John Forthmann Boyer is a great-grandson and one of about a dozen heirs of Rosanna Forthmann, a Los Angeles laundry soap heiress who died in 1937. Her company sponsored the popular 1940s-1950s radio and television show Queen for a Day, which awarded prizes to needy housewives who routinely sobbed while describing their plights. He grew up in Malibu, California and learned to play polo.