Episode 58: Pomp and Circumstance
Heiresses dream of royal romances with fairytale endings. As one marries her prince, another dances with a future king.
Louise Van Alen marries Prince Alexis Mdivani despite her family’s objections. Barbara Hutton goes to Buckingham Palace to bow before the King and Queen of England and meets the future British king David, the Prince of Wales. Could a royal romance bloom?
Queens Podcast
https://shows.acast.com/queenshistorypodcast
Archival music provided by Past Perfect Vintage Music, www.pastperfect.com.
Publish Date: May 12, 2022
Length: 22:39
Opening Music: My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands
Section 1 Music: Everything Stops For Tea by Mario “Harp” Lorenzi, Album The Great Dance Bands Play Hits Of The 30s
Section 2 Music: It Had To Be You by Carroll Gibbons, Album It’s Got To Be Love
Section 3 Music: The Eyes Of The World by Louis Levy, Album The Great British Dance Bands
End Music: My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Ban
AS THE MONEY BURNS
Podcast by Nicki Woodard
Episode 058 – Pomp and Circumstance
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
Secrets blossom inside darkness. A royal love triangle ends in divorce, the richest heir elopes with a simpler girl, while a rejected gambler ends his life.
Now back to AS THE MONEY BURNS
Title
00:46
Pomp and Circumstance
[Music Fade Out]
Episode Tag
Heiresses dream of royal romances with fairytale endings. As one marries her prince, another dances with a future king.
01:00
[Music – Everything Stops For Tea by Mario “Harp” Lorenzi, Album The Great Dance Bands Play Hits Of The 30s]
Section 1 – Story
[Music Fade Out]
01:18
Newport, Rhode Island
Friday, May 15th, 1931 – early morning
A beaming bright smile as the not so blushing bride clutches her bouquet of cala lilies next to her Prince. Not a figurative prince, an actual prince. The day has arrived when wealthy socialite the It-Girl debutante of her season Louise Astor Van Alen marries Russian Prince Alexis Mdivani.
Louise met the Prince through her brothers, who were classmates back at Eton together. Over the years, the young couple slowly developed a romance over exchanging secret letters. When the rest of the family found out, a huge row occurred. Her mother socialite Daisy Van Alen fired Louise’s longtime German governess for abetting the situation, while brothers Henry and Sam Van Alen are equally upset and feeling betrayed over the seduction of their younger sister after so benevolently taking care of the penniless Prince all these years.
02:16
Louise is not only a highly ranked and proper socialite in the 1930s but is the great granddaughter of the reigning Society queen Caroline Astor. Louise’s pending nuptials has gathered quite a bit of press and speculation. At first lots of anticipation on the future grand event, then the oddest thing happens. It is the most downplayed and demure affair.
Inside the Wakehurst drawing room where Louise was christened as a baby, the couple stands without attendants in front of Revered Stanley Carnahan of Trinity Church. The massive stone fireplace is nearly concealed with white lilies, roses, yellow calla lilies, and talisman roses with ferns and palms in the background.
03:00
Dressed in a brown traveling suit with a corsage of lilies of the valley and gardenias, Louise is betrothed to Alexis. Only close family members on Louise’s side attend, including Daisy’s sister Rose “Spriggie” Post Howard and nephew Thomas Howard. Henry and his wife Eleanor have their own newborn baby boy with them. As for the royals, Alexis keeps his Mdivani siblings at bay. His brothers stay in Hollywood with their paramours, while his sisters and father remain in Europe.
After the ceremony and simple reception, the newlyweds motor to New York to board the Ile de France ocean liner later that afternoon and head to London for an extended honeymoon and motor tour of Europe. Traveling on the same ship, is none other Franklyn Hutton in a race to join his wife and daughter also in London.
03:50
Weeks earlier, teenage heiress now debutante Barbara Hutton crossed the pond on her way to be presented at the Court of St. James. Like Doris Duke before her, Barbara will curtsey in front of King George V and Queen Mary. Her father Franklyn Hutton arranged her participation to lure Barbara away from her ardent admirer, the dangerous playboy millionheir Phil Plant, who snuck aboard last minute on the ocean liner on which Barbara and her stepmother Irene traveled. Franklyn rushes to thwart another disastrous pending engagement announcement.
04:24
The chubby budding fashionista Barbara is one of 20 Americans to be presented and among the 11 to appear in the “first court” of the season which is when all the big fashion trends will be set for this year. Her fascination with royalty and envy over Doris’ prior bow ensure that Barbara should be thrilled with the opportunity. Only preceding circumstances are dampening enthusiasm. The marriage of Prince Alexis to Louise instead of Silvia, the recent death of Uncle James Donahue, Sr., and a vicious sore throat that might lead to tonsilitis threatens Barbara’s attendance at the royal event.
05:01
London, Great Britain
Tuesday, May 19th, 1931 – 9:00pm
After hours of waiting, the procession begins. Averting last year’s traffic delays, vehicles were not allowed to line up until 6pm as most presentations are given by order of arrival. Young ladies, attendants, and onlookers gather in the mall and entertain themselves until the zero hour arrives.
05”29
When the gates open, the ladies enter and pass by the fountain and other marvelous sites. “God Saves the King” plays as King George V in a scarlet colonel-in-chief uniform of the Scots Guards is accompanied by Queen Mary, whose silvery hair is adorned with a diamond tiara and wears a pink chiffon gown with a diamond and pearl corsage and the blue baldric Order of the Garter. Lord Chamberlain precedes them as he walks in reverse in deference.
After Their Majesties sit upon their gold thrones in the white and gold ballroom, the introductions begin as the Grenadier Guards string band plays lightly in the background.
06:07
Most young ladies are elated over the opportunity, and many secretly wish that also present will be the handsome Prince of Wales as he is the ultimate deb’s delight. The still bachelor Prince David has yet to find his princess. Well, not publicly at least, right now he seems to favor one particular Viscountess, an American married to British nobility Thelma Morgan Furness, who regularly performs the hostessing duties around him. Her identical twin sister Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt is the widow of the heir Reginald Vanderbilt.
06:42
The fashionable night brings lots of excitement and attention. The colors of gowns will be mostly shades of white with some in varying pastel hues of pink and blue. Among the attendees at Buckingham Palace, the Sultan of Johore and his wife the Sultana formerly Mrs. Helen Wilson, a Scottish widow. The latter appears with Indian state jewels – the Johore tiara with pigeon egg sized diamonds and one collar of flawless diamonds with another collar worked into the lace design of her rose pink jervisa Bengale gown. Her husband the Sultan accompanies her in a blue gold uniform with the requisite knee britches. All men are in knee britches except the American Ambassador Charles Dawes who remains in a full slacks black tuxedo. He really hates this ceremony in all its pomp and circumstance and fanfare.
07:34
Once again, the American Ambassador’s wife Mrs. Dawes will present the American ladies, including her own daughter Virginia Dawes, 17 and the youngest to be presented. The first ladies presented have similar international diplomatic status including the daughters of the Chinese minister and the Japanese ambassador.
07:55
Fighting her sore throat, Barbara nervously consumes lozenge after lozenge. On the way to the Palace, she stopped and got a few more.
When the signal is given for all to proceed in, the various debutantes, ladies, and matrons emerge from their vehicles sporting the Prince of Wales plume – 3 large white ostrich feathers. One young lady’s plumes catches on the door frame and nearly rips from her head. She breaks down in tears as her attendants aid her recovery, the other nearly 400 ladies wait for their turn. Stepping forward pass the fountain and eventually onto the ball room.
08:30
Overwhelmed, Barbara sips champagne as another young lady assures it will calm the nerves. Young Virginia too seems overly anxious and tense. She winces and pauses as her stomach tightens, then composes herself before heading first into the ball room. The diplomatic young ladies will take their seats after their bows and wait until the end of the ceremony while others will immediately file into an adjoining reception room.
A dizzying whir, there is the royal court with the Duke and Duchess of York, Princess Alice, and the King and Queen. The dashing Prince of Wales is noticeably absent. Detained by the delay of the artists dinner he attends earlier.
09:13
Buzzing from the champagne, Barbara makes her approach with the appropriate curtseys. She has practiced endlessly the deep curtsey in hopes of not falling over or tripping. As she approaches the throne, Barbara notices the King’s drowsy eyes almost nodding off to sleep out of sheer and utter boredom. The Queen similarly is less than thrilled over the endless parade of blurring beauties as she forces smiles and nods when necessary.
09:40
After the reception, many gather in an adjoining room for refreshments and supper. Queen Mary graciously moves throughout the group and has little intimate conversations with select friends. She takes a passing interest in the young American heiress with the beautiful deep blue eyes – Barbara.
09:58
Still a bit under the weather, Barbara attends the requisite after events. She removes her elaborate feather headpiece as considered peculiar court symbols. Surprisingly, she meets none other than David, Prince of Wales. He is both tipsy and charming then catches his mother eyeing them. He asks for Barbara’s hand. They dance as the Queen watches on. Mutterings occur that it might be preferential for this Prince to change his affections from one married American to this young available heiress.
Before the night ends, Prince David graciously invites Barbara to a garden party. Confused and excited, Barbara accepts.
10:36
The next morning, Miss Virginia Dawes is rushed to the hospital and has an appendectomy. Though advised to have it sooner, she postponed the surgery until after the big event. No one would dare miss such a chance.
The next evening at the second court, Prince David appears in a scarlet Welsh Guards colonel uniform with his brother Prince George and greets the debutantes. Unfortunately, Barbara’s cousin Helena McCann falls gravely ill with influenza and is forced to postpone her royal moment until the third court in June before her own official debut this September at Oyster Bay.
11:15
Once a lady is presented at court, she is free to attend all sorts of activities including the Royal Ascot. Endless opportunities to mingle with the upper echelon. As Barbara prepares for more royal related activities, she might have a surprise announcement to make of her own soon.
Heiresses becoming princesses and maybe even queens sound like dreams coming true, but remember fairy tales always have a dark side.
11:45
[Music – It Had To Be You by Carroll Gibbons, Album It’s Got To Be Love]
Section 2 – History & Historiography
[Music Fade Out]
12:03
Okay, so this collision of events has been one of the main reasons I needed to tell this story about multiple people during this particular period of time. I first discovered the concept of this story within a gossip column detailing the events of one summer in Newport, Rhode Island, shortly before the Wall Street Crash of October 1929.
To reconstruct the era, I did lots and lots of research to find out where something happened, who was there, what were their connections, what were the parallels, and so on and so on… I was delighted when I learned both Barbara Hutton and Doris Duke were in the mix, as both have fascinated me after seeing two different mini-series about them. Now learning they were there as teens, I needed to figure out more what that entails for this set of stories. In any and all biographies, I am endlessly curious about how the time from adolescence into adulthood shapes a person and where many get stuck in lifelong patterns.
13:00
I have had to go through many, many segways, sidenotes, and fleshing out details. But this where the story started to really unfold and make sense. If you too are familiar with the history, you might know about the love triangle between Barbara Hutton and Prince Alexis Mdivani and Louise Van Alen.
Now, the only person in that triangle that has any significant literature is Barbara Hutton. She comes up a lot in the cautionary tales of extreme wealth. She has multiple biographies, a mini-series based off of one in particular (and the most problematic at that), and numerous documentaries. All take a large sweeping scale of her whole life, and there is so much to cover it just rushes by. Thus you only get a few glimpses into this era of her life. And within that, Prince Mdivani gets some attention, while Louise is quickly and summarily dismissed. Surely, Louise and the Prince might have more written about them somewhere. Something to give me a perspective beyond the ones from and about Barbara only.
14:05
Long before the pandemic, when I was really trying to decide how to tell this story, who to include, where to go,… I would peruse the UCLA newspaper archives trying to suss out more, more, more. I would think of a topic and download articles, compiling over 2,000 articles to verify dates, order, sequence, and other details. Try to sort out what is plausible and interesting. I had recurring topics I would continually look up to see if a different angle yielded anything new and revelatory.
When reconstructing the timeline of events, I learned Barbara bowed before the King and Queen of England in May 1931. Well, then I was curious and looked up the wedding of Louise Van Alen and Prince Alexis Mdivani also in May 1931. When I saw how closely the dates where together, other things made more sense and far more complex.
14:58
Shockingly, the royal fan Barbara is noted as being miserable throughout the entire Buckingham Palace event. The previous teetotaler finally sipped some champagne to alleviate nerves. But her sadness seemed way off in feel. Then through newspapers, I learned about the timing of the Van Alen – Mdivani wedding, it made far more sense. And only within this last week, did I learn through other similar sources of Barbara’s sore throat.
15:26
I have chosen not to always list my sources. One it would become tediously trying to cite every book, website, magazine article, and especially newspaper article to clarify my points. It would also ruin part of the surprises in store. By the way, I am now up to over 3,500 news articles with over 85% period. Many will duplicate the same story but will add a new detail here and there. I mean I only recently caught the Sultana of Johore, Helena McCann’s delayed bow & sickness, and Virginia Dawes’ appendicitis within a one sentence throwaways inside news articles covering the Buckingham courts with all the exact same repetitive details.
16:06
Then amongst so many unreliable sources, there is the complication of speculation, rumor, gossip, and misremembrances which further complicate reconstruction. I have to both reinterpret information – Johore is now part of Malaysia not India. But I have to continually question and verify – did an intended event actually happen and how is it interpreted much later in recall.
16:30
Those familiar might know the biographies, which even those give me trouble as they continuously get ages, dates, and chronological sequences wrong. Really, really bad on the non subjects, but even worse when it involves the primary subject. It happens far too much. Though I have to admit the digital age has given me wonderful access to newspaper archives that wouldn’t have been available when those had been written. The authors however could interview people and get more ambience and perspective even if facts like dates are wrong.
17:01
That is why these two moments the Van Alen – Mdivani wedding and Barbara at Buckingham Palace, this timing, this chronological sequence, and the details matter. It might seem trivial, but in so many other ways it is not. Knowing what is coinciding adds far more depth to a situation that will have grave impact on those involved.
I hope you stay tuned as the rest of the story unfolds.
17:30
[Music – The Eyes Of The World by Louis Levy, Album The Great British Dance Bands]
Section 3 – Contemporary & Personal Relevance
[Music Fade Out]
17:47
We are only a few weeks away from the Trouping the Colour balcony ceremony for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, celebrating her 70 years on the British throne. The prior longest reigning British monarch was Queen Victoria on the throne just shy of 64 years.
According to Wikipedia, the longest reigning monarch of record is French King Louis XIV at 72 years 110 days, who died in 1715 at the age 77. Queen Elizabeth II will soon surpass the Thailand King Bhumibol Adulyadej (please forgive the pronunciation) pronounced Phumiphon Adunyadet, also known as Rama IX, who died in 2016 at age 88. At the time of this episode, there is roughly 30 days left between their two reigns. For our contemporary period, the Thai king was the longest reigning head of state after the death of former Emperor Hirohito in 1989. Queen Victoria is 8th on the list of the longest reigns.
18:51
Like I have said before, I have long been waiting to discuss this particular episode for years, and it now coincides with a huge related event. Barbara Hutton’s close encounters with David, the Prince of Wales, is an interesting near miss and the potential avenue for what if had things turned out differently. I mean – there could have been an American queen and whole different royal line of succession than the one we know now, and an even closer possibility than the one in which Meghan Markle married Prince Harry, the former 2nd but already 6th in line for the throne by the time of their wedding.
19:28
This is not the only such situation in our tales. I first caught a reference to this chance encounter, but now it much more clearer how Barbara and Prince David will be linked over the rest of their lives. Though it has only been suggested in biographies on Barbara, that his mother Queen Mary had some interest or possible acceptance of the heiress – mostly to thwart the bachelor prince’s proclivities for married women, especially as his last two will be Americans before taking the throne in 1936.
19:58
Ironically, as King Edward VIII, David will have one of the shortest reigns in British history with 326 days, not even a full year. Lady Jane Grey had only 9 days in 1553, and King Edgar the Aethling had 2 months and 12 days in 1066 before yielding to William the Conqueror.
It is interesting than in a biography Bachelor Prince by Frazier Hunt on Prince David dated in 1935 – one year prior to his succession, there is reference to his young niece Princess Elizabeth and her potential rise to throne if David has no children of his own. It seemed preposterous then as he was highly desirable and no one would have foreseen the chaos to have come soon enough.
20:48
As we continue our tales, Prince David will make several more appearances along with other royals. He also has a later history with Barbara’s Aunt Jessie Woolworth Donahue and cousin Jimmy Donahue, Jr. (referred in this series by his private nickname Jeem), so this Prince’s storyline is far from over.
Such complicated tales we unweave while uncovering all that might deceive.
21:14
Curious to learn more about other royal histories, check out the Queens Podcast by Katy Hearne-Church and Nathan Foster which features female monarchs, nobles, and other powerful women throughout history and around the world. From the most popular to the less familiar, Catherine the Great, Hypatia of Alexandria, and Boudica to Amina of Zaria and Jadwiga of Poland. Katy and Nathan discuss the various aspects of these women and their times while trying a specially themed cocktail recipe. That is the Queens Podcast.
Hook
21:48
[Music – My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands]
Next when we return to AS THE MONEY BURNS…
Many things can happen inside a garden. Will another royal romance bloom, or forbidden fruit prove too tempting?
Until then…
Credits
22:07
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 Goodpods, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Transcripts, timeline, episode guide, and character bios are available at asthemoneyburns.com.
22:39
THE END.