King of Diamonds

The world associates the name Harry Winston with glamour and jewels – it’s synonymous with Hollywood stars, royal families and captains of industry. Marilyn Monroe ushered the name into legend when she breathlessly sang, “Talk to me, Harry Winston; tell me all about it!” in 1953’s classic movie “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”

But for his eldest and only living son, Ronald Winston, the man behind the brand seems to have been a complicated person, as well as a hard-to-live-up-to icon.

The opening pages of “King of Diamonds: Harry Winston, The Definitive Biography of An American Icon,” by Ronald Winston and William Stadiem, contain a telling episode from the author’s childhood: His famous jeweler father was “bouncing me around, having a wonderful time” in the family’s plush New York apartment.

Then suddenly, Winston dropped his son “hard and fast” onto the rug, shocking the child.

As young Ronald begins to cry, the famed jeweler tells him, “Never trust anyone in life. Not even your own father.”

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“Talk to me, Harry Winston. Tell me all about it,” Marilyn Monroe purred in “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” the song in the 1953 movie “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” that named one of New York’s pre-eminent jewelers.

Now his son Ronald is telling all about it, too, in a new book describing his father’s rise in the jewelry business and the lengthy legal battle over the company with his brother, Bruce, that followed his father’s death in 1978. (The company has been owned by the Swiss watch manufacturer Swatch Group since 2013.)

The book’s title, “King of Diamonds: Harry Winston, the Definitive Biography of an American Icon,” tapped the “King of Diamonds” description that Cosmopolitan magazine used in 1947 and that stuck with the jeweler throughout his life.

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