#255 Sam Zemurray (Banana King)

**David Senra** (0:00)
When he arrived in America in 1891 at age 14, Zemurray was tall, gangly, and penniless. When he died in the Grandest House in New Orleans 69 years later, he was among the richest, most powerful men in the world.
In between, he worked as a fruit peddler, a banana hauler, a dockside hustler, and the owner of plantations in Central America. He battled and conquered United Fruit, which was one of the first truly global corporations. Zemurray's life is a parable of the American dream, not history as recorded in the textbooks, but the authentic version, a subterranean saga of kickbacks, overthrows, and secret deals.
The world as it really works.
This story can shock and infuriate us, and it does, but I found it invigorating too.
It told me that the life of the nation was written not only by speech-making politicians, but also by street corner boys, immigrant strivers, crazed and driven, some with one good idea, some with thousands, willing to go to the ends of the earth to make their vision real.
It meant anyone could write a chapter in that book, be part of the story, vanish into the jungle, and re-emerge as a figure of lore.
If you want to understand the spirit of our nation, the good and the bad, you can enroll in college, sign up for classes, take notes, and pay tuition.
Or you can study the life of Sam the Banana Man.
That was an excerpt from the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is The Fish That Ate the Whale, The Life and Times of America's Banana King, and it was written by Rich Cohen. I had originally read this book many years ago. It was originally Founders, episode number 37 It's one of the best written books that I've read so far for the podcast, and Sam Zemurray's life story may not have an equal. And so I wanted to reread it again and then put it into context with everything else that we've learned over the last, what, 200, almost 230 Founder biographies that you and I have gone over since episode number 37 So I want to jump right into the prologue.
At this point in the story, Sam Zemurray is 33 years old and he is organizing a coup to overthrow the Honduran government.
Sam Zemurray spoke in no accent, except when he swore, which was all the time. He was a big man, six foot three, nothing but muscle and bone and with the wingspan of a condor. He had a crisp, no nonsense manner. At 33 years old, he was already a colorful figure. After 10 years in the South, so he starts out in Alabama and then eventually moves to Louisiana, to New Orleans. After 10 years in the South, he was known by a variety of nicknames. Z, the Russian, Sam the Banana Man, El Amigo, the Gringo. He arrived on the docks at the start of the last century with nothing. In the early years, he had to make his way in the lowest precincts of the fruit business. Peddling ripes, bananas, other traders dumped into the sea. We'll talk more about that idea right there, the idea that he identified a very profitable niche that was just hiding in plain sight. He worked like a dog and defied the most powerful people in the country. By 1905, he owned steamships that crossed the Gulf of Mexico heading south empty and returning with bananas.
He had traveled the width of Honduras on a mule because he wanted to know the terrain, get his hands in the black soil. At 33, Zemurray was in the process of overthrowing a foreign government. That is not hyperbolic, that is actually true. He had been warned by Philander Knox, the US. Secretary of State, who ordered federal agents to tail him. So there's going to be more, there's this legendary meeting that Zemurray has before the events that are taking place right now in the book with the Secretary of State, Knox. And there's going to be a cameo because Knox was working with JP. Morgan. So I'll talk more about that in a little bit. So he'd been warned by the Secretary of State, hey, basically told him, stay out of Honduras, I don't care about your banana company, there's bigger interest in the US government, so stay away.
Obviously, Zemurray didn't listen. But he didn't care. If Sam failed, he faced ruin. But if he succeeded, he would become a king in Bananaland. And so the prologue talks about the beginning of what is going to wind up being a successful coup. Zemurray recruits General Bonilla. General Bonilla had been previously been the president of Honduras. And so this line right here describes Sam stinking to us. With the right kind of help, Bonilla could be president again. And so he's going to give Bonilla money, ships, guns, support. There's all these mercenaries that are waiting to meet up with Zemurray at this point in the story. I just want to pull out something here because it's fascinating that they actually mentioned this guy that I did a podcast on a long time ago. So these are the mercenaries. They're meeting around, they're drinking, they're waiting for Zemurray. They told stories about mercenary heroes like Lopez, who left New Orleans with a hundred men, landed in Cuba, and nearly reached Havana before he was caught and hung in a public square. They talked about William Walker. This is the guy all the way back on Founders Number 55 I read one of the craziest books I've ever read. It's called Tycoon's War. The subtitle of the book will tell you exactly what the book is about. And it says, how Cornelius Vanderbilt invaded a country to overthrow America's most famous military adventurer. America's most famous military adventurer is William Walker, which is the guy that these guys are sitting in the bar toasting to. William Walker made the fatal mistake of confiscating some of Cornelius Vanderbilt's company property, so Cornelius Vanderbilt sought to have him killed. William Walker is going to wind up being killed.