Laszlo Carreidas
Surname : Carreidas
First name : Lazlo
Occupation : Aircraft manufacturer, Industrialist
First name : Lazlo
Occupation : Aircraft manufacturer, Industrialist
If there's one personality who stands out from the crowd in the portrait gallery created by Hergé, it's billionaire Laszlo Carreidas. He's a very wealthy man, but he doesn't let his wealth show, because his clothes certainly don't reflect his social status. But what is most striking is the sad look on his face. The expression on his face, the way he walks, the things he says - nothing can tell us that this creature who inspires pity above all else is a great captain of industry, a boss in several industrial sectors.
He is clearly Marcel Dassault, founder of the companies of the same name. Pierre Assouline tells us that "Carreidas is a caricature of the brilliant builder of the Mirage and Mystère fighter jets. He borrowed a lot from him: his silhouette, his hat, his neckerchief, his temperamental side...".
Hergé undoubtedly had Dassault in mind. But not exclusively. What we know of the aircraft manufacturer does not reveal any particular penny-pinching. Instead, Hergé borrowed his stinginess from Jean Paul Getty, a famous oil tycoon. At a time when his fortune was approaching 4 billion dollars, he had equipped his Los Angeles property with coin-operated telephones, which his guests were asked to use.
Similarly, when Hergé emphasised Laszlo Carreidas' phobia of germs, which prevented him from shaking hands (a real phobia or a real lack of respect for his interlocutors?) He was probably thinking more of Howard Hughes, whose phobia of contamination was such that he spent the last ten years of his life as a recluse, naked, in hotel rooms, with no one allowed to enter, except the nurses who looked after him…
With his crumpled hat and overcoat, his shabby scarf and his glasses hanging down over his nose, Laszlo Carreidas is not the classic image of a billionaire, but Carreidas will reveal the full extent of his dark side under the influence of a truth serum. His name, ”Carreidas” is a pun on “carré d’as”, which is French for the poker term, “four aces”, hence his company’s logo on the tail fin of his plane.
