Episode 75: Fiery Eruptions
During their honeymoon, one couple visits an active volcano, while nearby racial turmoil threatens to erupt in tropical paradise.
December 1931 – January 1932, newlyweds William “Sam” Van Alen and Elizabeth “Betty” Kent Van Alen honeymoon in Hawaii. They go to visit an ongoing erupting volcano, while racial tensions between natives and the military build over several assaults and a murder leading to the famous Massie Trial.
Other people and subjects include: Daisy Van Alen, Eva Stotesbury, E.T. Stotesbury, Atwater Kent, Mabel Kent, Phil Plant, Clarence Darrow, Thalia Fortescue Massie, Grace Bell Hubbard Fortescue, Major Granville Fortescue, Lieutenant Thomas Massie, Edward Lord, Albert Jones, Joseph Kahahawaii, Horace Ida, Luis Kaihapu, Scopes Monkey Trial, Leopold & Loeb, Pinkerton detectives, President Herbert Hoover, President Theodore Roosevelt, National Geographic Society, Alexander Graham Bell, Rough Riders, Captain Nelson McIntosh, Deputy Sheriff David Hao, Peter Van Slingerland book “Something Terrible Has Happened, Helene Fortescue, immigration, polyandry, suicide, Hawaiian
statehood, Kilauea, Halemaumau, Volcano House, dormant volcano, Mahatma Gandhi, Kasturbai Gandhi, unrest in India, Bombay Government Gazette, Pu’u’o’o Eruption, 1987 Black Widow, 1932 darkest year of the Great Depression, 2023 war and energy & food supply issues
Archival Music provided by Past Perfect Vintage Music, www.pastperfect.com.
Extra Notes / Call to Action:
Instagram & Facebook Groups: MansionsoftheGildedAge and TheGildedAgeSociety by Gary Lawrance
New York Adventure Club www.nyadventureclub.com
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: January 03, 2023
Length: 20:24
Opening Music: My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands
Section 1 Music: I Must See Annie Tonight by Brian Lawrance, Album The Great Dance Bands Play Hits of the 30s
Section 2 Music: Eeny Meeny Miney Mo by Harry Roy, Albums The Great Dance Bands Play Hits of the 30s & Tea Dance 2
Section 3 Music: These Foolish Things by Benny Carter, Album Perfect Blues
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 075 – Fiery Eruptions
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
Cobina Wright attempts to rebuild her fortune and marriage with a supper club. Barbara Hutton goes on a trip around the world seeking her next chance at love.
Now back to AS THE MONEY BURNS
Title
00:46
Fiery Eruptions
[Music Fade Out]
Episode Tag
During their honeymoon, one couple visits an active volcano, while nearby racial turmoil threatens to erupt in tropical paradise.
01:00
[Music – I Must See Annie Tonight by Brian Lawrance, Album The Great Dance Bands Play Hits of the 30s]
Section 1 – Story
[Music Fade Out]
01:19
Sunday, December 27th, 1931, Hawaii
Tropical, warm, sunny, beautiful Hawaii. The perfect place to honeymoon even back in 1931 and 1932.
Newlyweds William “Sam” Van Alen and his wife Elizabeth “Betty” Kent spend their first holidays as a married couple in paradise. Betty’s pretty auburn red hair perfectly accentuated with exotic blooms. Staying mostly in Honolulu, the couple make their way to the Halemaumau (Hale Ma-oo Ma-oo) pit crater to see an active shield volcano Kilauea (KEE-luh way-A).
Back in August 1931, they married at her family’s Maine estate Sonogee, which was once owned by Sam’s great Aunt Louise Vanderbilt.
02:06
Now the young couple intend to spend four months on the Pacific Island before returning to life on the mainland. Renting a house on Diamond Head, they are visiting the Volcano House for this day’s excursion. They romantically stroll over the volcanic glass to watch the magic of nature only 300 feet away.
The Hawaiian Islands formed from a volcanic plume as the oceanic Tectonic plate slides over it. Part of the allure and mythology of the islands come from the five active volcanos. There are at least 10 black sand beaches, remnants from the black lava flows. The “House of Everlasting Fire” Halemaumau occasionally has a steamy and fiery lava lake depending on the eruption cycle. It periodically goes dormant for a decade or two but has become active again since 1924. The recent cone built up in 1930 after the 1929 eruption.
03:00
Now another spectacular and the most violent recent eruption comes 2 days shy of Christmas December 23rd, 1931 at 2:50pm, 4.5 hours earlier a heavy earthquake shakes the surrounding area opening 10 fountains of molten lava spurting 40 – 50 feet with some reaching even 200 and 300 feet high. Walls of red flame. A pyrotechnic display. A fiery river races at 18 miles/hr down towards the Alika shore. The 48 acre fire pit fills up once again with sloping, sloshing, seething mass of liquid rock. The surrounding lava crust red hot along the edges. Blue smoke beckons more to come.
Discouraged away from the toxic sulphur fumes, visitors and onlookers gather at Uwekahuna (Ew-way Kahuna) bluff to watch. But as days go by, more tourists make their way to the site and the Volcano House. Every auto going and coming from the same location.
The eruptions continue until Tuesday, January 5th, 1932.
04:08
Frantically, Betty’s parents radio magnate Atwater Kent and his wife Mabel Kent frequently reach out to the young couple checking on their safety and begging them to return early from their honeymoon. But their fears are not about the volcano…
The grand nature’s spectacle isn’t the only danger erupting in paradise. In Honolulu, racial turmoil threatens more chaos. On Waikiki late into the evening September 12th-13th, 1931, a 20 year old naval officer’s wife is walking home from a dinner party when 5 native hoodlums drive up, strike her in the jaw, pull her into the car, drive off, then assault her at a lonely beach spot. She is found 12 hours later on the side of the road, beaten, broke, and hysterical. She will identify 4 of her attackers.
In the preceding months, 5 more white women will be attacked with similar racial dynamics.
05:04
On December 5th, 1931, the most serious case which involved the naval officer’s wife resulted in a hung jury of the 5 accused men. On Tuesday, December 15th, 1931, infuriated sailors retaliate by taking one of the accused a Japanese man Horace Ida to the top of a mountain and beat him mercilessly.
05:26
Saturday, January 9th, 1932
Military patrols the streets in the Paradise of the Pacific.
A second and more sensational reaction ends in murder. Four are held in the murder of another of the free accused men – local prized fighter, boxer Joseph Kahahawaii (Ka-HA-HA-vye), who is kidnapped from the court steps. Joseph is taken to a private home, beaten, held under water in the bathtub, then shot in the head. His body is found, naked and wrapped in a sheet, in an automobile on the way to disposal.
05:59
The accused are society matron Mrs. Grace *Granville Fortescue of New York and Washington, D.C., her son-in-law US Navy Lieutenant Thomas Massie, and enlisted navy man Edward J. Lord. A fourth, Albert Jones will be arrested soon after. The revenge assault occurs inside Fortescue’s Hawaiian home. Her daughter & Massie’s wife Thalia Fortescue Massie is the victim, the naval wife, in the prior attack. Upon hearing of her daughter’s assault, the mother immediately went to Hawaii. When arrested, Fortescue is driving the car with Massie and Lord inside. At her Hawaiian residence, bloody towels and blood spatter are found inside. Back in New York, her husband Major Granville Fortescue collapses upon hearing about the crimes and arrest of his wife.
06:46
The U.S. Navy requests jurisdiction over the murder, but Hawaiian authorities insist on civilian courts. From the Oahu prison, another native Luis Kaihapu escaped and attacked a white woman but was caught again. Rumors claim that upon return Luis is hanged by other irate prisoners, but those rumors are dismissed by Colonel Anderson with whom Luis remains in custody.
Tensions grow as more trials await both for native and white offenders. The Massie Trial will occur in April 1932.
With all the ongoing conflicts, the military immediately reacts by gathering its troops and forbidding them to return to Honolulu. They keep on their maritime patrols and drills off the shore. Local merchants fret the absence as sailors who are good customers buying the hula skirt supplies.
07:34
As preparations for the next set of trials begin, the Kents press for Sam and Betty to return, but the couple insists they are staying in a quiet and serene place.
Still later in January 1932, Sam and Betty Van Alen leave paradise and will stop in New York for a fancy ball before Palm Beach. There Sam’s mother Newport’s society queen Daisy Van Alen resides at the Shingle Shack with Betty’s parents nearby. Others migrating to the winter hotspot include E.T. Stotesbury with his wife Eva Stotesbury and millionheir Phil Plant returns from Bermuda.
Charming lives heading into the stormy waters of 1932.
08:18
[Music – Eeny Meeny Miney Mo by Harry Roy, Albums The Great Dance Bands Play Hits of the 30s & Tea Dance 2]
Section 2 – History & Historiography
[Music Fade Out]
08:34
Even paradise can find itself in the middle of hell.
Already in 1931, the Honolulu police force was undergoing racial tension between the McIntosh faction led by Captain Nelson McIntosh with white officers and backed by Hawaii’s business elite versus the Hao faction led by Deputy Sheriff David Hao with police officers of Hawaiian heritage and supported by politically powerful Hawaiian royalty. When Hao retires in August 1931, McIntosh tries to takeover for both factions, but the Honolulu Sheriff keeps the separate structure in place.
The racial tension has simmered under the surface for years. The former polyandry islands, meaning many women with multiple husbands, are now heavily male to female in ratio. Only 44% of men are married. Non-white Europeans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians from the Siberian steppes, Portuguese, Koreans, Filipinos, and other nearby regions come to work on the thriving sugar plantations. The economic disparities fueling further conflicts.
09:37
Previously, Thalia Fortescue had her debutante ball in 1927. During that bygone time, she is escorted about with Eva Stotesbury acting as her guide in Philadelphia circles. Later in 1927, Thalia marries Thomas Massie. In 1930, he is stationed in Hawaii, where Thalia has trouble getting along with others including the officer’s wives. Thalia always saw herself as superior to others.
In reaction to friend Grace Fortescue being arrested, socialite Eva Stotesbury convinces famed defense attorney and another family friend Clarence Darrow to come out of retirement to defend Mrs. Grace Bell Hubbard Fortescue. Grace’s grandfather Gardiner Greene Hubbard is the first president of the National Geographic Society and first president of the Bell Telephone Company, and her father is the first cousin of inventor Alexander Graham Bell. Grace’s husband and Thalia’s father is Major Granville Fortescue, a former Rough Rider and the first cousin of former President Theodore Roosevelt.
10:40
Famous for the Scopes Monkey Trial and the Leopold and Loeb murder case, Darrow claims the defense was an honor killing. Hit hard in his savings by the Great Depression, Darrow comes out of a 7 year retirement with the bait of a popular trial, a foreign locale, and for the group’s defense a retainer of $30,000 (that’s $652,000 by 2023). On March 24th, 1932, Darrow arrives aboard the ship Malolo.
11:10
In 1932, the second criminal trial formally called the Massie Trial will be held. The case is presented from April 4th – 29th, 1932. The final verdict – the four are convicted of manslaughter. In the process of the trial, it is revealed that the accused Horace Ida and Joseph Kahahawai were involved in a car accident that September night on the other side of the city, refuting their ability as Thalia Massie’s claim to assault her (robbed and beaten at first but later of rape). When the men are arrested, they thought it was for the earlier car accident. After the hung jury in their trial, Grace targeted both men for punishment inciting their subsequent attacks and the murder.
In May 1932, the closing arguments are broadcast across the nation via radio. Darrow once again shows the mastery of his rhetorical skills.
12:01
Grace Fortescue, Thomas Massie, Edward Lord, and Albert Jones are all sentenced to 10 years hard labor. Swift diplomatic maneuverings between Washington, D.C., and Honolulu comes with interference at the highest level – President Herbert Hoover. Due to the president’s insistence, the sentences are commuted to 1 hour with time served in the offices by Territorial Governor Lawrence Judd. The condition being the Massies and Fortescue will not pursue a second rape trial prosecution.
Later that year, Pinkerton detectives investigate the original native assault and determine there is no way that the accused natives Ida, Kahahawaii, and the 3 others would have been able to commit the Thalia Massie attack. Though absolved, the surviving 4 accused will live their lives in partial hiding to avoid any more attention.
12:52
At the time, the press speculates the bid for Hawaiian statehood might be ended permanently over the conflict, but Hawaii will be granted statehood on August 21st, 1959. However a more immediate reaction results, natives previously divided by their various different ethnicities will unite across racial lines and gain more power with a joint voice both politically and financially.
After the trial, the Massies and others involved promptly leave the island fearing more retaliation. Massie’s once promising military career is effectively over. By 1934, Thalia and her husband will go to Reno and divorce. There Thalia makes two failed suicide attempts. In 1963, Thalia will commit suicide by overdosing on barbiturates, and Thomas died earlier in 1944. In 1966 shortly before his death, Albert Jones will admit he is the shooter in an interview with Peter Van Slingerland for the book “Something Terrible Has Happened.” For the same book, Thalia’s sister Helene Fortescue admits as a 16 year old girl she hid the murder weapon from the detectives. Helene will later write a play in 1984 on the murder. Thalia and Helene’s mother Grace Fortescue will die in 1979 unrepentant and unapologetic for her crimes.
For 1932, Hawaii isn’t the only place facing racial troubles.
14:16
In India, more tensions arise in early January 1932. While Mahatma Gandhi sits in prison at Poona, his wife Kasturbai Gandhi leads a women’s protest against the British government, for which Mrs. Gandhi receives a 6 week jail sentence for her participation in the “no tax” campaign in Bardoll. Other protests keep happening amongst women picketing shops which offer British goods. Those women are also arrested. A more serious outbreak occurs after 30 are injured in Karachi *Korachi, and another 10,000 storm the jail to free 3 prisoners. Elsewhere 5,000 railway workers strike to curtail their working hours.
Millions of Indians are following Gandhi’s recommendation of nonviolent protests. In the Bombay Government Gazette, over 80 allied organizations are declared unlawful associations with several leaders arrested. As the tension continues to escalate, the British sends more reinforcement to quell more potential uprisings.
Not exactly the hopeful or happy beginnings for a brand new year.
15:23
[Music – These Foolish Things by Benny Carter, Album Perfect Blues]
Section 3 – Contemporary & Personal Relevance
[Music Fade Out]
15:37
A new year has begun with so many possibilities. We always like to think there is something positive around the corner, but what if it’s not? Or worse, something negative, a big negative is on its way…
Volcanos are generally considered dormant after 3 consecutive months of nonactivity. But even then, any signs of tremors or earthquakes are monitored to see if fissures or other changes will start another cycle. Life near a volcano is one on the edge.
16:11
But the physical presence of a natural phenomena is nothing compared to ongoing human drama, from which anywhere or anytime complications can arise and resurface.
1932 is the worst year of the Great Depression. All the bad gets magnified, bank failures, crop failures, dust bowls, unemployment,… Anyone who survived the first half might still go down. Tensions are rising.
Similarly in 2023, we are heading into the coldest part of winter with a worldwide energy crisis, food shortages, and an ongoing war exacerbating both. Things are rough both on an individual and personal as well as larger societal, community, and even international levels.
With that more problems surface, and old resentments are bound to flare up and magnify. What more are we going to experience collectively over the next couple of years?
17:05
The Massie Trial would long effect relations in the Hawaiian area. There is even a hint at delaying the bid for Hawaii’s statehood, which eventually occurs 2 decades later. But not all is forgotten. Recently in 2021, Joseph Kahahawaii’s relatives make a public bid to commemorate his memory. For decades, attention was dampened to not upset the powerful Fortescue family into another retaliation.
Simmering dormant residual feelings inevitably surface.
17:36
Meanwhile another dangerous but alluring natural occurrence continues to fascinate and attract tourists to the islands.
From January 3rd, 1983 to August 4th, 2018, Kilauea is in a state of constant eruption for 35 years. This will be the 12th longest duration recorded since 1750. It is referred as the Pu’u’o’o Eruption (Pu-u Oh-oh).
The ongoing activity is seen in several movies and films, including one of my favorites 1987’s Black Widow, the female protagonist visits the crater with a potential male victim of a female serial killer.
As recently as December 2022, another Hawaiian volcano erupts thus attracting more visitors.
A dull boring period sounds good compared to violent and ongoing conflicts. But what if dormancy leads to more pent-up eruptions later?
18:30
The new year has begun and many wait for the return of HBO’s Gilded Age TV series. In the meantime, you can enjoy Gilded Age related content via Instagram and Facebook Gary Lawrence’s Mansions of the Gilded Age and The Gilded Age Society. He also hosts several webinars through New York Adventure Club. Come listen to Gary discuss with great details the homes of the elite and several of our characters at www.nyadventureclub.com.
Instagram & Facebook Groups: MansionsoftheGildedAge and TheGildedAgeSociety by Gary Lawrance
New York Adventure Club www.nyadventureclub.com
18:56
Looking for a special fun and relaxing distraction for a fashion history buff or creative outlet? Then check out: 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. That’s The Gilded Age: A Fashion Coloring Book by Discovery Lair.
If you enjoy As The Money Burns, then please share, like, & subscribe.
Hook
19:35
[Music – My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands]
Next when we return to AS THE MONEY BURNS…
Some newlyweds are enjoying the winter social season, while one couple faces a less than desirable welcome.
Until then…
Credits
19:54
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.
20:24
THE END.