Empty Mansions (57 page)

Bill Dedman

T
HANK YOU
to the many online readers who demanded we follow up to find Huguette and to make sure she was well cared for.

The editors at
NBCNews.com
(the former msnbc.com) said right from the start that they’d like to know what was up with those empty mansions, and allowed me time to work on this book. Investigations editor Mike Brunker is the patient editor every reporter imagines but doesn’t believe exists. (He also is 2,411 miles away, which turns out to be exactly the right distance from your editor.) And thanks to the big bosses: Russ Shaw, Jennifer Sizemore, Greg Gittrich, Dick Belsky, Stokes Young, Jen Brown, Charlie Tillinghast, and Vivian Schiller. They supported this effort, even if they silently questioned the view, as one reader put it, “Well, if she had a doctor with only one patient, accountants and lawyers with only one client,” then “certainly she can have one reporter.…”

Patrick McCord, the plot whisperer, offered valuable insights from the Editing Company in Westport, Connecticut.

Guillaine Dale Farrell translated from French four thousand pages of correspondence from Huguette’s papers and was a patient translator of continuing conversations with contacts in France. In Paris, Ph.D. student Alexander Yarbrough from the University of Buffalo helped by tracing the history of Etienne de Villermont and the Allard family’s interrupted path to nobility. Research assistants who contributed hundreds of hours to this effort were Michelle Crespo, Margaux Stack-Babich, Sara Germano, and Beau Caruso. Roland Jones helped with public records in New York, and Jacques Kauffmann in France.

Other researchers who have walked the Clark trail showed great kindness toward this project. Professor Keith Edgerton of Montana State University Billings, who graciously shared research files on W. A. Clark. Retired newspaperman Steven Shirley in Helena, who reached Huguette for a couple of chats on the phone, offered his memories and his extensive bibliography of Montana history. Don Lynch provided research on the
Titanic
and the Clarks. Author Brad Tyer, who surveyed the environmental damage in Montana. Documentary photographer Elijah Solomon, who looked into the circumstances of Timothy Gray’s life and death. Others who offered information include Barney Brantingham of
The Santa Barbara Independent
and Gerry O’Brien, Carmen Winslow, Tim Trainor, and Roberta Stauffer of
The Montana Standard
.

Generous assistance came from experts in diverse special subjects. On psychiatry in geriatric patients, Dr. Benjamin Liptzin, professor and deputy chair of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and psychiatry chair at Baystate Medical Center. On the history of fashions, Nancy Deihl, a master teacher of costume studies at New York University. On the music of harpist Marcel Grandjany, Professor Kathleen Bride of the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. On Huguette’s paintings and the women artists of her time, Associate Professor Marice E. Rose of Fairfield University. On Japanese art and translation, postdoctoral teaching fellow Ive Covaci of Fairfield University. On New York architecture, attorney/architect Andrew Alpern. On charitable gift annuities, wealth management specialist Gavin Morrissey of Commonwealth Financial Network. On Huguette’s Stradivarius violin, La Pucelle, collector David Fulton, dealer Charles Beare, and violinist James Ehnes. On Butte and its mining history, geologist and historian Richard I. Gibson. On Masonic history and the Vigilantes, Reid Gardiner and Daniel Gardiner of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Montana. On the French nobility, Professor Jonathan S. Dewald of the University of Buffalo. On the Clark pipe organ, author Jim Lewis. On medical ethics, Yale University senior scholar Daniel Callahan, president emeritus of the Hastings Center. For analysis of Huguette’s tax returns, journalist David Cay Johnston. For information on copper-jacketed bullets, Dale Clingan. On the trees and plants at Bellosguardo from detailed photographs, Jessica Lawrence of Green Landscape Nursery in
Santa Clarita, California. On the Hawaiian language, Professor Puakea Nogelmeier of the University of Hawaii Manoa. And on Huguette’s automobiles, Geoffrey Keller at Dragone Classic Motorcars in Westport, Connecticut.

Many members of the Clark family shared information, despite their attorney’s repeated admonitions. We drew on the genealogical research on the family by Eve Newell, Colin Berens, and J. P. Canton and the resourceful research staff at
Ancestry.com
.

Many individuals who had contact with the Clarks provided invaluable information: Reminiscences of life at Bellosguardo in Santa Barbara came from Barbara Hoelscher Doran and Barry Hoelscher, among others. The son and grandson of Félix Lorioux, Jean-Loup Brusson and Fabrice Brusson, graciously shared information on his work and his patron Huguette. Ann Raynolds and Leontine “Tina” Lyle Harrower described their godmother, Anna Clark. John Taylor still has the Rolls-Royce that Huguette and Bill Gower took on their honeymoon, his father having purchased it after the Clark chauffeur sold it to a dealer. Janice Benatz shared information on Clarkdale, Arizona; Ann Fabrizio on her father, Robert Samuels, and the work of French & Company, which redecorated Huguette’s apartments; Jeff Southmayd on his great-grandfather, Nathan Leroy Southmayd, who may be the man in the middle of the photo of three miners on page 24; Mary Muir on one of Huguette’s paintings found in a London shop; and Stephen Gruse on W. A. Clark, Jr. And then there’s Michael Nygaard, the ultimate Huguette fan.

One of the pleasures of this hunt has been the chance to work with so many noteworthy institutions. Very special thanks to Art Loss Register, London (Chris Marinello); Associated Press, New York (Carolyn McGoldrick); Barbara Cleary’s Realty Guild, New Canaan, Connecticut (Barbara and Brian Cleary); Brown Brothers, Sterling, Pennsylvania (Linda Tyler); Brown Harris Stevens, New York (John Burger, Kristin Clark, Leslie Coleman, Amy Gotzler, Mary Rutherfurd, Danielle Wagner, Hall Willkie); Butte Silver Bow Arts Foundation, Butte, Montana (Glenn Bodish, Gretchen Miller); Butte–Silver Bow Public Archives, Butte (Ellen Crain, Irene Scheidecker, Harriet Schultz); Christie’s, New York (Jaime Bernice, Erin McAndrews); Clarkdale
Historical Society & Museum, Arizona (Mary Lu Estlick); Copper King Mansion, Butte (Erin Sigl, Pat Sigl, John Thompson); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (Marisa Bourgoin, Melanie Feaster, Ila Furman, Kristin Guiter, Dare Myers Hartwell, Anna Kuehl); County of Santa Barbara, California (Beverly Curren); Dunbar Historical Society, Pennsylvania (Donna Myers); Durand-Ruel & Co., Paris (Paul-Louis Durand-Ruel); Fairfield University, Connecticut (Professor Joel Goldfield); Girl Scout National Historic Preservation Center, New York (Pamela Cruz, Yevgeniya Gribov, Michelle Tompkins); Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, Independence, Missouri (Randy Sowell); Iowa Wesleyan College, Mount Pleasant (Lynn Ellsworth, Jay Simmons); Jerome Historical Society, Arizona (Allen Muma); the Joint Commission, Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois (Elizabeth Zhani); Lewis & Clark Fort Mandan Foundation, Washburn, North Dakota (Nicolette Borlaug, Joseph Mussulman); Mark Twain Papers, University of California, Berkeley (Neda Salem); Montana Historical Society Research Center, Helena (Rebecca Kohl, Delores Morrow, Zoe Ann Stoltz); Montecito Historical Archives of the Montecito Association, California (Dana Newquist, Guy Webb); Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington (Jennifer Twist); Museum of the City of New York (Nilda Rivera, Lindsay Turley); Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, Mineola, New York (Carole Trottere); NBC News InfoCenter, New York (Donna Mendell); Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City (Kathleen Leighton, Toni Wood); New Canaan Historical Society (Janet Lindstrom); New York County District Attorney’s Office (Erin Duggan); New York Department of Education, Office of the Professions, Albany (Jane Briggs); New-York Historical Society (Robert Delap, Eleanor Gillers, Marybeth Kavanagh, Jill Slaight, Joe Festa);
The New York Times
and Redux Pictures (Rosemary Morrow, Jeff Roth); Nippon Music Foundation, Tokyo (Kazuko Shiomi); Onyx Classics, London (Matthew Cosgrove); Paul Clark Home, Butte (Corri Evans, Betty Ostoj); Pearl S. Buck Family Trust, New York (Craig Tenney); Princeton University’s Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton, New Jersey (Christa Cleeton, Charles Greene, Anna Chen); Santa Barbara Historical Museum (Michael Redmon); Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation (Anne Petersen); Save Our Seminary,
Silver Spring, Maryland (Bonnie Rosenthal); Sotheby’s, London and New York (Blair Hance, Virginia Harley); the Surrogate’s Court, New York City (Suzan Tell, Eugene McCusker, Omar Colon, Marcia Goffin, Diana Sanabria); Tokyo String Quartet (Louise Beach); United Daughters of the Confederacy, Richmond, Virginia (Jane Durden); University of Montana, Missoula (Kathy Zeiler); University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Su Kim, Kelli Luchs); University of Virginia Law School Foundation, Charlottesville (David Ibbeken); Wildenstein & Company, New York (Joseph Baillio); William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, Los Angeles (Gerald Cloud, Rebecca Fenning Marschall); World Museum of Mining (Dolores Cooney, Tina Davis, Tom Satterthwaite).

Advice and assistance with photographs came from John Makely, Jonathan Sanger, David Britt-Friedman, Jim Seida, Meredith Birkett, and Damon Kiesow. We acknowledge the granting of publication rights by Cris Molina, Buddy Moffet, David Fulton, Patrice Gilbert, and Stefen Turner.

Thank you to early readers for suggestions on the manuscript: JoNel Aleccia, Andrew Alpern, Ted Anthony, Linda Dahlstrom, Steven Epley, Gene Foreman, Tish Fried, Don Fry, Lisa Holewa, Tom Johnson, Dave Kindred, Lenette Kosovich, Claire Viguerie Layrisson, Andrew Meyers, and Leslie Spangler.

I thank co-author Paul Newell for his good humor, gentlemanly spirit, and respect for the truth.

Deepest thanks go to my family for enduring the latest Huguette stories, and for their loving support: my mother, Bobbye Schroeder; my brother, Scott Dedman; my son, Justin, and daughter-in-law, Brittany; my wife, Pam Belluck; and our girls, Arielle and Jillian.

NOTES
 

HMC
PAPERS:
The unpublished correspondence and financial records of Huguette M. Clark, reviewed by the authors.

HMC
MEDICAL RECORDS:
The medical records from Huguette Clark’s twenty-year stay at Doctors Hospital and Beth Israel Medical Center.

D
EPOSITIONS:
Sworn testimony from the several proceedings related to the estate of Huguette M. Clark, Surrogate’s Court of the State of New York County, County of New York, case 1995-1375A. Most of the testimony has not been filed with the court, but all of it has been reviewed by the authors.