Transamerica's own portrait of its founder

JUN 10 2015

A short corporate film from Transamerica on the life and philanthropy of Amadeo Pietro Giannini, who founded the company and played a large part in San Francisco's recovery after the 1906 earthquake. It is the institution telling its founder's story in its own words, which is itself the useful thing: the familiar account of gold hauled out under crates of oranges and lending from a plank desk on the Washington Street wharf is corporate retelling, and researchers put the sum nearer $80,000 than the $2 million usually quoted. The bank's vault also survived, which complicates the rescue premise.