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The Phantom of Fifth Avenue: The Mysterious Life and Scandalous Death of Heiress Huguette Clark
Born in 1906, Huguette Clark grew up in her family's 121-room Beaux Arts mansion in New York and was one of the leading celebrities of her day. Her father, William Andrews Clark, was a copper magnate, the second richest man in America, and not above bribing his way into the Senate.
Huguette attended the coronation of King George V. And at twenty-two, with a personal fortune of $50 million to her name, she married a Princeton man and childhood friend, William MacDonald Gower. Two years later the couple divorced. After a series of failed romances, Huguette began to withdraw from society--first living with her mother in a kind of Grey Gardens isolation then as a modern-day Miss Havisham, spending her days in a vast apartment overlooking Central Park, eating crackers and watching The Flintstones with only servants for company.
All her money and all her real estate could not protect her in her later life from being manipulated by shady hangers-on and hospitals that were only too happy to admit (and bill) a healthy woman. But what happened to Huguette that turned a vivacious young socialite into a recluse? And what was her life like inside that gilded, copper cage?
Huguette attended the coronation of King George V. And at twenty-two, with a personal fortune of $50 million to her name, she married a Princeton man and childhood friend, William MacDonald Gower. Two years later the couple divorced. After a series of failed romances, Huguette began to withdraw from society--first living with her mother in a kind of Grey Gardens isolation then as a modern-day Miss Havisham, spending her days in a vast apartment overlooking Central Park, eating crackers and watching The Flintstones with only servants for company.
All her money and all her real estate could not protect her in her later life from being manipulated by shady hangers-on and hospitals that were only too happy to admit (and bill) a healthy woman. But what happened to Huguette that turned a vivacious young socialite into a recluse? And what was her life like inside that gilded, copper cage?
377 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
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January 7, 2019
Jar Pick #1
I first heard about Huguette Clark few years ago on NPR. They were talking to or about the author of the fantastic book Empty Mansions. The story seemed stranger the fiction. A 100 year old heiress who was worth at least $300 million and who had mansions all over the country had spent the last 20 years living in a hospital room at Beth Israel Hospital by choice.
I read Empty Mansions and loved it but I still wanted to know more. Empty Mansions was mostly about the mansions, art work and money. It didn't really dig into the life of Huguette Clark. So I was extremely excited when on a casual stroll through Joseph Beth Books I came across this book. The Phantom of Fifth Avenue not only covers the life and scandalous death of Ms. Clark but it tells the story of how her father Senator William Andrews Clark became one the richest men in the world. While the names Rockefeller, Morgan, and Astor are legendary today, in the 1920's the Clark name was just as famous.
The book was so good but it also made me extremely sad. Huguette Clark is the definition of Money Can't Buy You Happiness. As the late great philosopher Christopher Wallace once said Mo Money Mo Problems. Huguette grow up knowing that people would only want her for her money and 9x out of 10 that was exactly what happened. I wish Huguette had underwent a psychological evaluation because I would love to know why she was the way she was. She got married and seemed to love him but never consummated the married because "sex is unlady like". She seemed to be obsessed with death but also terrified of living. She seemed to me like someone who may have been on the autism spectrum. She was highly intelligent and was a great artist but she also seemed to the people around her to be extremely childlike.
Huguette's life was a weird but sad life. I don't think anyone except her mother ever loved her. To everyone else she was just $$$. No wonder she chose to simply lock herself away from the world but even then she was surrounded by greedy lowlifes.
Meryl Gordon wrote a spectatular book about the downside of extreme wealth.
I first heard about Huguette Clark few years ago on NPR. They were talking to or about the author of the fantastic book Empty Mansions. The story seemed stranger the fiction. A 100 year old heiress who was worth at least $300 million and who had mansions all over the country had spent the last 20 years living in a hospital room at Beth Israel Hospital by choice.
I read Empty Mansions and loved it but I still wanted to know more. Empty Mansions was mostly about the mansions, art work and money. It didn't really dig into the life of Huguette Clark. So I was extremely excited when on a casual stroll through Joseph Beth Books I came across this book. The Phantom of Fifth Avenue not only covers the life and scandalous death of Ms. Clark but it tells the story of how her father Senator William Andrews Clark became one the richest men in the world. While the names Rockefeller, Morgan, and Astor are legendary today, in the 1920's the Clark name was just as famous.
The book was so good but it also made me extremely sad. Huguette Clark is the definition of Money Can't Buy You Happiness. As the late great philosopher Christopher Wallace once said Mo Money Mo Problems. Huguette grow up knowing that people would only want her for her money and 9x out of 10 that was exactly what happened. I wish Huguette had underwent a psychological evaluation because I would love to know why she was the way she was. She got married and seemed to love him but never consummated the married because "sex is unlady like". She seemed to be obsessed with death but also terrified of living. She seemed to me like someone who may have been on the autism spectrum. She was highly intelligent and was a great artist but she also seemed to the people around her to be extremely childlike.
Huguette's life was a weird but sad life. I don't think anyone except her mother ever loved her. To everyone else she was just $$$. No wonder she chose to simply lock herself away from the world but even then she was surrounded by greedy lowlifes.
Meryl Gordon wrote a spectatular book about the downside of extreme wealth.
August 8, 2014
Okay, this is my second book on Hugette Clark that I read this month. I like this one better - if focuses more on Hugette and less on her family and her homes. And best of all, it's written after the lawsuit over the will was settled, so you find out who got all the money (besides the lawyers, who got $40,000,000 in fees just to get to the settlement). She sounds like a fascinating character.
I "celebrated" finiahing the book by going to the Corcoran Art Gallery here in D.C. (where I'm visiting my Mom). That's where this book starts, and where Hugette's father's art collection was donated in 1926. The Walter Andrew Clark Collection, in the Walter Andrew Clark wing, is still pretty amazing, but the best part is the restored Salon Dore, where Hugette and her sister Amadee used to play, when it was in Senator Clark's New York Mansion.
I was thinking I was done with Hugette, but there's a tell all biography from the 1950's "The Clarks of Montana" written in 1939 by the manager of Senator Clark's copper mine. If I can find a copy of that, I'll have to read it as well.
I "celebrated" finiahing the book by going to the Corcoran Art Gallery here in D.C. (where I'm visiting my Mom). That's where this book starts, and where Hugette's father's art collection was donated in 1926. The Walter Andrew Clark Collection, in the Walter Andrew Clark wing, is still pretty amazing, but the best part is the restored Salon Dore, where Hugette and her sister Amadee used to play, when it was in Senator Clark's New York Mansion.
I was thinking I was done with Hugette, but there's a tell all biography from the 1950's "The Clarks of Montana" written in 1939 by the manager of Senator Clark's copper mine. If I can find a copy of that, I'll have to read it as well.
May 23, 2019
This book is about Huguette Clark(1906-2011). Why in 1991 did she leave her three mansions, move into a hospital and never return home again? More than twenty years living in a hospital….by her own freewill! Yes, hospital care was needed initially, but not later. Why had she become a recluse?
Huguette was the last living child of the patriarch William Andrews Clark (1839-1925) - robber baron, senator and the second wealthiest American at the beginning of the 20th Century, surpassed in wealth only by John D. Rockefeller! She loved her father (and absolutely adored her mother), but there were few others that did. Here is how Mark Twain depicts her father:
He is as rotten a human being as can be found anywhere under the flag; he is a shame to the American nation, and no one has helped to send him to the Senate who did not know that his proper place was the penitentiary, with a ball and chain on his legs. To my mind he is the most disgusting creature that the republic has produced since Tweed's time.[*
Besides trying to understand Huguette’s behavior, the book’s central theme is the contestation of her wills. I chose this book over Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman; both deal with exactly the same topic. I chose Gordon’s book after speaking with readers who have read both. All agreed that Meryl Gordon’s gives a deeper portrait of Huguette Clark. I was more interested in understanding what was going on in her head than getting details of all that she owned and who got what after her death. I would have been bored by even more extensive information of her possessions. There were plenty here!
The world of the most wealthy is not something that particularly attracts me. This influences my rating, even if it is not a criticism of the book itself.
The book details her parents’ lives and then Huguette’s entire life, not merely her many years of residence at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan, as well as the complicated legal dispute concerning her wills and the subsequent division of her estate.
I was puzzled to hear of a woman who chose of her own accord to make her permanent residence a room in a hospital. This is what drew me to the book. Who would choose such a life? Actually, given the facts her choice wasn’t all that illogical to me. . Are you curious too? Well, read the book. My short explanation is not adequate.
I do have some problems with the book. It begins near the end of Huguette Clark’s life. She has a very large family, the reader is thrown into the midst of a multitude of relatives – half-sisters and cousins and siblings and aunts and uncles and spouses. It is extremely difficult to grasp exactly who is who. After the first confusion, the book goes back and starts at the beginning, moving forward chronologically. I would have preferred the book simply started at the beginning. Let me repeat, you need to keep track of who is who. I believe the written book has a name chart. You can also get this at Wiki.
I have another complaint. I am left not thoroughly understanding why Huguette began refusing to see her earlier friends, relatives and acquaintances. Originally, being the daughter of the patriarch’s, second wife, both she and her mother were disliked by the family and children of the first wife. This is easy to understand. However with time they all came to accept each other…more or less. Some became real friends. Suddenly this all changes. It is this change that remains a mystery to me. Huguette’s mother died, and she , but it seems to me some incident must have brought about the radical change in her behavior. I wish the author had provided a more in-depth analysis of possible psychological causes. Bring in the psychological experts, please. Yet this does not prevent the author from seeking additional expertise from psychologists. I wished to hear their views.
The audiobook’s narration by Bernadette Dunne is clear, but too fast. There are so many people. You must be prepared to rewind. Get a list of who is who in the family. I recommend choosing the paper format.
If this book is the one to best explain Huguette’s personality, then I certainly would be less satisfied with the other. I wanted even more from this.
*Source: Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William...
Huguette was the last living child of the patriarch William Andrews Clark (1839-1925) - robber baron, senator and the second wealthiest American at the beginning of the 20th Century, surpassed in wealth only by John D. Rockefeller! She loved her father (and absolutely adored her mother), but there were few others that did. Here is how Mark Twain depicts her father:
He is as rotten a human being as can be found anywhere under the flag; he is a shame to the American nation, and no one has helped to send him to the Senate who did not know that his proper place was the penitentiary, with a ball and chain on his legs. To my mind he is the most disgusting creature that the republic has produced since Tweed's time.[*
Besides trying to understand Huguette’s behavior, the book’s central theme is the contestation of her wills. I chose this book over Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman; both deal with exactly the same topic. I chose Gordon’s book after speaking with readers who have read both. All agreed that Meryl Gordon’s gives a deeper portrait of Huguette Clark. I was more interested in understanding what was going on in her head than getting details of all that she owned and who got what after her death. I would have been bored by even more extensive information of her possessions. There were plenty here!
The world of the most wealthy is not something that particularly attracts me. This influences my rating, even if it is not a criticism of the book itself.
The book details her parents’ lives and then Huguette’s entire life, not merely her many years of residence at Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan, as well as the complicated legal dispute concerning her wills and the subsequent division of her estate.
I was puzzled to hear of a woman who chose of her own accord to make her permanent residence a room in a hospital. This is what drew me to the book. Who would choose such a life? Actually, given the facts her choice wasn’t all that illogical to me. . Are you curious too? Well, read the book. My short explanation is not adequate.
I do have some problems with the book. It begins near the end of Huguette Clark’s life. She has a very large family, the reader is thrown into the midst of a multitude of relatives – half-sisters and cousins and siblings and aunts and uncles and spouses. It is extremely difficult to grasp exactly who is who. After the first confusion, the book goes back and starts at the beginning, moving forward chronologically. I would have preferred the book simply started at the beginning. Let me repeat, you need to keep track of who is who. I believe the written book has a name chart. You can also get this at Wiki.
I have another complaint. I am left not thoroughly understanding why Huguette began refusing to see her earlier friends, relatives and acquaintances. Originally, being the daughter of the patriarch’s, second wife, both she and her mother were disliked by the family and children of the first wife. This is easy to understand. However with time they all came to accept each other…more or less. Some became real friends. Suddenly this all changes. It is this change that remains a mystery to me. Huguette’s mother died, and she , but it seems to me some incident must have brought about the radical change in her behavior. I wish the author had provided a more in-depth analysis of possible psychological causes. Bring in the psychological experts, please. Yet this does not prevent the author from seeking additional expertise from psychologists. I wished to hear their views.
The audiobook’s narration by Bernadette Dunne is clear, but too fast. There are so many people. You must be prepared to rewind. Get a list of who is who in the family. I recommend choosing the paper format.
If this book is the one to best explain Huguette’s personality, then I certainly would be less satisfied with the other. I wanted even more from this.
*Source: Wiki - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William...
February 11, 2025
Ok, I have to admit it, I stopped reading this at 77%. Not because the book was bad, but because the last bit of it is a train wreck to which I refuse to subject myself. My heart bleeds for Huguette Clark. She's an actual "poor little rich girl", but the vultures circling her for the decades before she died give her a sympathetic pathos.
The woman had many psychosis, she seemed afraid to go outside of wherever she happened to be living and lived in her own little world, populated by the aforementioned vultures who circled her and ripped off what they could before she died and then encouraged her to leave them more when she did die. She was terrified of abandonment, so once those close to her entrenched themselves firmly into her daily routine, they would threaten her with leaving so they would receive more from her.
It's sad, it's sick and it completely overshadows the rest of the book, which was interesting and informative. It's no secret, I will NEVER have money like they did. So seeing how the top .05% lives/lived is fascinating to me.
My biggest gripe with the book is the lack of pictures. I did skip to the end of the book to see if there were any pictures and there were, but only a few. I don't know if the author was unable to get the rights to the pictures or what, but it was kind of weird to read a description of the pictures and not to actually see the pictures themselves.
This wasn't a bad book, I enjoyed it, but I was too emotionally invested in Huguette and how badly she was manipulated for her money. It's sad, her father warned her when she was a teenager that people wouldn't love her for her, but for her money. He was right. She didn't seem to catch that lesson.
I didn't know anything about Huguette Clark or her family. I did hear about the scandal involving her will being contested by her family, but didn't pay much attention to it at the time. Rich people's problems are very far from what I have as problems, so I ignored it. So I learned a lot about not just the Clark family, but also about the time period they lived in. This was a good book, but it was a bit too much for me at the end.
My thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.
The woman had many psychosis, she seemed afraid to go outside of wherever she happened to be living and lived in her own little world, populated by the aforementioned vultures who circled her and ripped off what they could before she died and then encouraged her to leave them more when she did die. She was terrified of abandonment, so once those close to her entrenched themselves firmly into her daily routine, they would threaten her with leaving so they would receive more from her.
It's sad, it's sick and it completely overshadows the rest of the book, which was interesting and informative. It's no secret, I will NEVER have money like they did. So seeing how the top .05% lives/lived is fascinating to me.
My biggest gripe with the book is the lack of pictures. I did skip to the end of the book to see if there were any pictures and there were, but only a few. I don't know if the author was unable to get the rights to the pictures or what, but it was kind of weird to read a description of the pictures and not to actually see the pictures themselves.
This wasn't a bad book, I enjoyed it, but I was too emotionally invested in Huguette and how badly she was manipulated for her money. It's sad, her father warned her when she was a teenager that people wouldn't love her for her, but for her money. He was right. She didn't seem to catch that lesson.
I didn't know anything about Huguette Clark or her family. I did hear about the scandal involving her will being contested by her family, but didn't pay much attention to it at the time. Rich people's problems are very far from what I have as problems, so I ignored it. So I learned a lot about not just the Clark family, but also about the time period they lived in. This was a good book, but it was a bit too much for me at the end.
My thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 21, 2016
About a year maybe two ago I read Empty Mansions, which sparked my interest in Huguette Clark. This book is far more interesting and better written.
Huguette was a victim of upbringing. When your elderly father point-blank tells you that no one will love you for yourself, only for your money, you know your life will not be pretty. She was sheltered and pampered. She had no realistic expectations of adulthood, including what it means to consummate a marriage, which led to an abrupt divorce. She was obsessed with dolls her entire life, refusing to grow up, and was obsessed with her mother, to the point that nothing could be changed inside any of her properties after Anna's death.
As Huguette grew older, her isolation intensified. She refused to accept visitors and would not meet with contractors and avoided servants. She enjoyed speaking on the telephone, so she did have contact with the outside world, and she continued to graciously fund family and friends' expenditures.
With all of her quirks she was still a highly intelligent woman. She taught herself the skill of animation and was a highly rated artist who showed at the Corcoran. She collected Japanese items, which triggered an FBI investigation during WWII. She invented advanced games of solitaire.
The tragedy of her life is the advantage taken by her caregivers before she died. Once Huguette admitted to the hospital for the treatment of skin cancer, she never left. She hired private nurses and go-fers paying them bonuses and writing high dollar checks as gifts. Her lawyer and accountant neglected to pay her taxes. Doctors pressured her to donate to the hospital or lend them money, never paying it back.
Thankfully her distant relatives intervened after her death. Some may have been gold diggers, but I think some of them were truly looking out for her best interests.
I really rate this book a 3.5. It introduced ground not discussed in Empty Mansions, and focused more on Huguette's state of mind.
Huguette was a victim of upbringing. When your elderly father point-blank tells you that no one will love you for yourself, only for your money, you know your life will not be pretty. She was sheltered and pampered. She had no realistic expectations of adulthood, including what it means to consummate a marriage, which led to an abrupt divorce. She was obsessed with dolls her entire life, refusing to grow up, and was obsessed with her mother, to the point that nothing could be changed inside any of her properties after Anna's death.
As Huguette grew older, her isolation intensified. She refused to accept visitors and would not meet with contractors and avoided servants. She enjoyed speaking on the telephone, so she did have contact with the outside world, and she continued to graciously fund family and friends' expenditures.
With all of her quirks she was still a highly intelligent woman. She taught herself the skill of animation and was a highly rated artist who showed at the Corcoran. She collected Japanese items, which triggered an FBI investigation during WWII. She invented advanced games of solitaire.
The tragedy of her life is the advantage taken by her caregivers before she died. Once Huguette admitted to the hospital for the treatment of skin cancer, she never left. She hired private nurses and go-fers paying them bonuses and writing high dollar checks as gifts. Her lawyer and accountant neglected to pay her taxes. Doctors pressured her to donate to the hospital or lend them money, never paying it back.
Thankfully her distant relatives intervened after her death. Some may have been gold diggers, but I think some of them were truly looking out for her best interests.
I really rate this book a 3.5. It introduced ground not discussed in Empty Mansions, and focused more on Huguette's state of mind.
March 21, 2017
Everyone except Wanda and Chris are terrible people. No one cared about Huguette, they only cared about the money. Very engaging story, well-written. Full review to come.
+++++
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Rating: 4 Stars
Basically this book shows you that everything you think is probably true about people that you wish was not actually true, is true.
Is that a sentence?
At least it makes sense in my head. People are selfish and manipulative and will do whatever they can to cash in on an inheritance that does not belong to them, all under the guise of 'caring for a family member'. What bullshit.
Having first read Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman, I feel like both are well-written and engaging. I don't really recommend one over the other and think that if you are interested in the strange life and sad death of Huguette Clark, you should read both.
This book doesn't just cover the end of Huguette's life when she voluntarily chose to leave her number of homes and live in Beth Israel Hospital. Instead, the author traces Huguette's life from the start - her life in Paris, growing up in Butte, Montana, the family's home in Santa Barbara at Bellosguardo, and the main residence on Fifth Avenue that stood for only eleven years before being torn down after her father's death. By all accounts, Huguette was an active social - albeit shy - young lady who enjoyed the life that her robber baron of a father provided with his copper fortune.
So what changed?
First, Huguette's beloved older sister Andree died of meningitis at 17, when Huguette was only 13. I feel like this was really the point that changed Huguette and her mother. Then her father passed away in 1925 - but not before imparting this gem on his youngest daughter: "No one will love you for who you are. They will love you for your money." It seems like a harsh lesson to have dropped on such a 16 year old, but he was not wrong. As Huguette neared the end of her life, family members from her father's first marriage seemed to come out of the woodwork to get their hands on her inheritance - despite the fact that they had all already received their shares of the family fortune. Not that anyone else in Huguette's life was any better. Her nurse, doctors, the hospital, her lawyer, and accountant - all of these people just wanted her money and it was painfully obvious that the only two people in her life who were not gold diggers were her goddaughter Wanda and her assistant Chris. I get the fact that there was concern about elder abuse, that Huguette might be a hostage of some kind and being coerced into giving her money to those around her. However, her money-grubbing family members had no footing on which to claim they were looking out for her best interests.
There are so many aspects of Huguette's life that are intriguing and tragic and heartbreaking. The whole 'eviction' notice from her father in his will was awful. So, basically Clark spent a ton of money to build this house that everyone said was ugly. I thought it was beautiful, and wish all these old mansions still existed as a testament to this bygone time.
"The public be damned - William Clark was happy with his new home" (page 82). I'd agree with the sentiment.
Huguette and her family lived in the house for only eleven years and then it was demolished to make way for apartment buildings. Huguette and her mother moved into an apartment and slowly but surely withdrew from their once active social lives. They stopped visiting Bellosguardo in the 1950s, but continued to maintain the home at a cost of $1 million per year. Were they just so dependent on one another, or was it more so that Huguette was terrified of losing the last person she loved and cared about, and so they kind of wrapped themselves in this cocoon and never went anywhere or saw anyone because they were so afraid of losing one another? I don't know. And now, after Huguette passing in 2011, we will never have the answers to any of the questions we might have about what made Huguette behave the way she did, make the choices that she did, and ultimately end her days in a hospital as a healthy individual who could have gone home.
In the early 1990s it was discovered that Huguette had skin cancer and she was taken to the hospital, from which she would never leave. This is another issue that will never really be resolved - why would she refuse to go home once she was cancer-free and healthy again? The author contends that while change was difficult for Huguette, once she discovered this new world she could live in and have limited contact with other people on her own terms, she did not want to return to her home.
The problem became that everyone she came in contact with after her arrival and subsequent stay in the hospital, they are wanted her money. It is absolutely disgusting how these people behaved. Huguette's close friend Suzanna helped to hire a full time private nurse named Hadassah, who for many years worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week to be with Huguette at the hospital. So apparently, because Hadassah agreed to Huguette's outrageous terms, she felt entitled to every penny she could get out of her employer? Whether that was the intent or not, that is exactly how she comes across - especially with the issue of this check for $5 million that she felt she was owed because Huguette has promised it. THEN she and her husband had the nerve to be pissed that they did not have the money when they wanted it. It's all just so gross.
If you are in any doubt about how yucky these people were in grubbing for Huguette's money, here are a few gems from the book:
"What Hadassah learned was that if she simply mentioned her problems to Huguette, her wealthy and healthy patient would reach for her checkbook" (page 245).
"The secret of Hadassah's salesmanship was that she never had to directly ask for anything. All she had to do was discuss her concerns over the high cost of private school (and the college) for her three children; Huguette began paying not only the tuition bills but the cost of after school activities" (page 245).
The hospital staffers were no better, from the CEO to her doctors, they all wanted money for the hospital. They were constantly coming up with ways to mention to Huguette that the hospital was in need of donations; one doctor even used his own mother to spend time with Huguette in order to try and get money that way. All of these people were taking advantage of her kindness, and had not done anything to deserve the thousands and thousands of dollars she gave to them. At first they were keen to send her home, but when they realized how much money she was worth, it is pretty clear they wanted her to stay to keep the money coming in.
"The nurse was not alone in seeing dollar signs above Huguette's hospital bed; the administrators and doctors running Beth Israel Hospital wanted their share, too" (page 264). Except, wait, they were not entitled to her money just because. Again, so disgusting.
So many of Huguette's actions I simply do not understand. Perhaps it is because she had so much money her entire life to do whatever she wanted with, that $1 million meant nothing to her? For example, she never took any legal action when she was wronged. Was it really that terrible to have her name in the papers, that she would rather just let the money go than claim was belonged to? At one point, "Even when she was wronged, she refused to sue. Citibank had informed the heiress several years earlier that more than $% million worth of jewelry, including her mother's wedding ring and a magnificent bracelet adorned with sapphires and diamonds, had been pilfered from a custodial account at a bank branch" (page 259). How does this happen? I don't understand. THEN, on top of that, the remaining pieces that had not been stolen had been put into a new safety deposit box, which was 'inadvertantly' listed as abandoned and the rest of the contents sold at auction. These were family pieces that Huguette had thought were safe, and twice she was robbed. But again she did not choose to sue. Instead she accepted a monetary settlement for far less than the pieces had been worth. It's just so sad that all these terrible things kept happening to Huguette and she continued to just grin and bear it.
So, in the end, the book paints a pretty grim picture of a woman who was completely surrounded by vultures. Even so, she continued to spend her time as she wished, creating grand art projects that occupied her time up until the very end. Perhaps she did not mind people constantly asking for money? Perhaps it really meant nothing to her. When her attorneys continually tried to get her to sign a new will (her previous one left her inheritance to her mother), she was reminded time and again that without a new will, the descendents of her half-siblings would get her money. And still she refused to entertain the idea of a new will. It doesn't make it right that they all came after her money anyway, but still.
Anyway, Huguette Clark is a fascinating figure. The people around her will infuriate you with their greed. I would like to think that she was mentally competent to be signing these checks, and that all the money really did mean nothing to her. Above all, I hope she was happy with her choices. Highly recommended.
+++++
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Rating: 4 Stars
Basically this book shows you that everything you think is probably true about people that you wish was not actually true, is true.
Is that a sentence?
At least it makes sense in my head. People are selfish and manipulative and will do whatever they can to cash in on an inheritance that does not belong to them, all under the guise of 'caring for a family member'. What bullshit.
Having first read Empty Mansions by Bill Dedman, I feel like both are well-written and engaging. I don't really recommend one over the other and think that if you are interested in the strange life and sad death of Huguette Clark, you should read both.
This book doesn't just cover the end of Huguette's life when she voluntarily chose to leave her number of homes and live in Beth Israel Hospital. Instead, the author traces Huguette's life from the start - her life in Paris, growing up in Butte, Montana, the family's home in Santa Barbara at Bellosguardo, and the main residence on Fifth Avenue that stood for only eleven years before being torn down after her father's death. By all accounts, Huguette was an active social - albeit shy - young lady who enjoyed the life that her robber baron of a father provided with his copper fortune.
So what changed?
First, Huguette's beloved older sister Andree died of meningitis at 17, when Huguette was only 13. I feel like this was really the point that changed Huguette and her mother. Then her father passed away in 1925 - but not before imparting this gem on his youngest daughter: "No one will love you for who you are. They will love you for your money." It seems like a harsh lesson to have dropped on such a 16 year old, but he was not wrong. As Huguette neared the end of her life, family members from her father's first marriage seemed to come out of the woodwork to get their hands on her inheritance - despite the fact that they had all already received their shares of the family fortune. Not that anyone else in Huguette's life was any better. Her nurse, doctors, the hospital, her lawyer, and accountant - all of these people just wanted her money and it was painfully obvious that the only two people in her life who were not gold diggers were her goddaughter Wanda and her assistant Chris. I get the fact that there was concern about elder abuse, that Huguette might be a hostage of some kind and being coerced into giving her money to those around her. However, her money-grubbing family members had no footing on which to claim they were looking out for her best interests.
There are so many aspects of Huguette's life that are intriguing and tragic and heartbreaking. The whole 'eviction' notice from her father in his will was awful. So, basically Clark spent a ton of money to build this house that everyone said was ugly. I thought it was beautiful, and wish all these old mansions still existed as a testament to this bygone time.
"The public be damned - William Clark was happy with his new home" (page 82). I'd agree with the sentiment.
Huguette and her family lived in the house for only eleven years and then it was demolished to make way for apartment buildings. Huguette and her mother moved into an apartment and slowly but surely withdrew from their once active social lives. They stopped visiting Bellosguardo in the 1950s, but continued to maintain the home at a cost of $1 million per year. Were they just so dependent on one another, or was it more so that Huguette was terrified of losing the last person she loved and cared about, and so they kind of wrapped themselves in this cocoon and never went anywhere or saw anyone because they were so afraid of losing one another? I don't know. And now, after Huguette passing in 2011, we will never have the answers to any of the questions we might have about what made Huguette behave the way she did, make the choices that she did, and ultimately end her days in a hospital as a healthy individual who could have gone home.
In the early 1990s it was discovered that Huguette had skin cancer and she was taken to the hospital, from which she would never leave. This is another issue that will never really be resolved - why would she refuse to go home once she was cancer-free and healthy again? The author contends that while change was difficult for Huguette, once she discovered this new world she could live in and have limited contact with other people on her own terms, she did not want to return to her home.
The problem became that everyone she came in contact with after her arrival and subsequent stay in the hospital, they are wanted her money. It is absolutely disgusting how these people behaved. Huguette's close friend Suzanna helped to hire a full time private nurse named Hadassah, who for many years worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week to be with Huguette at the hospital. So apparently, because Hadassah agreed to Huguette's outrageous terms, she felt entitled to every penny she could get out of her employer? Whether that was the intent or not, that is exactly how she comes across - especially with the issue of this check for $5 million that she felt she was owed because Huguette has promised it. THEN she and her husband had the nerve to be pissed that they did not have the money when they wanted it. It's all just so gross.
If you are in any doubt about how yucky these people were in grubbing for Huguette's money, here are a few gems from the book:
"What Hadassah learned was that if she simply mentioned her problems to Huguette, her wealthy and healthy patient would reach for her checkbook" (page 245).
"The secret of Hadassah's salesmanship was that she never had to directly ask for anything. All she had to do was discuss her concerns over the high cost of private school (and the college) for her three children; Huguette began paying not only the tuition bills but the cost of after school activities" (page 245).
The hospital staffers were no better, from the CEO to her doctors, they all wanted money for the hospital. They were constantly coming up with ways to mention to Huguette that the hospital was in need of donations; one doctor even used his own mother to spend time with Huguette in order to try and get money that way. All of these people were taking advantage of her kindness, and had not done anything to deserve the thousands and thousands of dollars she gave to them. At first they were keen to send her home, but when they realized how much money she was worth, it is pretty clear they wanted her to stay to keep the money coming in.
"The nurse was not alone in seeing dollar signs above Huguette's hospital bed; the administrators and doctors running Beth Israel Hospital wanted their share, too" (page 264). Except, wait, they were not entitled to her money just because. Again, so disgusting.
So many of Huguette's actions I simply do not understand. Perhaps it is because she had so much money her entire life to do whatever she wanted with, that $1 million meant nothing to her? For example, she never took any legal action when she was wronged. Was it really that terrible to have her name in the papers, that she would rather just let the money go than claim was belonged to? At one point, "Even when she was wronged, she refused to sue. Citibank had informed the heiress several years earlier that more than $% million worth of jewelry, including her mother's wedding ring and a magnificent bracelet adorned with sapphires and diamonds, had been pilfered from a custodial account at a bank branch" (page 259). How does this happen? I don't understand. THEN, on top of that, the remaining pieces that had not been stolen had been put into a new safety deposit box, which was 'inadvertantly' listed as abandoned and the rest of the contents sold at auction. These were family pieces that Huguette had thought were safe, and twice she was robbed. But again she did not choose to sue. Instead she accepted a monetary settlement for far less than the pieces had been worth. It's just so sad that all these terrible things kept happening to Huguette and she continued to just grin and bear it.
So, in the end, the book paints a pretty grim picture of a woman who was completely surrounded by vultures. Even so, she continued to spend her time as she wished, creating grand art projects that occupied her time up until the very end. Perhaps she did not mind people constantly asking for money? Perhaps it really meant nothing to her. When her attorneys continually tried to get her to sign a new will (her previous one left her inheritance to her mother), she was reminded time and again that without a new will, the descendents of her half-siblings would get her money. And still she refused to entertain the idea of a new will. It doesn't make it right that they all came after her money anyway, but still.
Anyway, Huguette Clark is a fascinating figure. The people around her will infuriate you with their greed. I would like to think that she was mentally competent to be signing these checks, and that all the money really did mean nothing to her. Above all, I hope she was happy with her choices. Highly recommended.
February 28, 2017
Huguette Clark is probably one of the least known of the great American heiresses for the simple reason that she totally dropped out of sight in early middle age and became a recluse. It was not until it was discovered that she was living in a NYC hospital and had been for many years that the story of her life came to light.
Her father, who was known as the Copper King, made his fortune in mining and Huguette was a product of his second marriage to a young woman who was young enough to be his grandchild. His children from his first marriage became estranged from Huguette and her mother after their father's death. Huguette had been told repeatedly by her father that she would never find real love because men would only want her for her money and it basically ruined her life. She trusted very few people and began to withdraw from society. Soon she would see no one and many of her former friends and relatives had no idea where she was or even if she was alive.
It is a sad tale of what excessive amounts of money can do to some individuals and the ostentatious spending of Huguette was on a grand scale. Of course, when she died at 104 years of age and her will became public, the vultures gathered and the legal battle was joined.
I would have given this interesting book a higher rating except that the author spent too time describing the furnishings, jewelry, art work, and homes that Huguette owned. Otherwise, it is a good read.
Her father, who was known as the Copper King, made his fortune in mining and Huguette was a product of his second marriage to a young woman who was young enough to be his grandchild. His children from his first marriage became estranged from Huguette and her mother after their father's death. Huguette had been told repeatedly by her father that she would never find real love because men would only want her for her money and it basically ruined her life. She trusted very few people and began to withdraw from society. Soon she would see no one and many of her former friends and relatives had no idea where she was or even if she was alive.
It is a sad tale of what excessive amounts of money can do to some individuals and the ostentatious spending of Huguette was on a grand scale. Of course, when she died at 104 years of age and her will became public, the vultures gathered and the legal battle was joined.
I would have given this interesting book a higher rating except that the author spent too time describing the furnishings, jewelry, art work, and homes that Huguette owned. Otherwise, it is a good read.
July 3, 2015
Meet Heguette Clark, daughter of the mega rich copper baron senator Clark, heiress to his ridiculous fortune, NY socialite turned eccentric recluse.
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Her story, which has captured the public's imagination in the past decade, just proves that the truth is stranger than fiction, you can get your way if you throw money at a problem and people will bend to your will to get that ca$h money.
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But in the end those dirty greedy bastards will do anything to to get their dirty paws on anything including your silky draws (and not even with you in them...).
If ever there was a book that should make you celebrate that you're broke, this is it...
Her story, which has captured the public's imagination in the past decade, just proves that the truth is stranger than fiction, you can get your way if you throw money at a problem and people will bend to your will to get that ca$h money.
But in the end those dirty greedy bastards will do anything to to get their dirty paws on anything including your silky draws (and not even with you in them...).
If ever there was a book that should make you celebrate that you're broke, this is it...
June 12, 2014
Initially fascinated by the potential of this biography: a wealthy heiress ends up a recluse living in a standard hospital room for over 20 years at the end of her long and ultimately uneventful life...Sound good right? All I can say is that the story is as boring as Huguette Clark's life ended up. Repeat: BORING!! Maybe it's the material the author had to work with but her writing style, her use of uninteresting quotes and letters, her detail with minutia, ie the constant naming of all the travel companions and entourage, ugh!
I ended up with little insight and just flipping through the pages wondering when it would pick up. It never did. Again, not sure if there just wasn't enough there in the source material or if in the hands of a more engaging author, Huguette's life would have ultimately come alive but as it is, if you need a book to put you to SLEEP, then go for it, otherwise, keep looking.
I ended up with little insight and just flipping through the pages wondering when it would pick up. It never did. Again, not sure if there just wasn't enough there in the source material or if in the hands of a more engaging author, Huguette's life would have ultimately come alive but as it is, if you need a book to put you to SLEEP, then go for it, otherwise, keep looking.
February 13, 2022
This is a biography of Huguette Clark, a woman who grew up with fabulous wealth, but who’s life was governed by her need for privacy and her expectation that everyone would accede to her wishes. The daughter of William Andrews Clark, who made his vast fortune in copper mining, and his second wife, Anna, Huguette and her older sister, Andree were used to traveling from France, to NYC, Butte, Montana, Hawaii and California and back again. They were never really accepted by W. A. Clark’s children from his first marriage, who were all quite older than they. After her sister and her father died, Huguette and her mother Anna, lived a somewhat nomadic and reclusive life together. Huguette was briefly married when she was younger and she never remarried. Huguette concentrated on her vocation of being an artist, collecting dolls and building doll houses, exploring Japanese culture, and doting on some of her friends children. After her mother died, Huguette became increasingly more reclusive, hiding away in her large Fifth Avenue apartment and refusing to see anyone. A skin cancer diagnosis became the catalyst for Huguette ensconcing herself in a hospital room for 20 years. During that time there were people, especially her private nurse, who took great advantage of Huguette ‘s largess which included writing numerous large checks to people, and giving them houses and cars. Her legal and financial advisors were also complicit in this. For years she refused to sign a will, thinking that she would live forever. She eventually signed 2 wills, 2 months apart, which became the fodder for a huge court battle between the descendants of her father’s first family, whom she hadn’t seen in years, and the beneficiaries of her second will, some of whom had been preying on her for years.
Huguette comes across as naive, willful and spoiled. She really didn’t understand interpersonal relationships, especially with men. She expected everyone to be at her beck and call at all hours. Her private nurse, Hadassah, worked 12 hour days, 365 days a year with no time off for years. She also managed to amass over 30 million dollars from Huguette. Her father once warned her that no one was going to love her for herself; all they wanted was her money. Sadly, in terms of many of the people in her life during her elderly years, this was true. There were some people who truly loved her, but she kept everyone at arms length. She would call or write them, but wouldn’t give them her phone number or let them know she was living in a small hospital room.
Although her death was not scandalous, (she just died of old age at 104), the resulting fight over her estate was, but frankly, if she’d had competent legal and financial counsel, it didn’t have to be.
I finished the book feeding compassion for Huguette, and the constricted and abnormal life she lead. She was the poster child for the truism: money cannot buy happiness.
Huguette comes across as naive, willful and spoiled. She really didn’t understand interpersonal relationships, especially with men. She expected everyone to be at her beck and call at all hours. Her private nurse, Hadassah, worked 12 hour days, 365 days a year with no time off for years. She also managed to amass over 30 million dollars from Huguette. Her father once warned her that no one was going to love her for herself; all they wanted was her money. Sadly, in terms of many of the people in her life during her elderly years, this was true. There were some people who truly loved her, but she kept everyone at arms length. She would call or write them, but wouldn’t give them her phone number or let them know she was living in a small hospital room.
Although her death was not scandalous, (she just died of old age at 104), the resulting fight over her estate was, but frankly, if she’d had competent legal and financial counsel, it didn’t have to be.
I finished the book feeding compassion for Huguette, and the constricted and abnormal life she lead. She was the poster child for the truism: money cannot buy happiness.
July 7, 2016
I wouldn't even rate this one star but that was my only option. Not only did this author do very much research on Butte, but wrote about it like she never even visited it. She has all the facts wrong about the copper king mansion. Huguette never came to Butte after the year of 1917. Huguettte would not come back to Butte because it made her think of her sister Andree (who died in 1919) and her father and made her sad and she never visited again. Anne cotes grandchildren own the home and have written a very good script based on information from the Butte archives. This author seems like she got her information from one sided newspapers and articles bashing on Clark rather than view both opinions on him and his personal life. This author could not even get Anna La Chapelles middle name right. In the book it is Evangelina in reality it is Eugenia. This book bashes on Montana. If you are looking for a book on Huguette Empty Mansions is the way to go. One of the authors of that book is a distant relative of Huguette and interviewed her on various occasions. He also went to the source for his information.
August 16, 2014
When Huguette Clark passed away in 2011, I read a couple of online articles about the controversy over her extensive fortune and her will. I found the story intriguing, therefore, I was excited to read this book, which covers her story in more detail.
The author was very meticulous in her research, culling through family diaries, letters and court documents. That Huguette was basically a horder helped the author by allowing her access to an abundance of correspondence from all time periods of her life upon which to base the book.
The book got a little long, I could've handled a more concise version of the history of Huguette's father, a copper magnate/senator, and also a shorter version of the trial about the will. However, the parts about Huguette's life as a young, middle-aged, and old woman were intensely interesting.
I think the author did a nice job trying to be fair to all involved. Each character had both their positive qualities and faults presented, and the reader is left to make final judgments.
The author was very meticulous in her research, culling through family diaries, letters and court documents. That Huguette was basically a horder helped the author by allowing her access to an abundance of correspondence from all time periods of her life upon which to base the book.
The book got a little long, I could've handled a more concise version of the history of Huguette's father, a copper magnate/senator, and also a shorter version of the trial about the will. However, the parts about Huguette's life as a young, middle-aged, and old woman were intensely interesting.
I think the author did a nice job trying to be fair to all involved. Each character had both their positive qualities and faults presented, and the reader is left to make final judgments.
August 8, 2014
I am glad that I read Empty Mansions before I read this book. This was much more dry than Empty Mansions, but did offer more insight about the Clark family and rounded out the perspective put forth in the first book. If you are going to only read one book about Hugette Clark, read Empty Mansions. However for more insight and perspective, this is a great suppliment.
December 2, 2017
Huguette Clark was the youngest child of "robber baron"* William Andrews Clark, who made his millions off Montana copper mines. He was, at one point, the second richest man in America. How did his daughter end up living the last twenty years of her life in a stark hospital room, refusing to see her living relatives (children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of her much older half-siblings), giving away millions to her day nurse? Was she just an eccentric old lady who shunned the money-grubbing descendents of the people who had once shunned her mother (who was about 50 years younger than her father) or was she manipulated by crooked lawyers, doctors, and nurses?
Ms. Gordon seeks to piece together the story by interviewing everyone involved and reading through all the letters and documents Huguette left behind. It's an interesting tale, but lacks a bit of heart as Huguette was very private and much of the information is secondhand.
*This term was used too many times. Robber baron. Robber baron. Robber baron.
Ms. Gordon seeks to piece together the story by interviewing everyone involved and reading through all the letters and documents Huguette left behind. It's an interesting tale, but lacks a bit of heart as Huguette was very private and much of the information is secondhand.
*This term was used too many times. Robber baron. Robber baron. Robber baron.
October 3, 2014
I read 1/2 and then skim read the rest. Huguette lead a long life, over 104 years. She seemed, to me, not so much a nut case as many made her out to be at all. Rather much more a nearly ordinary woman in super extraordinary circumstances. And also smart enough to use her money to control what she wanted and also to highly protect herself. Which she accomplished, nearly completely.
At least three times during this read I thought to myself a comment she made herself towards the end of the book. "They've already gotten their share, now why do they want mine." Her siblings, half and whole, ALL received what she had received from the Copper King. Because she lived her life within a hospital in Manhattan for 20 years, lived longer than their kids and most of their grand-kids and did not have children- how she USED her money was the difference. Empty mansions and singular living indeed! But that's what she wanted, and her solitary isolation to visitors and inquiry, even from friends, was protection. IMHO, more than her collecting habits (another cited oddity), it was just easier than having to constantly say no.
I think it would be a boring read for most people. But that putting the Art collections and inquiries/complexities for her saving several Musuems (which she did) at the beginning, underlined EXACTLY why she was reclusive.
At least three times during this read I thought to myself a comment she made herself towards the end of the book. "They've already gotten their share, now why do they want mine." Her siblings, half and whole, ALL received what she had received from the Copper King. Because she lived her life within a hospital in Manhattan for 20 years, lived longer than their kids and most of their grand-kids and did not have children- how she USED her money was the difference. Empty mansions and singular living indeed! But that's what she wanted, and her solitary isolation to visitors and inquiry, even from friends, was protection. IMHO, more than her collecting habits (another cited oddity), it was just easier than having to constantly say no.
I think it would be a boring read for most people. But that putting the Art collections and inquiries/complexities for her saving several Musuems (which she did) at the beginning, underlined EXACTLY why she was reclusive.
February 28, 2015
Huguette Clark the recluse heiress who lived in an ordinary hospital room for twenty years was an inveterate writer and keeper of jotted notes on scraps of paper, "One day she made a note to herself: 'My get up and go got up and went.'"
Well done and I think a strong companion to Empty Mansions, and were I to vote between the two, this is the better biography of Huguette Clark. The author's access to hither-to sequestered archival materials as well as her interviews with contemporary players gave her work much greater depth and substance.
Huguette's story is undeniably a troubling and poignant one. That said, it is not clear that she herself was aware that her life was "sad" or pitiable to others. Eccentricity when enhanced with loss and a not unwarranted paranoia certainly seems the perfect medium for a series of otherwise unfathomable life decisions.
I liked this very much and found Gordon's writing style very agreeable. It clipped along nicely and I discovered much about Huguette that was missing in Empty Mansions.
Nuggets, "To be rich is to be narcissistic. To be old is to be narcissistic. Huguette had become narcissism squared."
Well done and I think a strong companion to Empty Mansions, and were I to vote between the two, this is the better biography of Huguette Clark. The author's access to hither-to sequestered archival materials as well as her interviews with contemporary players gave her work much greater depth and substance.
Huguette's story is undeniably a troubling and poignant one. That said, it is not clear that she herself was aware that her life was "sad" or pitiable to others. Eccentricity when enhanced with loss and a not unwarranted paranoia certainly seems the perfect medium for a series of otherwise unfathomable life decisions.
I liked this very much and found Gordon's writing style very agreeable. It clipped along nicely and I discovered much about Huguette that was missing in Empty Mansions.
Nuggets, "To be rich is to be narcissistic. To be old is to be narcissistic. Huguette had become narcissism squared."
February 19, 2018
Part of my fascination with this NYC tale involved my personal connection: the building super of 907 Fifth Avenue was an acquaintance of mine when in May 2011, newspapers carried the story of its famous "resident's" death. Except that the resident, 105 year old Huguette Clark, had not lived in her apartment(s) there since 1991!! Needless to say, Ms. Clark, the mysterious heiress provides for fascinating reading. And thanks to author Meryl Gordon, the story has been diligently researched and descriptively written so as to provide a compelling and worthwhile read. I must also give her kudos for her evenhanded diplomacy in uncovering all sides of this multifaceted, complicated tale and its predictable litigious finale.
March 22, 2021
The story of a “poor little rich girl” who was born during the Gilded Age and more than 100 years later died in the age of the Internet. Interesting.
The mini-biography of Huguette’s robber baron father, William Clark (not the one who went west with Lewis) was actually kind of interesting as were the lives of many of the people she came across. I guess the most interesting thing about Huguette herself was the strange turn the second half of her life took.
I don’t feel bad for her at all. She had the money to live any way she wanted and that’s exactly what she did. Maybe it was a lonely life, but it was also her choice.
The mini-biography of Huguette’s robber baron father, William Clark (not the one who went west with Lewis) was actually kind of interesting as were the lives of many of the people she came across. I guess the most interesting thing about Huguette herself was the strange turn the second half of her life took.
I don’t feel bad for her at all. She had the money to live any way she wanted and that’s exactly what she did. Maybe it was a lonely life, but it was also her choice.
November 1, 2018
Very fascinating!!!
February 7, 2024
i knew a bit (a little bit of a lot) about hugette and those empty mansions but my GOD this biography was bonkers and gripping and deeply sad at times.
April 17, 2017
More reviews available at my blog, Beauty and the Bookworm.
There's something about high-society scandal that's just so intriguing. It's why I like the Luxe series even though it's actually pretty much terrible. It's why shows like Gossip Girl have so many fans, why the Kardashians are so popular. And The Phantom of Fifth Avenue promised to be that, but true: the biography of an heiress who vanished from the public eye and then died in the midst of a scandal. Well, it was really only one of those things, and scandal wasn't really involved.
The heiress in question was Huguette Clark, the daughter of a copper baron and his second, much-younger wife. William Andrews Clark might have been the subject of some scandal in his attempts to earn money and social climb--there were certainly fishy happenings involved in his race for the Senate at one point--but the most scandal Huguette was involved in was probably being born to Anna Clark, who was a much-younger "ward" of sorts of Williams Andrew Clark years after the death of his first wife. Huguette really lived a quiet life, traveling with her mother and sister, practicing violin, painting, and collecting dolls. She got married and divorced once; I guess that could be a scandal, in those times, but it's nothing to write home about for a modern audience. But what did happen with her is that, decades after she disappeared from the public eye and her relatives last heard from her--her relatives being the children and sometimes grandchildren of her half-siblings from her father's first marriage, the half-siblings who always looked down on Huguette and her mother and who, consequently, Huguette didn't want much to do with--those same relatives decided that Huguette was clearly being manipulated and abused, despite not having heard from her, and decided to see what happened to her. That she was over a hundred years old and worth $300 million dollars with a questionably legal will of course had nothing to do with the matter.
Gordon definitely did research for this, quoting newspapers, letters, and even conducting interviews with those involved in the story who had known Huguette, or known the people who knew her. She even got to tell one of the people that they had inherited a decent sum of money from Huguette's estate, having clearly been following the story even more closely than some of those directly involved. But ultimately, Gordon does the same thing that many of the papers did and tries to make a mountain out of a molehill. Most of the book is basically Huguette's biography, which is mildly interesting at best, though slightly envy-inspiring. Seeing her evolving psychology from socialite to recluse was interesting, and I think Gordon did a good job in her analysis on that aspect, but as for the rest... Meh. Huguette didn't die under mysterious circumstances and the only "scandalous" aspect of her death was that she left a significant portion of her $300 million estate to her longtime nurse. A lot of people had a problem with this and threw a fit and the whole thing got dragged into court, as is wont to happen when large amounts of money are up for grabs. Did Huguette's family really want the money for themselves? Maybe they were already individually wealthy, but that's not to say they didn't want more. There certainly seems to be less at the end of the book to indicate that Huguette was being manipulated or abused than Gordon made there out to be at the beginning.
The writing here was fine, but not particularly engaging. After a while of reading, I began to wonder what the point of my reading really was since most of the book was very repetitive. Huguette travels. She paints. She flirts a bit. As she gets older she gives away money in increasingly-large denominations. But honestly I didn't find any of this particularly suspicious or even unbelievable. It doesn't seem worth a 300+ page book, certainly. Overall, this was a book that promised more than it delivered, and wasn't what it promised at all.
2 stars out of 5.
There's something about high-society scandal that's just so intriguing. It's why I like the Luxe series even though it's actually pretty much terrible. It's why shows like Gossip Girl have so many fans, why the Kardashians are so popular. And The Phantom of Fifth Avenue promised to be that, but true: the biography of an heiress who vanished from the public eye and then died in the midst of a scandal. Well, it was really only one of those things, and scandal wasn't really involved.
The heiress in question was Huguette Clark, the daughter of a copper baron and his second, much-younger wife. William Andrews Clark might have been the subject of some scandal in his attempts to earn money and social climb--there were certainly fishy happenings involved in his race for the Senate at one point--but the most scandal Huguette was involved in was probably being born to Anna Clark, who was a much-younger "ward" of sorts of Williams Andrew Clark years after the death of his first wife. Huguette really lived a quiet life, traveling with her mother and sister, practicing violin, painting, and collecting dolls. She got married and divorced once; I guess that could be a scandal, in those times, but it's nothing to write home about for a modern audience. But what did happen with her is that, decades after she disappeared from the public eye and her relatives last heard from her--her relatives being the children and sometimes grandchildren of her half-siblings from her father's first marriage, the half-siblings who always looked down on Huguette and her mother and who, consequently, Huguette didn't want much to do with--those same relatives decided that Huguette was clearly being manipulated and abused, despite not having heard from her, and decided to see what happened to her. That she was over a hundred years old and worth $300 million dollars with a questionably legal will of course had nothing to do with the matter.
Gordon definitely did research for this, quoting newspapers, letters, and even conducting interviews with those involved in the story who had known Huguette, or known the people who knew her. She even got to tell one of the people that they had inherited a decent sum of money from Huguette's estate, having clearly been following the story even more closely than some of those directly involved. But ultimately, Gordon does the same thing that many of the papers did and tries to make a mountain out of a molehill. Most of the book is basically Huguette's biography, which is mildly interesting at best, though slightly envy-inspiring. Seeing her evolving psychology from socialite to recluse was interesting, and I think Gordon did a good job in her analysis on that aspect, but as for the rest... Meh. Huguette didn't die under mysterious circumstances and the only "scandalous" aspect of her death was that she left a significant portion of her $300 million estate to her longtime nurse. A lot of people had a problem with this and threw a fit and the whole thing got dragged into court, as is wont to happen when large amounts of money are up for grabs. Did Huguette's family really want the money for themselves? Maybe they were already individually wealthy, but that's not to say they didn't want more. There certainly seems to be less at the end of the book to indicate that Huguette was being manipulated or abused than Gordon made there out to be at the beginning.
The writing here was fine, but not particularly engaging. After a while of reading, I began to wonder what the point of my reading really was since most of the book was very repetitive. Huguette travels. She paints. She flirts a bit. As she gets older she gives away money in increasingly-large denominations. But honestly I didn't find any of this particularly suspicious or even unbelievable. It doesn't seem worth a 300+ page book, certainly. Overall, this was a book that promised more than it delivered, and wasn't what it promised at all.
2 stars out of 5.
July 26, 2016
Huguette's copper magnate robber baron father, the second richest man in America at the time, told her that no one would ever love her for her but for her money, and while that's a rough thing to tell an insecure young girl he was not entirely wrong....
The Phantom of Fifth Avenue: The Mysterious Life and Scandalous Death of Heiress Huguette Clark by Meryl Gordon covers the long strange life of Huguette Clark, as well as the messy post-death legal battle over her far-flung wealth. Although she traveled often and was athletic and social in her youth, Huguette spent the last decades of her life in utter seclusion in a single room, even though she had people maintain many fabulous estates and apartments in move-in-at-any-time condition. While living in one room in her massive apartments she could have spent time amongst all the amazing Impressionist works and art she had but chose to live in a ratty robe in one room watching cartoons and having the same lunch of sardines and crackers daily, talking to friends and her employees only through doors or on the phone. A door man who worked at her building for 10 years said he never saw or met her. Skin cancer lesions eventually forced her out... and she found the hospital setting with the 24-hour attention of nurses so pleasing that she decided to live in a hospital room for the last 20 years of her life, never leaving, although she was healthy. The hospital let her since she was willing to pay for the privilege. While there, her caretakers and the hospital used her as a piggy bank, wheedling as much money from her as they could in often skeevy ways, although she mostly didn't seem to mind the affection for cash transactions. Her favorite nurse worked 84-hour weeks but also received millions of dollars from her, including a few very expensive apartments, another home.... Huguette seemed content and sharply lucid, but one has to ask whether she had an undiagnosed problem being taken advantage of.
Her estranged family certainly asked that once they started getting involved. The descendants of Huguette's father's first wife had almost no contact with her, mostly on her side since the the children of that first wife had been cold to her and her mother, the young second wife. The author suggests that concern for Huguette's welfare was only part of their interest; they also wanted to protect their potential inheritance. And Huguette's legal counsel and accountant did have some times of what I'd call major negligence.
Also interesting is the narrative of her parents and early life, the whole other lost world of it and not just the "the super rich are different from us" aspects of it.
I do wish there had been photos of some of the things lightly described here, such as the interiors and exteriors of the miniature Japanese castles Huguette designed, the California Bellosguardo estate, and the hoard of lavish treasures she collected, like the old masters paintings and famous centuries-old violins (such as the "La Pucelle" Stradivarius violin). The wealth involved is nearly beyond the dreams of avarice and almost unimaginable... to me at least.
Reading this left me sad though, and not just from thoughts of someone willingly spending decades in a small hospital room, never leaving, surrounded only by the people she paid to stay there (even if part of that was her own choice). The early life section talks of all these past famous people and their dreams and hopes of their importance and posterity... and I wasn't familiar with most of them at all. The things they did often didn't last and aren't remembered. Time obscures.
The Phantom of Fifth Avenue: The Mysterious Life and Scandalous Death of Heiress Huguette Clark by Meryl Gordon covers the long strange life of Huguette Clark, as well as the messy post-death legal battle over her far-flung wealth. Although she traveled often and was athletic and social in her youth, Huguette spent the last decades of her life in utter seclusion in a single room, even though she had people maintain many fabulous estates and apartments in move-in-at-any-time condition. While living in one room in her massive apartments she could have spent time amongst all the amazing Impressionist works and art she had but chose to live in a ratty robe in one room watching cartoons and having the same lunch of sardines and crackers daily, talking to friends and her employees only through doors or on the phone. A door man who worked at her building for 10 years said he never saw or met her. Skin cancer lesions eventually forced her out... and she found the hospital setting with the 24-hour attention of nurses so pleasing that she decided to live in a hospital room for the last 20 years of her life, never leaving, although she was healthy. The hospital let her since she was willing to pay for the privilege. While there, her caretakers and the hospital used her as a piggy bank, wheedling as much money from her as they could in often skeevy ways, although she mostly didn't seem to mind the affection for cash transactions. Her favorite nurse worked 84-hour weeks but also received millions of dollars from her, including a few very expensive apartments, another home.... Huguette seemed content and sharply lucid, but one has to ask whether she had an undiagnosed problem being taken advantage of.
Her estranged family certainly asked that once they started getting involved. The descendants of Huguette's father's first wife had almost no contact with her, mostly on her side since the the children of that first wife had been cold to her and her mother, the young second wife. The author suggests that concern for Huguette's welfare was only part of their interest; they also wanted to protect their potential inheritance. And Huguette's legal counsel and accountant did have some times of what I'd call major negligence.
Also interesting is the narrative of her parents and early life, the whole other lost world of it and not just the "the super rich are different from us" aspects of it.
I do wish there had been photos of some of the things lightly described here, such as the interiors and exteriors of the miniature Japanese castles Huguette designed, the California Bellosguardo estate, and the hoard of lavish treasures she collected, like the old masters paintings and famous centuries-old violins (such as the "La Pucelle" Stradivarius violin). The wealth involved is nearly beyond the dreams of avarice and almost unimaginable... to me at least.
Reading this left me sad though, and not just from thoughts of someone willingly spending decades in a small hospital room, never leaving, surrounded only by the people she paid to stay there (even if part of that was her own choice). The early life section talks of all these past famous people and their dreams and hopes of their importance and posterity... and I wasn't familiar with most of them at all. The things they did often didn't last and aren't remembered. Time obscures.
December 6, 2018
I got very bored with this. She was born rich to a nasty robber baron, lived a life sheltered from all normal experiences, and spent decades as a reclusive hoarder obsessed with dolls and doll houses, stuck in a sad permanent childhood with nothing of importance to do in the world. Sad, but it needed a better, more analytical writer to make it interesting. The writing never rises above the level of a basic magazine feature. Houses are "magnificent," rooms are "luxurious," paintings always "grace the walls." You get the idea. I did a lot of skimming. There are only so many pages of bare facts about her shopping and the menus at her luncheon engagements I can take. And all the family letters--I don't think anyone in this family ever wrote an interesting letter in their life.
December 3, 2015
By reading this book, I learned a lot about a family I'd never heard of. It actually made me glad that I live comfortably and don't have an insane amount of money. How would you ever trust anyone? Huguette Clark enjoyed giving money away, and that would be a great part of being super rich, but even the people she loved and trusted the most grew to EXPECT that money. It was a sad story of a lonely woman and a warning tale to us all.
February 20, 2019
This is a very interesting look at the reclusive Huguette Clark, a wealthy heiress, introvert and hoarder who secluded herself in a hospital room for over 20 years relying on some people who did not always have her best interests in mind and cut off from her relatives whom she did not want to see or contact. On her death, she left a huge estate and a huge problem for the lawyers and the courts to sort out pitting her family against the friends and staff she had given money to.
April 27, 2023
3.5 stars. Incredibly well-researched almost to the point of unnecessary. I applaud the author for all the thorough details but this book felt twice as long as it needed to be. I also am confused why the author detested Haddassah so much.…
June 8, 2019
This is a fascinating story! However, the structure of the book caused some repetitiveness and keeping track of who’s who in the extended Clark family was near-impossible.
June 19, 2014
The Phantom of Fifth Avenue
I really enjoy reading about rich people. I have no idea why. It feels like a character flaw, a guilty pleasure. But I embrace it and regardless it as no worse than someone else watching “Dancing with the Stars”. That confession out of the way, I have to say I really enjoyed this book. The story of Huguette (pronounced u-get) Clark, the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in America, is one of those “wow “books about the wealthy. Meaning every time they mention something like the purchase of an antique doll for $100,000, you say “wow-that is a lot of money!” But poor Huguette isn’t a typical rich girl. Married once and divorced within nine months, it is clear that Huguette never found a satisfactory human relationship. She had friends but their means of communication was always via telephone or letters. In the latter years of her incredibly long life (she died at 104), she spent twenty years living in a hospital room, with nothing really wrong with her. She befriended a nurse who ended up with over $30 million in gifts before Huguette died. Huguette was generous but her generosity extended more to people, not organizations. The most fascinating part of the book (and that which brought the most attention to her life) was the fact that she owned one of the largest private apartments in New York City, an amazing estate in Southern California and a beautiful rural retreat in Connecticut, all of which she had not visited in decades. Yet she continued to keep the properties in “ready to live” condition, meaning every year millions of dollars were being spent to keep up homes where no one lived. She also spent hundreds of thousands commissioning artists to create detailed miniature doll houses, which she lost interest in as soon as they were completed. Again, “wow”.
Typically, as a rich woman with no direct heirs begins her gradual descent towards death, distant relatives begin to surface. The book describes in detail how the heirs challenged her will and ultimately made several lawyers quite wealthy in the process but really ended up with very little themselves. The most interesting person in the book besides Huguette herself was her Filipino nurse Hadassah Peri. The woman worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for 20 years and during that long time managed to accrue over $30 million in gifts (houses, apartments, cars, cash, etc.). Ms. Peri was definitely no fool but you never have the impression that she coerced Huguette into giving her such extravagant gifts. I think the most telling quote about Ms. Clark is when someone thanked her for a gift, she replied “Don’t thank me-thank my father. I never earned a dime of this money”. Did she do great things with her money? No, not really. Did she enjoy it? I think she did because it allowed her to do exactly what she wanted to do. And really, isn’t that the point of having a lot of money?
I really enjoy reading about rich people. I have no idea why. It feels like a character flaw, a guilty pleasure. But I embrace it and regardless it as no worse than someone else watching “Dancing with the Stars”. That confession out of the way, I have to say I really enjoyed this book. The story of Huguette (pronounced u-get) Clark, the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in America, is one of those “wow “books about the wealthy. Meaning every time they mention something like the purchase of an antique doll for $100,000, you say “wow-that is a lot of money!” But poor Huguette isn’t a typical rich girl. Married once and divorced within nine months, it is clear that Huguette never found a satisfactory human relationship. She had friends but their means of communication was always via telephone or letters. In the latter years of her incredibly long life (she died at 104), she spent twenty years living in a hospital room, with nothing really wrong with her. She befriended a nurse who ended up with over $30 million in gifts before Huguette died. Huguette was generous but her generosity extended more to people, not organizations. The most fascinating part of the book (and that which brought the most attention to her life) was the fact that she owned one of the largest private apartments in New York City, an amazing estate in Southern California and a beautiful rural retreat in Connecticut, all of which she had not visited in decades. Yet she continued to keep the properties in “ready to live” condition, meaning every year millions of dollars were being spent to keep up homes where no one lived. She also spent hundreds of thousands commissioning artists to create detailed miniature doll houses, which she lost interest in as soon as they were completed. Again, “wow”.
Typically, as a rich woman with no direct heirs begins her gradual descent towards death, distant relatives begin to surface. The book describes in detail how the heirs challenged her will and ultimately made several lawyers quite wealthy in the process but really ended up with very little themselves. The most interesting person in the book besides Huguette herself was her Filipino nurse Hadassah Peri. The woman worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for 20 years and during that long time managed to accrue over $30 million in gifts (houses, apartments, cars, cash, etc.). Ms. Peri was definitely no fool but you never have the impression that she coerced Huguette into giving her such extravagant gifts. I think the most telling quote about Ms. Clark is when someone thanked her for a gift, she replied “Don’t thank me-thank my father. I never earned a dime of this money”. Did she do great things with her money? No, not really. Did she enjoy it? I think she did because it allowed her to do exactly what she wanted to do. And really, isn’t that the point of having a lot of money?
June 12, 2019
Meryl Gordon had a difficult task when writing this book on Huguette Clark. How does one make the life of a person who spent the last 20 years of her life living in a hospital room by choice interesting? Meryl somewhat succeeds in this effort. The story of the Clark family kept me interested through the first half of the book. William Andrews Clark - COPPER KING himself was one of the principal capitalists in the Gilded Age. I knew nothing about him or his family so I enjoyed getting to know them a bit.
A couple of notes that annoyed me -
1) The use of the "Robber Baron" to describe Clark or some of his associates. This derogatory metaphor is definitely not needed. Did Clark take advantage of a lack of business regulation to gain fantastical wealth? You betcha! Using "robber baron" passively applies a level of social criticism that the author doesn't go into enough detail to prove why what he did was so ethically and morally repugnant (environmental devastation not withstanding). Clark's business practices are not the focus of the book so I felt that this labeling was lazy.
2) All the discussion of what checks Huguette wrote out to whom when she was at Beth Israel Hospital. Here a summary would have sufficed. I didn't need to know that she wrote out a $46,000 check to this person followed by a $5,000 check to that person and so on and so forth. It felt like an elongation of the story for the sake of getting as much as possible from a woman who just hid in a hospital room watching cartoons, cutting checks, and creating Tokugawa era art with an extensive doll collection.
3) The Estate settlement is honestly not that exciting. They settle, some people get more/less money than they thought. Hadassah Peri, Wanda Styka, and Bellosguardo are the big winners. The hated family members get paid because Huguette kicked the will can down the road too long rather than definitely cut them out for good. It's less scandal and more "well, yeah that's what happens when you don't have a concrete will."
Overall, I found this story pretty interesting from Huguette's childhood through her failed marriage and then only mildly interesting after that.
**Tips cap for Andrée**
A couple of notes that annoyed me -
1) The use of the "Robber Baron" to describe Clark or some of his associates. This derogatory metaphor is definitely not needed. Did Clark take advantage of a lack of business regulation to gain fantastical wealth? You betcha! Using "robber baron" passively applies a level of social criticism that the author doesn't go into enough detail to prove why what he did was so ethically and morally repugnant (environmental devastation not withstanding). Clark's business practices are not the focus of the book so I felt that this labeling was lazy.
2) All the discussion of what checks Huguette wrote out to whom when she was at Beth Israel Hospital. Here a summary would have sufficed. I didn't need to know that she wrote out a $46,000 check to this person followed by a $5,000 check to that person and so on and so forth. It felt like an elongation of the story for the sake of getting as much as possible from a woman who just hid in a hospital room watching cartoons, cutting checks, and creating Tokugawa era art with an extensive doll collection.
3) The Estate settlement is honestly not that exciting. They settle, some people get more/less money than they thought. Hadassah Peri, Wanda Styka, and Bellosguardo are the big winners. The hated family members get paid because Huguette kicked the will can down the road too long rather than definitely cut them out for good. It's less scandal and more "well, yeah that's what happens when you don't have a concrete will."
Overall, I found this story pretty interesting from Huguette's childhood through her failed marriage and then only mildly interesting after that.
**Tips cap for Andrée**
September 22, 2021
This is probably a five-star rating for the story alone, not so much for Gordon's telling of it. I read Empty Mansions, the original Huguette tell-all when it came out some years ago and was entranced. I saved this one for a time when I just needed to revisit the wonder that was 104-year-old Huguette Marcelle Clark and her many, many millions. And it was worth the return.
I found this much better written than Gordon's book on Brooke Astor, which I did not like (way too obsequious). Gordon also had much more access to the Clark archives than Dedman and Newell (the authors of Empty Mansions) and seems to have spoken to some sources they didn't. It gives you a better sense of the inner sanctum around Huguette, especially once she was admitted to the hospital for her final decades (!).
The only thing that gave me pause (and this was similar to her stance in Mrs. Astor Regrets) was that Gordon feigns all sorts of indignation about those--like journalist Dedman--who revealed the private world of Huguette Clark to the whole world, but that's exactly what she's doing. Just because it was posthumous, doesn't mean Huguette would have liked it any better. Granted, I'm the one reading these accounts, so I don't mind at all that she did reveal the secrets; she just doesn't have to pretend to be virtuous at the same time.
I found this much better written than Gordon's book on Brooke Astor, which I did not like (way too obsequious). Gordon also had much more access to the Clark archives than Dedman and Newell (the authors of Empty Mansions) and seems to have spoken to some sources they didn't. It gives you a better sense of the inner sanctum around Huguette, especially once she was admitted to the hospital for her final decades (!).
The only thing that gave me pause (and this was similar to her stance in Mrs. Astor Regrets) was that Gordon feigns all sorts of indignation about those--like journalist Dedman--who revealed the private world of Huguette Clark to the whole world, but that's exactly what she's doing. Just because it was posthumous, doesn't mean Huguette would have liked it any better. Granted, I'm the one reading these accounts, so I don't mind at all that she did reveal the secrets; she just doesn't have to pretend to be virtuous at the same time.
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