DOCSLIB.ORG

WILLIAM A. and HUGUETTE CLARK Presented to the Montana

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
WILLIAM A. and HUGUETTE CLARK Presented to the Montana WILLIAM A. AND HUGUETTE CLARK Presented to the Montana Luncheon Group Phoenix, Arizona-February 13, 2015 By Paul G. Ulrich I. Introduction. William A. Clark was a truly remarkable, self-made man. His wealth grew from 50 cents when he arrived in Bannack, Montana in 1863 as a young placer miner to possibly $250 million when he died in New York City in 1925 as one of America's richest men. Much of that wealth came from Clark's role in becoming one of Butte's early '"copper kings." However, he had many other mining and business interests as well. Clark also became involved in Montana and federal politics. After repeated, unsuccessful efforts to have the Montana legislature elect him to the United States Senate, he finally bribed it do so. He then resigned before the Senate could expel him for those ethics violations. However, the legislature elected him again the next year. He served one term as a senator but did not seek reelection. He instead returned to his numerous mining and other business interests. He also moved his primary residence from Butte to a 121-room Fifth Avenue mansion in New York City costing $7 million. A picture of that mansion is attached. Clark's youngest daughter, Huguette, was bom in France in 1906. She died in 2011 at age 104. Despite the numerous large gifts she made throughout her life, her estate was valued at $308 million. Huguette's life and personality were highly unusual. She had been a celebrity as Clark's daughter because of her family's wealth. However, she withdrew from public view soon after a short, unhappy marriage ended. After living with her mother and then alone in a large New York City apartment, she chose instead to live her last 20 years in hospital rooms. She didn't particularly need hospital care. She instead simply preferred to live there rather than in large, empty apartments or estates. A lawsuit challenging her will filed by 19 descendants of Clark's other children was settled shortly prior to trial in 2013. This article is based primarily on Michael P. Malone. The Battle for Butte: Mining and Polifics on the Northem Frontier: 1864-1906 (1981); Bill Dedman & Paul Clark Newell. Jr., Empty Mansions (2013); and Meryl Gordon, The Phantom of Fifth Avenue (2014). It also follows the "Early Butte History" article I presented last year. Malone was one of Montana's preeminent historians and writers. He was a history professor at Montana State University and served as its president from 1991 until he died of a sudden heart attack in 1999. Bill Dedman is a Pulitizer Prize-winning joumalist. Paul Clark Newell, Jr., one of Huguette's cousins, knew her when she was alive. His grandmother was one of Clark's sisters. Meryl Gordon is a New York joumalist. Although I haven't cited their books as references throughout the article, I acknowledge the information they've provided with appreciation. 1 11. Clark's Early Years. William Andrews Clark was born as one of eleven children, eight of whom survived, in a four-room log cabin on a southwestern Pennsylvania farm on January 8, 1839. He and his family moved to an Iowa farm near the Missouri border in 1856. He taught winter school in Iowa in 1857 and in a one-room Missouri school during 1860. He then enrolled at Iowa Wesleyan University in 1860 to study classics and law. However, he dropped out in 1862 to join the Colorado gold rush. To get there, he drove a six-oxen team over five months from Atchison, Kansas to Manitou Springs, Colorado. He worked as a hired hand on a small claim near Central City, Colorado during the winter of 1862-63, making at most $3 a day. He was about 5 1/2 feet tall and weighed 120-25 pounds. He appeared to be a "dynamo of nervous intelligence." A photo of Clark at that time is also attached. Clark and two prospector friends traveled to Bannack, Montana during 1863 after hearing of the gold strike at Grasshopper Creek. When he arrived, he was down to his last 50 cents. Clark and his friends soon learned that all the claims were staked out. However, another man staked them in and they worked on his claim. Clark's several thousand dollars in gold dust from that venture became the core of his later fortune. He then worked for a hotel owner during the winter of 1863-64, cutting firewood for $2 a day plus meals. After being caught in a winter blizzard while cutting firewood and nearly perishing, Clark turned to merchandising. He and his friends took wagons to Salt Lake City. Clark loaded his wagon with flour, butter, tobacco and eggs, which he sold for a profit in Bannack. He was a "genius at business affairs" and had a "relentless, all-consuming ambition." Clark and his partners later made huge profits loading supply wagons in Salt Lake City, the Pacific coast and Boise for Bannack, Virginia City, Helena and Elk City. In 1867, Clark obtained a profitable mail contract between Walla Walla, Washington and Missoula. In the fall of 1868, Clark subcontracted his mail delivery business and went east to "bring back a wife." He traveled to Pennsylvania to court Katherine Louise "Kate" Stauffer, a childhood friend. They married at her parents' home on March 17, 1869, then moved to their new home in Helena. They had five children who survived: Mary Joaquina (1870- 1939), Charles Walker (1871-1933), Katherine Louise (1875-1974), William Andrews. Jr. (1877-1934), and Francis Paul (1880-1896). The Clark family tree also is attached. Clark and his new partners began another wholesale mercantile business, shipping goods to Helena and Deer Lodge. After a rough initial season, they whittled the business down to banking, most assaying and buying gold dust. The 1870 census listed Clark as a grocer and banker, with a $ 15,000 net worth. Clark and his partners formed the First National Bank of Deer Lodge in 1872 with a $50,000 capitalization, and established a branch in Butte. Two of Clark's younger brothers eventually joined him in the Butte bank. Clark then bought out his other partners and called the bank. "W.A. Clark & Brother, Bankers." II. Clark's Early Involvement in Butte. In 1872, Butte was a ''near-dormant," failed gold camp, with the beginnings of a rebirth as a mining camp for silver and copper. Upon arriving there, Clark immediately bought four major claims: the Original, Colusa, Mountain Chief and Gambetta mines. Taking a leave of absence from his bank, Clark left his children with family members in Pennsylva• nia and moved with Kate to New York City during 1872-73 so he could take a cram course in geological and mineralogical studies at Columbia University School of Mines. He and his professors then confirmed that he had tapped into major copper veins. Back in Butte, Clark began shipping copper ore by wagon to Utah for smelting. He also financed William Farlin, who had pioneered the Travona mine during the 1860s, in building the Dexter mill to reduce the Travona mine's silver ores. Clark took over Farlin's properties in 1880 when Farlin became over extended and could not make his payments. In 1877, Clark sent 150 tons of high-grade copper ore from his Original mine to the Boston and Colorado smelting firm in Black Hawk. Colorado. That firm was controlled by Nathaniel Hill, one of western mining's giants. Hill had previously applied German and English metallurgy and Boston capital to master the reduction of Colorado's complex silver ores. His experiment with Clark's ore led to creation of the Colorado Smelting and Mining Company in 1878-79. That company built a smelter on Montana Street, south of Silver Bow Creek, which began operating in 1879 and expanded in 1881. Clark's mines fed ores to that plant. Clark also did custom smelting, and bought ores from other miners to form the proper fluxing mixtures, and to combine and smelt them together with his own ore. Shipping copper from Butte became much easier after the railroad arrived in December 1881. In addition to his mining interests, Clark built Butte's water supply system, organized the electric light company and owned 77?^ Butte Miner newspaper. From 1884 to 1888 he built the most expensive home in Butte, a 34-room Victorian mansion on west Granite Street costing about $250,000, as an expression of confidence in the copper camp. However, Kate and their children spent most of 1884-93 in Europe and New York, seeking cleaner air, better schools and cultural opportunities. Clark joined them for vacations during the winter months, also then building his art collection. The family lived in New York or California when they returned to the United States. While Kate attended the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, she contracted typhoid fever. She died in New York City on October 19, 1893. III. Clark's Business Interests. By 1889, Clark was one of America's most wealthy businessmen. In addition to his mines, mills and smelters in Butte, he owned banks, retail stores, newspapers, coal mines, water, electrical and street utilities, and large lumber holdings in the Big Blackfoot and Missoula valleys. Clark saw samples from the United Verde mine in Jerome. Arizona at the 3 1885 New Orleans Exposition. The mine had begun operating in 1876. It closed in 1884 when its owners could no longer operate profitably because of leaner ore and falling copper prices.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Center & Clark Newsletter
    THE CENTER & CLARK NEWSLETTER ucla center for 17th- & 18th-century studies william andrews clark memorial library Number 64 FALL 2016 Clark Closure: The Clark Library remains closed while the seismic retrofit and renovation projects are being completed. We now anticipate reopening to the public sometime in Winter 2017. Please check back with the Library’s website for updates to this status. Director’s Column Mary Terrall, Center & Clark Interim Director One year ago, Barbara Fuchs reported in this space that the long overdue seismic retrofit and other restoration and refurbishment projects at the Clark had gotten underway, with completion and reopening anticipated in July 2016. As of this writing, we are three months past that date, with the construction lingering in its final phases, and reopening pushed back to the winter of 2017. While this delay is disappointing, it should probably not be surprising, given the complexity of the project, the age of the building, and the peculiar features of its architecture. In spite of the delayed reopening, we have to remember that the end result will be not only a more stable building—with newly restored fixtures and furniture—but also a more functional library. The new pavilion on the north side of the Clark Library A new underground book annex has been added to accommodate Medieval and Renaissance Studies. The move is now complete, and our growing collections. Facilities for readers, fellows, staff, and everyone is settled in. I would like to express particular appreciation students—in the main building and in the North Range—are all to Kathy Sanchez for her resourcefulness and her generally cheerful being upgraded and made accessible.
    [Show full text]
  • What If Granny Wants to Gamble? Balancing Autonomy and Vulnerability in the Golden Years
    \\jciprod01\productn\A\ACT\45-3\ACT302.txt unknown Seq: 1 22-MAY-20 15:48 What If Granny Wants to Gamble? Balancing Autonomy and Vulnerability in the Golden Years Mary F. Radford* I. INTRODUCTION When I am an old woman I shall wear purple With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.1 In the late 1990s, the words of this poem inspired a global social organization known as the “Red Hat Society.” Women in the Red Hat Society “victoriously celebrate turning 50 and entering into the next phase of their lives.”2 Their signature outfit consists of a purple ensem- ble and a red hat (that doesn’t match). The women in this Society “em- brac[e] a renewed outlook on life filled with fun and friendship, fulfilling lifelong dreams.”3 The poet, Jenny Joseph, in dressing her “old woman” in the rich but mismatched palette of red and purple, highlights accurately the conflict- ing perceptions that our society holds today about older women in America. * Mary F. Radford is the Marjorie Fine Knowles Professor of Fiduciary Law at the Georgia State University College of Law in Atlanta, Georgia. She received her B.A. degree from Sophie Newcomb College of Tulane University in 1974 and her J.D. degree from Emory School of Law in 1981. She is an ACTEC Academic Fellow and served as the President of ACTEC in 2011-12.
    [Show full text]
  • To Be Offered at Christie's New York in Spring 2014
    PRESS RELEASE | NEW YORK | 31 JANUARY 2014 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TO BE OFFERED AT CHRISTIE’S NEW YORK IN SPRING 2014 STARTED IN THE 19TH CENTURY BY SENATOR W.A. CLARK AND EXPANDED BY HIS DAUGHTER HUGUETTE M. CLARK, THE COLLECTION FEATURES OVER 400 ITEMS FINE ART BY MONET, RENOIR, CHASE, AND SARGENT TO LEAD THE SALES, ALONG WITH AN EXCEPTIONAL COLLECTION OF ASIAN ART, GILDED AGE FURNISHINGS, SILVER, RARE BOOKS, AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS RARE STRADIVARIUS VIOLIN AMONG THE FAMILY TREASURES Senator W.A. Clark Anna and W.A. Clark New York – Christie's is honored to announce early highlights and international tour dates for the upcoming sales of property from the Clark Family Collection. As one of the nation’s wealthiest men at the turn of the 20th century, William Andrews (W.A.) Clark’s (1839-1925) name is synonymous with American aspiration, having built a successful personal empire in multiple industries, most notably copper mining. His vast wealth allowed him to pursue a lifelong passion for art and culture that he shared with his wife and daughters, who expanded the family collection over the decades. In total, over 400 items, including fine art, musical instruments, Gilded Age furnishings, decorative arts, and rare books collected by two generations of the Clark family will be offered for sale at Christie’s this spring, opening a new chapter in the story of one of the cornerstone dynasties of the Industrial Age in America. Four masterworks by Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir will be presented in the Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art at Christie’s New York on May 6, followed by a dedicated sale titled An American Dynasty: The Clark Family Treasures on June 18.
    [Show full text]
  • Discussion Guide
    ROSENBERG LIBRARY Additional Resources: This program, slideshow, and links below can be PROGRAM AGENDA found at Rosenberg Library September 24 · November 13 www.rosenberg-library.org 12:00 noon Welcome & Introductions 12:00-12:15 Art & Artifact Presentation 12:15-1:00 Book Discussion For additional web resources, please visit: 1:00-1:30 Author Chat with Bill Dedman http://www.emptymansionsbook.com http://www.christies.com/features/the-clark-family- treasures-inside-bellosguardo-4760-3.aspx http://www.theriaults.com/default/? LinkServID=BD4D5414-F61D-F544-C9441668C1949B35 BILL DEDMAN’S BIO Bill Dedman introduced the public to heiress Huguette Clark and her empty mansions through his compelling series of narratives for NBC, which became the most popular feature in the history of its news website, topping 110 million Rosenberg Library’s page views. All the NBC News stories, videos and photos on the mystery of Museum Book Club provides Huguette Clark are at http://nbcnews.com/clark. a forum for discovery and Bill received the 1989 Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting while writing for discussion, linking literary The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. selections with art from our permanent collection. Discussion... “Like her attention-grabbing father and her music-loving Empty Mansions is based on facts, documents, and testimony. mother, both strong-willed and That leaves mysteries in the lives of its characters. Did the private in their own ways, uncertainties add or detract from your enjoyment of the story? Huguette was a formidable personality who lived life as she Would you have preferred that the authors psychoanalyze wanted, always on her own Huguette, creating dialog and filling in missing scenes as a terms.” -p.
    [Show full text]
  • What If Granny Wants to Gamble? Balancing Vulnerability and Autonomy in the Golden Years Professor Emerita Mary F
    What If Granny Wants to Gamble? Balancing Vulnerability and Autonomy in the Golden Years Professor Emerita Mary F. Radford Georgia State University College of Law Atlanta, GA. I. INTRODUCTION: AGING WOMEN IN AMERICA A. “When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple with a red hat which doesn’t go and doesn’t suit me” 1. The mismatched colors of purple and red depicted by JennyJoseph in her poem “Warning” reflect the combination of joys and challenges faced by older Americans, particularly older women. a. Purple is the color of power and the purple robe of power is donned by many women in their later years. For example, Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Sonya Sotomayor were all at or over the age of 50 when appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States. b. Red is the color of madness and danger and many older individuals are weakened by “neurocognitive disorder” or “dementia,” our 20th century version of madness. This affliction heightens their vulnerability to abuse, particularly financial abuse. B. Statistics show us that there is a rather large gender gap in the population and lifestyles of older Americans. 1. In the general U.S. population the genders are almost equally divided with 97 males per every 100 females. a. But as we age, the number of women begins to outstrip the number of men so that by age 85, women outnumber men almost 2 to 1. b. Additionally, many more women than men are “alone” in their old age in that they are widowed, unmarried, divorced, or single).
    [Show full text]
  • Rosenberg Library Announces Museum Book Club Fall Selection
    Rosenberg Library Announces Museum Book Club Fall Selection Rosenberg Library is pleased to announce its selection for the Fall 2014 Museum Book Club Series: Empty Mansions – The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune. The first meeting of the Fall 2014 Museum Book Club will take place on Wednesday, September 24th from 12 noon – 1:30 pm. A second session will be held on Thursday, November 13th from 12 noon – 1:30 pm. Empty Mansions co-author Bill Dedman will participate in a live video chat during both programs. The Museum Book Club meets in the McCullough Room on the library’s second floor. Light refreshments are provided at all sessions. ABOUT THE BOOK Cover image of Bill Dedman and Paul Empty Mansions explores the mystery surrounding reclusive Clark Newell's Empty Mansions American heiress Huguette Clark. Born at the turn of the twentieth century, Ms. Clark was the daughter of copper magnate William Andrews Clark and his second wife Anna LaChapelle who was nearly forty years his junior. Though their name is largely forgotten, the Clarks were at one time among the wealthiest and most powerful families in the country. Born in her mother’s native France in 1906, Huguette lived the first four years of her life in Paris. After moving back to America with her parents and her older sister, she lived a very privileged life in New York City. Her father built the family of four a lavish 120-room mansion along Fifth Avenue which overlooked Central Park. Huguette attended the city’s most prestigious schools and as an adult became an accomplished artist and a passionate collector.
    [Show full text]
  • Ian Clark Devine, Board Member, Bellosguardo Foundation | 5 Questions For… |
    Ian Clark Devine, Board Member, Bellosguardo Foundation NOVEMBER 13, 2014 In the last years of her long life, heiress Huguette Clark became one of New York society's most-whispered-about curiosities. Born in Paris in 1906 to 67-year-old William Andrews Clark, a wealthy Guilded Age businessman, and Anna Eugenia La Chapelle, Clark's second wife, young Huguette grew up in splendid luxury in Manhattan and counted among her friends and contemporaries some of her father's grandchildren, including Devine's grandmother. After her father died in 1925, the young heiress and her mother moved from his Upper East Side mansion to a nearby apartment on Fifth Avenue, where Huguette lived for much of the rest of her life. After a short-lived marriage ended in 1930, she turned to art and art collecting, kept up her French and Spanish, and developed a passion for dolls, dollhouses, and Japanese culture. As she grew older, she also became increasingly withdrawn and reclusive — so much so, that when she passed away in 2011 just two weeks shy of her 105th birthday, only a handful of people could say they had seen her in the last twenty years. Clark's death sparked a flurry of interest in her long, mysterious life — and in the disposition of her will, which almost immediately was challenged in court by members of her extended family. After two years, the case was settled in the family's favor, with the bulk of her fortune, including Bellosguardo, her coastal estate in Santa Barbara, California, going to charity.
    [Show full text]
  • 2014 January-February Jottings
    CHAPEL LIBRARY Jottings JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 edited by Edna Strnad “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee The more I have, for both are infinite. “ William Shakespeare HERE’S WHAT IS CELEBRATE VALENTINE’S DAY WITH HAPPENING THIS BARBARA RINELLA MONTH AND Come be our Valentine on Friday, February 14, when Barbara Rinella will present her mystery book dramatization. She is a hugely popular favorite at NEXT Lost Tree and the Library is delighted to be hosting her program. This will be the 29th year the Chapel Library has given a Thank You Valentine to the many Friends of the Library and their support. The Chapel congregation January 15 – Book Discussion and all of Lost Tree Village are welcomed to be guests at this event (Tea at – Transatlantic by Colum 2:30, Program at 3:00 p.m.). McCann January 17 – Tea and Talk – CARROLL ROTCHFORD LEADS Lost Tree Wild Life presented by Arthur Carton BOOK DISCUSSION ON FEBRUARY 19 February 14 – Valentine Tea – . Lynne Olson’s Citizens of London: Edward R. Murrow, Averell Harriman and John Gilbert Winant became “Citizens of London” as did the generals, the troops and Barbara Rinella everyone who was part of the effort to save London during and after the blitz and even after February 16 – Artist Reception the war. This story is so wide and so filled with heroic and human inter- – Sue Fazio ests, diplomacy, and strategy that it became a page-turner. There is a sur- prise on every page.
    [Show full text]
  • Book Summaries Updated 8-24-2021 *Recently Added Titles TITLE AUTHOR DESCRIPTION MAIN SETTING A
    BOOK CLUB CONNECTION – Book Summaries Updated 8-24-2021 *Recently Added Titles MAIN TITLE AUTHOR DESCRIPTION SETTING Alias Grace Margaret Atwood Fiction It's 1843, and Grace Marks has been Canada convicted for her involvement in the vicious murders of her employer and his housekeeper and mistress. Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Now serving a life sentence, Grace claims to have no memory of the murders. The Alice Network Kate Quinn Fiction 1915. A year into the Great War, Eve France Gardiner join the fight against the Germans when she is recruited to work as a spy. 1947. Charlie St. Clair nurses a desperate hope that her beloved cousin Rose, who disappeared in Nazi-occupied France during the war, might still be alive. All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion Fannie Flagg Fiction Alabama woman today & 5 women who United States worked in a Phillips 66 gas station during World War 2. All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr Fiction Marie-Laure, blind at 6, lives in Paris near the Europe Museum of Natural History, where her father works. At 12, the Nazis occupy Paris she and her father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. All This Could Be Yours Jami Attenberg Fiction a timely, piercing exploration of what it means to New Orleans be caught in the web of a toxic man who abused his power; it shows how those webs can tangle a family for generations and what it takes to— maybe, hopefully—break free.
    [Show full text]
  • List of Exhibitions Held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art from 1897 to 2014
    National Gallery of Art, Washington February 14, 2018 Corcoran Gallery of Art Exhibition List 1897 – 2014 The National Gallery of Art assumed stewardship of a world-renowned collection of paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, prints, drawings, and photographs with the closing of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in late 2014. Many works from the Corcoran’s collection featured prominently in exhibitions held at that museum over its long history. To facilitate research on those and other objects included in Corcoran exhibitions, following is a list of all special exhibitions held at the Corcoran from 1897 until its closing in 2014. Exhibitions for which a catalog was produced are noted. Many catalogs may be found in the National Gallery of Art Library (nga.gov/research/library.html), the libraries at the George Washington University (library.gwu.edu/), or in the Corcoran Archives, now housed at the George Washington University (library.gwu.edu/scrc/corcoran-archives). Other materials documenting many of these exhibitions are also housed in the Corcoran Archives. Exhibition of Tapestries Belonging to Mr. Charles M. Ffoulke, of Washington, DC December 14, 1897 A catalog of the exhibition was produced. AIA Loan Exhibition April 11–28, 1898 A catalog of the exhibition was produced. Annual Exhibition of the Work by the Students of the Corcoran School of Art May 31–June 5, 1899 Exhibition of Paintings by the Artists of Washington, Held under the Auspices of a Committee of Ladies, of Which Mrs. John B. Henderson Was Chairman May 4–21, 1900 Annual Exhibition of the Work by the Students of the CorCoran SChool of Art May 30–June 4, 1900 Fifth Annual Exhibition of the Washington Water Color Club November 12–December 6, 1900 A catalog of the exhibition was produced.
    [Show full text]
  • T He PHANT O M of FIF TH a VENUE T H E PHANTOM of FIFTH AVENUE
    The PHANTOM of MERYL FIFTH AVENUE GORDON Read by Bernadette Dunne hen Huguette Clark died in the spring of 2011, the 104-year- old heiress left behind three sprawling apartments on New York’s Fifth Avenue, a twenty-three-acre oceanfront compound in Santa Barbara, and a battle over a $300 million estate that pitted her late- in-life caregivers versus her long-lost relatives. She also left behind a mystery: How did a vivacious debutante—a woman who learned to surf in Hawaii from Duke Kahanamoku and danced at the Waldorf Astoria’s Starlight Room—end up spending the last twenty years of her life hiding out in hospitals and collecting The antique French porcelain dolls? While press accounts reduced her to cliché—an elderly recluse preyed upon by those she trusted—the real story is far more complex. Born PHANTOM in 1906, Huguette grew up in her family’s 121-room Beaux Arts mansion in Manhattan. Her father, William Andrews Clark, was a copper magnate, the second-richest man in America, and not above bribing his way into the Senate. At twenty-two with a personal fortune of $50 million to her name, she married childhood friend William MacDonald Gower, a Princeton man. Two years later the couple divorced. After a series of failed romances, Huguette began to withdraw from society—first living a few floors above her mother at 907 Fifth Avenue and after her mother’s death by herself in a vast apartment overlooking Central Park, dining on sardines and watching The Flintstones with only hired help for company.
    [Show full text]
  • Empty Mansions: the Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr
    Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune By Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr. Empty Mansions reveals an enthralling mystery of wealth and loss—and a secretive heiress named Huguette Clark. Though she owned palatial homes, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room despite being in excellent health? Empty Mansions unravels the true story of her remarkable family, from the father, W.A. Clark, the copper king, founder of Las Vegas, and disreputable U.S. senator, to his daughter, the artist who held a ticket on the Titanic and was still living in New York on 9/11. The authors are Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bill Dedman, who discovered Huguette's story for NBC News, and Huguette's cousin, Paul Newell, one of the few relatives to talk with her. Drawn from interviews with Huguette, her papers, and testimony of her inner circle, Empty Mansions is illustrated with 70 photographs. Or hear Huguette's voice in the audiobook. A feature film based on Empty Mansions is on the way from Ryan Murphy (Glee, American Horror Story, The Normal Heart). Book clubs: Have one of the authors meet with your club or group. See the book club page on our website. Photos and more information: emptymansionsbook.com. News: nbcnews.com/clark. Updates: facebook.com/investigative.reporter. Contact the authors: [email protected]. CHART REFLECTING MODIFICATION OF MADAME CLARK'S WILL PROVISION ORIGINAL WILL WILL AS MODIFIED Taxes All estate and inheritance taxes to All estate and inheritance taxes to be paid out of residue be paid from residue Power of Appointment Exercised and appointed to Estate Exercised and appointed to Estate under other trusts created for HMC's benefit Charitable Foundation Charitable foundation named the Charitable foundation named the "Bellosguardo Foundation" to be Bellosguardo Foundation to be formed to foster and promote the formed to "foster and promote the arts arts" Board of Foundation Mr.
    [Show full text]