02:46

[Music – I Double Dare You by Jack Harris & His Orchestra, Albums More Sophistication & Hits of the 30s]

Section 2 – History & Historiography

[Music fade out]

02:54

The summer of 1929 was the one of stock market dreams and legends.

A rich man’s chauffeur and a broker’s house window washer all played the stocks from tips they saw or overheard.  Over 30 miles away from the nearest railroad, a Wyoming cattlemen bought or sold 1000 shares in a single day.

A broker’s valet made nearly a quarter of million, and a trained nurse made $30k from tips given by grateful patients. 

The American dream of windfalls and lotteries.  It was like one could only miss or lose out by not participating.  Reporter Edwin Lefevre had reported plenty of colorful tales.

03:33

The ticker service was now nationwide, and a mere phone call would give any investor a happy update.  Like a drug fix, it was nerve-wracking to be out of touch with the market.

Only there were some small warnings.  A random loss here or there, rumors…

Conversely suicides were up that summer as they had been increasing over the second half of the 1920s.  In Chicago, a stock broker Edwin Page’s lover and showgirl Barbara Cole committed suicide jumping out of her apartment building, but that was over a broken heart not lost stocks.

04:07

Paralleling the Labor Day Weekend heat wave, the Tuesday September 3rd opening market was hot and hit a then all time record high peak of 381.17 on the Dow Jones, and it would not make that mark again for another 25 years until 1954.

Such a great summer, and an Indian summer at that.  The lingering warm weather amidst the autumn’s beauty of changing leaves.  Then things changed like the weather.

04:35

The panic began on Thursday, October 24th.  That day 12,894,650 shares changed hands – equal amounts bought & sold.  The panic lasted a few hours in the morning – people wanting to sell with no buyers.  By 11am, the mad scramble began, and by 11:30am blind fear took over.

Outside, the roar of a crowd gathers gawking at a would be suicide on the ledge.  Police were called only to learn it was a mistaken identity of a workman making repairs on top of a building.  Around the city, other crowds gathered at different brokerage firms.  11 well-known speculators had already killed themselves in an apparent suicide wave.

05:19

Around 12pm, bankers gathered at the JP Morgan offices.

At 12:30pm, officials closed the visitor’s gallery at the New York Stock Exchange.  One of those departing visitors was none other than Winston Churchill.

At 1:30pm, the most respected man of the floor Vice President of the Exchange Richard Whitney appeared as a substitute for then vacationing E.H.H. Simmons who was in Hawaii.  Whitney assured the bankers were stepping in and buying.  Prices began to move upward. 

05:50

It would take until 8 minutes and 30 seconds after 7pm for the ticker to finish updating the day’s activities.  Firms stayed lit in the evening full of activity trying to understand and record all the losses.

By the end of the day, the market was only 12 points off.  Thus was Black Thursday.

There were assurances this was merely a technical error and everything was fundamentally sound.  In the past, panics and crashes happened on singular days with  the worst losses finitely confined and ended within that day.  This next one would not be so definable and distinct.

06:29

On Monday the 28th, the disaster began again.  Another high volume day but not as bad as the prior Thursday.   Only nine and a quarter million shares but with much heavier losses.  And there was no recovery.

06:44

Then Tuesday, October 29th rolled around.

Selling began immediately.  More trades than Thursday, bigger losses than Monday.  Too many selling orders, and no buyers.

The ticker lagged 2.5 hours behind with 16,410,030 sales recorded.

Wall Street offices were lit all night.  Twice that day at noon and in the evening, the bankers gathered.  During the day, instead of buying the bankers had been selling.

It was the most devastating day in the history of New York stock market.  The Dow closed at 230.07.  It would forever be known as Black Tuesday.

07:29

Our story covers the lives of the elite, specifically a set of heirs and heiresses to America’s most famous fortunes and their interconnected and intersecting lives in relation to this fateful day and the aftermath of the Great Depression.

We’ve heard their stories in nice neat tight little narratives with this historical event as merely a small note in their biographies.  Yet everyone knows the experiences of late adolescence and early adulthood stick with you for life and color how you will interpret the rest of it.  Thus the complications of love and money abound.

08:02

Our main characters include:

Teen heiress, richest girl in the world, the tall and awkward Doris Duke who inherited the tobacco fortune which was both an original member of the Dow and behind Duke University.  Her own mother Nanaline plots to give the immense Duke fortune to her non-Duke son.

08:20

Teen heiress, true love devotee, the chubby budding fashionista Barbara Hutton who inherited the Woolworth fortune after her mother committed suicide.  Her stockbroker father Franklyn founded with his older brother E.F. the famous EF Hutton stock brokerage firm and is better at nurturing the fortune than his daughter.

08:39

Teen heir, proud scion John Jacob Astor VI, aka Jakey, survived the Titanic unlike his fortune and will battle his older half-brother Vincent for a better share.  Their sister Ava Alice Astor was potentially one of the first to enter King Tut’s tomb.  Their grandmother Caroline was the reigning society queen of the Gilded Age.  Their father was the richest man to die on the Titanic.

09:02

Teen heiress and It Girl Louise Van Alen is by birth an Astor and by marriage a Vanderbilt.  Yes, Louise is first cousin to Jakey, and her mother another reigning queen Daisy and her two brothers all have Society’s rules down.  Louise’s debutante ball is going to be the event of the season. 

09:20

Prince Alexis Mdivani has come to escort longtime family friend Louise for her debut.  He’s got a title but lost the rest in the Russian Revolution.  Now he needs a fortune.  His secret romance with Louise upsets his meddling fan Barbara.

09:37

Former Oregon pioneer girl then international opera singer Cobina Wright hosts the best parties for her stockbroker husband Bill, whose Newport blueblood lineage provides them best of everything.  Cobina advises the heiresses in protocol as needed, but she will serve better as a cautionary tale.

09:56

Heir to two fortunes Jimmy Cromwell is due to return, having divorced the Dodge fortune and recovering from a disastrous land deal.  Jimmy is a very eligible bachelor, Cobina’s former lover, and seems to have taken an interest in Doris.

10:10

Teen heir, richest boy Huntington Hartford could be a match for Doris, but neither teen seems to take much interest in the other.  He hangs around with Jakey but dreams of adventure and making his own independent fortune, but his smothering mother Henrietta complicates matters.

Now that’s just where our story begins, but their lives were far more interconnected and complex. 

10:36

Over the course of their lives, would you be able to guess Who’s Who:

·        One has fortune, the other does not, another comes with 2, and three have far more than enough.  Though one of those doesn’t have a clue.  Still another is disinherited though still more than well off.

·        All will marry at least twice or more, and one within the same family.  Another will twice share a spouse with two others – first by betrayal and second with approval.  And still two more will become accidental bigamists due to failed Mexican divorces.

·        Royal titles are always in vogue – 3 engagements, at least 2 failed proposals, 8 actual marriages, one title is fake, another bought, and still another claimed twice

·        Scams abound wherever money is found.  Sweetheart, land & oil, and Ponzi schemes are running amok.  Three are in play, three more have yet to begun, and one will end in the Crash.

·        And as for the Crash, parts or whole fortunes were lost for at least 4, though one is hardly phased, while another’s actually increased, and another’s was gone long before.   By the ends of their lives, 2 will die near penniless, 2 will have been sequestered and drugged, and two fortunes will center in famous elder abuse cases.

11:49

With so much to cover, we will go backwards and forwards to tie together all the necessarily highlights and lowlights.

Our story is only beginning, so I hope you will stay tuned and enjoy the ride.