went for a year to the University of Chicago
for basic science and mathematics and Yale University
for electronics. He was then sent to New Guinea
, which was the Air Force's central base for electronics in the South Pacific. After the war, the GI Bill made it financially feasible for Palevsky to earn a B.S. in mathematics
and a B.Ph.
in philosophy
from the University of Chicago in 1948. Palevsky did post-graduate work in philosophy at UC Berkeley and the University of Chicago.
about the advent of computer technology, and the possibility of building a device to correct its own errors.
With his background in logic and electronics, Palevsky first worked on a computer project in 1951 for $100 a week designing computers at Northrop Aircraft, designing the "MADDIDA
" (short for "magnetic drum differential analyzer"). Invented by physicist Floyd G. Steele, MADDIDA was priced from $25,000 to $30,000 and was built between March 1950 and January 1951. Intended to help analyze differential equations, MADDIDA would prove to be the last and most sophisticated dedicated differential analyzer ever built, from then on all attention turned to electronic computers.
Almost immediately after he joined Northrop, the division was sold to Bendix Corporation
. Palevsky worked at Bendix from 1952 to 1956 designing digital differential analyzers as a project engineer, working on the logic design for the company's first computer. In March 1921, Bendix offered their first digital computer, the Bendix G-15
, described by some as the first personal computer
(a claim that is widely disputed). Palevsky worked on the DA-1 differential analyzer option, which connected to the G-15 and resulted in a machine similar to the MADDIDA, using the G-15 to re-wire the inputs to the analyzer instead of the custom drums and wiring of the earlier machine.
In March 1957, Palevsky went on to work at Packard Bell
, at a new affiliate of the company that he started, called Packard Bell Computer Corp., in a store front at 11766 W Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles. He was vice president and director of the new division. The new facility launched a research and development program in the digital computer field, with a staff of experienced engineers and skilled technicians to implement the new development. Palevsky convinced the company that they should enter the computer business and helped develop the first silicon computer, which became the Packard Bell PB250, which was modestly successful. In April 1960, Packard-Bell Computer Corp. and Bailey Meter Co. signed an agreement for the exclusive application of PB250's in the control of power plants. As vice president and general manager of Packard Bell Computer, Palevsky supervised the building of a new 20000 sq ft (1,858.1 m²). building at 1935 Armacost Avenue to house the firm's expanding computer activities, for consolidation of computer and systems engineering and for needed expansion of systems as well as computer manufacturing facilities. Palevsky gave many lectures during this period, including at the second international meeting on analog computation at Strasbourg, France, in September 1958.
to start a company to address this market, and through contacts from the University of Chicago was able to raise $1 million from Arthur Rock and the Rosenwald family of the Sears Roebuck fortune. He left Packard Bell with eleven associates from the computer division to found Scientific Data Systems
of California
in September 1961.
Within a year they introduced the SDS 910, which made the company profitable. Initially, it targeted scientific and medical computing markets. From 1962 to 1965, the company introduced seven computers, all of them commercial successes. On March 15, 1966, they introduced the Sigma 7, the first of a family of machines that marked the full-scale entry of the company into new areas of business data processing, time sharing, and multiprocessing. The Sigma 7 had business capabilities because the once-separate disciplines of business and scientific electronic data processing had developed to the point where one machine could handle both. SDS captured a little more than two per cent of the overall digital computer market in 1966 and continued to grow with the market.
Palevsky sold SDS to Xerox
in May 1969 for more than $900 million, with Arthur Rock's assistance, at which time he became a director and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Xerox Corporation. Palevsky's initial investment of $60,000 in SDS became nearly $100 million at the sale. He retired as a director of Xerox in May 1972.
and in 1972 donated $300,000 to George McGovern
. Among other political projects, he managed Tom Bradley
's first successful campaign for mayor of Los Angeles in 1973. He made numerous friends and allies on the California political scene, including former governor Gray Davis
. Many were dismayed at Palevsky's $1 million dollar contribution in support of California Proposition 25, a campaign-finance reform initiative. He said to Newsweek
: "I am making this million-dollar contribution in hopes that I will never again legally be allowed to write huge checks to California political candidates."
, who helped bankroll SDS, at the company's founding, on July 18, 1968, as Integrated Electronics Corporation, a name later changed to Intel (August 6, 1968). Intel was funded with $2 million in venture capital assembled by Arthur Rock. Palevsky became a director emeritus in February 1998.
Palevsky also became a director and board chairman of Rolling Stone
magazine, which he rescued from financial ruin in 1970 by buying a substantial share of the stock. While on the board he became friends with the late Hunter S. Thompson
, inventor of what came to be called Gonzo
journalism. In December 1970, Cinema V, a movie-theater distribution operation, entered film production in a joint venture, Cinema X, with Palevsky. Palevsky went into independent production with Peter Bart, former production vice president of Paramount Pictures in November 1973, with a Paramount contract to produce six features in three years. Palevsky produced and bankrolled several Hollywood films, including Fun with Dick and Jane
and Islands in the Stream
both with Peter Bart
in 1977, and Endurance
in 1998. Author Albert Goldman
dedicated his controversial 1988 biography The Lives of John Lennon
to Palevsky. In June 1977, Palevsky was elected to the board of the American Ballet Theater.
Palevsky also served as a director and Chairman of the Board of Silicon Systems Inc.
of Tustin, California, from April 1983 until February 1984; as chairman and chief executive of the board of Daisy Systems Corporation, a maker of computer systems used to design electronic circuits based in Mountain View, California; and, from November 1984 to 1999, as a director of Komag Corp., a Milpitas, California, based maker of data storage media.
Palevsky also collected art, particularly Japanese woodblock prints, and gave generously to establish and maintain institutions of visual art. He established the Palevsky Design Pavilion at the Israel Museum
in Jerusalem. He also built an Arts & Crafts collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
(LACMA), and donated $1 million to help establish the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2001, he promised his art holdings to LACMA, but his collection of 250 works was scheduled to be sold by Christie's in the Fall of 2010.
Max Palevsky funded the American Cinematheque
's refurbishment of the Aero Theater in Santa Monica. The theater re-opened in January 2005 and bears his name.
Palevsky was an alumnus of the University of Chicago
, where he earned undergraduate degrees in both philosophy and mathematics in 1948. He served as a trustee at his alma mater from 1972–1982. He established the Palevsky Professorship in History and Civilization in 1972 and the Palevsky Faculty Fund in 1996.
In 2000, Palevsky donated $20 million to his alma mater
to enhance residential life. In 2001, the University completed construction on three large colorful dorms that are connected through underground tunnels and bear his name. A one-screen cinema at the University is also named after him, and is the home of Doc Films
, the oldest continuously running student film association in the United States.
), from 1952 to 1968. With her huge divorce settlement, she became a renowned philanthropist. With Max, she had two children, Madeleine Moskowitz and Nicholas Palevsky. His second wife was Sara Jane Brown, whom he married on September 6, 1969. In November 1972, he married Lynda L. Edelstein, his third wife. Jodie Evans
, his fourth and sixth wife and widow, is a political activist. At the time of his death, he had four grandchildren.
Palevsky owned homes notable for their architecture, furniture, and art collections. Three California Houses: The Homes of Max Palevsky featured architecture and design by Ettore Sottsass
of the Memphis group
, Craig Ellwood
, George Washington Smith, and Coy Howard.
In 1985 and 1988, Palevsky was named to the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans. His estimated worth for those years was $200 million (1985) and $240 million (1988).
Palevsky died at the age of 85 of heart failure on May 5, 2010, at his home in Beverly Hills, California
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
art collector, venture capitalist, philanthropist, and computer technology pioneer.
Early life
Palevsky was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Izchok (Isadore) Palevsky (born May 10, 1890, in Pinsk, in the Minsk region of the Russian EmpireRussian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
[now in Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
], died September 27, 1969, in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
), and Sarah Greenblatt (born May 16, 1894, died December 28, 1949, in Chicago). Both were recent immigrants. Izchok had arrived in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
from Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, on the S.S. Brandenburg on March 18, 1910, while Sarah immigrated around 1916. Palevsky's parents spoke Yiddish fluently, but little English. His father, a house painter, did not have a car and had to use the Chicago streetcars to transport his equipment.
The youngest of three children, Palevsky grew up at 1925½ Hancock Street in Chicago. His older brother, Harry (September 16, 1919 — September 17, 1990), was a physicist who helped develop the atomic bomb at Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
; his sister, Helen (born 1920), married Melvin M. Futterman (December 28, 1918 – March 14, 1989).
After graduating from public high school in Chicago, Palevsky volunteered for the US Army Air Corps as a weatherman during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and served from 1943 to 1946. For his training he went for a year to the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
for basic science and mathematics and Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
for electronics. He was then sent to New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
, which was the Air Force's central base for electronics in the South Pacific. After the war, the GI Bill made it financially feasible for Palevsky to earn a B.S. in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
and a B.Ph.
Bachelor of Philosophy
Bachelor of Philosophy is the title of an academic degree. The degree usually involves considerable research, either through a thesis or supervised research projects...
in philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
from the University of Chicago in 1948. Palevsky did post-graduate work in philosophy at UC Berkeley and the University of Chicago.
Computers
After attending and resigning from a doctorate program in philosophy at UCLA, where he had served as a teaching assistant in the philosophy department, Palevsky discovered computer technology through a lecture at Caltech by John von NeumannJohn von Neumann
John von Neumann was a Hungarian-American mathematician and polymath who made major contributions to a vast number of fields, including set theory, functional analysis, quantum mechanics, ergodic theory, geometry, fluid dynamics, economics and game theory, computer science, numerical analysis,...
about the advent of computer technology, and the possibility of building a device to correct its own errors.
With his background in logic and electronics, Palevsky first worked on a computer project in 1951 for $100 a week designing computers at Northrop Aircraft, designing the "MADDIDA
Magnetic Drum Digital Differential Analyzer
The Magnetic Drum Digital Differential Analyzer was a computer built by Northrop Aircraft Corporation in 1950.MADDIDA had 44 integrators implemented using a magnetic drum with six storage tracks. The interconnections of the integrators were specified by writing an appropriate pattern of bits onto...
" (short for "magnetic drum differential analyzer"). Invented by physicist Floyd G. Steele, MADDIDA was priced from $25,000 to $30,000 and was built between March 1950 and January 1951. Intended to help analyze differential equations, MADDIDA would prove to be the last and most sophisticated dedicated differential analyzer ever built, from then on all attention turned to electronic computers.
Almost immediately after he joined Northrop, the division was sold to Bendix Corporation
Bendix Corporation
The Bendix Corporation was an American manufacturing and engineering company which during various times in its 60 year existence made brake systems, aeronautical hydraulics, avionics, aircraft and automobile fuel control systems, radios, televisions and computers, and which licensed its name for...
. Palevsky worked at Bendix from 1952 to 1956 designing digital differential analyzers as a project engineer, working on the logic design for the company's first computer. In March 1921, Bendix offered their first digital computer, the Bendix G-15
Bendix G-15
The Bendix G-15 computer was introduced in 1956 by the Bendix Corporation, Computer Division, Los Angeles, California. It was about 5 by 3 by 3 ft and weighed about 950 lb . The base system, without peripherals, cost $49,500. A working model cost around $60,000. It could also be rented for...
, described by some as the first personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
(a claim that is widely disputed). Palevsky worked on the DA-1 differential analyzer option, which connected to the G-15 and resulted in a machine similar to the MADDIDA, using the G-15 to re-wire the inputs to the analyzer instead of the custom drums and wiring of the earlier machine.
In March 1957, Palevsky went on to work at Packard Bell
Packard Bell
Packard Bell is a Dutch computer manufacturer and a subsidiary of Acer. The name was previously used by Packard Bell, an American radio manufacturer founded in 1926. In 1986, Israeli investors bought the name for a newly formed personal computer manufacturer. Originally the company produced...
, at a new affiliate of the company that he started, called Packard Bell Computer Corp., in a store front at 11766 W Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles. He was vice president and director of the new division. The new facility launched a research and development program in the digital computer field, with a staff of experienced engineers and skilled technicians to implement the new development. Palevsky convinced the company that they should enter the computer business and helped develop the first silicon computer, which became the Packard Bell PB250, which was modestly successful. In April 1960, Packard-Bell Computer Corp. and Bailey Meter Co. signed an agreement for the exclusive application of PB250's in the control of power plants. As vice president and general manager of Packard Bell Computer, Palevsky supervised the building of a new 20000 sq ft (1,858.1 m²). building at 1935 Armacost Avenue to house the firm's expanding computer activities, for consolidation of computer and systems engineering and for needed expansion of systems as well as computer manufacturing facilities. Palevsky gave many lectures during this period, including at the second international meeting on analog computation at Strasbourg, France, in September 1958.
Scientific Data Systems
Palevsky felt that ten percent of the market of small to medium size scientific and process control computers was being totally neglected. He started looking for venture capitalVenture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
to start a company to address this market, and through contacts from the University of Chicago was able to raise $1 million from Arthur Rock and the Rosenwald family of the Sears Roebuck fortune. He left Packard Bell with eleven associates from the computer division to found Scientific Data Systems
Scientific Data Systems
Scientific Data Systems, or SDS, was an American computer company founded in September 1961 by Max Palevsky, a veteran of Packard Bell and Bendix, along with eleven other computer scientists. SDS was an early adopter of integrated circuits in computer design and the first to employ silicon...
of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in September 1961.
Within a year they introduced the SDS 910, which made the company profitable. Initially, it targeted scientific and medical computing markets. From 1962 to 1965, the company introduced seven computers, all of them commercial successes. On March 15, 1966, they introduced the Sigma 7, the first of a family of machines that marked the full-scale entry of the company into new areas of business data processing, time sharing, and multiprocessing. The Sigma 7 had business capabilities because the once-separate disciplines of business and scientific electronic data processing had developed to the point where one machine could handle both. SDS captured a little more than two per cent of the overall digital computer market in 1966 and continued to grow with the market.
Palevsky sold SDS to Xerox
Xerox
Xerox Corporation is an American multinational document management corporation that produced and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies...
in May 1969 for more than $900 million, with Arthur Rock's assistance, at which time he became a director and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Xerox Corporation. Palevsky's initial investment of $60,000 in SDS became nearly $100 million at the sale. He retired as a director of Xerox in May 1972.
California politics
Palevsky dabbled in Democratic politics. He supported Robert F. KennedyRobert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
and in 1972 donated $300,000 to George McGovern
George McGovern
George Stanley McGovern is an historian, author, and former U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party nominee in the 1972 presidential election....
. Among other political projects, he managed Tom Bradley
Tom Bradley (politician)
Thomas J. "Tom" Bradley was the 38th Mayor of Los Angeles, California, serving in that office from 1973 to 1993. He was the first and to date only African American mayor of Los Angeles...
's first successful campaign for mayor of Los Angeles in 1973. He made numerous friends and allies on the California political scene, including former governor Gray Davis
Gray Davis
Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis, Jr. is an American Democratic politician who served as California's 37th Governor from 1999 until being recalled in 2003...
. Many were dismayed at Palevsky's $1 million dollar contribution in support of California Proposition 25, a campaign-finance reform initiative. He said to Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
: "I am making this million-dollar contribution in hopes that I will never again legally be allowed to write huge checks to California political candidates."
Arts, culture, and venture capital
As a venture capitalist, Palevsky helped to fund many companies, including Intel, which grew to become one of the nation's leading semiconductor companies and a pioneer in the development of memory chips and microprocessors. Palevsky became a director along with Arthur RockArthur Rock
Arthur Rock is an American venture capitalist of Silicon Valley, California. He was an early investor in major firms including Intel, Apple Computer, Scientific Data Systems and Teledyne....
, who helped bankroll SDS, at the company's founding, on July 18, 1968, as Integrated Electronics Corporation, a name later changed to Intel (August 6, 1968). Intel was funded with $2 million in venture capital assembled by Arthur Rock. Palevsky became a director emeritus in February 1998.
Palevsky also became a director and board chairman of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine, which he rescued from financial ruin in 1970 by buying a substantial share of the stock. While on the board he became friends with the late Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author who wrote The Rum Diary , Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 .He is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to...
, inventor of what came to be called Gonzo
Gonzo journalism
Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first-person narrative. The word "gonzo" is believed to be first used in 1970 to describe an article by Hunter S. Thompson, who later popularized the style...
journalism. In December 1970, Cinema V, a movie-theater distribution operation, entered film production in a joint venture, Cinema X, with Palevsky. Palevsky went into independent production with Peter Bart, former production vice president of Paramount Pictures in November 1973, with a Paramount contract to produce six features in three years. Palevsky produced and bankrolled several Hollywood films, including Fun with Dick and Jane
Fun with Dick and Jane (1977 film)
Fun with Dick and Jane is a 1977 American film starring George Segal and Jane Fonda as an upper-middle-class couple who lose their jobs, fall through the cracks of society in the United States and then become high-class thieves to get back all they lost. The comedy was directed by Ted Kotcheff and...
and Islands in the Stream
Islands in the Stream (film)
Islands in the Stream is a 1977 American drama film, an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's novel of the same name. The film was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starred George C...
both with Peter Bart
Peter Bart
Peter Benton Bart is an American journalist and film producer. He perhaps best known for his lengthy tenure as the editor of Variety, an entertainment-trade magazine....
in 1977, and Endurance
Endurance (film)
Endurance is a docudrama about the famous distance runner Haile Gebrselassie with Gebrselassie playing the role of himself.It was written and directed by Leslie Woodhead and Bud Greenspan, and produced and released by The Walt Disney Company...
in 1998. Author Albert Goldman
Albert Goldman
Albert Harry Goldman was an American professor and author.Born in Dormont, Pennsylvania, Albert Goldman wrote about the culture and personalities of the American music industry both in books and as a contributor to magazines...
dedicated his controversial 1988 biography The Lives of John Lennon
The Lives of John Lennon
The Lives of John Lennon is a 1988 biography of musician John Lennon by Americanauthor Albert Goldman. The book is a product of several years of research and hundreds of interviews with many of Lennon's friends, acquaintances, servants and musicians...
to Palevsky. In June 1977, Palevsky was elected to the board of the American Ballet Theater.
Palevsky also served as a director and Chairman of the Board of Silicon Systems Inc.
Silicon Systems Inc.
Silicon Systems Inc. was an American semiconductor company based in Tustin, California. The company manufactured mixed-signal integrated circuits and semiconductors for telecommunications and data storage markets.Silicon Systems was founded in 1976 and became a leading supplier of disk drive...
of Tustin, California, from April 1983 until February 1984; as chairman and chief executive of the board of Daisy Systems Corporation, a maker of computer systems used to design electronic circuits based in Mountain View, California; and, from November 1984 to 1999, as a director of Komag Corp., a Milpitas, California, based maker of data storage media.
Palevsky also collected art, particularly Japanese woodblock prints, and gave generously to establish and maintain institutions of visual art. He established the Palevsky Design Pavilion at the Israel Museum
Israel Museum
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem was founded in 1965 as Israel's national museum. It is situated on a hill in the Givat Ram neighborhood of Jerusalem, near the Bible Lands Museum, the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem....
in Jerusalem. He also built an Arts & Crafts collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
(LACMA), and donated $1 million to help establish the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. In 2001, he promised his art holdings to LACMA, but his collection of 250 works was scheduled to be sold by Christie's in the Fall of 2010.
Max Palevsky funded the American Cinematheque
American Cinematheque
The American Cinematheque is an independent, non-profit cultural organization in Los Angeles dedicated exclusively to the public presentation of the Moving Image in all its forms. It is considered among the premier organizations of its kind in America....
's refurbishment of the Aero Theater in Santa Monica. The theater re-opened in January 2005 and bears his name.
The University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, where he earned undergraduate degrees in both philosophy and mathematics in 1948. He served as a trustee at his alma mater from 1972–1982. He established the Palevsky Professorship in History and Civilization in 1972 and the Palevsky Faculty Fund in 1996.
In 2000, Palevsky donated $20 million to his alma mater
Alma mater
Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...
to enhance residential life. In 2001, the University completed construction on three large colorful dorms that are connected through underground tunnels and bear his name. A one-screen cinema at the University is also named after him, and is the home of Doc Films
Doc Films
The Documentary Film Group, better known as Doc Films, is a student-operated film society at the University of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is—according to a 2007 Chicago Tribune article—"the longest-running collegiate film society in the country" and may be the oldest film society of any...
, the oldest continuously running student film association in the United States.
Personal life
Palevsky was married six times and divorced five. He had five children. He was married to his first wife, Mary Joan Yates (Joan PalevskyJoan Palevsky
Joan Palevsky , a former wife of Max Palevsky, was an investor and philanthropist who contributed to many charitable organizations during her lifetime and after....
), from 1952 to 1968. With her huge divorce settlement, she became a renowned philanthropist. With Max, she had two children, Madeleine Moskowitz and Nicholas Palevsky. His second wife was Sara Jane Brown, whom he married on September 6, 1969. In November 1972, he married Lynda L. Edelstein, his third wife. Jodie Evans
Jodie Evans
Jodie Evans is a political activist, author, and documentary film producer. She characterizes her activism as working for peace and justice, environmental causes and women’s rights...
, his fourth and sixth wife and widow, is a political activist. At the time of his death, he had four grandchildren.
Palevsky owned homes notable for their architecture, furniture, and art collections. Three California Houses: The Homes of Max Palevsky featured architecture and design by Ettore Sottsass
Ettore Sottsass
Ettore Sottsass was an Italian architect and designer of the late 20th century. His body of designs included furniture, jewellery, glass, lighting and office machine design.-Early career:...
of the Memphis group
Memphis Group
The Memphis Group was an Italian design and architecture group started by Ettore Sottsass that designed Post Modern furniture, fabrics, ceramics, glass and metal objects from 1981-1987.-Origins:...
, Craig Ellwood
Craig Ellwood
Craig Ellwood was an influential Los Angeles-based modernist architect whose career spanned the early 1950s through the mid-1970s. Although untrained as an architect, Ellwood fashioned a persona and career through equal parts of a talent for good design, self-promotion and ambition...
, George Washington Smith, and Coy Howard.
In 1985 and 1988, Palevsky was named to the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans. His estimated worth for those years was $200 million (1985) and $240 million (1988).
Palevsky died at the age of 85 of heart failure on May 5, 2010, at his home in Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
.
Further reading
- "Enter Max Palevsky", TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, Friday, February 24, 1967