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Daddy's Duchess
Offering an incisive look into the secret world of the rich and famous, this unauthorized biography of Doris Duke from her shy but determined childhood to her present status as a strong-willed, determined, and incredibly wealthy woman
8 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 20, 2021
Having just finished Sallie Bingham’s The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke, I returned to this book written by 2 former employees in 1987. While it is a short 200 pages, I didn’t finish it 20 years ago and couldn’t finish it now.
Patrick Mahn was hired in the mid-80’s to put Duke’s finances on a computer. The task was large and he concluded that when you add up the portfolio of stocks, bonds etc., actual gold stored in Switzerland, the market value of her homes and art collections, she was the richest person in the world. (Upon her death in 1993 her estate was valued at $5.3 billion).
Mahn and his co-writer Tom Valentine could have made a credible book if they stuck with the finances. After detail on how rich she was in the 1980’s the hatchet job begins. While there are surely credible stories here (there is plenty of other documentation on how poorly Duke treated people) these authors go overboard in sympathy of her alleged victims. It is hard to make the case that her first husband was somehow abused by her. His $10,000 per month allowance from her (in the 1940s) was not enough. He dug her gold and after two years of marriage kept litigating to get more.
Her father is portrayed in negative terms. There is no mention of his philanthropy inclusive of Black churches and health services - the authors tell of his divorce where he left his (clearly cheating) wife without support. There are pages on Rubi Rubirosa that seem to be designed for guilt by association. The collection of art from Islamic countries is damned (or is it sneered at) through the several pages of quotes from a Vogue magazine article. The Kahanamoku brothers are not surfing or ukulele instructors but procurers of men for orgies.
The writing is poor, often substituting the text of legal documents in lieu of explaining what happened. I got as far as the Jimmy Castro story which is a word salad. Other than the Duke and Castro being totally zonked on drugs, I couldn't put together the meaning of what the authors were saying. For instance, RE the proposed ownership of Falcon’s Lair – are the authors implying that Duke reneged on a deal to give Castro half ownership for piano lessons? This is where I quit.
The book stands as an example of Sallie Bingham’s point. Through the haze of sexism and sensationalism we have not come to know or understand this important philanthropist.
Patrick Mahn was hired in the mid-80’s to put Duke’s finances on a computer. The task was large and he concluded that when you add up the portfolio of stocks, bonds etc., actual gold stored in Switzerland, the market value of her homes and art collections, she was the richest person in the world. (Upon her death in 1993 her estate was valued at $5.3 billion).
Mahn and his co-writer Tom Valentine could have made a credible book if they stuck with the finances. After detail on how rich she was in the 1980’s the hatchet job begins. While there are surely credible stories here (there is plenty of other documentation on how poorly Duke treated people) these authors go overboard in sympathy of her alleged victims. It is hard to make the case that her first husband was somehow abused by her. His $10,000 per month allowance from her (in the 1940s) was not enough. He dug her gold and after two years of marriage kept litigating to get more.
Her father is portrayed in negative terms. There is no mention of his philanthropy inclusive of Black churches and health services - the authors tell of his divorce where he left his (clearly cheating) wife without support. There are pages on Rubi Rubirosa that seem to be designed for guilt by association. The collection of art from Islamic countries is damned (or is it sneered at) through the several pages of quotes from a Vogue magazine article. The Kahanamoku brothers are not surfing or ukulele instructors but procurers of men for orgies.
The writing is poor, often substituting the text of legal documents in lieu of explaining what happened. I got as far as the Jimmy Castro story which is a word salad. Other than the Duke and Castro being totally zonked on drugs, I couldn't put together the meaning of what the authors were saying. For instance, RE the proposed ownership of Falcon’s Lair – are the authors implying that Duke reneged on a deal to give Castro half ownership for piano lessons? This is where I quit.
The book stands as an example of Sallie Bingham’s point. Through the haze of sexism and sensationalism we have not come to know or understand this important philanthropist.
May 4, 2025
I was loaned this book to read by the author back in the late 80's. He was a regular at the convenience store I worked at, an interesting guy, and he came in for coffee every day. It's been over 35 years since I read it, but I thought it was an interesting book. Like any book of this type, it can have a bit of a documentary effect in that you are only offered the author's point of view, and so you have no idea of the truth of the claims because you don't have the ability to verify them. That being said, it was an interesting read, and from what I remember the claims of Doris' alleged oddities would be consistent with too much money and too much free time to fill, leading to "questionable life choices" (a human condition we all have). Worth a read, I'd like to read it again if I could find it in digital form at an affordable price.
March 9, 2016
Really poor writing, really poor investigation, horrible insertion of author's views and opinions.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews