Episode 41: The Legacy Left Behind
As a widow prepares for the anniversary of her husband’s death, the daughter still remains in the way of the fortune. The web of secrets is starting to unravel.
On the five year anniversary of Buck Duke’s death, Nanaline must return to Duke University for a memorial weekend. While the university celebrates their former benefactor, Nanaline is reminded of the fortune she lost and schemes to get it back.
Archival music provided by Past Perfect Vintage Music, www.pastperfect.com.
Publish Date: October 01, 2021
Length: 20:47
Opening Music: My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands
Section 1 Music: Just A Mood by Benny Carter & His Orchestra, Album Nightfall – Sophisticated Jazz Classics
Section 2 Music: These Foolish Things by Benny Carter, Album Perfect Blues
Section 3 Music: A Foggy Day by Carroll Gibbons, Album Sophistication 3
End Music: My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands
AS THE MONEY BURNS
Podcast by Nicki Woodard
Episode 041 – The Legacy Left Behind
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
Activities proceed as normal as the effects of the Great Depression haven’t completely surfaced. Teen heiress Doris Duke is the debutante of her season, while Barbara Hutton awaits her turn.
Now back to AS THE MONEY BURNS
Title
The Legacy Left Behind
00:48
[Music fade out]
Episode Tag
As a widow prepares for the anniversary of her husband’s death, the daughter still remains in the way of the fortune. The web of secrets is starting to unravel.
01:01
[Music – Just A Mood by Benny Carter & His Orchestra, Album Nightfall – Sophisticated Jazz Classics]
Section 1 – Story
[Music fade out]
01:16
Oh how five years can go by quickly and forever all at the same time.
The petite but socially ambitious Nanaline Duke sits at her desk staring at an invitation.
Duke University commemorates James Buchanan “Buck” Duke on the 5th anniversary of his passing. The dirt poor farmer turned industrialist and late in life philanthropist died on October 10th, 1925. Shortly after the Civil War his father and siblings with two piles of tobacco managed to build an empire that later expanded into energy. His family used their good fortune to rebuild the local Trinity College into the now renowned Duke University. Of course, it will want to honor the man forever.
02:00
Nanaline grits her teeth. Buck Duke that overweight, overindulgent, uncouth, vile man. She shudders remembering his rotund body and insatiable carnal desires. Nanaline submitted herself to him for the sake of her son Walker, from a prior marriage. Buck’s only appeal was his more than large ample fortune and a lack of any direct heirs to encumber complications.
Next to the invitation is a ledger of Nanaline’s finances. She keeps this guarded closely. She has been pouring over her investments. They were doing superbly well before the Crash, when they nosedived. The hit was so big, she hasn’t been able to recover. The stock market has been so unreliable and nothing she chooses is correct. She has lost nearly everything of her own. Her luxurious lifestyle is being provided by their daughter Doris’s fortune not hers. Doris’s trust is tied up beyond reach, while Doris blocks any attempt to sell off any property as she remains thoroughly devoted to her father’s memory much to her mother’s disdain.
03:12
Her whole life, Nanaline has desired money and status. Growing up, she was acutely aware of how the Civil War which had magnified Buck’s fortune had ruined her own. She was an impoverished Southern belle living in the old family plantation mansion which had to be converted into a multi-boarder situation while her mother also made and sold dresses to the better off girls in the area. Nanaline was at least beautiful so she used that to find a wealthy husband.
Her first marriage to Walker’s father William Patterson Inman had been more ideal. They were an attractive well to do couple, but an early widowhood forced her to seek better financial means. Marrying Buck was definitely marrying down in Nanaline’s eyes. Then when he died, his whole fortune went not to non-Duke Walker as Nanaline had hoped or even Nanaline herself but to their daughter Doris who was only a child then. Even now, Doris is a few years away from her majority and it will be another decade before she will inherit all of her combined wealth.
04:16
Doris that awkward and bizarre girl. She has none of her mother’s more charming qualities and grace. The spring bow at Buckingham Palace has upped Doris’s social profile, but she is bound to screw up that progress. More than likely marrying someone undesirable.
Nanaline walks around the large Fifth Avenue mansion. She has done so much to make this life sophisticated. Buck was more crass in taste and simpler in his entertainment choices. His one indulgence was a sexual appetite as large as the man himself. Nanaline could barely look at him. His constant and insatiable vulgar needs still make her cringe.
She sacrificed everything for Walker. Her beloved son. The poor soul who just needs one good break. Thankfully that showgirl Helen is now an ex-wife. A more suitable mate shall be found.
05:09
Mates, oh that’s right, Doris needs to be married off soon. They made great strides with Buckingham Palace, only Doris’s tennis injury sidelined the big debutante ball. So much money wasted on that girl. She’s too much like Buck and will likely want to marry someone not of the right station and ruin all of Nanaline’s plans.
A piano playing can be heard throughout the mansion as Doris’s practices and practices. She never plays for anyone, no recitals, no private performances, no party favors, nothing. That is probably preferrable as not to make a spectacle of herself. That is the only benefit to Doris’s aversion to public attention. She never exposes people to her dreadful playing. Nanaline wants to scream at her to stop the racket, but mother has to play nice for a bit. She can’t upset Doris before a more concrete plan can be formed and executed.
06:06
In the study, Nanaline runs into Jenny Renaud, Doris’s longtime French governess who remains on the payroll as a companion. All rich girls keep their governesses as chaperones up until marriage. Doris’s deep attachment to Jenny feels rather sisterly.
Jenny is immersed in reading. Her silky hair beckoning. Nanaline glances over Jenny’s shoulder to see the slightly titillating French novel. Nanaline strokes the younger lady’s hair. It’s sensuous to feel. Jenny responds by caressing Nanaline’s fingers then kisses them. They look into each other’s eyes.
The one good, guaranteed thing is that Doris will play without interruption on a strict schedule. This gives ample freedom for a different sort of distraction.
06:50
A week later, Nanaline enters her huge closet. Her fingers nimbly dance over the fine fabrics. She feels the velvets and silks glide over her cheek. She might be a bit older, but she has certainly kept her figure. She contemplates which outfit and fur would be suitable widow’s attire after 5 years.
Her hands stop on a dark sable. She thinks back to that cold October night years ago. Locked in the room, she sits in a chair buried underneath multiple furs especially her nice dark sable. The window open letting in the howling cold wind. Between her and that window, Buck Duke struggles to breathe and shivers in the cold exposed with no blankets.
07:36
The big memorial weekend comes with several new building dedications and naming ceremonies. Doris desperately wants to go, but Nanaline refuses and leaves Doris in New York with Jenny. Nanaline doesn’t want Doris mingling with the wrong crowd nor getting ideas about university again. Doris must attend multiple debutante events and play the Society game, Doris relents in trying to get her mother’s approval. Close, so close, with Buckingham Palace Doris dare not push her luck just yet.
At the Duke University ceremony, trustee Nanaline sits there calm and collected wearing her dark sable and characteristic white pearl necklace next to her widowed sister-in-law Mrs. Benjamin Duke. A smug look crosses Nanaline’s face as she listens to the typical flattering overly complimentary driveling accolades made on behalf of Buck Duke.
08:31
A large wreath is laid in front of his tomb. A year before his death, Buck endowed the university with $40 million, and they have now spent $20 million on new buildings, including converting the old plant dedicated purely to the female students. Nanaline keeps the forced smile and slightly bows her head graciously. Internally, a dagger plunges deep into her heart. That bastard wasted all that money and left her with a small pittance of only $10 million.
Buck and his family believed in encouraging equal opportunities in education. Thankfully, Doris is not nearby to get any more foolish ideas into her head. That girl will definitely screw things up one way or another.
Nanaline’s mind churning, churning… she will get that fortune somehow.
09:23
[Music – These Foolish Things by Benny Carter, Album Perfect Blues]
Section 2 – History & Historiography
[Music fade out]
09:36
Our series opened with the story of Buck Duke’s death and how he left everything to his only child Doris. Nanaline Holt Inman Duke has long schemed and plotted for a way to get the Duke fortune all for her son Walker Inman. Nanaline is also intent on restoring her family’s previous glory lost during the Civil War yet again claiming for Walker’s sake. Nanaline is blinded by her mother’s love ready to do anything and everything for Walker, however Nanaline feels the opposite for Doris. The tough and tense situation made all the more palpable after Buck’s death.
10:13
In trying to recreate Nanaline’s history, there isn’t much to go with. Most of what is written about her is through sources covering Doris or Buck Duke, and they are not favorable accounts. In the newspapers, reports are more barebones basic information like attendance at events or charitable donations. In general, Nanaline gets a more favorable treatment except for that time Doris sued her mother in court over the Duke estate. Nanaline had been attempting to sell off properties which were clearly stipulated to be under Doris’s discretion when reaching her majority. Nanaline’s efforts to sell of New Jersey property of the Duke Farms is what prompted Doris to stand up to her mother – and won in the court of law years earlier. Doris remains deeply devoted and attached to anything connected to her father unlike her mother.
11:01
There is plenty written on Nanaline’s disgust over Buck Duke. There are very small references with her possible sexual involvement with the help, including Doris’s young French governess Jenny Renaud. No specifics, just a quick reference to the rumor, nothing more in contextualization or timeframes. An innuendo that drifts in the air. The only slight elaboration appears in the biography Too Rich written by Doris’s cousin Pony Duke, who naturally had a little more access to the internal whispers that lingered long afterwards amongst the family and servants.
11:36
Nanaline preferred the tradition of never speaking or interacting with servants. Servants would only nod confirming orders. All other communication was a minimum. Nanaline only seemed to regard two servants slightly differently a Swedish butler and the French governess.
It might seem odd that a governess would still be present, but during this time governesses remained until their charge was married, providing more chaperone services to their female wards. How long, intense, and/or intermittently Nanaline might have been involved with Jenny can only be speculated.
12:12
Unlike Nanaline’s snobbery, Buck Duke was far more equality minded both to races and sexes. Despite his well-known sexual appetite and his preference to exploit female sexuality in marketing his cigarettes and tobacco products, he was also very encouraging of independence in females, championing their education and insisting Duke University admit females from the beginning. It would be his father and Doris’s grandfather Washington Duke who first insisted on the admittance of females before making any significant endowments. The 1930 memorial weekend led to the dedication of 12 buildings, one named Giles Hall after the 3 Giles sisters who were the first females to graduate from Trinity College in 1879.
12:54
In business, Buck was ruthless with his competitors, but when it came to the poor workers he treated them more fairly giving them equal opportunity for jobs and fair wages and as for small suppliers a decent value for their crops which then helped him control the supply. He liked to buy directly and cut out the middleman broker costs. This would give him some relief as his competitors would have to fight off unions Knights of Labor and the National Tobacco Workers Union who wanted more equality for both sexes and all races. Buck even hired the young black architect Julian Abele to design the Fifth Avenue mansion, and Abele would later design some buildings for Duke University. I thought I saw a note that racial desegregation might have been a goal for the university too, but unfortunately Duke University was one of the last institutions to desegregate in 1961.
13:46
It was Buck’s 1924 $40 million dollar endowment to Trinity College which instigated the renaming of Duke University, becoming his biggest and most enduring legacy. Prior to that time, Trinity had been the focus of his father Washington, brother Benjamin, and favorite nephew Angier, while Buck focused on the fortune and building the tobacco and energy empire. Only in the last year of his life, did Buck become more charity minded. Of course, this was to Nanaline’s disapproval, who fully intended the fortune be used to restore her family glory, of which Buck had not the least interest in doing. Buck would leave a large amount to the university, more than double to daughter Doris, and not even 10% to Nanaline.
14:30
Ironically, Nanaline would go on to serve as a trustee of the university as well as Duke Endowment. She would also make her own separate substantial personal gifts later to the university. Upon her death in 1962, she gifted $5 million for the medical school and hospital. In 1968, the university would dedicate a building to her, the Nanaline Duke Building which today serves as a research facility in biochemistry, cell biology, dermatology, and neurobiology.
14:56
At this moment in our story, Doris is unaware that her mother was playing the stock market and lost big time in the Crash. This turn in fortune further sours their already complicated relationship. Doris has two passions – music and botany. She really wants to go to university, but Nanaline’s disapproval prevents Doris from even trying, despite her paternal family founding and funding the prestigious Duke University. Nanaline wants Doris to make an advantageous marriage thus the debutante rituals are the best method of attracting such proposals. The bow at Buckingham Palace also opened the options to marrying into older moneyed families. If Nanaline can marry off Doris well, she could separate the girl from the fortune, well that’s the intention at least. For the moment, Doris is subdued in her efforts to try and win her mother’s approval.
15:44
Meanwhile Nanaline will once again struggle to rebuild her fortune to be equal if not surpassing Doris’s.
A mother’s love that never flows in the direction of her daughter. A twisted devotion that will unintentionally destroy the son she wanted to protect. Her name forever memorialized on a building for an institution she so greatly despised.
16:06
[Music – A Foggy Day by Carroll Gibbons, Album Sophistication 3]
Section 3 – Contemporary & Personal Relevance
[Music fade out]
16:20
It took quite a bit of time for those around me to unfortunately catch up in my wisdom and reality when they too experienced a significant loss of a primary relation. Of course, I have gone through this several more times in my life since then. The worst being 2016 when I loss two close family relations (though unrelated to each other) within less than 2 months apart. I spent more than a year with a deep aching hole in my heart and spirit.
17:04
And now again, I am enduring another double loss, two of my closest relations, within less than 3 months apart. Deaths unrelated to the pandemic. I know I’m not the only one as many are suffering losses due to that or the complications of a loss amidst lockdown restrictions and disruption of rituals needed for proper mourning. Many of us are reeling from a new life without the loved ones, whether en masse or privately.
17:33
I lost the first person during the earlier part of summer and another this last month. The first was completely unexpected in the timing and nature of how everything occurred and rapidly played out. The latter was years in the making but the timing is somewhat entwined with the first loss. It’s a dynamic that will become very relevant in explaining the complex life experiences of the stories being told. The devotion of a mother and a wayward son.
17:57
This time I’m behind on the episode as I had too much to deal with suddenly and unexpectedly after overcoming endless hurdles since this spring. And yet, I can’t let these historical stories go. I know it seems odd to relate to some far off group of people living in very opulent and wealthy circumstances, but it is their life experiences and not their wealth that I relate to most. The important lessons in the legacies they left behind in contrast with their money. The concept of death and loss and its lingering impact on our lives. The complexity of family and friends and how they enrich our lives or over complicate them.
18:33
It’s a never ending cycle of life, and these tales with even the faintest hint of references can be redrawn so vividly if we stop focusing on hard facts, dates & specifics like bank account numbers, and start to really paying attention to the dynamics playing out.
This has also been my refuge. A way to purge my feelings and experiences. The bottled up frustrations that seem never ending and that still need channeling. In one swift moment, I have now been released from one frustration which is a gain, but I have a loss I didn’t want. A hope now dashed, a reality now fully completed, a harsh finality with a mess to cleanup.
19:13
I’ve been trying to tell these stories for over 8 years now, and I can’t believe how during that time my experiences have me even more connected empathically to what happened with them. The long lingering shadows of death and heartbreak, both of mine and those around me. Right now, I’m struggling in finding my direction especially after losing one of my primary guides and concerns. I have to redefine my life with these new losses.
And yet, life goes on. It must. We have to continue to live, rebuild, and find new meaning.
Redefining the legacies left to us and the ones we will one day leave behind.
Hook
19:59
[Music – My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands]
Next when we return to AS THE MONEY BURNS…
A special ball in the Big Apple kicks off the most prized debutante season. Elite debutantes will be kept busy with a never ending whirl of activities, and participation is not optional.
Until then…
Credits
20:18
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.