in NUMBER_TOKEN was the world's largest retail business actually by NUMBER_TOKEN the securities and exchange commission ranked his family amongst the wealthiest of the wealthy in the united states he graduated from harvard in NUMBER_TOKEN with a degree in english literature and quickly fell out of his family business eventually he seemed to find purpose when he acquired a yacht which he sailed very frequently however with the outbreak of world war ii in NUMBER_TOKEN he donated that yacht to the u.s coast guard who returned the favor by giving him a pacific army supply ship the fs NUMBER_TOKEN in NUMBER_TOKEN which also seems to be a bit of an unusual barter with the fiasco of the supply ship and the war's end hartford found himself on the west coast of the united states he established a presence in los angeles marrying an actress constructing hollywood's only legitimate stage theater at the time he even went on to write some stage plays which were of varying quality by NUMBER_TOKEN he found himself in some financial trouble amp had a significant dispute over the company's direction resulting in george selling all of his shares in the company totaling to NUMBER_TOKEN million dollars or NUMBER_TOKEN million dollars in today's money at that point his wife promptly sued for divorce the following year earning NUMBER_TOKEN million dollars for each of their two children the next few years of his life would see him selling off many of his possessions in the throes of divorce he had some time to consider the extensive collection of art he had gathered throughout the years including pieces by rembrandt with all of this priceless art he reasoned that it would be a shame to keep them just for himself but he wasn't about to sell them either so in NUMBER_TOKEN huntington hartford acquired a lot in manhattan at two columbus circle surrounded by streets on all sides one of which was broadway he planned to use the area to construct a museum for his collection bringing us to what would become new york city's weirdest building the lot previously hosted the grand circle hotel a seven-story building designed by william h covet it was a grand victorian building that once defined the roundabout it presided over in fact in NUMBER_TOKEN the new york times described the building as the most healthy location in new york city likely referring to its location directly overlooking central park by NUMBER_TOKEN the city had demolished the building and its surrounding complex leaving the lot that george now owned vacant he planned his museum in response to the abstract expressionism art movement of the NUMBER_TOKENs and NUMBER_TOKENs which he wanted absolutely nothing to do with he didn't just dislike the movement he thought it was morally bankrupt and the worst thing that someone in the NUMBER_TOKENs america could be communist this is quite ironic since the cia approved of abstract expressionism seeing its abstraction as a representation of american free thought and markets more importantly it was a counter to the socialist realism art movement in stated of the soviet union geopolitical art movements aside george embarked on a journey to find the perfect architect for his museum he eventually came upon edward doral stone the lead designer of radio city music hall seeing him as a substitute for the job being a savvy proponent of american architecture and sharing many of his views on art hartford brought stone on the project promptly stone had developed a dislike for the glass and steel buildings
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