Bart Lytton

Bart Lytton (born Bernard Shulman, October 4, 1912 – June 29, 1969) was an American business executive, Democratic Party fundraiser, writer, public relations executive and philanthropist. He was a founder of Lytton Financial Corporation, one of the five largest savings and loans in the United States with $700 million in assets.

Lytton was known for his flair and showmanship, and once said, "the only ism for me is narcissism".

Early life Lytton was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania, the son of a lawyer who was murdered when Bart was three years old

Lytton attended Westminster College and the University of Virginia, and then worked for the Works Progress Administration in New York as a theater director.

In 1948 he began to handle public relations for the Coast Federal Savings and Loan Association, and after that he became a mortgage broker. He was successful at that, and in eight years had earned enough money to take over the Canoga Park Savings and Loan Association. He then bought Home Foundation Savings of Palo Alto and in 1959 created Lytton Financial Corporation, with two branches in Los Angeles. It became one of the five largest savings and loans in the United States with $700 million in assets. In his testimony, Lytton named Hollywood figures he said had attended Communist Party meetings, among them John Howard Lawson and Stanley Prager.

By 1958, he became active in Democratic politics through a connection with Jesse Unruh, the "boss" of the California State Assembly.

A lavish political contributor, Lytton served as Finance Chairman of the California Democratic Party from 1958 to 1962, during the first administration of Governor Pat Brown, and was a major donor to the presidential campaign of President John F. Kennedy.

Lytton gave $200,000 to the Kennedy 1960 presidential election campaign, and before his resignation from Lytton Financial he gave $30,000 to $40,000 a year to various Democratic election campaigns. Lytton retaliated by creating his own "Lytton Center for the Visual Arts" in one of his bank buildings, which also housed an invaluable European collection he had purchased for a future Hollywood Film Museum, another of his pet projects that was stillborn.

A public park he originally built for art displays near one of his office buildings in the city of Palo Alto still bears his name.

Death Lytton died of a heart ailment in Los Angeles on June 29, 1969. He was survived by his wife, his mother, and a daughter.