08:06

[Music – Umtcha, Umtcha, Da Da Da by The Rhythmic Eight, Album Fascinating Rhythm – Great Hits of the 20s]

Section 2 – History & Historiography

[Music Fade Out]

08:22

History always has an odd way of repeating itself in both fun and serious matters.

The Beaux-Arts Ball is an annual costume ball traditionally given by the students of the Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux-Arts, the School of Fine Arts in Paris.  Elaborate floats, pageantry, and costumes are all part of the scene.  E. Berry Wall considered it a revival of paganism.  The parties are often full of antics with a tad bit of naughtiness, and even American architectural schools replicate the tradition.  For the upcoming 1932 New York event at the Waldorf-Astoria, fashion school design sketches are displayed on exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York.  The colonial theme hints at plenty of lace, velvets, and heirlooms to be pulled from the family trunks and revived for the evening.

09:11

Several more lesser Beaux Arts Balls will be celebrated a few more times in various other cities including February 11^th in Lincoln, Nebraska, February 20^th in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and March 3^rd in St. Petersburgh, Florida.  While the former two follow the colonial and inaugural themes, the latter will include a movie premiere theme with more star filled guests including Mickey Mouse, Mary Pickford, her husband Douglas Fairbanks, Greta Garbo, Marion Davies, the four Marx Brothers, and Boris Karloff among the costumed guests.  Even Vancouver will host an Aztec themed Beaux Arts Ball on March 11^th.

09:49

Though it is fun to revel in the past traditions for a night, there are other traditions like the American dollar princess which can be a quite bit messier.

Mrs. Davidson seeks an annulment under Rhode Island law for her daughter’s sudden elopement on the grounds that as 19 year old Marian Snowden is still a minor stated as “an infant under the law.”  24 year old Prince Girolamo “Jerome” Rospigliosi claims that Marian is a resident of Minnesota where 18 is considered legal. 

Furthermore this isn’t a matter of only American state jurisdiction, Italian courts claim Marian is now an Italian citizen and her estate is therefore liable to Italian law.  Creditors want repayment of the Prince’s nearly $500k in debts (that would be $10.68 million in 2023).

10:41

Marian’s father James Snowden died on July 30^th, 1930.  He had previously divorced Marian’s mother in 1923, and both remarried.  In his will, Snowden’s estate is divided one third to his widow and two thirds to his 3 children – Marian Snowden, Janet Snowden, and James Snowden, Jr.  As none have reached the majority of 21, Mrs. Davidson remains their appointed estate guardian.

11:09

Upon James Snowden’s death, the oilman’s estate is valued from $2 to 4 million dollars (or today in 2023 $42.7 to $85.5 million) with two thirds allotted to his children.  On the low end, that would mean $1.3 million (today $27.7 million) with Marian’s portion being $445,000 (today $9.5 million), and the high end would be $2.6 million (today $55.5 million) with Marian receiving $867,000 (today $18.5 million).  Meaning even in the best of circumstances, Prince Jerome would decimate her inheritance almost immediately.  Most reports seem to favor the lower number of $2 million at least by 1932, since Snowden had been a large stakeholder of petroleum stocks those prices could have fluctuated or dropped thus staying next to the lower estimated figure.

12:04

One ongoing dispute with the estate is the access of Snowden’s second wife and widow Beulah Snowden.  The 1925 will had made a provision for her access to the Sands Point – Long Island, NY home for 2 years after his death.  However that estate was sold in 1928 and used to purchase the Southampton estate, for which the widow insists the clause be honored and applied in the same manner.

12:29

Clarity is definitely needed when determining estates.  Prenuptial agreements began as a way to protect wealthy women from their less advantaged husbands.  Until only most recently in the last few decades in a few nations and even most states for us Americans, upon marriage all assets are under the sole discretion of the husband.  One can dig into history to find spendthrifts, gamblers, womanizers, and sometimes utterly failed but well-meaning businessmen wasting away and obliterating family fortunes. 

13:00

Prenuptial and marital agreements date back to Ancient Egypt, and early Hebrew marriages also had the ketubah which were marital contracts in writing and placed above or on the door of the couple’s home.  These not only protected property during a divorce (which rarely occurred) but during death as well.  The de facto prenuptial agreements could be written or verbal and mostly determine the dowry and bride price negotiated by the parents of the bride and groom.  The bigger most likely consequence is protecting the women in case of widowhood, as stated divorces were seldom granted.

13:35

A 2017 article indicates that a 4,000 year old Assyrian cuneiform tablet discovered in Turkey might be the first physical record of a prenuptial agreement.  The terms provide that either party groom or bride would have to pay 5 minas to the other spouse in order to terminate the marriage.  It also has one of the earliest mentions of infertility with the term stating that if a child had not been conceived within the first two years a female surrogate slave would be used until a male child is born.  In ancient Assyria, infertility is not grounds for divorce.

14:10
In 1848, New York state passed the Married Women’s Property Act to ensure women could inherit their husbands’ estates, which previously would only occur if a prenuptial agreement was in place.  In the 1980s, prenups become more common as a way of protecting either spouse’s assets especially in the now higher chance case of divorce.

14:28

However this story involving the Rospigliosi-Snowden marriage points out another complication.  The varying laws cross not only different states but even more countries.  The prevalence of the American dollar princess marriages to titled foreigners raise plenty of issues, especially when used as a method to bring new cash to flailing estates.  Those marriages also come at a time when divorce becomes more socially acceptable and prevalent since the 1890s.  International marriages can be very messy divorces.  This will come up soon enough for several of our main characters.

15:05

Ahhh, the winding nature of these tales requires me to constantly dig for specifics, and in so doing I uncover ever so many other ties.  As I flesh out the Snowden-Rospigliosi marriage and the subsequent relevant other stories like Marian’s younger sister Janet Snowden I find all the same themes not only repeating but linking directly and indirectly back to our main heiresses and heirs.  The entanglements and influences that seem time eternal with ever more tragedies mounting.

15:38

I could tell all of them at once, but that sort of distracts from the point of my trying to retell these stories.  A one-off or the typical one and done manner would merely too quickly and neatly summarize a story to then jump to the next.  When in actuality, these stories are happening simultaneously and with awareness to other parallel parties.  How does the romance of one affect another’s hopes and dreams?  Were they rivals and competition, or are they inspirations and beacons?  What are the alternative arcs that could or might play out?  What might foreshadow the darker fates ahead?

16:16

Once again, I have stumbled across a controversial marriage, a kidnapping threat, a sudden death, and a future suicide.  All to be revealed in time.  I only neatly summarize tales that will unlikely resurface within the primary storylines and timeline.  This new story is definitely not one of those.

Right now, things still seem so pretty, hopeful, and bright.  But our tales are heading towards darkness soon enough, and more than one tale will take a sharp turn later this year.

Little bright spots lighting the way into a future hell.