AS THE MONEY BURNS

Podcast by Nicki Woodard

Episode 054 – Coldest End

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.   

00:27

Story Recap

Debutantes Barbara Hutton and Doris Duke are looking for love, while male heirs seek manly pursuits and adventures.   One such pursuit leads to deadly consequences in the Arctic.

Now back to AS THE MONEY BURNS

Title

00:45

Coldest End

[Music Fade Out]

Episode Tag

Millionaires, movie stars, and royalty have no guarantees on marital bliss.  A royal prince trades his silver screen queen for a wealthier songbird.

01:02

[Music – Let’s Fall In Love For The Last Time by Mantovani, Albums The Great British Dance Bands & Tea Dance 2]

Section 1 – Story

[Music Fade Out]

01:17

As light flickers from a projector onto the silver screen, a lithe body dances and radiates a raw seductive sensuality.  The men in the picture are hypnotized along with the audience.  She smiles while batting her eyes.  Her beauty and spirit unable to be contained and controlled ultimately lead to her doom as her former captor stabs her to death then mourns her passing. 

The silver and white beauty of her face fades from the projector.

01:46

But in life and in color, she is even more alluring.

White alabaster skin, brown hair dyed strikingly darker in black, and deep emerald green eyes.  A femme fatale and seductress capable of mesmerizing millions.  The rules seem to apply differently for her.  Her melodramatic life on and off the screen give her even more power.  Who is this magnificent beauty?  Pola Negri.

The Polish native first studied dancing in Warsaw until tuberculosis ruined that option.  Pola then turns to acting and moves to Berlin where she breaks out in German films causing a sensation portraying a reincarnated mummy.  More hits follow until she becomes the first European actress to sign a Hollywood contract.  Quickly, Pola becomes one of the most popular and definitely richest woman in Hollywood.  She is also good at saving and investing her money.  She sparks fashion trends of red painted toenails, fur boots, and turbans.

02:50

Former lovers include Charlie Chaplin and Rod La Roque.  She previously married and divorced a count.  At a Marion Davies party, as in THE Marion being the mistress to publishing powerhouse William Randolph Hearst at his San Simeon estate, Pola meets her most famous lover Rudolph Valentino.

Pola jealously guards her lover from other rivals, including another American actress Mae Murray.  Her onscreen antithesis Mae is blonde haired with gray-blue eyes and known as the girl with the bee stung lips.  Mae supposedly was raised by nuns and has a knack of being kidnapped by several men but always remains with her virginal honor intact – despite three very quick and rapid marriages.  A former Ziegfeld Follies girl, Mae is known as a dancer & an actress.  Mae also claims to have discovered Valentino in his dancing days.

03:43

Pola keeps Mae away from Valentino, but Mae snags Russian Prince David Mdivani at one of Pola’s parties.  The blond curly headed boisterous Prince David first befriended Pola and her mother before disappearing to be Mae’s main squeeze then husband.  At the Mdivani wedding, Pola and Valentino serve as maid of honor and best man.

Pola believes she has the ability to foresee the future which prepares her for certain twists of fates – like when she parted with Rudolph Valentino, sensing their embrace to be their very last as he would die from a failed surgery before they could reunite.

Pola’s biggest and most famous performance is at Valentino’s funeral, where she makes an elaborate mourning display of fainting multiple times.

04:27

Months later, she was still deep in mourning when Prince David reappears with his older brother Prince Serge Mdivani.  Mae was away on a film, and the brothers became Pola’s constant companions.  After Mae’s return, Serge continues to ply his charms and focus on Pola, who later admits the inability to resist his magnetism.  His ardent wooing and manly prowess prove too hard to resist. 

From her chateau near Versailles, France, Pola insists on having a private wedding of family and the official only.  Nevertheless, the whole village celebrates with a parade and other festivities.  Youngest brother Prince Alexis Mdivani attends and orders plenty of Dom Perignon on Pola’s tab yet sneers over the fact both of his brothers have married actresses so lowly on the social scale.

05:15

The newlywed couple is set to honeymoon aboard a private yacht, but Serge is more  enamored with the casino leaving his wife alone as he gambles each night only for her to receive the hefty tab in the morning.  After several nights, Pola puts her foot down, and they sail off into the sunset.  She figures upon return to Los Angeles she will resume acting and Serge will become a successful oil businessman.

The couple return to Hollywood with little success.  The stress and turmoil mounts as Serge continually funds with her dimes one quick rich scheme after another to no luck.

There is a game of subtle yet ostentatious one upmanship between the Mdivani couples.  Adding to the rub, Mae’s star grows and so does her lavish spending.  Prince David and Mae have a son Koran.  Remember it is David who lists his occupation as “husband” when pulled over for a speeding ticket in Santa Monica. 

06:08

Both brothers interfere in their wives’ business and make disastrous decisions that effectively ruin the actress’ limited careers insisting their wives not settle for less money.  In fleeing to Europe as a negotiation ploy, Mae infuriates Hollywood mogul Louis B. Mayer who blacklists her thereafter.

The impoverished former royals are not so industrious except when it comes to the art of seduction and spending other people’s money.  They prefer the more entertaining leisurely lifestyle of Europe versus the dull work focused America.  The constant spending with little renewal in funds leads to tension within the marriages.  Alas their passion wanes as the bank account drains. 

06:50

Pola decides France might be a better buffer.  There Serge indulges in his new passion of polo with a stable of ponies.  He also attempts to run a dairy farm and succeeds in making a bottle of milk for the price of champagne.  He buys plenty of lavish jewels for Pola, only she gets to pay the heavy Cartier bill later.  Amidst all the stress, Pola loses her pregnancy during the second trimester and takes to heavy drinking until her mother forces her out of it.  Serge easily and readily takes up other diversions away from his wife.  Still he makes a deal with a French film company, but she bails for the British Gaumont.  Offended, Serge considers the marriage officially over.

07:29

He once again returns to France after going to collect some rents in Los Angeles, aboard the ship he meets the songbird Mary McCormic in spring 1929.  The much older Mary is a Texas native turned soprano opera star based in Chicago with annual tours of Paris.  On the ship ride across the Atlantic, the two immediately fall in love.

However France has serious divorce proceedings, and the judge orders an attempt at reconciliation in November 1929.  Once Serge and Pola reunite, their passion reignites in the judge’s chambers and they are off for a second honeymoon.  Only months later, the marriage implodes again.  Serge once again abandons Pola for Mary the next spring. 

08:09

By November 1930, both Serge and Pola petition for divorce, and court proceedings are held in March 1931.

When asked about the pending divorce, songbird Mary McCormic is oft quoted saying, “Really? It’s perfectly grand.”

Diplomatically, Pola cites an incompatibility in temperaments and that as an actress she would always be married to her work first and foremost.  Pola graciously writes off the failure and publicly absolves Mary from any responsibility for the divorce.

Less congenial, Serge explains, “A woman’s place is in the home, and Pola did not seem to know that.”  A bold claim since he lived on her earnings alone.

08:47

Pola and Serge’s divorce is finally granted on April 2^nd, 1931.  Under French law, the couple should leave with what they brought in.  Pola would not be awarded alimony, not sure where Serge’s non existent income would have provided any of that.  Pola also will have to pay heavy fines for breaking her French film contracts and with so many debts has to sell her chateau in hopes of getting $100k. 

Serge who started the marriage essentially with a set of overalls and a suit left with a string of polo ponies, a Rolls Royce, an extensive jewelry collection, a Beau Brummell wardrobe, and a Paris apartment as Pola had accidentally put it in his name.

On the way to the train station for London to catch the Golden Arrow Express, Pola spots Serge driving down the Champs-Elysees in a top down convertible Rolls Royce with Mary snuggled up in his arms.

Pola’s vision of the future must have failed her with Serge.  Otherwise why would she have continued on such a disastrous journey?

Falling in love is easy.  Falling out of love not so much.