AS THE MONEY BURNS

Podcast by Nicki Woodard

Episode 118 – Cursed Hopes

Outline

Illness, kidnapping

Remaking fortune

Series Tag

00:00

[Music – My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands]

AS THE MONEY BURNS is an original podcast by Nicki Woodard.  Based on historical research, this is a deep exploration into what happened to a set of actual heirs and heiresses to some of America’s most famous fortunes when the Great Depression hits.

Each episode has three primary sections.  Section 1 is a narrative story.  Section 2 goes deeper into the historical facts.  Section 3 focuses on contemporary, emotional, and personal connections.   

00:30

Story Recap

Jakey Astor is ranked Newport’s most eligible bachelor, Jimmy Cromwell shocks GOP ladies, and Princes Serge and David Mdivani stir up more trouble.

Now back to AS THE MONEY BURNS

Title

00:46

Cursed Hopes

[Music Fade Out]

Episode Tag

As tough times persist, several dangers lie ahead for dreams, fortunes, and more importantly life itself.

01:03

[Music – Lost In A Fog by Coleman Hawkins & His Orchestra, Album Nightfall – Sophisticated Jazz Classics]

Section 1 – Story

[Music Fade Out]

01:21

Oh, the dream is always to fall in love and be rich.  To be swept up in kisses and dripping with jewels and cash.  Nothing could be an easier way to solve certain problems.  Or is it?  Funny how dreams rarely take in the dark side of things.

While hope glimmers on the horizon for those seeking love, others struggle with more dire circumstances.  Failed and failing marriages are one thing, but the ongoing financial problems from the Great Depression bring more problems into the mix.  The rise in particular crimes like kidnapping for ransom continues to plague and concern even the moderately well to do.

There’s nothing like situations *such as the Great Depression to drive people to ever further the efforts to gain, maintain, or retrieve a fortune.  People will do anything.  Some try through matters of the heart, while others are a little more dangerous, aggressive, and definitely illegal.

02:23

Prohibition is still in effect, but it is slowly beginning to unravel.  The rise of gangster and other illicit activities have more than caused problems for the public and government.  Worse legitimate businesses suffer from the inability to serve alcohol.  Casualties include the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and now even dry cruise liners like the Leviathan.  Recently back in March 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed a bill allowing beer to be sold again legally, and many hope for more repeals to soon follow.

02:58

Another presidential order requires that all gold certificates need to be exchanged by May 1^st, 1933.  A few days before the deadline, a man J.J. Faulkner cashes in $2,980  (eh-hem in 2024 that would be $72k) worth at a bank.  Later follow up, showed no one by that name living at the address given.  And those aren’t just any gold certificates but a lead in an unsolved case – and not just any crime but the crime of the century.  They are part of the ransom payment for the Lindbergh baby in an exchange between schoolteacher John F. Condon and Cemetery John.  The certificates had not been marked, but the serial numbers were recorded.  More will pop up from time to time for well over the next year.

03:55

A crime somewhat forgotten as people forge ahead in their lives, but the effect lingers still.  Other more pressing situations take focus in those struggling to survive.  Lost and diminished fortunes mandate new strategies for the new environment.

What’s old can become new when the circumstances seem right.  Opportunities abound for those with keen eyes and a sense of risk taking.  Such ambition is exactly the thing needed to save or rebuild a fortune. 

04:29

Pretty statuesque blonde and socialite 23 year old Alice-Leone Moats publishes her first book No Nice Girl Swears with a syndicated column related to its release.  Born in Mexico and raised in Europe by American parents and her father is a banker, Alice-Leone hails from the elite set but whose family’s own diminished earnings leads to her writing career as a means of survival.  Miss Moats also happens to be an ex-girlfriend of James “Henry” Van Alen, and she was educated in a convent school in Rome then attended both Brearley and Fermata – the same schools as Doris Duke.  Alice-Leone’s first writing gig was for a fashion magazine, and now she gives modern advice on dating, etiquette, and the changes in the rules – things like dating without chaperones, speakeasies, smoking, dealing with drunks, and alludes to more intimate matters like necking and sleepovers.  As an updated and modernized Emily Post with less prudishness, this social registerite is definitely finding her way into the work world and becoming a literary sensation with several articles for both magazines and newspapers.

05:44

Meanwhile the press is having their bit of fun regaling the adventures of the silver spoon blueblood former stockbroker and golden boy William May Wright, aka “Bill.”  As he tries to rebuild their lost fortune by seeking gold in the Rockies.  Seriously, he’s actually trying to find gold.  His wife – coloratura soprano and supreme hostess– Cobina Wright slightly plays along stating he’s becoming quite a prospector but still needs to perfect the making of sourdough biscuits.

An actual Oregon pioneer girl herself before she became an opera singer, Cobina now officially hosts events at the new Waldorf-Astoria hotel in Manhattan but only earns enough for boarding at the hotel and schooling for their daughter the blonde curly headed Lil’ Cobina Wright, Jr. 

06:31

Do the newspapers really need to constantly remind everyone that they lost their money, and all their struggles since?….  At least the press hasn’t quite taken to using the term Ponzi scheme which is more the apropos description to Bill’s former stock brokerage demise.

But if the press is only reporting on his financial exploits that is so much better than his extra marital affairs.  Every now and then Cobina receives another letter from someone pointing out another indiscretion of Bill’s.  He is currently living with a woman in New Mexico.

Cobina isn’t the only one dealing with public humiliation. 

07:10

Wealthy socialite and heiress to gold mining and newspaper fortunes, Evalyn Walsh McLean has been a Washington, D.C. fixture and never unmistakable for boldly wearing the large blue Hope Diamond.  A gift purchased years ago inside her husband’s family’s Washington Post headquarters.  Evalyn considered the well-known unlucky jewel to be her lucky charm.  Somehow though it seems to have given her like its previous owners a long string of bad luck instead.

07:43

Newspapers report that Evalyn Walsh McLean is reportedly attempting to sell her infamous jewel to raise cash to buy the Washington Post, which has fallen into bankruptcy while her former husband Edward McLean gallivants across Europe with his mistress Rose Douras having secured their divorce in Latvia back in December 1932.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any takers willing to risk the cursed gem.

Previously, Evalyn pawned her precious Hope Diamond to pay off a temporary mortgage loan that she took out to pay a ransom for the Lindbergh baby only to realize it was a hoax.

08:26

Thursday, June 1^st, 1933, Washington, D.C.

As luck would have it, her fraudster Gaston Means who swindled Evalyn out of $104k (today now $2.5 million in 2024) with elaborate attempts to recover the famous baby finds himself again sentenced to 2 years in the penitentiary for defrauding Evalyn after having already been sentenced to 15 years.  However, Evalyn attends to a different matter.

09:00

This same day the Washington Post goes up for sale at auction.  With her ex-husband recklessly abroad, Evalyn attempts to purchase the newspaper for herself and their sons. During the bids, Evalyn fingers the unlucky blue diamond about her neck.  Sitting next to her in the balcony, longtime friend and recently widowed Alice Roosevelt Longfellow offers support.  Excitedly, bid after bid increases the amount.  Evalyn bows out of the auction at $650k (or $15.7 million in 2024). 

Two days later the official buyer is announced – Eugene Meyer for $825k (today $19.9 million).  Meyer had previously offered but had been turned down by Edward for $5 million (depending on year of offer possibly $100 – $121 million today).  Another bidder is William Randolph Hearst, who wanted to eliminate the rival Washington, D.C. newspaper and whose mistress Marion Davies’ sister is Rosemary “Rose” Douras Davies as in the previously mentioned Edward’s lover.

Evalyn still has her father’s mining fortune and property so isn’t completely destitute but definitely heartbroken more for her sons’ legacy.

10:24

Other rumors percolate which inspire Cobina to plot a new source of gold to replace her family’s lost fortune.  General Pershing’s favorite ocean liner Leviathan is being retired.  Originally, the German imperial liner launched as the SS Vaterland only to be taken over by the US forces during World War I.  After confirming with Kermit Roosevelt who works for the Line, Cobina thoughts dance with all the possibilities of turning the aging magnificent ship into a floating playground docked in the New York harbor. 

Another attempt to revive her Sutton Club expertise at a new venue.  She knows exactly how and what each deck and room can be converted and used – dance floors, nightclubs, a day nursery, pool, playrooms, bachelor lodgings,…  The list goes on and on.

11:16

Thankfully Cobina has kept so many of her friends and contacts despite her meager fortune, and her much needed joviality is always encouraged by willing backers.  She immediately reaches out to General Pershing who puts in her contact with Admiral Cone and with the assistance of Barney Barusch, Cobina quickly secures the permission to turn the Leviathan into an amusement center.

11:41

But as anything that has such an easy beginning will inevitably hit some snags along the way.  She partners with Jay “Rye” Ryland, who ran the “gigolo dance hall” at Cobina’s recent Society Circus Ball.  Another banker friend introduces her to a man of influence New York subway builder Sam Rosoff, who guides her through the elusive Tammany Hall’s connections to get access and permits to the appropriate dock.  He arranges a meeting where Ryland is stuck outside.  Inside a smoke filled back room, Cobina charms her way through the meeting with several men.  They quickly and pleasantly agree to the entertainment venture, but when asked why they prevented Ryland from joining the meeting they admit they were concerned this meeting might be a ruse to get tickets to the upcoming prizefight at Madison Square Garden.  Could it possibly be the Primo Carnera vs. Jack Sharkey heavyweight title fight?  Teasingly, Cobina says they now owe Mr. Ryland a couple of tickets for inconveniencing him, and low and behold they actually comply.

12:48

Within weeks, Cobina gains access to the 79^th dock with Tammany Hall’s promise to patronage the new establishment.  Then Rosoff takes Cobina to another meeting with some leaders of the underworld at a nightclub.  Cobina finds herself next to a little big shot – a nice looking man of middle age with deep dimples.  Mr. Dimples warms to her quickly, and Cobina teases he can’t be a gangster and that he must find a new line of work, to which he agrees.

After their meeting, Rosoff informs Cobina that that upcoming Monday Mr. Dimples will be joining his business partner Al Capone by serving a 25 year sentence.

13:30

Saturday, July 1st, 1933

Evalyn Walsh McLean is seen dining with Alice Roosevelt Longfellow (yes, she is Kermit’s older sister and they are President Theodore Roosevelt’s grown children).  Rumors are that Evalyn is considering allowing the Hope Diamond to be exhibited at the Chicago’s World Fair for $.25 cents a look (that’s $6.05 in 2024).  Another suggestion is to sell cheap replicas as souvenirs.  The ill-fated jewel has gotten plenty of press reliving its reputation and history as interest peaks again with her recent misfortunes.

14:12

With the exposition on “A Century of Progress,” the fair runs from May 27^th, 1933 to November 12^th, 1933 with a second round in 1934.  In the 1933 booklet, the science theme is devoted to the story of jewelry, a story illustrated with replicas of such fabled gems as the Kohinoor, Hope Diamond, and the Star of India.  The multi-level exhibition will also include on the first floor the replica of a diamond mine, including subterranean tunnels and corridors with other features like a shaft.  The next level resembling the “blue ground” are thatched shacks of native mine workers and a typical mill setting, then finally nearby Amsterdam where one might see diamond cutters at work.

Hmmm, Huh, this could be a somewhat interesting and potentially lucrative business proposition as long as it doesn’t bring too much trouble.

15:12

Speaking of trouble —

Friday, July 28^th, 1933

While Cobina sorts out the legal, business, and financial matters, the de-commissioned Leviathan is docked for non-use with 4 sailors aboard to watch over it.  Only there is an invasion of 4 monkeys, 2 of which are baboons, who ran away from a nearby freight ship.  The monkeys cause havoc as they escape through air shafts and ventilators.  

15:43

But that nuisance is much more preferred than the alarm that sends armed guards and policemen rushing down from New York and Boston to Newport, Rhode Island. 

Warnings are issued to several Newport heiresses including Countess Gladys Vanderbilt Szechenyi, Mrs. Truman Saunders, and Mrs. Goadby Loew.  A considerable threat has also been made to the tall no longer awkward heiress Doris Duke.  The richest girl in the world is often described as camera shy for good reason.  She has been receiving death threats all her life.

16:16

But with the Great Depression, the rise in kidnapping for ransom has everyone on edge.  Now at her Newport estate Rough Point, day and night guards armed with machine guns are stationed throughout.  While she eats with her socially ambitious mother Nanaline Duke or young French governess Jenny Renaud, guards are present.  While Doris sleeps, guards sit outside her bedroom door and windows. 

16:40

Even her limousine is outfitted with a button on the floor that if she presses with her foot will send a flashing red light to the dashboard alerting her chauffeur and another in the back to alert her following bodyguards.  Unfortunately, while in Europe earlier this year, one amorous English gentleman got quite a surprise at his failed attempt to kiss her when the limo suddenly stopped the door flung open to be surrounded by detectives with guns pointed at him.  The youth found more solace walking alone the long dusty road back to his hotel in the Riviera.

Many of the seaside locations brace for an uptick in robberies and possibly kidnappings, but the summer activities must go on.

17:23

As Cobina frenetically tries to pull together her Leviathan plans, she gets an unexpected and irresistible invite to Saratoga for the horse races in August. 

In much need of rest, Cobina accepts the opportunity to stay at the estate of her friend Florence Nightingale Graham married name Mrs. Thomas J. Lewis, otherwise known better as Elizabeth Arden, of course the one and only successful cosmetics pioneer.  Arden revolutionized the female beauty regime of simple cleansers and basics powders to perfumed whipped concoctions, eye shadows, lipsticks, nail polish, and creams for muscles, wrinkles, and the like.  Arden inspires and advises women on posture, diet, and movements.

18:10

Arden is a champion horse breeder and racer.  Her stables are like her salons, well decorated, and the jockey uniforms are taffeta and silk in blue and crimson colors and made by the very best dressmakers.  Referred to as “little darlings” in baby talk, her horses even get the high fancy treatment of nicer scented Arden liniment ointments for their joints.  Arden invites Cobina and Lil’ Cobina. to see the upcoming races along with Prince Kahdar.  Other race participants include widowed Gertude Vanderbilt Payne Whitney and her sullen morose nephew and eligible bachelor Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, Jr.

Only Cobina’s endless efforts to rebuild her lost fortune have come at a heavy price.  Despite the excitement over her Leviathan project, Cobina notices a loss in the animation of her face when occasionally glimpsing in the mirror.

19:10

Monday, August 7^th, 1933

Cobina is rushed to the Roosevelt Hospital and undergoes a serious operation which will take some time to recover.  All the while, her mind dances with all the options for the Leviathan.  The press too encourages her dreams and report about the possibilities of this new venture excited by Cobina and the Leviathan’s stormy careers and overlapping histories.

19:38

Alas, the recovery is much harder and takes far longer than anticipated.  Arden takes Lil’ Cobina to her Maine Chance Farm while Cobina struggles to heal.  Her extreme exhaustion from trying to survive and thrive have taken a toll.  Along with another heartbreak and hidden stress, Bill never comes at all – not during nor after the surgery nor throughout the long recovery.  A detail thankfully the press does not note to further humiliation.

20:16

By the time Cobina leaves the hospital, Tammany Hall has a new crew in charge, and with it all her new connections and the Leviathan project vanish. 

Even now in double the debt due to the operation, Cobina won’t give up but definitely has to find another new direction.  She plasters on her cheerful mask as she plots her next moves.  She has to prepare for their future – hers and Lil’ Cobina’s without Bill. 

Even the well off and especially the formally well off could feel like one is cursed if only the masses weren’t worse off.  Another day and another chance at glory will come again.