Posted on 08/28/2010 6:40:22 AM PDT by Daffynition
He has worked at the Connecticut country mansion for most of his life -- but doesn't even know who his boss is.
The guard at the $24 million New Canaan estate of reclusive 104-year-old copper heiress Huguette Clark says he's never met the woman -- and didn't even know her name until yesterday, when a reporter asked.
He's hardly alone.
Few people know the details of the long, mysterious life of one of America's richest women.
'PRINCESS' OF BETH ISRAEL
Born in the waning years of the Gilded Age to a rapacious, hated mining magnate with a fortune worth what would be $3.6 billion today, Huguette Clark has lived like a hermit for more than half a century and has spent much of the past two decades secluded in a hospital, not even agreeing to see family members.
She is now reportedly under the control of an attorney in a case being probed by the Manhattan DA. The situation has been likened to the final years of the late socialite Brooke Astor, who also lived past 100.
But unlike Astor, who for most of her life was every bit the vivacious socialite, Clark has worked hard to hide from the limelight and used her millions to drop out and surround herself with a cocoon of pricey playthings, including an epic collection of French dolls, whose clothes she paid her servants to iron.
"Her closest friends have always been her dolls," one of her friends, Suzanne Pierre, 89, told msnbc.com.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Begin on Fifth Avenue in New York, 1922, in the Easter Parade. Huguette Clark, 15, walks with her father, William A. Clark, senator and copper king. He was the second richest American — or first, neck and neck with Rockefeller. Huguette, now 103, has no heirs. Where is she?
Is this who Glenn Beck was talking about a week or so ago? He went to one of her houses and he said it was like time traveling as there have been no updates to the home since the 30’s and the servants still work there and keep it up but no one ever lives there.
I used to sell Clark wire and other Clark products. It was good stuff.
If she really wants an heir, I’m available.
If she has no living family, or at least none that she is close to, then she is a very poor woman...
I said heir, not life estate beneficiary. I’d liquidate that puppy!
What a shame that this woman is ga-ga and introverted. At 104, she ought to be a wealth of historical information. My grandmother would have been her age had she lived, and I recall that it was always fascinating to talk to her about her life and the world as it was in her youth. Elderly people have so much to teach if only they had an opportunity to do so. Huguette Clark seems to have had a very sad life despite all that money. She had a sweet face in the photo included, and I love her outfit. Styles from WWI should come back. They were stylish and modest.
Paris Hilton - take note;)
Last known photo of Huguette Clark.
Inside the childhood home of Huguette Clark. The Fifth Avenue mansion was a high-tech marvel for 1910, with electricity and central air conditioning. Powering it required seven tons of coal per day, brought in by the Clarks' private subway line.
***Huguette Clark seems to have had a very sad life despite all that money.***
I suspect you are correct - but then, do we really know how she spent her time (before radio, TV and the internet)?
Wish I could remember the FReeper who thought Elin Nordegren didn’t deserve millions in her divorce from TWoods. Thankfully, Elin has her family, children and perhaps a professional life which will be far more valuable than money.
Thank you for reminding us.
Huguette's great wealth drew attention to her from newspapers of the day. This 1928 cartoon portrays "A Day in the Life of Little Huguette Clark." (International Feature Service, Inc.)
Sorta like Paris Hilton then?
Photographic styles have certainly changed. In old time photos, people seldom were seen smiling. None of the photos in the above posts evidence that Huguette was ever very happy. She was probably emotionally abused from the outset.
Bump
In 95% of photos, people looked like they were walking up the stairs to the Guillotine. What was up with that? Bad attitudes or bad teeth?
Clark made his greatest fortune in the Southwest. His United Verde copper mine, in Jerome, Ariz., yielded a profit of $400,000 a month, or in today's dollars, $10 million a month. The trading post of Las Vegas was a stop on his rail line. Here he speaks to a crowd in Las Vegas from his Pullman car in 1905. Las Vegas today is in Clark County, named for him.
Euuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuw.
Mark Twain's words are immortal. Things haven't changed much in the political world over the years.
Photographic emulsions of the day were very slow.
The subject had to hold a pose for several seconds or the picture was smeared.
Hard to hold a smile that long.
In 95% of photos, people looked like they were walking up the stairs to the Guillotine. What was up with that? Bad attitudes or bad teeth?
The phenomenon you describe was due to several different but interrelated factors:
1. Photographic technology (long exposure times requiring absolute stillness of the subjects).
2. In the days before cheap, instant photos, digital photography, etc., being photographed was a rare and hence serious business. Nowadays, a photographer can take twenty shots or more, and discard all but the best.
3. Sociological: It may have simply been considered more proper to present a composed, sedate demeanor and a stern facial expression, such as one might present in, e.g., church. Also, especially scions of the Upper Class - back then - may have been exhorted by their elders to act in a dignified manner.
4. Bad teeth, etc.
Regards,
Were I suddenly transported back 100 years, once I got over the amazement, I'd soon be frowning as I tried getting by without some of the basics that enable todays poor to live in better comfort that even the wealthiest of 100 years ago.
Clark's men tried one more audacity: On the day he resigned, they tricked the governor into traveling outside Montana. His lieutenant filled the vacancy — with Clark! When the governor returned, again Clark was out. Finally, he was elected in 1901. Though he retired after one term, for the rest of his life he insisted on being "Senator Clark."
As in available for adoption. What were you thinking?
Bet she ‘dies’ this year. No Federal inheritance taxes.
People of influence and their families adopted a grave manner in public, lending to their gravitas.
Neither did they crack knuckles or jokes according to my manual “How To Be A Man” published in 1911.
The reporter avers that he was a “rapacious, hated mining magnate”, but what exactly did he do wrong?
I used to rent an apartment in the same building as a 90-something woman. She was a NYC socialite in the 20’s and she her husband were personal friends of General Marshall. Once per week I used to love to just sip bourbon and listen to her tell me about those days. She had photo albums galore.
Sadly, her family had relocated her to the apartment to get her closer than her 40 acre country estate. They came once a month and the woman was terribly lonely. I moved away a couple of months after meeting her.
Today, with the perspective of ten more years, I often think about this woman who died earlier this year. What an amazing wealth of history the old ones are, as you said.
Clark's wife was rarely seen in public. He wrote of Anna, "Mrs. Clark did not care for social distinction, nor the obligations that would entail upon my public life." In 1912, former Senator Clark, 73, and Anna, 34, walked in the Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue with Andrée, 9. Huguette, not pictured, was just 5, starting her collection of dolls from France.
From the link.
“Twain didn't mention that one of Clark's Montana opponents, Henry Huttleston Rogers, had rescued Twain from bankruptcy. Rogers and Standard Oil cronies set up the Amalgamated Copper Company, which defrauded shareholders. As an insider, Twain profited from the Amalgamated deal. Twain cast his essay as if he was offended by having to listen to Clark drone on at a banquet, but his wallet may have been talking. Twain and co-author Charles Dudley Warner coined the term “the Gilded Age” in their 1873 book by that name.”
I have absolutely no respect for people whose only accomplishment is being born.
There was a big scandal [payola] about his ascent to office as senator; Bettering the condition of others wasn't his concern. Clark cut timber on federal land, and he benefited from Arizona's "deportations" of union men who were kidnapped and driven out of state. Criticized for the sulfurous smoke and denuded landscape from his mines, he said, "Those who succeed us can well take care of themselves."
"Robber barons," some historians call the tycoons of that era. Others prefer "industrial statesmen." Unlike Carnegie or Rockefeller, Clark left little charity, only corruption and extravagance.
"Life was good to William A. Clark," wrote historian Michael Malone, "but due to his own excesses, history has been unkind."
Credit: William Merritt Chase, 1915, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington
Huguette Clark in France, "Le Sénateur Qui Aimait La France," 2005 [sic], André Baeyens
That's because they were instructed to do so by the photographers. The exposures were several seconds long and the subjects had to hold perfectly still the whole time. It is essentially impossible to hold a natural-appearing smile for that long.
Clarkdale, Arizona, and Clark County, Nevada were named for this woman’s father. He was supposedly a real rogue, the very picture of a Gilded Age robber baron.
Thank goodness for that.
The Clark family traveled often to Paris. A ship's registry from 1914 sets birthdates for the family: William Andrews Clark, age 75, Connellsville, Pa., Jan. 8, 1839; Anna E., age 36, Calumet, Mich., March 10, 1878; Andrée, age 12, Spain, Aug. 13, 1902; and Huguette, age 8, Paris, June 9, 1906. At home, they had 10 servants and a French chef.
Huguette Clark with one of her prized dolls around 1910. Doll collecting became a lifelong passion for the reclusive heiress. (William Andrews Clark Memorial Library)
Well, I suppose it would be nice to be rich based on somebody else’s efforts and then disburse some of one’s wealth to charity. I would be more impressed with someone who works hard and accumulates a lot of money and then gives just about all of it away.
I note that the lady has more than one house. If she were a true “humanitarian” she would sell just about everything (including all bur one house) and give the proceeds away.
As I said, I’m not impressed by a standard-issue heiress.
*Now her 12,766-square-foot home, with 52 wooded acres, is for sale for $24 million, marked down from $34 million. Taxes are $161,000 a year.*
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