Episode 27: Prodigal Sons
As family fortunes are lost, wayward sons learn they might need to make some adjustments in their lifestyles. That is unless they can find the right young heiress to marry.
Two male heirs and recently divorced Walker Inman and Jimmy Cromwell return to their mothers Nanaline Duke and Eva Stotesbury for pampering before they re-enter the dating market. Walker twice won his Reno divorce from his showgirl ex-wife, whom Nanaline pays off to stop the ongoing scandalous press. Jimmy considers entering a career in politics if his stepfather Ned Stotesbury will fund the venture.
Archival music provided by Past Perfect Vintage Music, www.pastperfect.com
Publish Date: April 01, 2021
Length: 20:47
Opening Music: My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands
Section 1 Music: Organ Grinder’s Song by Jack Payne, Album The Great British Dance Bands
Section 2 Music: On The Air by Carroll Gibbons, Albums More Sophistication & Tea Dance 2
Section 3 Music: Turkish Towel by The Savoy Havana Band, Album Fascinating Rhythm
End Music: My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Band
AS THE MONEY BURNS
Podcast by Nicki Woodard
Episode 027 – Prodigal Sons
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.
00:28
Story Recap
In the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash, many adults struggle and fear losses of fortunes. While others especially the young heiresses Barbara Hutton and Doris Duke move forward not realizing the changes ahead of them.
Now back to AS THE MONEY BURNS
Title
00:47
Prodigal Sons
[Music fade out]
Episode Tag
As family fortunes are lost, wayward sons learn they might need to make some adjustments in their lifestyles. That is unless they can find the right young heiress to marry.
01:00
[Music – Organ Grinder’s Song by Jack Payne, Album The Great British Dance Bands]
Section 1 – Story
[Music fade out]
01:14
Courtroom, Reno, Nevada
Facing off the first time since April 1929, average in appearance 34 year old, spoiled heir Walker Inman stares at his soon to be ex-wife Helen Garnett Inman, the sensual showgirl.
“How are you, Walker?” Helen says slightly provocatively. Her very essence is sex.
The more broken Walker replies as he catches the whiff of her perfume. “I am fine. You’re looking good.”
01:48
Married in 1920, it was a wild ride destined to end badly. This is their second divorce trial. The first one granted in March & April 1929, but Helen was unhappy with the measly settlement and pursued a second in October that same year. Their dirty laundry strewn about the press during both trials.
On grounds of cruelty, Walker’s counsel accused her of sleeping with no less than 12 men. Helen countered with his drunken violent bouts where he blackened her eyes. Two years earlier, Walker’s mother Nanaline Duke had hired investigators who illegally stormed Helen’s apartment catching her with a Cuban lover. Nanaline always had it out for Helen, not good enough for poor dear Walker.
02:35
On the stand Helen, stage name Garnett, both refuted and flaunted her lovers and paramours, claiming innocence while being damned with graphic love letters by famous Ziegfeld Follies singer John Steel. Her connection with the famous conman Dapper Dan Collins is even more scandalous. A friend of the couple, Dapper Dan is already being held on fraud charges in New York court. The association with that scoundrel alone aids in the judge’s sympathies for the humiliated Walker.
After the trial, Helen emerges smoking a cigarette with relish. From a distance, Walker wistfully watches her walk away before he heads off to this private plane.
03:18
Whitemarsh Hall, outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
At the ultimate luxury mansion Whitemarsh Hall, another divorcee 34 year old handsome heir to two fortunes Jimmy Cromwell returns to his family home where he easily adapts back into its indulgent lifestyle.
All the servants are more than accommodating. Delighted to have her son home for the holidays, doting mother Eva Stotesbury has prepared with her accomplice Hope Diamond owner Evalyn Walsh McLean a list of potential eligible females for remarriage. The holiday season is perfect.
03:55
Jimmy’s first wife Delphine Dodge was a wild card. Heiress to the auto fortune, Delphine likes racing and the party scene, while Jimmy tried more serious endeavors in the business world. Their 7 year old daughter Christine will spend time between the two. The divorce was amicable enough, and Eva remains devoted to former mother-in-law Anna Dodge, who greatly blossomed under Eva’s tutelage.
Eva’s husband the elderly widowed financier and banker Ned Stotesbury had his own two grown daughters when he married Eva and readily accepted her brood into his own. Eva’s oldest, daughter Louise – considered one of the most beautiful and attractive young women in Washington D.C. – has been stirring a little scandal with her roundabout of lovers and husbands. Louise too is recently divorced from Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur and has already moved onto famous actor Lionel Atwill. Oliver Cromwell Jr, aka Tony, was going to be a businessman but turned into a man of leisure and a famous mountaineer. But Eva’s youngest Jimmy was always a special favorite.
05:02
Jimmy is more than willing to play his mother’s social games, but he has his own plans as well. Jimmy is trying very hard to ingratiate himself with Democrat party members Al Smith and Franklin Roosevelt. This latter development rankles his more conservative Republican stepfather Ned.
Wharton Business School dropout Jimmy pontificates nonstop his economic and political theories which sound general and generic enough at first. While Jimmy promotes capitalism, he recommends some unproven adjustments – nationalizing utilities, sterilization, and hot dogs.
Hardly paying attention to the actual specifics, Eva fawns over her enthusiastic youngest child. He’ll marry off well. That’s about as far as Eva considers anything financially minded.
Needing to rest before an evening of entertainments, Eva leaves the men behind.
05:57
As Jimmy drones on, financier Ned gets a little more gruff. Ned gets up and pours himself a stiffer cocktail. He stares at his pampered stepson. He offers Jimmy a drink, and Jimmy accepts.
As they sit near each other, Ned stares hard into his cocktail. Jimmy waits to hear praise from Ned or at least an offer to fund Jimmy’s next venture.
Ned looks at Jimmy and says matter of factly, “Jimmy, you need to marry a rich wife. You’re never gonna make it on your own.”
06:32
Duke Mansion, Fifth Avenue, New York
Entering the cold Duke mansion, Walker returns with his younger half-sister, the tall and awkward teen heiress Doris Duke having rescued her from the dreadful private boarding school Fermata. The return of children, grown or not, home for the holidays would delight most mothers.
Well, the ambitious and calculating Nanaline Duke is half pleased. She has been waiting for Walker’s return after his scandalous divorce trial.
It took a bit of extra money, more than needed as Walker clearly would win the case again this second time. But Nanaline wanted all the publicity to stop. After some care and relaxation, Nanaline should be able to set up Walker with a proper girl from the right family.
07:17
Everything Nanaline does is for Walker. He’s been her sole bright and shining light. The poor thing was robbed of his proper place in life and will restore the Holt family name to its former prestige. Nanaline played the stock market hard to give him a better and equal inheritance to Doris. To Walker, Nanaline is sweet and overly catering. It’s somewhat disconcerting that she never shows the same compassion towards Doris.
Surprisingly, the two siblings have always gotten along well with each other, despite Walker taking to drinking the day his sister was born and has never seemed to stop. His overindulgences eventually caused stepfather Buck Duke to banish his stepson from Duke properties but with enough cash to pursue any interests. And Walker did – plenty of failed business ventures and some less than respectable females in Nanaline’s eyes. With Buck and Helen now gone, Walker is welcomed more readily.
08:14
Walker waves over to a maid. She blinks and cricks her neck in code. When Nanaline leaves the room, Walker pulls a flask from behind the cushion and splashes a heavy dose onto his drink. It’s always much easier to deal with being home, if one is a bit more sloshed. He offers to spike Doris’s drink too, she hesitates fearing Nanaline’s ever watchful eyes.
Walker holds his finger over his lips like a secret. He spikes giggling Doris’s drink.
Walker inquires, “So where shall we sneak out to – Harlem? Do we know whose playing which joint this week?”
08:52
Later, Doris assists the wobbling Walker up the stairs. He nearly knocks over a statue which would assuredly awaken and enrage Nanaline. For once, Doris gracefully maneuvers him away and safely into his bedroom.
As Walker flops on his bed, he groans far too loudly, “God, I miss Helen. She was a lot of fun.”
09:15
During morning’s breakfast, Doris whines at the idea of returning to the mean girls of Fermata, as Nanaline scowls. She wants to be rid of her daughter soon. Nanaline insists that Doris needs more training for her debut this upcoming summer. Walker defends Doris saying the school doesn’t seem as prestigious as it once was. He noticed several girls were moving out when he picked up Doris.
Reluctantly, Nanaline finally relents on certain conditions. Doris must prepare for her debut and will do whatever is necessary to secure a good standing. Doris mustn’t cause another scandal like last summer at Bailey’s Beach and must toe the line until she secures a worthy marriage.
Doris agrees.
10:06
[Music – On The Air by Carroll Gibbons, Albums More Sophistication & Tea Dance 2]
Section 2 – History & Historiography
[Music fade out]
10:21
Wealthy sons or at least ones that definitely grow up in luxury might not always inherit nor show the ability to replicate an equal fortune on their own. Their families might provide them with toys. Walker Inman had his own private plane that he would fly everywhere. During World War I, Jimmy Cromwell had commissioned his own submarine chaser to promote himself into a command post as a US Navy officer.
With such expensive lifestyles, marriage could provide another fortune or if made with the wrong person plenty of scandal, especially with divorce. Either way, remarriage could be a chance for redemption.
10:57
Now these prodigal sons aren’t returning to their fathers, who unfortunately passed away long ago, but to their mothers. Truly, these Mama’s boys inevitably return home to recharge. And what homes they are. Their widowed mothers remarried into plusher estates, which their wealthy stepfathers amply provided. However out of the two, one stepfather is gone, and the one who remains might be changing in disposition.
11:24
Now, James HR Cromwell, aka Jimmy, was first married from 1920 – 1928 to Delphine Dodge, daughter of Horace Dodge – co-founder of the auto dynasty. Jimmy provided the very lucrative family with a better social standing, also achieved by his mother Eva Stotesbury’s marriage to wealthy financier Ned Stotesbury. Jimmy supervised a sale within the Dodge Corporation flushing his new family with increased wealth. However Jimmy’s own ambitions in the Florida real estate market were not as successful and almost became a huge disaster until he was bailed out by both the Stotesbury and Dodge family fortunes.
12:02
Somewhat unsurprisingly, Jimmy was not downtrodden over his lot in life, and as a good-looking bachelor with still a lot of cache – both socially and as an heir to two fortunes – he was likely to do alright back on the market. Only he also begins to turn his attentions to writing and a political career. Due to his wealthy connections, he garnered attention from Democrat higher ups, including presidential hopeful Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Though Jimmy never had the more serious beneficial relationship FDR shared with ample heir Vincent Astor.
12:36
Born with a silverspoon that upgraded to platinum with his mother’s remarriage, Jimmy was endlessly spoiled and a bit out of touch with how the world saw him versus how he saw himself. He was an odd ladies man. Definitely handsome with proper enough manners – that is if you ignore his inappropriate crawling into bed naked with a teenage Doris Duke the same weekend of meeting her (see Episode 9 An Heir With A Spare). Jimmy was ready to drift a bit before settling down a second time despite his mother Eva and Hope Diamond owner Evalyn Walsh McLean’s interest in playing matchmakers.
13:11
In contrast, at age 17, Walker Inman got drunk the day his half-sister Doris Duke was born. He already had issues with his stepfather Buck Duke. Eventually, Buck got so irritated he banished Walker from the mansions and away from Doris. Walker was set up on a former plantation in Georgetown, South Carolina. Whenever Buck was away, Walker would sneak up to visit his mother Nanaline. She considered this the ultimate act of devotion to her and relished every visit.
13:39
Then Walker did one thing he shouldn’t – he married in haste. The daughter of a former minister and a divorced showgirl, Helen Garnett Patton Clarke (alternate spellings Helene / Garnet) was not the kind of girl Nanaline expected him to marry. Walker was supposed to restore the Holt family name and prestige. Status was something Buck despite his riches wasn’t interested in until Doris came along.
14:02
In fact, Walker’s wife Helen was a bit too similar to Buck’s first wife Lillian, a voracious sexual enthusiast who had a penchant for blackmail and scandal to get her needs met. Walker snuck off to Poughkeepsie and married Helen in the spring of 1920. When the press consulted Nanaline on the Inman marriage, Nanaline was vague on details only confirming the marriage had indeed taken place. Ironically, the newspapers did indicate that Walker was both handsome and a favorite of his stepfather – that misinformation must have come from Nanaline.
14:34
As for the bride, a minister’s daughter Helen knew her previous husband songwriter Grant Clarke only 45 minutes before marrying him, lasted 2 years, then divorced him the summer of 1919 after meeting Walker. It would take two whole divorce proceedings for Nanaline to get rid of Helen, who balked at the paltry spousal support awarded in the first decree. Helen sued out of spite and even claimed alienation of affection caused by Nanaline’s interference.
15:02
Helen gladly settled for $1,200/month from April 1929 to November 1932 with the monthly support reduced to $750 from thereafter. The generous settlement wasn’t necessary except to stop the constant public scandal from press covering the trial. Inman twice won the divorce on the grounds of extreme cruelty in Reno. Helen’s wild affairs countered with her claims of spousal battery were too salacious to ignore. Further tantalizing connections to popular tenor singer and vaudeville Ziegfeld Follies performer John Steel and international conman Dapper Dan Collins, who was awaiting trial for fraud in New York courts, added timely fuel to the fire.
15:42
Dapper Dan Collins was described by the New York Times as a former circus lion tamer and death-defying bicycle rider in addition to his ongoing crimes. He was a sometimes sidekick to Count Victor Lustig – the conman who sold the Eiffel Tower twice!!!
If the name Dapper Dan sounds familiar to Great Gatsby fans, there is a causal link, because Dapper Dan appears as an associate to Wolfsheim, inspired by real life criminal underboss Arnold Rothstein. Rothstein and Dapper Dan ran a rum bootlegging scheme out of the Bahamas in 1921.
16:15
Everything Nanaline Duke did was to provide her son Walker with an ample inheritance. A goal thwarted by Buck’s will. Through remarriage, Eva Stotesbury definitely secured a better financial future for her and her children, which son Jimmy exploited the most.
Only the Stock Market Crash might change their courses, with all roads seemingly leading back to Doris.
16:39
[Music – Turkish Towel by The Savoy Havana Band, Album Fascinating Rhythm]
Section 3 – Contemporary & Personal Relevance
[Music fade out]
16:56
All the dynamics of family – that’s something that doesn’t change no matter the economic status. Favorites, escape goats, prodigal sons, lost children,… if it’s dysfunctional there will be lots of overarching similarities though details can vary widely.
It’s so easy to be outside a dynamic and heavily judge it with perfectionistic and simplistic views. When you are not directly invested in the outcome, it can be easier to see things clearer or supposedly make decisions cleanly.
17:24
Yet family ties can be the heaviest entanglements. Lifetime of patterns and interactions both good and bad are hard to change when the emotions run high. Parents can have their blindsides, stepparents might be more weary, and siblings can be swayed either way especially depending on the relationship dynamics between the sibling and parents. Siblings can come in all forms – full, half, adopted, step… Depending on the personal dynamics – length of time, variation in treatment, proximity, the siblings can function like family or strangers, cooperative or competitive…
17:59
Obviously, the biggest and most public illustration of this comes right now with the British royal family with the harsh pattern of the non-primary heir and second sons losing their way. If the queen has to deal with it, us regular folks are not immune. Only we can handle our moments in relative privacy.
18:16
We can be quick to judge, and yet it’s far more complex. And family, blood, they just don’t cease to exist in most instances. Some form of redemption is always desired and hoped for regardless of the offenses.
Trust me, I know. I really know. Both my brothers managed to get into a lot, A LOT of trouble, while the sisters we generally were too worn out to want or cause more chaos. Let’s just say as a family and siblings we have oscillated through almost every reaction and emotion possible. That’s unconditional love, and it can really, really suck.
19:00
I say all that to contextualize the dynamics within a family, where there still remains a lot of love, forgiveness, and frustration despite ongoing circumstances. For Doris, Walker was the one person who was nice to her. There wasn’t animosity between them, but mutual sympathy for the other’s experiences. Doris could see Nanaline’s love didn’t result in betterment but destruction for her brother. And Walker sympathized with Doris and defended her against all the endless scrutiny she never wanted.
19:32
The other siblings in our stories were closer as in the Van Alen family or more adversarial as in the Astors. Those sharing more equal fortunes the siblings have fairly congenial relationships, and those with disproportionate fortunes would magnify the ongoing problems less cordially.
Family can’t always live with them, and yet life wouldn’t be the same without them.
Hook
19:58
[Music – My Heart Belongs To Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands]
Next when we return to AS THE MONEY BURNS…
The only two things certain in life are – death and taxes. While the former can’t be predicted and only happens once, the latter is guaranteed yearly for life.
With the effects of the Crash and the Great Depression wiping out fortunes, one millionaire is determined to keep his remaining money all to himself.
Until then…
Credits
20:22
AS THE MONEY BURNS is an original podcast written, produced, and voiced by Nicki Woodard, based on historical research. Archival music has been provided by Past Perfect Vintage Music, check out their website at www.pastperfect.com.
Please come visit us at As The Money Burns via Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Transcripts, timeline, episode guide, and character bios are available at asthemoneyburns.com.
20:47
THE END.