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Malcom S. Forbes Sr.
(August 19, 1919 - February 24, 1990) U.S.A.

Malcolm Forbes

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Malcom S. Forbes was born in Englewood, N.J., the third son of a Scottish immigrant who founded Forbes magazine in 1917. He attended Princeton University and upon graduation in 1941, his classmates voted him the member of his class who contributed the most to Princeton as an undergraduate

In 1941, after Pearl Harbor, Forbes joined the United States Army. To pass the vision test he wore contact lenses, then so unfamiliar that the army doctors didn' realize he had them on. He served as staff sergeant of the Heavy Machine Gun Section in the 334th Infantry, 84th Division. He saw action in France, Belgium and Germany. He was wounded just prior to the Battle of the Bulge when he prevented the possible encirclement of his battalion. For demonstrating initiative, resourcefulness and alert action he was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

Honorably discharged in 1946, Forbes joined his father at Forbes Magazine. A few years later, he began a political career. In 1951 he was voted in the New Jersey State Senate by a record plurality. He became publisher of the magazine on his father's death (1954). Under his leadership, the publication became one of America's most successful business magazines, with a circulation of 735,000.

In 1957 Forbes unsuccessfully ran for Governor of New Jersey, and used his magazine and numerous books to praise the virtues of laissez-faire capitalism. He served in the state Senate until he resigned in 1958.

Malcolm ForbesAt age 48, Forbes took up air ballooning. He became an internationally known balloonist when he set six official world records while flying coast-to-coast across America in a hot air balloon. He was the first person in history to attempt the feat. For this achievement, he was awarded the Harmon Trophy and was named Aeronaut-of the-Year in 1975. He also founded the world's first balloon museum at the Forbes-owned Château de Balleroy, France in 1975.

He started to collect Fabergé's Imperial Eggs. At his death he was worth at least $400 million. The family continues to run the magazine, and sold the Fabergé Eggs to a Russian industrialist in 2004.

Forbes was known to put the make on any newly hired guys, and an invitation to his private lair for dinner was tantamount to a seduction. Warnings about the boss's m.o. were a standard part of employee orientation at Forbes headquarters.

In March 1990, shortly after Forbes's death, an OutWeek cover story titled "The Secret Gay Life of Malcolm Forbes" launched one of the most fractious debates in modern gay history. The focus of Michelangelo Signorile's article was how the media had colluded in maintaining the "secret" of the late media mogul Malcolm Forbes's gay life. He was known for liking call and street boys, preferably blonde.

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Fabergé Imperial Eggs that where in Forbe's collection
Faberge egg Faberge egg Faberge egg Faberge egg Faberge egg Faberge egg
Faberge egg Faberge egg Faberge egg Faberge egg Faberge egg Faberge egg
Faberge egg To see the complete Fabergé Imperial Eggs collection, please click here. Faberge egg

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