Most of us have heard of J. Paul Getty, who was one of the wealthiest people in America during his lifetime. But most of us have probably not heard that one of his grandchildren was named “Gramaphone” (a misspelling of gramophone).
This particular grandchild was the son of Eugene Paul Getty, who later went by John Paul Getty II, and his second wife, Dutch fashion model and socialite Talitha Pol. (They married in late 1966; you can see a corresponding uptick in the usage of the name Talitha the following year.)
The couple were the toast of Europe’s glamour-hippie set, jetting to exotic spots with the likes of Mick Jagger. “J. P. II’s whole young-adult life,” says [family friend Stuart] Evey, “was Marrakech and the Rolling Stones.”
To French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, the pair epitomized “the youthfulness of the sixties”:
Talitha and Paul Getty lying on a starlit terrace in Marrakesh, beautiful and damned, and a whole generation assembled as if for eternity where the curtain of the past seemed to lift before an extraordinary future.
In 1968, Paul and Talitha couple welcomed their only child, a son.
They named him Tara Gabriel Gramaphone Galaxy Getty.
In 1971, Talitha died of a heroin overdose. Her death occurred “in the 12-month period that also saw the deaths of Edie Sedgwick, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin.”
(Tragedy struck John Paul II’s family again in 1973 when his eldest son, John Paul III, was kidnapped by the Calabrian mafia.)
Tara Gabriel Galaxy Gramaphone Getty has long since dropped both “Gramaphone” and “Galaxy” from his full name.
Today, he and his wife Jessica live in South Africa on the Phinda Game Reserve. They have three kids named Orlando, Caspar, and Talitha.
Update, Aug. 16th: In 1976, Keith Richards (of The Rolling Stones) and model Anita Pallenberg welcomed a son they named Tara in honor of late friend (and Guinness heir) Tara Browne, who’d died in 1966. Paul and Talitha had been part of the same social set during the ’60s…was their son named with Tara Browne in mind as well?
Sources:
- “The Big Payoff: Settling a $4 billion quarrel.” Time 10 Jun. 1985.
- “The Genius of Yves Saint Laurent.” New York Magazine 28 Nov. 1983: 53.
- “John Paul Getty III Death and the Getty Family Tragedies.” Daily Beast 13 Jul. 2017.
- O’Neill, Anne-Marie. “Can’t Buy Me Love.” People 13 Apr. 1998.
- “Talitha Getty lives on.” Telegraph 9 Aug. 2008.
- Talitha Getty – Wikipedia
- “Texaco and Getty Oil: History’s Biggest Takeover?” Time 16 Jan. 1984.
Image: Adapted from Wedding of John Paul Getty Jr. and Talitha Pol (Rome, 1966) (public domain)
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