Baller Status History Lesson

Baller Status

Portrait of WR Hearst that is in his redonkulous library at Hearst Castle

So...I was reading an article about Huguette Clark today. She is a 104 year old heiress who's father was a rich copper miner turned Senator from Montana. She apparently has no heirs and hasn't been seen by anyone other than her attorney for decades! I'm getting a feeling of Dorris Duke deja vu. (For those of you who don't know her story she was another heiress and when she was old and dying her butler got her to sign over her fortune to him. Super douche.) Huguette has huge mansions on both coasts that have sat empty for 50+ years yet are still kept clean and tidy.

I am very interested in American heirs and heiresses from the turn of last century. Let's face it, the heirs/heiresses of today don't have the flash that their predecessors did. (Well, Paris Hilton does flash, but I'm not talking about that kind of flashing!) My all time favorite is William Randolph Hearst (who was born one day after me..and 122 years earlier!) Hearst Castle is one of my favorite places to be, ever. (If I ever get a horrible cancer my "Make a Wish" will be to hang out there all day and do whatever I want...with Tootsie. That will be the best day ever.)It is one of the few places left in California that is truly old Hollywood.

Marion Davies lovin' an older dude, a girl after my own heart.

Most of the fathers of these super rich kids had really young wives, which as someone who likes the more mature man, I can totally get behind that. WR Hearst carried on a very famous affair with Marion Davis (a comedienne at MGM Studios), 24 years younger than him. (Tidbit: When he died he left 51% of his estate to her and his children wanted to buy out her share so, because she wasn't with him because of his money, she sold it to them for a penny!)

Fact: It's a $5,000 fine if you jump into that pool.

Other than their love of young, funny women, what is fascinating to me about the then nouveau rich of America is how they decided to decorate their mansions. The theme of the majority of these homes is what I image the Louvre would look like if it had explosive diarrhea. Take Hearst Castle, at first glance it looks like a Spanish village, except for the Roman tide pool and the tennis courts and the art deco statues. The Richy Riches of today don't buy awesome stuff like their great grandparents used to. Think about it, they went to Europe and the souvenirs they came back with were marble Roman pillars, some Da Vinci sketches and a few ceilings from churches in Spain. You can't buy that crap anymore! Who buys ceilings? That's right, people who are ballers that's who!

Back to Huguette, she's 104, so it's a fact she will die soon. I'm hoping for some awesome stories about her to come out. I'm not buying the whole hermit thing. She's either crazy or bought a time machine with her fortune. I hope it's the latter because that would be a way cooler story.

 (Sorry this wasn't super funny, but it is interesting and you should totally read about Hearst and Dorris Duke, they are both really fascinating people. Then I could talk to someone other than my old ass Grandma about this stuff!!)