FALL OF THE LEAF

 

FLOBELLE "BELLE" FAIRBANKS BURDEN : EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT HER DIVORCE MEMOIR TITLED "STRANGERS"

 

Everyone is talking about this memoir and it's controversial. Some commentators have the idea that it's outrageous that Belle, a woman who came from "old money" - American aristocracy out of New York City - dare reveal her pain. One commentator - a woman - said in so many words, how dare she feel bad about herself because she went through a divorce, Belle isn't wondering if she's going to have to sell the house and move into a small apartment or what sort of job she's going to have to work to support her children... She was also accused of writing for the purpose of revenge, rather than a need to express herself or process grief.

I remember the day I met a woman who was much richer than me. As we spoke she said, "Everyone has pain, including rich people." I agreed. I think how rare it is for a woman with her privileged background to reveal her truth. So very many people from her social-cultural group - men and women - friends and not so - went against her. Well educated, a lawyer who presently works pro bono on juvenile immigration cases (citizenship), a loving and responsible mother and wife, and an heiress with two substantial trust funds that allowed her to purchase two residents for her family - one in New York City - one on Martha's Vineyard island, Belle had a deep desire to remain married and have an intact marriage. She had witnessed her mother and grandmother's relationships with men. Both had infidelity in their relationships and protected the men. She wanted more and better.

Belle is eloquent and there are passages in the book that are beautiful as well as heart-rendering. She reveals the shock she felt and the many emotional and psychological - and eventually financial  and social - adjustments she had to make in order to get through a difficult time. She was deeply in love with her husband when he seemed to change overnight. 

A telephone message revealed that her husband was having an affair. He said it was brief, he said it was nothing, he said Belle - his wife and the mother of their three children - was his priority. But then he was out the door and didn't even want shared custody. On this, I would say that a man wanting freedom from fatherhood seems to be the worst of it.

Belle did not know if the woman she called her husband's "mistress" was or is still in his life. I simply do not think that a woman is a mistress because she had a brief affair with a man who is legally married at the time. She also does not understand what happened that her husband changed seemingly so drastically.

Although the husband of the woman Belle's husband had an extramarital relationship with might have well intended, I don't think he should have done that. Rather, I think

As for wives staying with husbands who have extramarital relationships - and actual mistresses - every individual has to decide that for themselves. I can say that many do. There are all sorts of agreements that people come to or negotiate in their relationships.

And as for her husband's only explanation being that something switched off in him, believe it or not, that does happen.  Perhaps it was actually happening slowly but the reckoning of it may be sudden. 

As my reader's know, I love to excerpt, but in this case, I will do only one.

Excerpt page 105:  (Belle wants to know more about The Other Woman. One of her daughters was given a name that doesn't match the name she was told, though he explains that it is the same woman.)

... "It was nit the alliterative one I knew, the name that had tormented me since he left, the one I googled multiple times a day, staring at her face on the screen, trying to understand why he had chosen her over me. In addition to having a profile on LinkedIn, she had posted three photos on Facebook - a vacation photo on a boat (her dark hair pushed back with sunglasses), a photograph of a tropical drink (served in a coconut and decorated with an orchid) and her profile photo (another vacation shot, this one at a zoon.) She was fifteen years younger than me, but not a younger version of me. We looked like the opposite of each other, in height, coloring, style.  I thought, he wants something different.

...

I had not reached out to the woman or her husband since the night of the voicemail and the ambulance. Her husband didn't text me or call me again either. An older friend, a lawyer, advised me against any contact.  He said, "It will become messy very quickly, and it will only lead to more misery. It could also, possible, make you look bad in front of a judge when you divorce."  His advice felt like a clear, defined path, one that felt dignified... "

Very many podcasts discuss this book. Here is one that focuses on the financial aspects" called

Thee Wall Street Skinny Ex-Morgan Stanley Bankers: "Strangers" by Belle Burden our HOT TAKE on the Real Finances

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BOUNTY

 

A GUSHING LETTER FROM PRINCE EDWARD ALBERT TO FREDA DUDLEY WARD IS FOUND

DAILY MAIL : GUSHING LOVE LETTER FOUND  and up for auction.

See what you think of this letter that was written when the future King was only twenty-five years old!

When is the last time you wrote and sent a love letter? Leave me a comment!

AFTER ALL THOSE YEARS AND ALL THAT INTENSITY THEY DID BREAK UP FOR GOOD : FREDA DUDLEY WARD AND PRINCE EDWARD ALBERT

Dear Readers, I don't know if you've ever been obsessed with someone or someone has been obsessed with you, but I just don't think of relationships like the Prince had with Freda or she him as at all healthy.

Excerpt page 378-379/1074 e-book: For years Duddie (William  Dudley Ward), Michael, Freda, and the prince were locked in a toxic cycle that made none of them happy. the prince continued to be away often.  In 1924 and 1925 he toured America, South Africa, and South America  Since 1915 less than a third of his life had been spent in England, and such long absences were difficult for Freda and Edward.

***

Freda stopped writing to him while he was on tour in South Africa. Michael got blamed. But he already had another woman writing to him, another mistress named Audrey Coats.  (She was not a challenge and bored him.) Freda felt trapped in her marriage and was depressed, wondering which of her lovers she should choose. Her parents did not approve of the way she had lived her life. ...  Perhaps Edward was actually obsessed with himself!

In 1927 the Prince, though he had Audrey also as a mistress, and also married, was still in love with Freda. Audrey's husband died and was available to be remarried but not to the Prince. She eventually married in 1930 to an American, Marshall Field III of the Chicago department store family and moved to New York!  

Freda also had an affair that year with a rich American, the heir to the Wanamaker department stores! Michael thought she was being cruel to him.  And on it went.  Then Freda did divorce but it made no difference. She and the Prince had always known they could not marry. 

What happened was Thelma Morgan Furness.

For all the intensity and all the years that Freda and the Prince were involved with each other, they finally let go. I can't help but wonder what would have happened if they had wisely done so years earlier.  Breaking up is hard to do, and reading this account, it sounded like torture to me.

I ask YOU, if you've ever been locked into a relationship that should have ended years before!

Missy

GARNERING

 

AN EXTENDED TOUR MEANS THAT FREDA DUDLEY WARD AND PRINCE EDWARD ALBERT MUST BE APART: HE WAS MORE IN LOVE WITH HER THAN SHE WITH HIM

In March of 1920, after the war had ended, Edward was sent on a 7 month tour of Australia and New Zealand. Parting was sweet sorrow and may have made his love for Freda stronger. He continued to depend on her letters to lift his spirits. He also hoped she might be pregnant with his child. Possibly the prince was not able to beget a child. And one does wonder if she had any desire to have another child at all, let alone with a man she could never marry. Even if she was widowed, rather than divorced, there would have been objections to her becoming his wife and eventual Queen.

Excerpt page 287/1074 e-book : Separated from the flesh-and-blood Freda, he idolized her; she became his Madonna or goddess whom he worshipped. ...

Excerpt page 289/1074 e-book:  Edward believed  that Freda was good for him. He claimed that she had set him high standards that he tried to live up to. In both his private and public life. She had made him more of a man and less of a boy. He wrote to her that if only they could live together, "I would become of some use perhaps and have a will of my own and be strong!'...

*****

Back at the palace, the King and Queen - and his brother Bertie - who would eventually take the throne after he abdicated - were concerned that Prince Edward Albert continue to be groomed for his eventual role as King and they wanted him to break with Freda. Freda knew it and believed she should let him go but he wouldn't allow it.

Excerpt page303/1074 e-book:  As with Wallis during the abdication crisis, Edward just would not let Freda go, and bit by bit he eroded her resolve. He used every form of emotional blackmail he could muster....

*****

Back from the tour he wanted to spend every moment with Freda. They tried to be 'just friends' but the passion and love was too strong.  Maybe Freda was tiring of his devotion, for she went ahead and had an intense affair, beginning in 1918, with a man named Michael Herbert, a rich banker with a high status in society, a good reputation and connections and had also fought in World War I. Throughout the 1920's she continued have both lovers. It would seem Michael Herbert was as obsessed with her as the Prince. The two men knew of each other, were jealous of each other, and Freda juggled them, prioritizing the Prince when he was not away on a tour. 

Michael wanted to marry Freda and in 1922 there was talk of the Dudley's divorcing.  But she decided against it because the law at the time was such that she might loose custody of her daughters. Divorces were rare, there was a stigma to it and consequences. 

The Prince had many affairs including with women who were in Freda's social circle. It was clear that these relationships were becoming impossible.

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PRINCE EDWARD ALBERT - FREDA DUDLEY WARD - HER HUSBAND - HER CHILDREN : BUT WHO KNEW THE RELATIONSHIP WAS SO CLOSE?

I suppose when your wife is the most desired woman by a Royal person, especially a Prince who will be King, there is not much you can say.  At least in this case William Dudley Ward wasn't sent away. Freda and William had two daughters before Freda had her affair with Prince Edward, and besides feeling comfortable in the home she made for them, he also reportedly adored the daughters. The four of them had fun together and the children called him Little Prince and were taught to think of as an uncle.

In this passage from Rachel Trethewey's book we learn that he was taking the role of husband and father.

Excerpt Page 263-264/1074 e-book : 

When they were together Edward and Freda created a happy environment for the girls. They never rowed; Freda told an interviewer that he was the gentlest, kindest, most thoughtful man imaginable.  Angie (one of the daughters) recalled how the heir to the throne always gave in to her mother; if she made a proposal to him he would reply, 'Anything to please, anything to please.' Freda explained that if she asked him for anything he was very generous and would give it to her immediately.  However, unlike Wallis (Simpson - the woman he would eventually marry and give up the throne for) she never exploited his generosity. He brought her gifts back from his tours and sent her sentimental presents, but there is no record of him giving her priceless jewelry. Freda used her power over him more for other people's benefit than her own. She once asked him to bail out a friend of hers, who was heavily in debt for several thousand pounds. The prince immediately wrote out a cheque without asking any questions.

*****

Much of London Society knew. His parents, the King and Queen did not.  At one point Prince Edward Albert wanted his siblings to meet Freda. The newspapers didn't report it thought the government knew.  Though they were seen golfing or going to the horse races together, and acted as if they were a married couple, it took a while for the King and Queen to hear rumors that their son was involved with a married woman who he could never marry.

Excerpt page 267-268/1074 e-book:

When his parents eventually asked the prince about his new relationship, he denied it, saying that he did not know Freda better than anyone else. When they later learned the truth they were horrified. The king snobbishly dubbed Freda 'the lace-maker's daughter.'  When Freda's friends heard about this comment they made a joke if it and started calling her 'Miss Loom.' after the weaver's daughter in the card game Happy Families.  Freda knew that the king and queen regarded her as 'a scarlet woman'. She believed that they were always pushing the prince to marry someone of his own rank.

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FREDA DUDLEY WARD AND PRINCE EDWARD ALBERT : REAL FRIENDSHIP

Excerpt page 225/1074 e-book : Freda felt secure in Edward's affections because she knew that she had a powerful hold over him Her power was emotional as much as sexual; increasingly she was not just the prince's lover, she was his confidante and he relied on her for advice  His letters refer to the pleasures of talking to her more often than they mention their sexual encounters. He described her as a real friend to whom he could say anything he felt. He become depressed and anxious if he could not unburden his soul to her regularly....

*****

Was the prince immature and needy as the author, Rachel Trethewey suggests, mentioning that he sometimes baby talked?  Leave me a comment!

Excerpt page 229/1074 e-book:  Freda had a deep understanding of her lover's psychology. Edward soon trusted his mistress enough to be totally honest with her about every aspect of his existence.

*****

Apparently in his letters Prince Edward Albert, who was destined to be the King of England, like some of the other royal men I've written about here at MISTRESS MANIFESTO, revealed that he wasn't especially ambitious to be a King and had doubts about the monarchy, thinking it was out of date. He thought of Windsor as a prison and he soon managed to get a house of his own, York House, where he could spend less time with them. Still, he had promised his father that he would take his place and preserve it, especially because the World War I, then called The Great War, had stirred up a fear of Bolshevism,a revolutionary socialist political ideology and system introduced by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Party in Russia.  It would seem that the man who eventually gave up his throne might not have wanted it much all along.

*****

I can't help but think of present-day Great Britain, and the questions about the future of the monarchy there. I think about King Charles III and the task at hand to modernize it.  

Missy

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RICH

 

WORLD WAR I EFFECTS THE RELATIONSHIP OF PRINCE EDWARD ALBERT AND FREDA DUDLEY WARD : PASSIONATE LETTERS

The Prince and Freda seemed to at once feel comfortable with each other and as if they knew each other and that they had common interests and sensibilities.  That says a lot. Soon they were meeting regularly for trysts. Apparently they were also compatible in that way.  His passion for her was considered to be "all consuming"

Excerpt page 217/1074 e-book : If they were apart he would phone her four and five times a night and he would be bereft if she was not in.

*****

Missy here!  I have to wonder if she knew that not being available all the time would keep him interested or if she was simply busy with her own life. Something about Freda gives me the impression that she knew she did need to have a life that was all her own, that didn't always include him.That she had other affairs over the years gives me that impression.

World War I was ongoing and the Prince's father didn't want him having a good time in London, and sent him to Italy, so he wasn't exactly easily available to her either. The intense bombardment of letters continued.

Excerpt page 218-220/1074 e-book:  Once in Italy at the end of March (1918) the prince bombarded Freda with dozens of letters written to "'My Angel' and signed with 'tons and tons of love from your EA. Many were written late at night as he sat in his room trying to recreate her essence by putting some drops of her scent, 'Royal Briar,' on his handkerchief.  He would look at her photograph, which was kept in a little leather frame by his bed when it was not in his picket, and kiss it  He told her that thinking of her made him feel 'fearfully naughty,.' To conjure u their time together he would smoke a cigarette and play their special tunes, 'Have a Heart' and 'The Little Cottage' on his gramophone It was as though he could only go to sleep once he had jotted down his every thought and experience and shared it with her. His letters were often in pencil and full of spelling and grammatical errors. .....

The prince told his mistress that her letters were the only joy of his dull existence, but it also seems that Freda was not so single0minded. She was working with a Voluntary Aid Detachment, nursing at a hospital in Ascot and then Windsor.

*****

It's been a long time since I had a letter writing relationship, but I believe in letters. Today I suppose the Prince might be texting with her or calling her several times a day on his cell phone.

Missy

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PRINCE EDWARD PURSUED THE MARRIED BUT LONELY AND BORED FREDA DUDLEY WARD PASSIONATLEY and DISCREETLY

Before her 19th birthday, Winifred Mary Birkin married William Dudley Ward.  She had been expelled from a private girl's boarding school for climbing over a fence with some friends to go to the horse races at Ascot.  (!) These were the days when aristocratic young women were educated but not so intellectually. Her mother was American and she went on a vacation to American by steamship to visit her mother's relatives. Onboard she met William.  He was sixteen years older than she, but handsome, athletic and after years of bachelorhood, they had what is described as a whirlwind of a romance.  Maybe he need to get married because he soon entered politics. (Shades of John F. Kennedy and Jackie Bouvier?) While Freda's family had money, the marriage elevated her into London society and close to the Royal Family.

Excerpt page 212/1074 e-book : However, by the time the Freda met the prince her marriage was already under strain.  .... With her husband spending late nights in parliament, Freda was bored and soon found new ways of amusing herself.

Her marriage did not prevent her relationship with the price developing rapidly. After their first encounter, Edward (the Prince) wrote to 'Mrs. Dudley Ward' at Lowndes Square proposing another meeting. This caused some confusion with her mother-in-law at the time  The older woman opened the letter and thought that the price wanted to visit her.  Mrs. Dudley Ward Senior invited Edward to tea, which was not quite the assignation he had hoped for. However, this was only a temporary setback and nothing would deter the prince from being with Freda...For Freda, having the most eligible bachelor in the world chasing after her must have been intoxicating.  His charm was legendary. ...

Excerpt page 213/1074 : The besotted couple found ways to be together almost every day.  Their relationship soon became the talk of society.

*****

Like other couples in the same ah - predicament - the homes of friends became the places the two could meet and carry out their relationship without being detected. This included the home of one of her husband's sisters.

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WINDSOR

 

WINIFRED MAY BIRKIN = FREDA DUDLEY WARD : SIXTEEN YEARS AS THE ACKNOWLEDGED MISTRESS OF PRINCE EDWARD ALBERT : HER STORYTELLING AND SENSE OF HUMOR LEAD TO A VIBRANT SOCIAL LIFE

My coverage of  "Mrs. Freda Dudley Ward" - I have rarely heard her name without the Mrs. when it comes to the Prince - comes primarily from this book, which also includes other loves, pre-Wallis Simpson, whom Edward VIII married, and then. The story of the King who gave up his throne rather than not marry an American divorcee is forever fascinating. (Shades of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan?) First there was Rosemary, then Freda, then Thelma, and then Wallis. For the Prince there were probably others before his marriage.

Freda and the then Prince Edward Albert, Prince of Wales, were involved for about sixteen years, beginning in 1918. That is one long relationship but she/they were so discreet the public didn't know. Their relationship was an open secret to society though and, as has been the case with other Royal Mistresses I've profiled here, her husband could not have not known. She was already married to William Dudley Ward and had two daughters when she and the Prince met. William was a much older man and was used to a lifestyle that included having affairs.  Marriage didn't tame him.  And so it would seem that, like other husbands whose wives become Royal Mistresses, he didn't mind and if he did, well -

The Prince, as described here, was obsessively in love with Freda, however, their relationship was one in which both knew that they could never marry. They also both knew that he must marry. Were they both faithful to each other? No!  A surprise for me was learning that actually their relationship became a Triad. It wasn't just the adultery; Freda and her husband and the Prince. It was also that Freda had a relationship with a man named Michael and so it became Freda and Michael and the Prince.

Now, I usually like to excerpt from the books I read cover to cover, focusing on information that I think is most essential to further the story and meet my reader's interest. But I have to tell you that I read this one as an e-book, so when I excerpt the page numbers will be the e-book and not the hardback. It's always my hope that my curation of books on a subject and the choice of a book or books or other media will encourage my readers to also get the book and read it from cover to cover. 

FREDA DUDLEY WARD

Image from Wikimedia - Public Domain 

1894-1983

Name at birth WINIFRED MAY BIRKIN

Name at marriage FREDA DUDLEY WARD 

(Wife of WILLIAM DUDLY WARD from 1913-1931 divorced.)

Name at second marriage WINIFRED MAY MONES, MARQUESA DE CASA MAURY 

(Married the Cuban-born businessman in 1937; they divorced in 1954.)

*******

Freda and the Prince kept an earnest correspondence and circa 1918 he would also telephone her four or five times a night. His father King George didn't want his son, who was not going to enter the Great War in the military out of London, so he was sent to Italy:

*****

Excerpt page e-book 218-222/1074 : 

Once in Italy at the end of March, the prince bombarded Freda with dozens of letters written to "My Angel" and signed with "tons and tons of love from your E.  Many were written late at night, as he sat in his room trying to recreate her essence by putting some drops of her scent, "Royal Briar", on his handkerchief. He would look at her photograph, which was kept in a little leather frame by his bed when it was not in his pocket, and kiss it. He told her that thinking of her made him feel "Fearfully naughty." To conjure up their time together he would smoke a cigarette and play their special tunes "Have a Heart' and 'The Little Cottage' on his gramophone. It was as though he could only go to sleep once he had jotted down his every thought and experience and shared it with her. His letters were often in pencil and full of spelling and grammatical errors. At first the notes were littered with swear words, but it seems that Freda told him off, so he tried to stop using bad language in correspondence with her.  However, he continued to send her puerile jokes and rhymes which he thought might amuse her.

The prince told his mistress that her letters were the only joy of his dull existence, but it seems that Freda was not so single minded. She was working with a Voluntary Aid Detachments, nursing at a hospital in Ascot and then in Windsor.  There was a photo of the Prince of Wales hung u in the ward where she worked scrubbing floors, and she looked at it occasionally. While Edward was away she had a brief fling with Captain Reginald Seymour, great grandson of the Marquess of Hertford. ....

Freda was equally worldly-wise, and she did not show any concern when the prince admitted to flirtations with other women. While in Rome in May 1918 he attended a party where he misbehaved with some attractive VADs. As was to become his habit, he half confessed to Freda about these incidents but played them down, perhaps partly to salve his conscience while making her jealous or 'thulky' (as they called it in their baby talk). He promised to never to lie to her again and told her : 'I just "grovel" at my idol's feet asking forgiveness.'

Shall we begin?

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WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE KEPT? A COURTESAN? A MISTRESS? TO HAVE A HIGH COURTESAN ASPECT TO YOUR PERSONALITY?

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE KEPT?  A COURTESAN?  A MISTRESS?  TO HAVE A HIGH COURTESAN ASPECT TO YOUR PERSONALITY?  MISSY SPEAKS!

When you write a blog called Mistress Manifesto for several years as I've been doing, you wrangle with the question of what it means to be Kept, or what if any difference there is between a Courtesan and a Mistress!  When I profile Dally the Tall I have no doubt that she was a Courtesan because of the times that she lived in as well as the high art of her presentation and personality and the limitations of her ambitions. 

In other cases I'm not so sure.

Of the three words, I think the one the media overuses and uses incorrectly is Mistress.  A woman in any old affair, even if it was just one night, can be called a Mistress in the media if the man she's involved with is married. (For instance, I don't think the once playful Monica Lewinsky was ever President Bill Clinton's mistress and I would never apply that word to Marilyn Monroe, as confused as she was, though I think both women had a high courtesan aspect to their personalities.) Now that there are so many people who consider themselves committed living apart or who never marry legally, the question of ADULTERY as a key to Mistresshood doesn't count so much. Some relationships are so OPEN that Mistressing seems to be downright OLD FASHIONED, what with all that sneaking around!

Mistress is also used to imply that a person is a dominatrix, or at least powerful in the classroom as a teacher or as the owner of independent estate. I'm sure some people have been looking for a dominatrix when they happened upon my blog! I note that in this case the MISTRESS IS POWERFUL and IN CHARGE. Since so many women are not powerful or in charge this mistress can become quite the fantasy for women, especially because she does this and is still feminine though not weak.

So then we look at what it means to be KEPT and that word seems to imply CONCUBINAGE!  When we say someone is KEPT there are always financial implications, like that the person does not work for pay at anything and are totally dependent on someone else for their needs. It is the financial evidence that we are looking for and it's the financial evidence that makes the news and pushes previously low key mistresses into the public eye.

This one is tricky too because not so long ago most MARRIED WOMEN WERE KEPT WOMEN.  They stayed in the home and were "home-makers" or their work was as mothers and wives but they did not go out and earn any pay.  As married women they were respected for this, even honored.  These days most women work or if they are living off savings, an inheritance, or unexpected windfall, they write a novel or do volunteer work.  These days most women do not want to ask a husband for money to buy everything they want or need. They don't want to go behind his back or be tricky to buy a new dress.  They are almost embarrassed to let a man pay for everything on a date.  They are trying to prove to a man that they do not need him or that they are not less than him, at least not less than him financially.  "I don't need you!" she seems to be saying.

With the financial dependence most often for women that means she is COMMITTED TO HIM and their RELATIONSHIP even if he is not so much to her.  Such a woman may decide to not date others or have sex with others even when he has not given her such a commitment.  (It is my suspicion that this was the case with poor L'Wren Scott.)

The ability to admit to need and the willingness to allow someone else to help them financially without embarrassment or apology is where today's Kept Woman or Mistress or Courtesan prevails. This is also an old fashioned aspect of relationship with so much opportunity for independence today. It can even be an act of great self esteem and self acceptance to admit to someone that yes you can accept their generosity and no you are not an opportunist or user. You will really appreciate it.  And do well with it.

Another way to find meaning in these words is in the personality of a person.

What does it mean to have a High Courtesan Aspect to your personality? 

Why are people who have this so appealing to other people? 

Well, people with this aspect to their personality know how to have fun. They can be silly or sweet. They can be childlike and have wonder about the world even as they get older and older. They know how to seize the moment or the day. They see the beauty in things and they make themselves and their surroundings beautiful. They are apt to be a little too forgiving and to make excuses for people and to keep things light. This light heartedness is contagious. They are apt to see the glass half full rather than half empty. They can't stay mad for too long.  They give perceptive and sincere compliments. 

There is a certain happiness to being able to make do, to invent. Even when they can't afford a decorator their pillows are fluffed and there are guest soaps in the bathroom.

When things are going badly they get up and do the next day anyway, because they have faith that change is inevitable but it will all turn out well enough. 

Often they are the ones who make things happen for others, the job interviews, the dinner parties, the group to the opera, the event at the museum, or the little gift they picked up for you at a garage sale that is just perfect!

Missy

C 2012 - 2026  Missy Rapport/ Mistress Manifestto.blogspot.com  2014  All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights   First published June 24, 2014

OPALESCENT

 

CLARA KIMBALL YOUNG : WOMEN FILM PIONEERS PROJECT AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY : THE SECOND WOMAN AFTER MARY PICKFORD TO FOUND HER OWN MOVIE PRODUCTION COMPANY

Karen Ward Mahar is the author of this page that honors Clara Kimball Young. Her research includes reading Moving Picture World articles that include her business dealings through her own Film Corporation.  The excerpt I've chosen focuses on Lewis J. Selznick's role in her life but Clara was married to James Young, and then Harry Garson, during the years in which she was also in one way or another involved with Lewis Selznick. Mahar questions just how involved Clara was when it came to producing films. Her company released four films but, sadly, it was reported that she wanted out because he dominated.

Excerpt: Young was World Film Corporation’s biggest star. When financial trouble in the spring of 1916 caused the firm to reorganize, Selznick left to create his own production company, taking Clara Kimball Young with him (Lewis 45). It was at this juncture that Selznick created the Clara Kimball Young Film Corporation, naming Young, allegedly at her request, as its vice president and treasurer (1761). Four features produced by the Clara Kimball Young Film Corporation were released between October 1916 and April 1917: The Common Law (1916), The Foolish Virgin (1916), The Price She Paid (1917), and The Easiest Way (1917).

Did Clara Kimball Young actively coproduce these films? Apparently she did not. In June 1917, Young sued Selznick, claiming that although she was named vice president and treasurer, “Selznick dominated and controlled the film corporation… and she had no voice whatsoever in its affairs and was permitted to perform none of the positions held by her” . A week later Selznick countersued, claiming that Young received a $1,000 a week salary and advances of $25,000, “for which she is alleged to have rendered no services whatsoever.” And it appeared that Clara Kimball Young’s new love interest was even more troublesome from Selznick’s point of view. Selznick claimed that Young pressured the corporation to elect her companion Harry A. Garson to the board of directors, and that since then she “has followed his advice in all matters relating to business relations with the corporation and that she is now carrying on negotiations to appear in films under his direction.” Since Young’s agreement with Selznick was not due to expire until 1921, leaving to make films with Garson would constitute breach of contract.

One month after news of the Young-Selznick suit hit the presses, a “New C. K. Young Company” was announced. Did Young leave one Svengali (Selznick) for another (Garson)? On July 7, 1917, the Moving Picture World announced that “Clara Kimball Young has finally realized her ambition to become head of her own producing company.”

Read more at the link!

I find it interesting that there has not been any biography written about Clara Kimball Young and I wonder if there were writers out there who thought of it but were afraid to be associated with her due to the power of the likes of Selznick.  At the end of the article she is quoted as no longer wanting to live in the past - the Silent Screen era.

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ROOTED

 

CLARA KIMBALL YOUNG : AMERICA'S FIRST FIRST LADY OF THE SCREEN BY GRETA DE GROAT - STANFORD UNIVERSITY

My research suggested that Greta De Groat was a primary modern researcher and writer about Clara Kimball Young. I found her page on a Stanford University website. I'll focus on the chapter called Enter Louis Selznick:

STANFORD : DE GROAT : CLARA KIMBALL YOUNG

Excerpt: Louis Selznick, an ambitious producer with an ultimately fatal habit of antagonizing powerful business rivals, saw a potential goldmine in Young. He signed her 1914 and immediately starred her as Lola, a woman who is transformed from a respectable young woman into a vamp who heartlessly destroys men after her dead body is resurrected without a soul. This was another hit which cemented Clara Kimball Young's position as a top star and James Young as a sought-after director. She was now one of the chief attractions of World Film Corporation, for which Selznick had become the vice president.

Meanwhile, Selznick and Young's personal lives were becoming intertwined. Mabel Normand later recalled James Young on the set in 1915, head in hands, saying "where I made my mistake was in ever inviting that fellow to the house." Selznick's wife had to endure the humiliation of escorting Clara to public events to squelch rumors, which apparently fooled no one. James Young ceased directing her films after The Heart of Blue Ridge (1915), and in 1916 sued Selznick for alienation of affection. Clara counter sued charging cruelty, and Selznick replied that the marriage was already in trouble before his appearance. James Young finally obtained a final decree on April 8, 1919, on grounds of desertion.

Excerpt: In February 1916, Selznick was ousted from World, but he had a surprise up his sleeve. As it happened, Clara Kimball Young was under contract, not to World, but personally to Selznick. His rivals had rid themselves not only of Selznick, but also of their most popular star. Within months World was reissuing most of her films.

Selznick lost no time in forming the Clara Kimball Young Film Corporation, with himself as president, and formed Selznick Productions to distribute her films and those of some other independent producers.

C 2026

Note that De Groat lists a good number of references and is open to new information about Clara. I checked Google Books for mentions of Clara and her name brings up mentions in movie business and fan type publications. 

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CLARA KIMBALL YOUNG : SHE KEPT A DIARY FOR SEVERAL MONTHS IN THE YEAR 1921

Wow! There's a web site called DIARY FILE... And it's dedicated to preserving though digitalization, historical diaries and letters. 

Excerpt: At the time of the diary, she was thirty years old and actively shooting several films per year.  

DIARY FILE : CLARA KIMBALL YOUNG

Excerpt (Quoting from the diary itself, thus this was written by Clara herself.) about loosing weight.

With jockeys, show girls and movie stars, and light weight boxers, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness becomes a mere question of yielding to Shylock his pound of flesh. They are habitual defendants in the Court of Public Favor, charged with the heinous offense of overweight and, if judged guilty, they must pay the forfeit in flesh or retire from the limelight. No Party arises to plead on their behalf. “The Law allows it, and the court awards it.”

Read on!  In these excerpts Clara mentions filming with Harry Garson who she's involved with and who is directing her in a movie, as well as a good party at the Ambassador Hotel.

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WHIPLASH CURVE

 

CLARA KIMBALL YOUNG IN THE MOVIE "KEPT HUSBANDS"

I was thrilled to find the full silent film entitled Kept Husbands which Clara Kimball Young starred in, which was posted by a YouTube station called The Film Detective. It's a story about the rich and the poor, and in the end the woman who started out poor returns to her steelworker husband.

 

Why is it that "Kept" is a term used about mistresses, women who are supported by men they are not married to, while "Kept" is not used for a wife who is entirely dependent on her husband for financial support?  A stay-at-home wife and mother - a 'homemaker' - a woman who is entirely dependent on her husband, is honored. It's tradition. It's conservative.  And today, it's rare to be either!

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MORE

 

CLARA KIMBALL YOUNG : REDUCED TO SELLING HER JEWELRY : LEWIS SZELNICK WASN'T HAPPY WHEN FELL FOR HARRY GARSON and MARRIED HIM

Excerpt from the book : In this book author Axel Madsen writes that actress Gloria Swanson, married to Herbert Somborn of Equity Pictures, and actor Rudolph Valentino were friends. Two years earlier, in 1919, he had made the movie Eyes of Youth with Clara Kimball Young.  

Here's a clip from the movie from a YouTube poster Imperio Retro  

Excerpt page 83: Getting to know Valentino was a pleasure for Gloria.  He too, was caught in a miserable marriage. His wife was the dancer Jean Acker. He was an excellent horseman, and on Sunday mornings he and Gloria rode together in the Hollywood Hills. .... They talked about Eyes of Youth, the picture he had made with Clara Kimball Young two years earlier. Rudy felt sorry for Clara. She had been Lewis Selznick's mistress for years.  The reason Selznick had pulled the financial rug from under Equity Pictures * was that Clara had fallen in love with Harry Garson.  It was Garson who had persuaded Clara to produce her own picture. Now she was reduced to selling her jewelry. The Studios wouldn't touch her.

Missy here : It may've been that the increasingly powerful Selznick decided that Clara would "never work in this town again." However, I think we need to look at the changes in the movie making business that effected everyone, from various business deals that eventually lead to larger, more powerful studios that put actors on contract, the Great Depression, and the technology that ended the silent film era in which Clara Kimball Young had found her fame and rapidly moved to movies with sound.

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CLARA KIMBALL YOUNG TALKED MOVIE BUSINESS - IMPRESSED AND INSPIRED GLORIA SWANSON : THEY BOTH ESTABLISHED THEIR OWN MOVIE PRODUCTION COMPANIES

We continue with the entwinned story of Gloria Swanson and Clara Kimball Young.

Excerpt page 70 : (Gloria Swanson had begun her relationship with the man who became her second husband Herbert Somborn and they went out to dinner with Clara Kimball Young.)

Their first dinner with Clara Kimball Young had been an eye-opener for Gloria.  Not only was their hostess a gracious, amusing woman, and her candle-lit dinner for four exquisite; she, Herbert and Harry Garson, the general manager of Equity Pictures (the distribution company for Clara's movies), talked about movies on a level Gloria had never heard before. Clara's story paralleled Gloria's insofar as marriage was concerned. James Young and Clara Kimball, soon to be his bride, had come from a Salt Lake City stock company to appear in Vitagraph pictures, and before long both were making $1000 a week. As with Gloria and Wally (The actor Wallace Beery) problems had started when Young's ascent didn't match his wife's'.  Clara's breakthrough picture had been My Official Wife in 1914, in which Leon Trotsky had been an extra  Success had brought her other offers from Vitagraph's rivals, and she had accepted a contract from World Films, managed by the ambitious Lewis Selznick, who had made her a star in Trilby, Camille, and The Common Law (three movies), sophisticated pictures dealing with feminine martyrdom.  Her women admirers were legion, and here she was talking distribution deals, stock issues, mortgages, and billboards because movies could show cars, clothes, curling irons, whatever, the hostess turned toward Gloria and said, "He's absolutely right,  Don't you think so, Miss Swanson?"

Gloria Swanson went on to marry Herbert Somborn and have a daughter with him, but the marriage ended badly. She'd decided for Somborn and gave up Marshall "Mickey" Neilan. Mickey had directed Clara Kimball Young for a Harry Garson tear jerker. (Clara married Garson eventually.)

Excerpt page 73 :

For Gloria, the (her) marriage became a cram course in economics and contract law... Persistent long-distance phone calls during the Alexandra suite honeymoon had forced Herbert to admit he was, momentarily, in some difficulty. For different reasons, Selznick and Powers had turned against Equity pictures. Selznick, who was worth sixty million dollars, lived in a seventeen-room Park Avenue apartment, and made fifty films a years, was in a new scrap with his rivals. To make sure they rented all their movies, regardless of quality, film companies resorted to 'block booking." In order to get pictures with big box-office stars, theater owners had to accept a block of less profitable moves. New, Selznick was breaking away from the practice and offering the new Clara Kimball Young features separately at considerably higher rentals. They made everybody else less saleable suffer, and Selznick's relations with his rivals were at a low point. Exhibitors didn't want to be caught in any high-power crossfire and simply refused to book Eyes of Youth.

*** Because Gloria saw how Clara had been treated after breaking from the then-existing Studio System she was a bit afraid to found her own company.

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GATHERED

 

CLARA KIMBALL YOUNG : PROLIFIC ACTRESS - SECOND TO FOUND HER OWN "NAMESAKE" MOVIE PRODUCTION COMPANY : MISTRESS OF LEWIS J. SELZNICK

 

Clara Kimball Young as painted by Rolf Armstrong.

Cover of May1920 Photoplay Magazine. Also appeared in Motion Picture news same month.

CLARA KIMBALL YOUNG

Clarisa Kimball

Edith Matilda Clara Kimball

1890 - 1960

Axel Madsens book about Gloria Swanson and Joseph P. Kennedy lead me to Clara Kimball Young, who I'd never heard of before. Though I found some information about her in his book, for this month's reportage about this famous Hollywood Silent Screen Era actress, I had to do further research.

Clara Kimball Young began her stage acting career as a three-year-old child who toured with her parents who were also actors and grew up on the road. Clara Kimball came by her name Clara Kimball Young name through a first marriage, in 1910, when she was about 20, to James Young, an actor who'd appeared on Broadway and director who is said to have launched her career. They were both signed by one of those upstart movie making companies, The Vitagraph Company of America, in 1912. So maybe it was that company that launched both of their careers. She appeared in more than 150 films, beginning in 1909,  mostly in the silent film era, before her screen retirement in 1943. She was at the peak of her fame from 1915-1917 according to polls that were taken in those years.

Perhaps we will never know exactly how it began or when, but Clara became involved with Lewis Selznick in business and personally. Film making and distribution early on emerged from a number of upstart companies that competed, but also sometimes bought each other out or made deals. A company called the World Film Corporation was established in 1914 by Selznick and a partner. World Film Corporation distributed independently produced films (the term independently fits the efforts of so many of those upstarts) and had offices in New York City. It became the company that distributed the movies that starred Clara Kimball Young. 

Today she is honored as a pioneering woman in Hollywood not only because she acted in so many mostly silent films and was considered to be the most popular actress of 1914 but because she was the second woman to found her own namesake production company, second only to Mary Pickford. (Pickford, with a group of others who called themselves United Artists.) Her company, the Clara Kimball Film Corporation, was established in 1916, at that peak in her fame. Selznick partnered with her on that project.

Lewis J. Selznick is one of the early shakers-and-movers of the early years of Hollywood, one of several men of Jewish eastern-European heritage who came to America seeking a new way of life and a fortune. Born in 1870 of Russian-Jewish heritage, he was about twenty years older than Clara. At the age of 26, he had married Florence Sachs, with whom he had four children. (One of them, David, followed his father into the movie business and is renown in his own right.) Initially settling in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, he owned jewelry stores. He retained them when he got involved in the movie business, and apparently he gifted Clara with jewelry quite a bit. For when it was over between them, when she was 'ruined' by him, it was said that she was reduced to selling her jewelry.

Something to be careful with, I think, is the way a woman's will to independence or to have a business in which she can earn more money, might be attributed to a man or men in her life.  In those times this was, unfortunately, often enough true. I feel sure that there were some people who thought she was daring for even considering having her own Production Company.

Apparently, while married to James Young, she was already involved with Lewis Selznick, for a passage from Madsen's book, which I'll soon post, is that she fell in love with a co-star, Harry Garson, and out of jealousy Selznick revenged. (But the book doesn't say that she married Garson! - Which she did in 1920.) Garson was an actor but also a film producer and director. The implication is that she ended her marriage with first husband James Young to be with Garson, and therefore, that she saw no point in continuing with Selznick, if ever there had been a chance he would leave his wife and their family to marry her. 

Another take on this, and perhaps her personal life was this complicated, is that her relationship with Selznick was considered to be volatile and the cause of her first divorce, as, according to the Turner Classic Movies Fan site dedicated to her, "She became involved in a much publicized affair with Selznick, culminating in a 1916 divorce suit accusing her of alienation of affection. James Young finally obtained a final decree on April 8, 1919 on grounds of desertion." (But she marred Garson and stayed married to him until 1927.)

Clara's third marriage in 1928 was to Dr. Arthur Fauman. They stayed married until his death in 1937. Widowed at 57 years old, Clara didn't remarry again. She had never had any children.

Or did she?

I tried to track this down as to where the information came from, but a Rudolph Valentino fan site called Mad About the Boy on Facebook references an authorized biography. It was written by Joan Wester Anderson and was titled Forever Young: The Life, Loves, and Enduring Faith of a Hollywood Legend and was published in 1999 or 2000. Because Valentino and Clara Kimball Young starred together in a film, there's some interest in her on that fan site. According to that post on the Valentino fan site, to quote:

"During her active career, she was not known to have any children. However, in a 1999 authorized biography, it was confirmed that Young gave birth to a biological daughter, Judith "Judy" Young, on November 6, 1935. The child's father was reportedly actor Clark Gable, with whom Young had a brief affair."

(So she had a child she kept secret though married to Dr. Arthur Fauman?)

"To preserve her public image, Young temporarily placed the baby in an orphanage shortly after birth and initially claimed she had adopted her. Judith later took the last name Lewis after Young married Tom Lewis." 

Tom Lewis?  Did this person mean Lewis Selznick? As Clara did not marry a Tom Lewis...

I tracked the book down and it turned out this was misinformation.  Anderson wrote the book about another actress, Loretta Young!

All right!

Let's look into Clara Kimball Young, who was once one of the most popular actresses of the Hollywood Silent Film era and does have a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame!

Missy

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