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Kerry Packer: Tall Tales and True Stories
Kerry Packer was instrumental in shaping Australia's media landscape and culture. For 30 years he controlled television’s perennial ratings leader Channel Nine, and a large percentage of the nation’s most influential magazines. So much of what Australians watched, read and believed came through the prism of this larger-than-life man. Beneath all the billionaire clutter, Kerry Packer had plenty in common with the average a cheeky humour, a competitive drive, deep love for his kids, a passion for sports and movies. In business, Kerry Packer would fight to the last dollar in a deal. Yet the same man would take his private jet to Las Vegas and lose more than $20 million in a week – then leave a $1 million tip.
In his Park Street, Sydney office, where the visitors’ chairs were clustered in front of his giant desk, Packer would verbally dissect a hapless executive, but no less often, the very same man would step in silently and invisibly when hardship or tragedy struck a loyal staffer or their family. Packer bulldozed through his dyslexic condition with a steel-trap mind and by asking an awful lot of questions. The son of a father who shunned him, he inherited a business in 1974 valued at perhaps $100m. When he died 31 years later, on Boxing Day 2005, he would hand his own much-loved son, James, control of a media, property, agriculture and gambling empire worth $6.9 billion. Kerry Tall Tales and True Stories is a collection of stories, gathered from people who knew him, from those who have documented him, and from the folklore that inevitably grew up around him.
In his Park Street, Sydney office, where the visitors’ chairs were clustered in front of his giant desk, Packer would verbally dissect a hapless executive, but no less often, the very same man would step in silently and invisibly when hardship or tragedy struck a loyal staffer or their family. Packer bulldozed through his dyslexic condition with a steel-trap mind and by asking an awful lot of questions. The son of a father who shunned him, he inherited a business in 1974 valued at perhaps $100m. When he died 31 years later, on Boxing Day 2005, he would hand his own much-loved son, James, control of a media, property, agriculture and gambling empire worth $6.9 billion. Kerry Tall Tales and True Stories is a collection of stories, gathered from people who knew him, from those who have documented him, and from the folklore that inevitably grew up around him.
261 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 25, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 6, 2019
Best book i have read in my WHOLE LIFE
August 5, 2019
A message to ERs get your shit together and make sure people are looked after better cause your school or your money doesn’t buy loyalty in the end.
March 15, 2021
Read by my husband: His review - I felt they should have left this guy alone. Australia again applied for tall poppy syndrome. People have short memories on how they gave to charity over many decades. Australia should stop the Australian cringe.
October 19, 2015
Big man, big money, big heart.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews