George Gough Booth
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George Gough Booth (1864-1949) was the publisher of the privately held Evening News Association, which at one time held newspaper and broadcasting properties located from coast to coast. During Booth's time, however, the ENA was comprised of The Detroit News and WWJ AM-FM-TV. It was eventually sold to the Gannett Company in 1985. Presently the MediaNews Group owns The Detroit News.
Booth got his start in the newspaper industry as the son-in-law of James E. Scripps (who, in turn, was the older half-brother and one-time partner of E.W. Scripps). With his two brothers, George also founded (the independent) Booth Newspapers, a chain spanning the southern half of Lower Michigan. That group was sold to Advance Publications (a Samuel I. Newhouse property) in 1976.
A noted philanthropist, Booth and his wife, Ellen Scripps Booth, founded the world-renowned Cranbrook Educational Community (CEC) in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. In 1904, the Booths purchased the land that now consists of the Cranbrook Educational Community as a place for their summer home. Initially, they hired noted architect Albert Kahn to design their country manor, Cranbrook House, featured in recent years on several cable television shows. As their country estate grew both in purpose and in scale, Booth had both noted architect Eliel Saarinen and renowned sculptor Carl Milles in residence for many years at CEC.
Booth was an avid student of the Arts and Crafts movement and, together, brothers Ralph and George Booth were major benefactors of the Detroit Institute of Arts.
