Read Online Mrs. Astor Regrets by Meryl Gordon - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Meryl Gordon
Ads: Link
family feud but a sprawling saga involving society figures, millions of dollars, appalling charges, and backstage intrigue. A media war erupted. The New York Times assigned a battalion of reporters and ran stories with eight different bylines in the next few days. Television and print reporters staked out the Marshalls' Manhattan apartment as well as Alec's place in Ossining and Philip's forest green shingle-style home on a corner lot in Massachusetts, taking pictures of Winslow mowing the lawn. As Nan recalls, "That's when I knew our lives would never be the same."
At Lenox Hill Hospital, extra security guards were hired to keep interlopers such as reporters pretending to deliver flowers away from Mrs. Astor, who was recovering from a near fatal bout of pneumonia. "Reporters were outside my parents' home," recalls Dr. Sandra Gelbard, who was in charge of her care. "I don't know how they got the address."
On Northeast Harbor's tiny Main Street, reporters from the Daily News, the New York Post, and the Boston Globe went from door to door, trying to dig up dirt. Bob Pyle, the town's librarian, says, "We felt like we had to pull down our shades at night to escape the paparazzi." Charlene's daughter Inness, staying on at Cove End, was so distraught by the press attention and the gawkers that she called her mother to say she felt ill and was worried that her pregnancy would be endangered. "I thought the New York Post was going to give my daughter a miscarriage," says Charlene Marshall. "But she went to the hospital and they saved the baby."
The unfolding saga was polarizing Brooke Astor's friends and the Marshalls' social circle. People felt forced to take sides. In Washington, D.C., Suzanne Kuser, Tony Marshall's half-sister and a former State Department intelligence analyst, got a call from her nephew Philip explaining the situation. Kuser says, "I thought he had a case." Kuser had a distinct theory about the psychological underpinnings of her half-brother's behavior, saying, "Tony has a lot of problems. Some of them are mommy issues. There's a whole history."
In California, Nancy Reagan was saddened but not entirely surprised to read of the scandal. "I felt terrible, just terrible, that this could happen to Brooke," she told me. "We all knew that something was wrong up there. But nobody knew quite how wrong it was." Mrs. Reagan called Annette de la Renta to inquire about the details. "Annette explained to me that she wasn't supposed to talk." Even to you? "Even to me."
Viscount William Astor was on holiday in Scotland when the story hit the newspapers. He admitted that he had been worried about Brooke in recent years. "I'm just appalled by the way she's been treated," he said. "Annette de la Renta has done the right thing, and we've all been encouraging her to do something for a long time. It's all about money."
Indeed, nearly every day for the following six months Tony and Charlene Marshall were pilloried in the press. They were accused of finagling millions from Mrs. Astor, including diverting money to invest in their theatrical company. They were attacked for firing Mrs. Astor's longtime staff—Chris Ely, her chauffeur, her French chef, her social secretary, and her Maine housekeeper—and denounced for preventing friends from visiting in order to isolate her. There were ominous reports that Tony had shredded eighty boxes of documents. He was criticized for selling the Childe Hassam painting for $10 million and taking a $2 million commission, and there was an uproar when he admitted that he had erred in filing his mother's taxes, resulting in a huge underpayment of capital gains tax on the transaction.
The Marshalls protested their innocence in quaintly old-fashioned terms. "My mother has always emphasized the importance of good manners," Tony said in a statement that he passed out to the press. "Those who have associated their names with this action taken against me and my wife Charlene have not only exercised bad
At Lenox Hill Hospital, extra security guards were hired to keep interlopers such as reporters pretending to deliver flowers away from Mrs. Astor, who was recovering from a near fatal bout of pneumonia. "Reporters were outside my parents' home," recalls Dr. Sandra Gelbard, who was in charge of her care. "I don't know how they got the address."
On Northeast Harbor's tiny Main Street, reporters from the Daily News, the New York Post, and the Boston Globe went from door to door, trying to dig up dirt. Bob Pyle, the town's librarian, says, "We felt like we had to pull down our shades at night to escape the paparazzi." Charlene's daughter Inness, staying on at Cove End, was so distraught by the press attention and the gawkers that she called her mother to say she felt ill and was worried that her pregnancy would be endangered. "I thought the New York Post was going to give my daughter a miscarriage," says Charlene Marshall. "But she went to the hospital and they saved the baby."
The unfolding saga was polarizing Brooke Astor's friends and the Marshalls' social circle. People felt forced to take sides. In Washington, D.C., Suzanne Kuser, Tony Marshall's half-sister and a former State Department intelligence analyst, got a call from her nephew Philip explaining the situation. Kuser says, "I thought he had a case." Kuser had a distinct theory about the psychological underpinnings of her half-brother's behavior, saying, "Tony has a lot of problems. Some of them are mommy issues. There's a whole history."
In California, Nancy Reagan was saddened but not entirely surprised to read of the scandal. "I felt terrible, just terrible, that this could happen to Brooke," she told me. "We all knew that something was wrong up there. But nobody knew quite how wrong it was." Mrs. Reagan called Annette de la Renta to inquire about the details. "Annette explained to me that she wasn't supposed to talk." Even to you? "Even to me."
Viscount William Astor was on holiday in Scotland when the story hit the newspapers. He admitted that he had been worried about Brooke in recent years. "I'm just appalled by the way she's been treated," he said. "Annette de la Renta has done the right thing, and we've all been encouraging her to do something for a long time. It's all about money."
Indeed, nearly every day for the following six months Tony and Charlene Marshall were pilloried in the press. They were accused of finagling millions from Mrs. Astor, including diverting money to invest in their theatrical company. They were attacked for firing Mrs. Astor's longtime staff—Chris Ely, her chauffeur, her French chef, her social secretary, and her Maine housekeeper—and denounced for preventing friends from visiting in order to isolate her. There were ominous reports that Tony had shredded eighty boxes of documents. He was criticized for selling the Childe Hassam painting for $10 million and taking a $2 million commission, and there was an uproar when he admitted that he had erred in filing his mother's taxes, resulting in a huge underpayment of capital gains tax on the transaction.
The Marshalls protested their innocence in quaintly old-fashioned terms. "My mother has always emphasized the importance of good manners," Tony said in a statement that he passed out to the press. "Those who have associated their names with this action taken against me and my wife Charlene have not only exercised bad
Similar Books
