Fifty years ago today, lonely spinsters all over the world had their dreams and fantasies dashed after they learned that the Loneliest Millionaire -- a scintillating love machine from Montreal -- had come down with a fatal disease.
By the time the last teardrop fell in early 1958, the fantastically successful, world-famous, diamond-cartel-busting Dr. John Thorborn Williamson was dead of throat cancer.
Years earlier he had estimated his wealth at between $40-$80 million.
Williamson's stroke of genius was figuring out that some diamonds are pushed up from the centre of the earth through gem-rich underground tunnels.
By the time the last teardrop fell in early 1958, the fantastically successful, world-famous, diamond-cartel-busting Dr. John Thorborn Williamson was dead of throat cancer. Years earlier he had estimated his wealth at between $40-$80 million.
Williamson's stroke of genius was figuring out that some diamonds are pushed up from the centre of the earth through gem-rich underground tunnels.
Fellow geologists dismissed him as a flake. But Williamson spent years searching for diamonds where others had failed before in what was then called Tanganyika -- and he was proved right.
The statue is a likeness of this unmarried, Laurentians-born, former McGill University professor by the baobab tree where he once dug a fire pit and stumbled across his first diamond in Mwadui, Tanzania in 1940, said at the time to be the world's largest.
Later, a giant pink diamond (the inspiration for the stone Leonardo Di Caprio chased in Blood Diamond, perhaps) was found there, just lying on the ground. Williamson had the pink cut and handed it over to a young Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II), who had it set into a brooch.
The Mwadui site became the world's richest diamond mine outside of South Africa -- a distinction that led the De Beers group to take more than a passing interest in Williamson, who suffered many a financial headache thanks to the international diamond cartel. But don't pity Williamson -- he played ball pretty hard right back, too.
In his day, Williamson's name frequently turned up everywhere from the gossip columns to Time magazine.
While he never settled down, he was said to be quite the ladies' man.
After all, if diamonds are a girl's best friend, this geologist with movie-star looks could introduce them to an endless procession of pals (no less than a hundred kilograms of diamonds a year came out of his mine at peak production).
But who remembers Williamson today? Here at Coolopolis Towers, only the nearly-retired Rogatien Plouffe -- once our speediest typesetter -- recalls the name, although he has no idea why.
The statue is a likeness of this unmarried, Laurentians-born, former McGill University professor by the baobab tree where he once dug a fire pit and stumbled across his first diamond in Mwadui, Tanzania in 1940, said at the time to be the world's largest. Later, a giant pink diamond (the inspiration for the stone Leonardo Di Caprio chased in Blood Diamond, perhaps) was found there, just lying on the ground. Williamson had the pink cut and handed it over to a young Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II), who had it set into a brooch.
The Mwadui site became the world's richest diamond mine outside of South Africa -- a distinction that led the De Beers group to take more than a passing interest in Williamson, who suffered many a financial headache thanks to the international diamond cartel. But don't pity Williamson -- he played ball pretty hard right back, too.
In his day, Williamson's name frequently turned up everywhere from the gossip columns to Time magazine.While he never settled down, he was said to be quite the ladies' man.
After all, if diamonds are a girl's best friend, this geologist with movie-star looks could introduce them to an endless procession of pals (no less than a hundred kilograms of diamonds a year came out of his mine at peak production).
But who remembers Williamson today? Here at Coolopolis Towers, only the nearly-retired Rogatien Plouffe -- once our speediest typesetter -- recalls the name, although he has no idea why.
Rogatien Plouffe
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember the Plouffe Family Soap on 1952 bilingual TV. When CBC first started in the early years of the fifties there was only one channel with mixed english and french broadcasting. I think I learned my French that way.
Every Saturday evening just before the hockey game was a soap about the Pouffe family. One of the sons was a hockey player, another an intellectual and the father or uncle was a Montreal bus driver. Lots of family members and very interesting.
Another early series on the weekend was "Radisonne (?)" . A french alternative to Davy Crocket which was the rage on English CBC broadcasting . American produced content by Disney every Sunday
"Radisson" was filmed on Lynch Island, in the middle of Lac St-Louis, off of Beaconsfield. In the great field of continuity, since they didn't have an expert like Irene Kiellermann to call upon, there would be flash scenes of trains crossing the Ile-Perrot Bridge or the roar of planes taking off from Dorval.
ReplyDeleteLynch Island, with its rocky escarpment on one side, and marshy shores on the other, and home to hundreds of snakes (no, it isn't the summer residence of the legal team of Borden Ladner Gervais), was once touted as a site for Montreal's casino and even for legalized brothels, with hydrofoils intended to take the punters and gamblers from the city.