Episode 73: Cash And Courage
New ventures bring new opportunities for those with talent. An artist travels to see his work on display, while a singer attempts to transform a different skill into a fortune.
December 1931, Spanish painter Josep Maria Sert travels with his wife Princess Roussie Mdivani Sert to see the Waldorf-Astoria in New York to see the Sert Room, named after his Don Quixote murals. Meanwhile, Cobina Wright opens the Sutton Club in her home for supper and dining with entertainment. She hopes the new venture will help restore the lost Wright fortune.
Other people and subjects include: Princess Louise Van Alen Mdivani, Prince Alexis Mdivani, Daisy Van Allen, William “Bill” May Wright, Joe Kennedy, Coco Chanel, Misia Sert, Princess Nina Mdivani Huberich, Charles Huberich, Arturo Toscanini, Medrano and Donna dance team, Adele Astaire, Fred Astaire, Lucrezia Bori, Fannie Brice, Conde Nast, Bernard Baruch, Birdie Fair Vanderbilt, George Gershwin, Mrs. Randolph Hearst, Robert Goelet, Charles Clinton Spaulding, J. Paul Getty, Howard Hughes, Mae West, Alexander Pantages, James Roosevelt, James Cagney, Glenn Miller, Babe Ruth, John Dillinger, Marriott & Hilton hotels, Ocean’s Spray, Lil Debbie snack cakes, JR Simplot, Gallo Wines, Waldorf-Astoria, Sutton Club, those who built fortunes during the Great Depression, grit and resilience
Archival Music provided by Past Perfect Vintage Music, www.pastperfect.com.
Extra Notes / Call to Action:
The Gilded Age: A Fashion Coloring Book by Discovery Lair. There are 50 hand drawn illustrations mostly inspired from the 1890s and features several outfits and activities ranging from debutantes, operas, outdoors, and play. Available on Amazon in the Books section, the link will be available in the transcript and the News | Events section at asthemoneyburns.com.
Amazon.com: The Gilded Age: A Fashion Coloring Book: 9798365837799: Lair, Discovery: Books
Amazon Books: The Gilded Age: A Fashion Coloring Book by Discovery Lair link
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Publish Date: December 09, 2022
Length: 21:09
Opening Music: My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands
Section 1 Music: There’s One Little Girl Who Loves Me by Jack Hylton, Album Fascinating Rhythm – Great Hits of the 20s
Section 2 Music: Let’s All Go To Mary’s House by The Savoy Orpheans, Album Fascinating Rhythm – Great Hits of the 20s
Section 3 Music: Says My Heart / You Leave Me Breathless by Carroll Gibbons, Album Elegance
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 073 – Cash and Courage
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
For Thanksgiving, Cobina Wright, Evalyn Walsh McLean, and Alice Vanderbilt face tough circumstances. While Marjorie Merriweather Post, E.F. Hutton, and Al Capone make large charitable donations.
Now back to AS THE MONEY BURNS
Title
00:47
Cash and Courage / Star-Studded / Patronage
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Episode Tag
01:03
[Music – There’s One Little Girl Who Loves Me by Jack Hylton, Album Fascinating Rhythm – Great Hits of the 20s]
Section 1 – Story
[Music Fade Out]
01:21
Wednesday, December 9th, 1931
Arriving a day late behind schedule, the Ile de France ocean liner finishes its wintry Atlantic crossing into New York. Aboard, Spanish painter Josep Maria Sert along with his beautiful young blonde, second wife Princess Roussie Mdivani Sert have come to celebrate his latest success with the Waldorf-Astoria and another exhibition tour.
Sert triumphantly comes to see the Sert Room named after his Don Quixote murals. He previously told his former first wife Misia Sert, “It’s not everyone who gets a room named after him during his lifetime. Of course, people only look at the pictures during their sips of champagne.”
Champagne? Not exactly, this is still the era of Prohibition with about another year to go.
02:14
However the Sert Room is a popular spot immediately and frequently mentioned in the newspapers. In fact, sister-in-law actress-singer Princess Mae Murray Mdivani is photographed in front of one mural near opening day. Roussie’s sister Princess Nina Mdivani Huberich and her American lawyer husband Charles Huberich are their traveling companions. A family reunion might be coming if the Sert in-laws Prince Alexis Mdivani and his new wife Princess Louise Van Alen Mdivani join Louise’s mother Daisy Van Alen, who resides at the Savoy-Plaza hotel this winter. The Serts of course will be staying at the Waldorf-Astoria.
The painter previously toured the U.S. in 1924 with his former first wife Misia Sert for another exhibition of his Sinbad murals previously painted for the Spanish King Alfonso XIII, but after an issue of payment those Sinbad murals were then sold to Joshua Cosden to be placed in his Palm Beach home Playa Riente, now owned by Anna Dodge Dillman.
03:16
Early in November, the remarried widow Anna dines at the Sert Room with its familiar feeling in décor. Now in December, another set of Sert murals for the chapel at the Duke of Alba’s Liria Palace in Madrid are on display at the Wildenstein Galleries in the United States. The four triptychs are designed in Sert’s signature monochromatic grisaille style and tell the religious history of the Alba family.
At a dinner celebrating Sert, confused amusement reigns as Sert only knows a few English words and his Spanish is interpreted by a non-Spanish speaker. Many laugh, while the multi-lingual Princess Roussie scowls throughout the event not happy with the translation.
Roussie is a sculptress with a few prominent commissions, but her popularity definitely comes more from her husband. She however is a master in shaping others’ perceptions. The ever-calculating Roussie has found a new target for seduction – a sister-in-law per se. The dispossessed royal Mdivanis have a flair for financially beneficial marriages.
04:22
Through all the celebrations, Sert commends America as a new place for art to flourish. He sees all the potential among new buildings and lucrative financial patronages. From the Waldorf commission alone, it is rumored he made a $150k (the equivalent$2.9 million in 2022). The ever popular Sert Room will be mentioned innumerable times over the years in the newspapers regaling with the who’s who. Soon there will even be an upcoming series of charity dances throughout January and February 1932 entitled the “Sert Dances” as they will be hosted at the prized Waldorf-Astoria location.
05:04
Tuesday, December 15th, 1931
The supreme hostess and talented coloratura soprano opera singer Cobina Wright ruminates over today’s outfits. Velvet or silk, the blue or black,… Which earrings,… The diamond and platinum large earrings recently worn to the opera while sitting in Robert Goelet’s Parterre 1 box? The shimmer silver lace gown described only days before in the newspapers… Her hands run over more worn down clothing. Her jewelry box is missing a few previously cherished pieces. She sighs. What else has she been seen in recently?
05:47
Hopefully, this new venture works. She descends downstairs holding her breath until greeted by eager staff making the final touches.
Her lovely Sutton Place home has been transformed once again. The lower level converted into a luncheon, dinner, and dancing establishment. The pale green room is accented with chartreuse green and yellow as predominating colors. White satin draperies hang in the doorways while mirrors surround the main room. Steps lead to a dance floor from a small balcony. The talented and irrepressible Natalie Hammond, formerly of Washington, D.C., is in charge of the club’s decorations.
Aptly named The Sutton Club. The supreme hostess will combine her skills of lavish entertaining while mixing both elite wealthy with creative theatrical and musical circles. The guests and entertainers will be a draw all on their own.
06:43
Cartier engraved invitations with the motto “moderate prices in keeping with the times” have been sent out to a limited membership, a cost of $50 per year (around $1k in 2022). A door cover of $10 (close to $200 in 2022), then the price of dinner. Reasonable prices for a crowd unlikely to struggle paying. At least, to the public’s awareness…
The place seats a 150 and will have 3 separate openings to take care of all the patrons. Exclusivity always causes a sensation. As the invitation states, “All of New York that is artistic, intelligent, and clever is invited.”
One prior afternoon, Cobina receives a call from Maestro Arturo Toscanini upset.
“Cobina, cara, how is it you form a supper club and I am not asked to be a patron? I am deeply hurt. Almost I am angry.”
Cobina explains, “But, Maestro, you never go to supper clubs, you loathe them.”
“I will come to yours.”
07:53
The Wright money might be gone, but their friendships have endured. The newspapers remark that if the new supper club is as entertaining as her former private parties, especially the circus balls, then it will certainly be a successful place to gather. They speculate over her true financial destitution as they hail it takes “cash and courage” to try such a venture. But it is a hopeful step in the right direction in troubling times.
So strange to now be hosting and expecting guests to pay. Cobina shakes her head. This is business. They will do fine. They must do fine as her husband blueblood stockbroker William May Wright, aka Bill, has been unable to recover from their losses during the Crash.
08:40
Her worries and concerns vanish during the opening…
The dance couple Medrano and Donna perform as well as host their own private party. Laurette Taylor, Jack King, and Douglas Byng also provide musical singing performances.
Other guests and guaranteed regulars include Beatrice Lillie, Ina Claire, Mrs. William Randolph Hearst and Mr. & Mrs. William Randolph Hearst, Jr, Fannie Brice, Lucrezia Bori, Cole Porter, and Lawrence Tibbet. Among the high society patrons, more familiar names appear Otto Kahn, Bernard Baruch, Conde Nast, Mrs. Birdie Fair Vanderbilt, Robert Goelet, Miss Elizabeth Marbury, sibling dance team Adele and Fred Astaire, George Gershwin, and the Jay Goulds.
Their presence, their names, their patronage. Cobina whispers to Bill pleased to see their friends are quite willing to pay as they had been previously to be their guests.
Talent lines up to perform for a small sum. Cobina also keeps a look out for new undiscovered talent. Others clamor to be patrons. The small residential business can hardly fit the demand. The tides might be turning in Cobina’s favor.
10:00
The unveiling of the at home nightclub is both a triumph and a siren. Without a doubt, more and more realize the Wrights have not been fairing too well in these tough times.
In the near future, there might be more improvements. A radio show and possibly television? Rumors percolate the club will also be wired soon to broadcast on CBS radio especially for Buddy Wagner’s band performances.
The club’s success fills the headlines with all the stars, gaiety, history,… but will it make the money so necessarily needed? Such a star-studded attraction can’t fail, right?
10:41
[Music – Let’s All Go To Mary’s House by The Savoy Orpheans, Album Fascinating Rhythm – Great Hits of the 20s]
Section 2 – History & Historiography
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10:56
The 1931 winter season is back in New York with all the annual festivities. At first note, nothing seems to have changed during the Great Depression.
However it requires a closer look. Attendance is smaller and a tad less showier. Less money floats about. While some have kept their money, others only maintain appearances at least for a little longer.
But for Cobina Wright, the secret is out. Now since Thanksgiving, everyone is more than aware that they – the William May Wrights, the blueblood stockbroker with Newport and even European aristocratic connections and his talented hostess wife, did not survive the Crash with fortune intact.
11:42
In yesteryears, the attempt to even establish a home based business would have been frowned upon, yet now with the dire circumstances it is considered admirable. Though the venture still requires money to try such a thing.
Remember Cobina had some generous friends when she first found themselves under duress. Doris Duke, Barbara Hutton’s Aunt Jessie Woolworth Donahue, and CBS executive William Paley all gave Cobina checks to get past the tough times. But for others, Cobina has been playing a game of deflection while scraping by with her pioneering can do attitude.
And she should be optimistic. Others are flourishing. Those with talent can be particularly favored.
12:25
Spanish painter Josep Maria Sert finds himself a wash of commissions. He was busy entertaining other clients at Barcelona’s Ritz Hotel, when he is repeatedly interrupted via phone and finally relents to the Waldorf-Astoria commission. His largest commission to date would be hard to turn down – a flush $150k ($2.9 million in 2022). Architect Leonard Schultze travels in the spring to set the deal. Fortunately, Sert works fast.
Also that Spring 1931, his first wife Misia Sert travels the U.S. and Hollywood as a companion to her dear close friend Coco Chanel, who is being feted for design work with celebrity fanfare. For the time being, Misia is being pushed away from Sert and his enigmatic and dramatic second wife Princess Roussie Mdivani.
13:19
Never underestimate the potential for fortunes to be made especially during financially difficult times. Others are increasing or building their fortunes.
When the Great Depression began, Joseph Kennedy is worth $4 million ($69.7 million in 2022). In the 1920s, he first works as a banker then in stocks, involved in what today is considered insider trading. By 1926, he began refinancing Hollywood companies, forms RKO in 1928, and has a 3 year affair with Gloria Swanson. In 1928, he also buys out the Pantages 63 theater chain after owner Alexander Pantages is forced to sell due to a rape scandal, one fabricated and masterminded by Joe. With prescience, Joe sold most of his stocks before the Crash as he considered the market far too over valued at the time. He exits the film business by 1931 having made another estimated $5 million ($98 million in 2022). In 1932, he will also donate to new presidential hopeful New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Joe amasses almost $180 million by 1935 (that’s about $3.9 billion in 2022).
14:38
Other businessmen and a woman will gain during the Great Depression. After inheriting $500k in 1930 ($8.9 mil in 2022), J. Paul Getty buys large amounts of shares in cheap oil stocks. He will diversify and invest in real estate. Howard Hughes thrives in oil, aviation, and later movies. Actress Mae West will come to the silver screen at age 39 in 1932 saving Paramount from a downward box office trajectory after it pays to adapt one of her Broadway plays Diamond Lil. Other rising entertainers will be James Cagney, Gene Autry, and Glenn Miller. Babe Ruth and John Dillinger also become rich, though the latter won’t survive the decade.
15:22
Charles Clinton Spaulding goes into insurance back in 1899 and expands policies to include fire, banking, and mortgage. Running as president of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance from 1923 to 1952, Spaulding becomes America’s leading black businessman who has offices on “Black Wall Street” in Durham, North Carolina. He will even come to advise President Franklin Roosevelt as part the “black cabinet.” At the time of his death in 1952 at age 78, he will be worth $40 million (the equivalent of $450 million in 2022).
15:58
UCLA sociology professor Ivan Light coined the term “survivalist entrepreneurs” for those who instead of innovating will go into businesses with low education and start up costs but ones with large amounts of consumers.
Such thriving businesses will be in the food industry. In 1930, former Kroger employee Michael Cullen envisions the supermarket concept to rival Kroger and A&P Grocery store chains. He innovates with his grocery chain King Kullen offering low prices in the Queens NY area that quickly expands to 16 stores, including buying a competing Queens store in 1933 from Fred Trump – Donald Trump’s father. Further south also in 1930, former Piggly Wiggly worker George Jenkins founds Publix Super Markets in Winter Haven. Florida. Popular food products founded during the Great Depression include Ocean’s Spray, Lil Debbie snack cakes, and J.R. Simplots turns his potato farm business into frozen French fries and will become a major supplier to the future McDonald’s.
17:02
Other ventures involve the Marriott’s hotel chain, while Hilton will eventually recover after his losses in the hotel business.
After Prohibition is lifted in March 1933, alcohol becomes a booming business. E.J. Gallo’s Winery is founded in California, and Joseph Kennedy along with FDR’s son James Roosevelt will get into the business of importing scotch.
Opportunities for profit and loss abound. As money goes round and round.
17:32
[Music – Says My Heart / You Leave Me Breathless by Carroll Gibbons, Album Elegance]
Section 3 – Contemporary & Personal Relevance
[Music Fade Out]
17:51
There is the saying tough times build strong people while good times create weak people. Everyone in one way or another will go through hard periods in their lives. Sometimes it is a solo experience, and sometimes it can be as a collective. Each has its own unique complications.
It seems a simple solution and antidote to say a person should have grit and resilience. These are not some magical things that just happen. Their presence cannot be proven in a vacuum, and they don’t necessarily and automatically show up when one faces troubles. Furthermore, they are not easily passed on nor inherited.
18:29
Real grit requires action and tenacity. A forward momentum that can require superhuman type of determination and endurance to withstand all sorts of obstacles.
Resilience is another matter. It is not only surviving but rising above circumstances. A bounce back. An overcoming. A restoration or reconfiguration that helps one move beyond the wounds and tribulations to better things.
Grit and resilience are admirable traits because they can be rare yet vital when we need them most. Not only during the momentary setback, they are about the long haul aftermath. A need to move to a permanency away from the negatives.
The drive to push forward and make things better. Even when there are no guarantees.
19:17
Money can solve problems and cause plenty more. But what it can never do is buy certain character traits.
Will our characters be able to overcome the obstacles before them? And what will happen when their desires and agendas conflict with another’s and especially each other’s?
19:38
Amazon.com: The Gilded Age: A Fashion Coloring Book: 9798365837799: Lair, Discovery: Books
Amazon Books: The Gilded Age: A Fashion Coloring Book link
If you enjoy As The Money Burns, then please share, like, & subscribe.
Hook
20:20
[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 lonely heiress finds herself on a cruise around the world. After a year of heartbreaks, will she ever find her happily ever after?
Until then…
Credits
20:41
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.
21:09
THE END.