The Fate of Huguette Clark's Fortune

[Aristaeus]

Huguette Clark dies at the age of 104 after decades hidden away in a massive New York apartment


[video]http://news.yahoo.com/s/atlantic/20110524/ts_atlantic/fatehuguetteclarksfortune38100[/video]

 

[subject101]

I find this kind of self reclusiveness histories fascinating. Like Howard Hughes history. It is usually regarded as a mental disorder but sometimes I doubt it is. I think some people at some point of their lives build a whole inner world, or get all the money in the world, or simply get tired of everybody and everything. They lock themselves in their bunkers and say f the world.

I wonder how many of us would be willing to do the same, lock ourselves inside our own time capsule forever. Any one?

 

[Tomasso]

Here she is (right) at age 11 with her father and sister in 1917.

 

[subject101]

Last picture posing with a crowd?

 

[randooch]

Another entry in the "can't take it with ya" category.

It would certainly be a stressful occupation for a few people to manage such a sum, as evidenced by all the innuendo in that article.

 

[Tomasso]

From the NYT.

After leaving the Senate, Mr. Clark settled his family in New York, erecting a mansion at 962 Fifth Avenue, at 77th Street, that was considered improvident even in an excessive age. Its 121 rooms included 31 bathrooms, 4 art galleries and a theater; there was also a swimming pool and a thundering pipe organ. It was there, interspersed with stays in California and France, that Huguette grew up.

 

[Tomasso]

Last picture posing with a crowd?

Nope..............

Huguette Clark, 15, walks with her father, William A. Clark, senator and copper king, in the Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue in New York in 1922.

 

[rue]

Maybe she didn't leave her house because of what the world had turned into. Look at the beautiful clothing and the cars in the picture ... now look out your window.... [huh]

 

[Tomasso]

She may have been overwhelmed by the interest the press had taken in her life. Kinda like Garbo's I vant to be alone period.

This is the last known photograph of Huguette, cornered by a photographer on the day of her divorce in August 1930.

 

[Tomasso]

This is an interesting slide show about her family.

 

[subject101]

It would certainly be a stressful occupation for a few people to manage such a sum

oh, I could perfectly deal with such stress with no suffering I wish I had some.

This is an interesting slide show about her family.

Very nice Her father seems to be the same kind of psycho as Randolph Hearst.

This woman locked herself from 1963 to 2011 :eeek: I wonder how her daily routine was.

Maybe she didn't leave her house because of what the world had turned into. Look at the beautiful clothing and the cars in the picture ... now look out your window.... [huh]

Yep, I somehow understand this behaviour. However I would have chosen her Santa Barbara palace or her château in New Canaan as my final bunker-pyramid-mausoleum. The latter was surrounded by a forest and silence was only broken by the sound of a nearby waterfall. She purchased this house and she never used it.

 

[rue]

This is an interesting slide show about her family.

Wow... what an interesting family. Thank you Tomasso

Yep, I somehow understand this behaviour. However I would have chosen her Santa Barbara palace or her château in New Canaan as my final bunker-pyramid-mausoleum. The latter was surrounded by a forest and silence was only broken by the sound of a nearby waterfall. She purchased this house and she never used it.

I would have chosen another place too. I find it very odd that she never went to her other homes [huh]

 

[subject101]

I find it very odd that she never went to her other homes

Yep, Howard Hughes was an extreme case but he still did some travels from time to time and changed his residence several times. This woman case is even worse. She locked herself for 48 years :eeek: and never got out anymore.

 

[rue]

I wonder if she had Agoraphobia. I knew someone with this disease and it gets worse as the person gets older unless they get help. I guess we'll never know.

 

[Puzzicato]

Maybe she didn't leave her house because of what the world had turned into. Look at the beautiful clothing and the cars in the picture ... now look out your window.... [huh]

I can perfectly understand taking a look at the world and deciding you don't want a bar of it. But I would at least sequester myself on a nice big farm or something with lots of space and trees and animals.

 

[subject101]

I wonder if she had Agoraphobia. I knew someone with this disease and it gets worse as the person gets older unless they get help. I guess we'll never know.

Maybe, but this woman secluded herself very gradually. She divorced in 1930 and then did a trip to Hawaii with her mother. In 1931 she dropped her seat at the opera and dissapeared from newspapers. Until her mother died in 1963 she regularly went to her palace in Santa Barbara. After mother's death she shut herself forever at the Fifth Avenue apartment.

This seems to be a frustrated oedipus complex or a big depression. I'm not an expert

I'd really like to know her daily routine! I wake up at 8 o'clock in the morning, I eat breakfast and now what? I walk to the next wall to re-check those beautiful paintings or what?

But I would at least sequester myself on a nice big farm or something with lots of space and trees and animals.

Me too!

 

[sheeplady]

I don't know, I can't help but feel sorry for someone like this. She was probably mentally ill, and it sounds like her lawyer and accountant probably fed or took advantage of her mental illness. They might have well prevented her from leaving her home (if not physically, they may have fed into her delusions, so mentally she could not leave). In the least, I doubt they insisted or tried to get her help for her illness. I can't imagine what her care was like, if she was well fed, clothed, and cared for; given the fact that there was no one to see.

I've seen older people with a lot less money put into similar situations by family members/carers, and the abuse can be pretty bad.

 

[Tomasso]

Until her mother died in 1963 she regularly went to her palace in Santa Barbara. After mother's death she shut herself forever at the Fifth Avenue apartment.

To be fair, we don't really know that she wasn't out and about in the 70's or 80's. It's not like the press were hounding her trying to get a picture. She had successfully dropped herself off their radar. It's only recently that their interest has been reawakened and a couple reporters digging back 50 years into a private life can make for some sketchy info being passed off as fact.

To get a clearer picture of her life one would need a top flight investigative journalist/author having the full cooperation of the circle of friends, associates and employees that she has maintained over the last 50-60 years, and that will be problematic as many/most of these people have passed on as well.

 

[subject101]

To be fair, we don't really know that she wasn't out and about in the 70's or 80's. It's not like the press were hounding her trying to get a picture. She had successfully dropped herself off their radar. It's only recently that their interest has been reawakened and a couple reporters digging back 50 years into a private life can make for some sketchy info being passed off as fact.

According to Yahoo News and your slide show she recluded herself [huh]

To get a clearer picture of her life one would need a top flight investigative journalist/author having the full cooperation of the circle of friends, associates and employees that she has maintained over the last 50-60 years, and that will be problematic as many/most of these people have passed on as well.

...or we could kidnap her maid and make her sing! :rain:

 

[Tomasso]

According to Yahoo News and your slide show she recluded herself [huh]

As I said, a couple of reporters......

...or we could kidnap her maid and make her sing! :rain:

That would be a start but better would have been an interview with her close friend and social secretary, Suzanne Pierre, who died this spring. Get my drift; somebody from her inner circle as opposed to hearsay from outsiders.