Episode 45: The Butterfly Effect
Tough financial times force some former debutantes to focus on finding work not husbands. Could this be the future fate of this year’s debs?
Three former debutantes work as mannequins and saleswomen at a “debutante shop” helping this year’s debs prepare for the coming out season. Meanwhile multiple bank failures are happening in Nashville.
Archival music provided by Past Perfect Vintage Music, www.pastperfect.com.
Publish Date: November 25, 2021
Length: 19:14
Opening Music: My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands
Section 1 Music: Button Up Your Overcoat by Jack Hylton, Album Fascinating Rhythm – Great Hits of the 20s
Section 2 Music: One Two, Button Your Shoe by Jack Hylton, Album The Great Dance Bands Play Hits of the 30s
Section 3 Music: Umtcha, Umtcha, Da Da Da by The Rhythmic Eight, Album Fascinating Rhythm – Great Hits of the 20s
End Music: My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands8
AS THE MONEY BURNS
Podcast by Nicki Woodard
Episode 045 – The Butterfly Effect
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.
00:29
Story Recap
While teen heiresses Barbara Hutton and Doris Duke join the debutante season in Manhattan, heir Huntington Hartford still has not escaped his mother’s grasp at Harvard.
Now back to AS THE MONEY BURNS
Title
00:44
The Butterfly Effect
[Music Fade Out]
Episode Tag
Tough financial times force some former debutantes to focus on finding work not husbands. Could this be the future fate of this year’s debs?
01:00
[Music – Button Up Your Overcoat by Jack Hylton, Album Fascinating Rhythm – Great Hits of the 20s]
Section 1 – Story
[Music Fade Out]
01:13
At a high end department store, a lovely young lady comes out in a very pretty dress. She walks forward, occasionally twisting and turning to show off the garment’s more alluring aspects.
Mothers and daughters ooh and awe over the design and whisper if it is something they might want to purchase. They are also in awe of the very former debutantes who serve on the advisory committee.
Amazingly, even after the Crash, the burgeoning retail market decided there might be a potential market in the debutante trade. Rumors abound of rich women and girls selling their furs in hotel lobbies or becoming salesladies at the same stores they used to patron so well.
01:52
These pretty, well established ladies know the game. What are the best colors this season? Black, white, green, and wine. The best combo – turquoise and black. Velvets and lace are also top choices in materials.
What about the best shoes? Feet might swell during a night of dancing.
Corsages. Those are passee as they tend to wilt through the night, ruining the perfect ensemble.
Hairstyles, invitations, venues,…
Party planners in a sense. Social secretaries are highly valued, but they handle venues, invitations, and guest lists. Many of those were former debutantes and upper class girls later needing to earn a living.
While coming out, a debutante must focus on charity participation. Those social skills are highly valuable. So who better to give these burgeoning Society’s butterflies advice, than those who have successfully gone through it?
02:46
Take Happy Shannon, one of the most popular girls of the younger set, top member of the junior league, and who had her debut in December 1928 at the Ritz-Carlton with 500 guests amongst ferns and orange Souvenir Claudius roses, then she participated in the January 1929 Russian Ball wearing full costume and headdress. In attendance was Vincent Astor’s wife Helen and sister Ava Astor Obolensky, who is married to Russian Prince Serge Obolensky. Vincent and Ava’s half brother Jakey Astor is a potential deb’s delight when he finishes his schooling.
03:18
Mary Irwin Howell attended debutante and ballroom dancer June Blossom’s December 1929 debut at the Ritz-Carlton. Mary had her own coming out in New York with a luncheon at Park Lane Hotel, and her sister Agnes was elected president of her senior class at Bryn Mawr College. Mary is not to be confused with a similar namesake from Atlanta who sets fashion trends.
03:41
And then there is the pretty blonde and adventurous Miss Antoinette Frissell of New York who spent part of 1929 summer visiting Arizona, Santa Barbara, and San Francisco. Her brother is filmmaker Varick Frissell who taught her the basics of photography. Miss Frissell graduated from the Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut, where Barbara Hutton also attended.
Happy, Mary, and Antoinette are 3 of the 7 former debutantes now doling out advice at one of the new signature debutante shops popping up around the country.
04:12
Now these former butterflies will help the next generation spread their wings.
Only it is a tad odd as their own wings may have been clipped. A deb has a very short time to make a proper marital match, and working signals their circumstances might be less than satisfactory.
The former Society girls are bit more ill at ease than the more experienced saleswomen. When not parading around as mannequins, they hover to the side awkward and embarrassed by their obvious change in fortunes.
They muster up smiles and feign interests as they must participate now vicariously in the big events. The October Ball, Autumn Ball, Silver Ball, the private teas, luncheons, dinners, and dances,… Once invitees now turned into Cinderellas helping others prepare for their big nights.
04:57
Rumors and speculations float about as to who else might have lost their fortunes. It can be so hard to tell when blinded by opulence.
Is it possible that a debutante ball might not be all it is cracked up to be? Could the biggest shopgirl of them all Barbara Hutton break the spell at her own upcoming event?
Whispers abound already of the lavish affair. Everyone is clamoring for invitations. Will these old or new butterflies be attending?
05:25
[Music – One Two, Button Your Shoe by Jack Hylton, Album The Great Dance Bands Play Hits of the 30s]
Section 2 – History & Historiography
[Music Fade Out]
05:42
In Washington, D.C., the 1930 – 1931 debutante season kicked off with a “tacky party” – invitations on brown paper, smudged and misspelled. Overalls or anything opposite of ballroom attire. First years wear baby clothes, second years little girl dresses, and third years as flappers, while fourth years would be spinsters in mourning clothes. While tongue in cheek, the party accurately depicts how people viewed the narrow range of acceptable singlehood for females.
06:12
For the 1928 – 1929 and even 1929 – 1930 debutante seasons, several young ladies came out, but before they could achieve the prime goal of marriage to an eligible male the stock market would leave many with other concerns and a scramble for survival. What happened for those now in the 1930 – 1931 season? Even if they were to come out, there might be some economizing.
06:35
Already the rumors were of women selling their furs in hotel lobbies or becoming salesgirls at department stores. Rumors per se, finding an actual name would be another challenge. Then low and behold two articles tipped me in the right direction. There are plenty of articles covering debutantes as debutantes and often referring to them as butterflies. Among coverage on the October Ball with Barbara Hutton and the Autumn Ball with Doris Duke, two articles named 3 working debutantes.
07:04
Of course, I had to pull the thread and find out a bit more. Names not as big as we would like, but a little more investigative work would suffice in connections. Luckily for the young ladies, each did get married, 2 in 1932 and 1 in 1935. Happy Shannon was indeed popular and continued to be invited to other events with Rockefellers and Vanderbilts.
07:25
Mary Irwin Howell of New York was a little harder to suss out, and I almost confused her with the Atlanta debutante Mary Adair Howell who made the lapel watch a must have fashion piece after visiting Switzerland on a European tour in October 1928. That popular and vivacious brunette beauty attended Washington Seminary and was chosen as one three belles for the Georgia Tech Thanksgiving football game against Auburn. Following her successful sister Katherine’s footsteps, Mary was a popular debutante for years to come. Alas New York’s Mary Irwin Howell did not have as much available information.
Before their debuts, Happy had previously lost her mother and Mary her father. But neither was an heiress, only seemingly well placed society girls.
08:08
Lastly, Antoinette Frissell also known as Toni is by far the most fascinating. She will require a later episode herself. Her family will face a double tragedy in 1931 when her brother filmmaker Varick Frissell will be killed in an explosion on a Viking vessel, then her brokenhearted mother shortly afterwards will follow. Toni will go to work at Vogue first unsuccessfully as a caption editor with poor spelling then was encouraged to turn to photography. She apprenticed with Cecil Beaton, famed photographer who did many beautiful portraits including one of Doris Duke. Toni Frissell would go one to a very impressive and enviable career as well as finding love and marriage.
08:51
The debutante or debut shop would be the precursor to today’s junior and teen sections, allowing for more youthful fashions in between child and full grown adulthood. In the news articles, the term was more vaguely used with never indicating the actual store. However there are two advertisements I ran across – Nadia’s in Los Angeles dated March 1930, and Saks Fifth Avenue in Chicago announcing its opening Debutante Shop on the Third Floor for May 21st, 1930. I will post the ads on Instagram and the Facebook Group for @asthemoneyburns.
09:25
The rise of the debutante shop during the 1930s seems like a bad choice. I mean this was the Great Depression after all. Right? Well, not exactly. Though the Wall Street Crash from October 29th, 1929, did wipe out a substantial set of fortunes, it would take almost a whole year for the full domino effect to take place.
09:45
Now as mentioned in previous episodes, the real Great Depression as we know it – food lines and bank failures came a little later. Already by mid-summer 1930, there are rumors of several small banks in the Mid-West collapsing. By October, there were international stories coming from Havana, Cuba and Lisbon, Portugal.
In perspective, there were 517 bank failures during Woodrow Wilson’s eight year term as president which encompassed World War I. Within one year of President Hoover’s administration, 617 bank failures had already occurred, and the numbers were still growing.
10:19
Only, now in Fall 1930, the first of four separate banking panics that will last for the next 3 years until President Franklin Roosevelt intervenes. It will be these bank failures, bank runs, and banking crises that will put the nation into the throes of the Great Depression.
10:37
Thursday November 13th & Friday November 14th, 1930, 3 Tennessee banks faced bank runs, that is when depositors rush to withdraw their funds from a bank. The ensuing panic will lead to more withdraws and a crash of the bank. In Nashville, Tennessee Hermitage Bank faced a bank run until closing its doors at 2pm. Another Liberty and Trust Company was also closed by directors for liquidation. The Bank of Tennessee had gone into receivership the Friday before.
The domino effect began back as early as November 6th when the Bank of Tennessee closed its doors and had gone into receivership. Bank failures simultaneously occurred in Nashville and Knoxville. Nearby in Kentucky, 15 counties faced bank failures causing a large merger to stabilize and restore confidence.
11:24
In Knoxville, Tuesday that same week Holston-Union National Bank announced its closure. Three other Knoxville banks East Tennessee National Bank, City National Bank and East Tennessee Savings Bank merged into the East Tennessee National Bank and claimed to have ended the banking troubles in that part of the state. The reserves would be $32 million with $26 million in deposits.
11:46
The nationally known banking house Caldwell & Company took over in many of the instances. Several days later, reports indicate the Tennessee bank failures were due to poor and unscrupulous decisions within Caldwell & Company. By Monday November 17th, 1930, The Knoxville News Sentinel tried to restore confidence in banks. Once again the optimistic articles would indicate that the worst has happened and people can rest assured things are getting better. However on November 18th, it was announced simultaneously more bank failures were also occurring 1 in Indianapolis, 2 more in Kentucky, and 2 in Cincinnati, Ohio (the latter two also tied in with the Kentucky troubles).
12:25
The founder of Caldwell & Company was Vanderbilt University dropout 40 year old Rogers Caldwell. Known as the JP Morgan of the South, Rogers was held to blame for the nearly 100 bank failures there. 10 in Tennessee, 15 in North Carolina, 70 in Arkansas, and more trouble in Kentucky (possibly banks and also a misappropriated road construction project).
12:47
In 1917, Rogers Caldwell founded his own insurance company involving bonds that aided in construction for highways, schools, and other internal improvement projects for several southern states. Following in his father’s footsteps, Rogers expanded into banking by 1919. He would also get involved textile mills, oil companies, department stores, hotels, and other real estate ventures. Rogers never followed a sound business plan and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle including racehorses.
13:14
Despite troubles as early as 1921, Rogers nonetheless rose to prominence especially in connection with politician Luke Lea. Caldwell & Company would become insolvent after the Wall Street Crash. Days after the November 1930 failures, his father James E. Caldwell and brother Meredith Caldwell would resign from governing the banks. Rogers himself would be arrested and parts of his property seized, including his thoroughbred racehorses. One former racehorse turned stud Imported Hourless had been bought for $16,500 at another disposal sale of August Belmont, brother-in-law of Alva Vanderbilt Belmont.
13:52
Rogers would be sued in December 1930 by Davidson County and in 1931 would be criminally indicted by Tennessee & Kentucky. He was convicted of “breach of trust” and sentenced to prison, but his sentence was overturned by the Tennessee Supreme Court. He was never sent to Kentucky to face trial on the charges there.
In 1931, his father James would later resign from another banking board stating his old age and nearing retirement, and brother Meredith would be charged with tax evasion.
In 1932, Rogers Caldwell would start a new investment banking firm Rogers Caldwell & Company with a $1000.
14:28
This begs to question do people ever learn? Those who commit the acts, and those who willingly join in even after exposure.
Speaking of which, have you picked up the hints of similar scandal in the midst of our larger story? Appearances can be quite deceiving, and someone’s Ponzi scheme will eventually be uncovered.
14:50
[Music – Umtcha, Umtcha, Da Da Da by The Rhythmic Eight, Album Fascinating Rhythm – Great Hits of the 20s]
Section 3 – Contemporary & Personal Relevance
[Music Fade Out]
15:06
In telling this tale, I’m constantly rethreading seemingly disparate storylines into a cohesive narrative. Sort of like the butterfly effect.
The butterfly effect is a reference in chaos theory implying that one benign inconsequential action in one part of the world will travel and reverberate to another with a larger impact. The theory was most developed by mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz in the 1960s while trying to determine tornado weather patterns. The concept of the small nonlinear connections date back to 1800 Johann Gottlieb’s Fichte’s “The Vocation of Man” and in 1890 French mathematician and engineer Henri Poincare with others following.
15:46
In 1952, Ray Bradbury’s short story “A Sound of Thunder” discussed time travel and how one butterfly death might have a ripple effect on subsequent historical events. This concept was also played out in one Halloween episode of the Simpsons when Homer Simpson keeps trying to correct a mistake to get his regular world back with donuts.
16:05
The collapse of the Caldwell & Company was significant. While the blame was squarely pointed at one man Rogers Caldwell, many other banking institutions were equally failing. That scapegoat can’t be the fall guy for all the future panics. But already the public wasn’t trusting the everything is okay narrative. They couldn’t afford to be wrong. The protections we have now were set up as a result of what happened back then and similar situations afterwards.
16:33
When we read biographies and stories about particular people, we often get a more myopic view of their lives. As if in a bubble all its own, independent of multiple factors far beyond their immediate reach and scope. Yet the Great Depression is the perfect example that no one can escape the tragedies of those around them even if they are not in the exact same circumstances.
This concept of threat and terror and how it impacts the psyche is definitely relevant to our current ongoing circumstances with the virus and pandemic. Paranoia, suspicion, and hypervigilance have all become too much a part of the norm. Reactionary and fearful. We get oscillating reports of doom and hope.
17:13
In November 1930, an invisible threshold was crossed. A demarcation that the world indeed was not going to go back to its former self. Despite the promising claims that the worst had already happened, the truth was it was only the beginning of far longer lasting darker times.
So it sounds kind of silly to think about the focus on a debutante ball and chaos theory. Could something so trivial really cause problems?
17:37
Why does this matter? Stay tuned and you will see soon enough. We’re about to see the most extravagant and expensive debutante ball for many years if not decades to come, and it will have unintended disastrous consequences.
17:54
Hook
18:25
[Music – My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands]
Next when we return to AS THE MONEY BURNS…
Come join the biggest debutante ball of the season, of many seasons. It’s going to be one for the record books, and no one is going to want to miss out.
Until then…
Credits
18:42
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.
19:14
THE END.