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We’re back – but with a difference! Find out how some of the world's most famous dead billionaires made their money. Meet five billionaires who helped build the United States of America. First up: oil tycoon John D Rockefeller, the world’s first billionaire. Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng also revisit the lives of motor magnate Henry Ford, the aviator and filmmaker Howard Hughes, Walmart founder Sam Walton, and Hetty Green - once dubbed “The Witch of Wall Street”. These iconic billionaires may be dead, but their fingerprints are everywhere in modern industry - in business trusts, IPOs, and mass production. They did it all first, but how did they make their billions?
By BBC World Service4.2
216216 ratings
We’re back – but with a difference! Find out how some of the world's most famous dead billionaires made their money. Meet five billionaires who helped build the United States of America. First up: oil tycoon John D Rockefeller, the world’s first billionaire. Simon Jack and Zing Tsjeng also revisit the lives of motor magnate Henry Ford, the aviator and filmmaker Howard Hughes, Walmart founder Sam Walton, and Hetty Green - once dubbed “The Witch of Wall Street”. These iconic billionaires may be dead, but their fingerprints are everywhere in modern industry - in business trusts, IPOs, and mass production. They did it all first, but how did they make their billions?

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