I. W. Schlesinger

Schlesinger was the second son of 10 children of Abraham Schlesinger, a Hungarian Jewish immigrant. The European branch of the family owned a sawmill in the Tatra Mountains (part of the Carpathian Mountains) on the border of what would later be Czechoslovakia. Since the mill could not support the entire family, two brothers, Abraham and Moritz, emigrated to the United States of America. They began to work there as woodcutters. Abraham went on to found a cigar factory and later a bank.

Schlesinger spent his childhood on the outskirts of the Bowery, on the East Side of New York City, where as a boy, he helped the family make an income by forging hair clips and selling newspapers. At the age of eighteen, he became a commissioner and insurance salesman.

In the early 1930s, by virtue of the success of his insurance firms, Schlesinger owned a large network of cinemas and theaters. He owned controlling interests in retailers, banks, advertising agencies, a hotel chain, Catering firms, theme parks, agriculture, canneries, diamond grinders, and newspapers, and was the chairman of more than 80 companies. His effort to found a large trust, however, failed afterwards; so did his entry into the Johannesburg newspaper market with the Sunday Express and his news service, Africopa. The competition from established outlets such as The Star and The Rand Daily Mail, and the South African Press Association (SAPA), respectively, was too strong, but his advertising agency was one of the largest in the region. Schlesinger sold off his remaining newspaper interests in 1939, parts of the Sunday Express going to Rand Daily Mails Ltd. (£44,047), The Sunday Times Syndicate Ltd. (£49,286), and the Argus Printing and Publishing Company Ltd. (£206,667). The Sunday Express published until 1939, when paper shortages during World War II halted it. It would not resume publication until September 1945. Schlesinger also started the Daily Express in Johannesburg and the Daily Tribune and Sunday Tribune in Durban. Of these four papers, only the Sunday Tribune continues today.

Schlesinger married Mabel May, at the time a well-known actress in Johannesburg. Their only son, John Samuel Schlesinger (born in 1923), was educated at Michaelhouse, Natal, and graduated from Harvard University. With the death of his father in 1949, he took over the enormous Schlesinger organization.

During his last years, I.W. Schlesinger was badly afflicted by arthritis. He continued to be actively involved in his businesses, however, remaining as chairman of dozens of companies. Though proud of his second homeland, he never gave up his American citizenship. He is buried in Zebediela.