Netflix's new documentary, “Martha,” offers an unvarnished look at Martha Stewart, the woman who earned the nickname “dean of domesticity” early in her career and is now considered the “original influencer.”
the netflix (NFLX) The documentary presents Martha Helen Kostrya in the 1960s as a very beautiful and very Feisty blonde from a troubled New Jersey family. The two-hour film thoroughly covers his rise and fall, and now his rebirth, thanks to his own business savvy and some very strategic alliances, including a celebrated relationship with Snoop Dogg.
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Along the way, Stewart, now 83, worked as a stockbroker, caterer, founder of a publishing house and became the first self-made female billionaire in the US.
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She was later convicted of lying to the FBI about a stock transaction and was the subject of tabloid press for years. But prison was just a stop for one of the most resilient businesswomen to ever set foot in an American boardroom.
Martha Stewart was one of the first CEOs to take a company public
After working as a stockbroker for several years, and by all accounts, very successful, Martha Stewart left New York City for Connecticut, where she started a wedding and party planning and catering business.
That business spawned the idea for a book, which in turn became the publishing powerhouse Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO), founded in 1997. MSLO was a company that brought together several media and marketing companies linked to Stewart's personal brand .
The company went public through an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on October 19, 1999. The shares opened at $18 per share, but at the end of trading, they were worth $38 per share, which made Stewart an instant billionaire.
At one point, his net worth was estimated at $1.9 billion.
“People took me seriously,” he says in the documentary. “I was invited to join the board of directors of NYSE, the board of directors of Revlon.”
Her experience as a stockbroker and board member of the New York Stock Exchange did not help her when she became involved in an insider trading scheme to sell shares of ImClone Systems, a biopharmaceutical company in which she owned shares and whose founder was a friend. The company's CEO, Dr. Sam Waksal, says in the documentary: “I did not give Martha Stewart inside information. Period.”
At the time of her trial and conviction, many people believed she had been singled out for being a woman. Prosecutors couldn't get the insider trading charge to stick, so they found something else and she was found guilty of lying to the FBI.
Martha Stewart's company lost most of its value after she went to jail
Stewart was sentenced to five months in federal prison. During the trial and while he was serving time, the value of his company plummeted. Shortly after his conviction, profits fell 86% and the stock price plummeted to around $2 from a high of nearly $40; The company is no longer listed on the New York Stock Exchange and has been privately held since 2015.
In the Netflix documentary, he says, “I lost a billion dollars.”
Following her conviction and as part of a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Martha Stewart was prohibited from holding any role that would allow her to prepare, audit or disclose the financial results of a public company until August 2011.
“She was a tough boss,” John Cuti, one of Stewart's lawyers, says in the documentary. “Some of the behavior she was criticized for would be applauded if she were a man.”
Following the release of the documentary, many people on social media, including Reddit, came to Stewart's defense over how she was treated during and after her trial.
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Martha Stewart taking care of her chickens.
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Martha Stewart is a friend of Justin Bieber and has a business relationship with Snoop Dogg
In 2003, a few years after her release from prison, Stewart was invited to participate in a roast for Justin Bieber, who at age 21 was facing a prison sentence and uncertainty about his career.
The roast hosts and the Comedy Central audience expected an older woman to object, but Stewart played against type and roasted Bieber, Snoop Dogg, Kevin Hart and others.
She was tremendously funny and her performance was a great success. It introduced him to a whole new generation (or two), and he's since managed to rebuild his career to the point where his net worth now stands at $400 million.
Snoop Dogg says in the Netflix documentary that Martha Stewart is one of the best teachers of all time. It is a two-way street.
In a recent Wall Street Journal interview, when asked what she learned from the rapper, 30 years her junior, Stewart said, “I've learned to negotiate even better than ever. We work together a lot and I wait for him to negotiate the contract and then I go and follow him.”
And in a recent review of the documentary in the New York Times, writer Madison Malone Kircher succinctly described Martha Stewart: “To me, real influence is always about how much money you can force people to spend. “The ability to get large numbers of people to change the way they act, eat, or dress.”
“She did that and then some. I think she has earned the title of 'original influencer'. Although I don't know if she as that title. Influencers abound; There is only one Martha.”
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Stewart is reportedly dissatisfied with the way she is portrayed in the Netflix documentary, but she will have full control over how her story is told when she releases the autobiography she is currently working on; there is no publication date.
As of April 2019, Marquee Brands LLC is the parent company of MSLO and Martha Stewart is the creative director of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
In the same recent Wall Street Journal interview, Stewart said of retirement, “It's not sexy by any means.”
The documentary closes with two of Stewart's mottos: “Learn something new every day” and “When you're done changing, you're done.”
Martha Stewart did not respond to TheStreet's request for comment.
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