Ezra Norton was an Australian newspaper baron and businessman.
15 Facts About Ezra Norton
1.
2.
Ezra Norton was educated at The Scots College, Bellevue Hill.
3.
Ezra Norton's father died in 1916, but had disinherited his wife and Ezra and left the bulk of his estate to Ezra's 9-year-old sister, Joan Norton.
4.
Under this legislation, she succeeded in having his will rewritten in 1920 so that she and Ezra Norton each received a third of his inheritance, allowing Ezra Norton to gain control of Truth and Sportsman Ltd the publisher of the Sydney Truth, the Melbourne Truth, sister papers in Brisbane and Perth, and the Sydney Sportsman, each published on Sundays.
5.
Ezra Norton attempted to widen his papers' range by adding a little discussion of culture, but they soon moved back to their traditional coverage of sport, crime, and divorce.
6.
Ezra Norton gained a licence from the Minister for Trade and Customs, Eric Harrison, to launch the Daily Mirror in Sydney in 1941.
7.
Frank Packer and Ezra Norton were bitter rivals in business for many years.
8.
Ezra Norton was awarded the Coronation Medal in May 1937 for Commerce.
9.
Ezra Norton was incensed by the content of Cyril Pearl's non-fiction book, Wild Men of Sydney, which was highly critical of Ezra Norton's deceased father and two other political figures of his day, William Willis and Paddy Crick.
10.
Ezra Norton was "widely believed" to have lobbied the NSW State Government for changes that in 1958 extended defamation law to cover the reputation of the dead, although the NSW Government denied that.
11.
Ezra Norton's lawyers wrote to the book's publishers threatening legal action, but the book was published in 1958, sold well, and had reprints to at least 1970.
12.
Ezra Norton resided at a waterfront mansion at Vaucluse until his death in 1967.
13.
In 1922, Ezra Norton married an English war widow, Lillian Mary Willoughby.
14.
Ezra Norton died of cancer in his Vaucluse home on 4 January 1967 aged 69.
15.
Ezra Norton was survived by his wife Peggy, their daughter Mary and his adopted son, Dr John Stanley Norton.