FRANCE: Catastrophic Coty

Louder than any tenor in Rigoletto, Per fumer François Coty complained last week of the fickleness of women. Women had smiled upon his perfume business, built up his fortune until it reached nearly $35,000,000 in the lush days of 1929, allowed him to buy newspapers, attempt to become Senator from Corsica.

The senatorial campaign was very expensive. Perfumer Coty lost partly be cause, misjudging the people he wished to represent, he dined publicly in Ajaccio with a Corsican bandit. In 1929 came the Wall Street crash and Publisher Coty's divorce. His two papers, the conservative Figaro and blatant Ami du...

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