Ann Cooper Hewitt G.S

HIGH SOCIETY The Curious Case of Ann Cooper Hewitt G.S. Payne looks at a long-forgotten scandal that rocked America’s high society in the 1930s “I’M ONLY A sterilized heiress, foundries, as well as from a litany nia millionaire who came from A butt for the laughter of rubes, of inventions that ranged from the one of the oldest, wealthiest fami- I’m comely and rich, first US steam locomotive to the lies in New York society. Where But a venomous bitch — first gelatin dessert (later to exactly Maryon came from My mother ran off with my tubes!” become better known by its brand remains sketchy. She seemed to — Gene Fowler, journalist/humorist, name, Jell-O). Cooper’s son-in- have cultivated an image of a pop- the New York Daily Mirror, 1936 law, Abram Stevens Hewitt, was a ular Southern belle from Virginia. It was the story of the year, mayor of New York City and gen- But according to daughter Ann, the sensational scandal everyone erally regarded as the father of the “While my mother has always was talking about from New York New York City subway system. boasted of her Southern aristoc- to San Francisco. Ann Cooper Cooper’s grandson (Ann’s father) racy, she was the daughter of a Hewitt was the heiress to a horsecar driver in San Francisco fortune, and she was suing who lived in a flat over a corner her own mother, Maryon grocery store when she was a Cooper Hewitt, for half a mil- girl.” lion dollars. Why? Because Wherever she came from, two years earlier, in 1934, Maryon found her way into when Ann was 20 and still money and society with her technically a minor, Maryon marriage to Brugiere. The cou- had Ann taken to the hospital ple had two children, but the for an appendectomy. Ann marriage ended after seven soon discovered she had lost years. Maryon subsequently more than her appendix. married a wealthy Manhattan It was a case that pitted stockbroker. That marriage mother against daughter, failed as well, and somewhere delved into the rights of along the line Maryon met the minors, touched on the defin- wealthy Peter Cooper Hewitt. itions of the mentally dis- The two carried on an illicit abled (but interestingly, only affair, resulting in the birth of lightly on their rights), Ann in 1914. They eventually explored the very idea of married in 1918. Peter died in motherhood, underscored 1921, and by 1923, Maryon was 1930’s American sexual married yet again, this time to a mores, saw criminal action wealthy French baron. The taken against two prominent daughter of the San Francisco doctors, and included a spec- Plaintiff Ann Cooper Hewitt — the unknowing horsecar driver was now living tacular fall from society, com- recipient of a salpingectomy undertaken at the in France and had become “the plete with a suicide attempt. request of her mother. Baroness d’Erlanger of Paris.” And it was all offered up to The arrangement of Peter the public in juicy accounts of was Peter Cooper Hewitt who Cooper Hewitt’s estate, in a trust high-society characters — in par- formed, among other lucrative fund, would become fodder for ticular, a sad and barren young ventures, an electric company much speculation in early 1936 woman and her wealth- and sta- with none other than George when daughter Ann would bring tus-obsessed mother who seemed Westinghouse. suit against her mother. The willing to stop at nothing for a Then into this prominent, fund’s income was set to go one- larger share of a rather large inher- highly-respected, successful family third to Maryon, and two-thirds to itance. came one Maryon Denning, the Ann and Ann’s children, should former Maryon Brugiere, nee there be any. However, if Ann The Road to High Society Maryon Andrews, a striking were to die childless, her portion Ann Cooper Hewitt was the great- beauty with fervent aspirations to would revert to Maryon. It was granddaughter of industrialist/ be rich and a part of high society. this, claimed Ann, that prompted inventor Peter Cooper. Cooper In 1902, at the age of 18, she mar- Maryon to have the surgeon take made his fortune with his iron ried Dr. Pedar Brugiere, a Califor- an extra step during Ann’s appen- # History Magazine • April/May 2010 dectomy. Ann’s appendix was not be responsible for his wife’s and California) had his own exam- removed, but she also became the debts. Divorce soon followed. ination done, taking Ann to the unknowing recipient of a salp- As for the lawsuit, filed by New Jersey State Hospital for the ingectomy — the removal of her Ann in San Francisco, the facts Insane in Greystone Park where fallopian tubes. were roughly these: on 14 August she was thoroughly evaluated by 1934, Mary Scally, a California senior resident physician Mother versus Daughter state health department psycholo- Lawrence Collins. His findings: By the time Ann brought suit gist, examined then-20-year old “She was correctly oriented in all against Maryon, in January of Ann and pronounced her “feeble- spheres,” testified Collins in an 1936, Maryon had been divorced minded”, a term which today affidavit, adding that Ann had a by the Baron d’Erlanger, married would probably be replaced with good grasp on the recent and (to a New Jersey lawyer named “developmentally disabled.” remote past and that there were George McCarter), and divorced Scally determined Ann to no obvious impairments of her again. Her time spent in Paris have a mental age of 11. Maryon’s thinking capacity. She was able to with the Baron was apparently not physician, one Tilton E. Tillman, write fluently in French and to without its share of excitement. recommended sterilization to converse in Italian. She had read She became rather famous in Maryon, a common practice in books on Shakespeare, French his- Parisian society, was known as the those days for the “feebleminded”. tory, Napoleon Bonaparte, Marie “greatest woman gambler” and Just four days later, suffering from Antoinette, King Lear, Dante’s was reported to have been invited appendicitis, Ann was taken to a Inferno and the works of Charles by the Shah of Persia to be the San Francisco hospital where, in Dickens. leading lady of his harem. But she the course of an appendectomy by Collins concluded that if there was often besieged with sum- surgeon Samuel Boyd, the steril- had been any retardation, it would monses for court appearances to ization also took place. have been due to Ann having answer charges for neglected bills Scally’s examination was an “been conditioned during her submitted by jewelers, hotels and oral mental test which included early formative years by an dress shops. At one point, she questions such as: “What is the unwholesome environment, and requested an increase from her longest river in the United any intellectual deficiency which share of the Cooper trust, insisting States?” and “How many years are might be present is due not to any that her manner of living required there in a Presidential term?” pathological defect but to lack of an income of $250,000 per year Ann’s answers were mostly all development of the intellectual (close to four million dollars incorrect. faculties.” today). Ultimately, the Baron was But Ann’s New Jersey attor- This conclusion seemed to be forced to insert an ad in a Paris ney, Horace Jeffers, (Maryon and corroborated by Grace Wilkins, a newspaper, declaring he would Ann split time between New York nurse who was hired by Maryon Left: Below: Maryon Cooper Hewitt made her way into high society boasting of her Southern aristocracy. According to daughter Ann, she was the daughter of a horsecar driver from San Francisco. Right: Wealthy industrialist Peter Cooper Hewitt was 57 when he married Maryon, four years after his affair with her resulted in Ann’s birth. History Magazine • April/May 2010 # HIGH SOCIETY to look after Ann. “When I was first employed,” Wilkins testified, “I understood it was to be a mental case. Half an hour after I saw the girl for the first time, I knew that here was no insane person. I observed three months of abuse of her by her mother. She was kept in pajamas upstairs. Her letters were censored. So were her telephone calls.” Ann herself testified that, “My life has been terrible. I was locked up all the time. I never had any boyfriends or friends of any kind.” She further charged that her mother deprived her of an educa- tion and kept her confined. “She never had any affection for me, none whatsoever,” Ann sobbed. “She would drink all night and drag me out of bed at four in the morning to tell me if I’d die she’d have all my money. She’d be drunk and mistreat me, throwing up to me that I was a love child.” Ann’s attorney Russell Tyler was so effective at disgracing Maryon in the papers that Maryon reportedly offered him a bribe to switch sides and represent her. The Story of the Year As the daily developments hit example, Maryon would accuse ual immorality would have been newspapers all across the country, her of flirting. reason enough to, at least, hint at the captivated public followed Soon, it was revealed that feeblemindedness. Reasonable, along. If Maryon was regarded Maryon had tried to enlist the proper women simply weren’t unfavorably, Ann’s California help of Russell Tyler for herself, expected to behave in the ways attorney, Russell Tyler, piled on by hoping, presumably, the skilled Maryon described Ann as having continually referring to her by all attorney who was effectively dis- behaved.

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