Barbara Woolworth Hutton was an American socialite, heiress and philanthropist.
Background
Hutton was born in New York City, in 1912. She was the only child of Edna Woolworth and Franklyn Laws Hutton. Barbara's father, a stockbroker, was a founding partner of the E. F. Hutton brokerage firm. Her mother was the daughter of Frank Woolworth, who amassed millions with his chain of five-and-ten-cent stores. In his youth a poor store clerk, Woolworth was driven to success by the Protestant work ethic and Darwinian social philosophy. Despite his wealth, he was never accepted by New York society. Stung by this, he had social aspirations for his offspring but remained suspicious of foreign men who, he believed, were titled fortune hunters. Ironically, his granddaughter's life exemplified both his aspirations and his fears. Hutton's early life was lonely and tragic. Her father, an alcoholic womanizer, was distant and abusive; her mother, shy and insecure. When she was just four, her mother was found dead in their New York apartment. While the cause of death was reported as chronic illness, no attempt was made to investigate, and medical records mysteriously disappeared. Most likely, Edna Hutton committed suicide after humiliating reports of her husband's infidelities were made public. After her mother's death, Hutton lived with relatives in California and rarely saw her father.
Hutton was a plump, blond, pretty child but unsure of herself and painfully aware of her wealth. Her doubts about her appearance escalated despite the fact that she blossomed physically. She wrote as a teenager: "I shall be an old maid. Nobody can ever love me. For my money, but not for me. " Some of these feelings probably derived from her father, who was distant, rejecting, and cruel. Moreover, when Hutton was nine, a family butler remarked that she was fat and not very pretty, and that nobody would ever want to marry her except for her money. An imaginative, intensely lonely girl, she was the object of jealousy and had virtually no friends. She did, however, have Ticki Tocquet, her governess and surrogate mother, who traveled with her all over the world.
Education
Hutton attended the Santa Barbara (Calif. ) School for Girls (1924 - 1926), Miss Hewitt's School in New York City (1926 - 1928), and graduated from Miss Porter's School for Girls in Farmington, Connecticut, in 1930.
Career
When her grandfather died in 1919, he had left $78 million to his mentally infirm wife, Jennie. Jennie died five years later, and Hutton inherited $28 million. Since Hutton was only twelve, her father became guardian of her wealth. He shrewdly invested it, and when she came of age, she was worth in excess of $50 million.
Hutton's adult years were dominated by childhood experiences. She went from husband to husband in search of the acceptance and love she never had. As self-destructive as her father and as insecure as her mother, she tried to buy affection. Fascinated by Europe and in search of the social standing she had never had, she mistook title for class. Her succession of titled European husbands made her the object of hatred and scorn in America. Seeking the attention so lacking in childhood, she became one of the most publicized women of her time for her many marriages and extravagant life-style.
In June 1933, Hutton wed Prince Alexis Mdivani, against her father's wishes. Some have contended that Mdivani wanted $2 million to marry her, but a prenuptial agreement afforded him half that sum. The Mdivanis divided their time between Paris and New York and made frequent trips to the Orient and Tangier.
After meeting the Danish aristocrat Count Heinrich Haugwitz-Hardenberg-Reventlow, Hutton divorced Mdivani in May 1935 and married Reventlow within twenty-four hours. They had one son. The Reventlows' stormy marriage lasted six years. During that time, on her attorney's advice, Hutton renounced her American citizenship in 1937. The move, designed to save her taxes and safeguard her son's inheritance, was poorly received. The American press, which had sensationalized her extravagant life-style and foreign husbands, now said she was depriving America of its rightful share of the profits from her grandfather's stores. Although Hutton had little to do with managing Woolworth's, she was accused of exploiting the employees. Her visits home were attended by demonstrations and abuse. To add to her troubles, her divorce from Reventlow in 1941 resulted in an international custody battle over her son.
The American press, unfortunately, was not so diligent in reporting Hutton's generosity. She gave generously to the Musician's Emergency Fund, New York Foundling Hospital, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Juilliard School of Music, San Francisco Opera Company, and the New York Philharmonic. During the war, she made generous gifts to the American Red Cross as well as the British Red Cross. While living in Tangier, she established a scholarship fund to support the education of needy children. She was, additionally, very generous to friends and staff.
Hutton settled in Los Angeles and married Cary Grant on July 8, 1942 (the exact date of her marriage is disputed). Grant, a successful actor, was the only husband who earned his keep, but his devotion to his career undermined the marriage, which was legally terminated in 1945.
Hutton's later years were marked by a succession of wrong marriages. She drank heavily and consumed massive amounts of barbiturates. A heavy smoker, she also suffered from anorexia. As her marriages failed, so did her physical and emotional health. She nearly died of an ovarian tumor that rendered her infertile, of an intestinal blockage, and later in life, after a suicide attempt. The death of her thirty-six-year-old son, Lance Reventlow, in an airplane crash in 1972 was the final blow. Hutton spent the last five years of her life driven nearly mad by grief, drugs, and alcohol, bedridden, and physically and financially dissipated.
But first there were four marriages and three divorces, beginning with Prince Igor Troubetzkoy, whom she wed on March 1, 1947, and divorced in July 1951, in Mexico; a second divorce was granted in October 1951, in France. Her next husband was Porfirio Rubirosa, whose sexual conquests included Jayne Mansfield and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Married on December 30, 1953, they actually lived together for only fifty-three days, during which time Rubirosa collected $1 million in gifts and $2. 5 million in cash. They divorced in 1955.
On November 8, 1955, Barbara married Baron Gottfried von Cramm, a world-renowned tennis player and a homosexual. Although they were married for five years, the relationship was never consummated. After their divorce in 1960, Barbara turned to younger men and married Prince Raymond Doan Champaçak on April 8, 1964. Champaçak, an artist, was believed to be a fortune hunter.
Tragedy pursued Hutton. Three former husbands died in automobile accidents and her son in a plane crash, her mother and a cousin committed suicide, and her father succumbed to liver cirrhosis. Most of her marriages were loveless; some were sexless. She lived for many years in Tangier but spent her last years in Los Angeles, where she died. The years preceding were blurred by drugs, suicide attempts, and psychosis. Her fabulous wealth was just as dissipated, chiefly by her husbands, her extravagance, her generosity, and her attorney, who allegedly pocketed the proceeds from the sale of her art and jewelry collections. When she died, only $3, 500 was left of her $50 million fortune. The legacy of Frank Woolworth met an ironic end with his granddaughter, a tragic victim of his Horatio Alger success.
Achievements
She was dubbed the "Poor Little Rich Girl, " first when she was given a lavish and expensive debutante ball in 1930, amid the Great Depression, and later due to a notoriously troubled private life.
Views
Quotations:
"Money alone can't bring you happiness, but money alone has not brought me unhappiness. I won't say my previous husbands thought only of my money, but it had a certain fascination for them. "
"I've never seen a Brink's truck follow a hearse to the cemetery. "
