Marlene Wagman-Geller - Women of Means

Praise for Women of Means

If youve ever wished you had all the money in the world, read Women of Means by Marlene Wagman-Geller. Written in her usual witty prose, these enthralling but petrifying mini-biographies show that when a woman is too wealthy, it can be a curse rather than a blessing.

Jill G. Hall, author of The Black V elvet Coat

Does money facilitate happiness, fulfillment, the good life? How much time do we all spend wishing we had more of it? These questions and more bubble up from Marlene Wagman-Gellers crisp, exacting prose in her powerful compilation of stories about the richest women i n history.
Wagman-Gellers stories made me gasp and lodged my chin firmly on my chest as she chronicled the lives of women without a financial care in the world, whose appetites led so often to disaster. And, no, Patrizia, I would rather gleefully ride the bicycle!

R. D. Kardon, author of Flygirl

The best womens history books are deeply researched and, therefore, filled with personal details that provide an intimate portrait. Marlene Wagman-Gellers Women of Means does not disappoint. It is wild and witty, gossipy, and glamourous. A sheer delight. I could not get enough of reading about heiress Barbara Huttons outrageous lifestyle, Jackie O as a stepmom, Patty Hearsts many adventures, Peggy Guggeheins collection of art (and men) and Almira Carnarvon, the real-life counterpart to Lady Cora of Downton Abbey. Simply splendid.

Becca Anderson, author of Badass Women Give the B est Advice

Also by
Marlene Wagman-Geller

Great Second Acts: In Praise of O lder Women

Women Who Launch: Women Who Shattered Glas s Ceilings

Still I Rise: The Persistence of Phenom enal Women

Behind Every Great Man: The Forgotten Women Behind the Worlds Famous an d Infamous

And the Rest Is History: The Famous (and Infamous) First Meetings of the Worlds Most Passiona te Couples

Eureka! The Surprising Stories Behind the Ideas That Shaped the World

Once Again to Zelda: The Stories Behind Literatures Most Intriguing D edications

Women of Means

Fascinating Biographies of Royals,

Heiresses, Eccentrics, and Other Poor Little Rich Girls

Marlene Wagman-Geller

Coral Gables

Copyright 2019 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.

Cover Design: Jayoung Hong

Layout & Design: Jayoung Hong

Cover Photo: Highclere Castle Archive

Every reasonable effort has been made to contact the copyright holders,

but if there are any errors or omissions, Hodder & Stoughton will be pleased to insert the appropriate acknowledgement in any subsequent printing of this publication.

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Women of Means: Fascinating Biographies of Royals, Heiresses, Eccentrics,

and Other Poor Little Rich Girls

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication number: 2019935672

ISBN: (p) 978-1-64250-017-2 (e) 978-1-64250-018-9

BISAC category code: BIO013000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY

/ Rich & Famous

Printed in the United States of America

To my women of spiritual meansin memory of my mother, Gilda Wagman, and my daughter, Jordanna Shyl oh Geller.

I hate almost all rich people, but I think Id be darli ng at it.

Dorothy Parker ( 18931967)

Table of Contents

Okay, lets get this part out of the way first: If I had been born into an enormous fortune, I would have been generous, as well as cautious about marriage and other personal entanglements. My purchases would not have been ostentatious, and I would not have been arrogant. And, of course, that is exactly how you would act. In short, we would not behave as did the twenty-eight subjects of Wagmans collection. What connects them are the excesses and eccentricities that result when enormous wealth meets i mmaturity.

In A Delicate Balance , Edward Albees Pulitzer Prize winning play of 1967, Agnes laments that as men age, they are eventually obsessed with money and deathmaking ends meet until they meet the end. The women in these pages could not escape deathmany died young, and most died in abject conditionsbut for most of their lives, they did not have to be concerned with making ends meet. But if people of wealth are to be content, they have to have ends to be served by their means, and they must be as deliberate as those who are slowed and matured by financial concerns. The actions of the women you are going to meet in Women of Means were flagrant, and eventually desperate, but never d eliberate.

Will Rogers said about people playing the ukulele, Not even a trained musician can tell if [theyre] playing on it or just monkeying with it. Most of the Women of Means monkeyed with life, filling it, as Wagman says, with champagne and bile. Its a bitter mix, and these women were, for the most part, a bitter lot. After all, they were victims. Having much often makes one want more, so they were victims of their own greed. Most of them grew up sheltered from the vagaries of life and the teaching power of poverty, so they were victimized by the greed of others. They were victims of their bad decisions, the majority of which seemed to center around their spectacularly destructive choices of sexual partners and husbands, as well as some catastrophic parenting. Money makes plain people attractive, and attractive people irresistible, and there were plenty of people willing to cheat, threaten, or seduce them into opening their hearts, their bank accounts, and the doors to their boudoirs.

As Wagmans stories gives us a look inside their hearts and wealth (and their boudoirs), we experience schadenfreude the pleasure of vicariously experiencing the misfortune of othersbut that is not the only gift Wagman and her women bestow. All of us have the same size hearts as they did, even those living paycheck to paycheck. We are alleven men (or perhaps especially men)quite capable of falling victim to hubris. The mysterious lover Cressida in Shakespeares tragedy lays the blame on wom ens lust:

Ah, poor our sex! This fault in us I find,

The error of our eye doth direct our mind:

What error leads must err. O, the n conclude