The Phantom of Fifth
Avenue is subtitled “The mysterious life and scandalous death of heiress
Huguette Clark.” Huguette Clark died in
2011 at 104 years old. She was born in
1906 and was the daughter of forgotten copper baron, William Andrews
Clark. Clark was at one time the second
richest man in America and was also a Senator for Montana. Huguette was his second daughter by his second
much younger wife, Anna la Chapelle (William Clark was 39 years Anna’s senior).
Huguette Clark became a
fixture of the news when she died as it was discovered that she owned three
apartments on New York’s Fifth Avenue, a 23-acre oceanfront compound in Santa
Barbara California, as well as a country house in Connecticut, none of which
she lived in. Huguette spent the last
twenty years of her life living in a hospital.
After her death there was a fierce battle over her $300 million estate
between her relatives and her late in life caregivers.
Huguette’s life was
fascinating. For a non-fiction book, I
read through it rather quickly and had a hard time putting it down. Huguette has an older sister Andree that died
tragically young. She also had an
ill-fated one year marriage to William MacDonald Gower that ended in
divorce. Her marriage and every move
were reported by the press and one could see why she would want to close
herself away from life and gossip and live a quiet life.
Huguette’s passion in life
was painting and she was a very talented artist. She studied under Tade Styka and was
godmother to his daughter Wanda. As
Huguette aged, she kept in contact with Wanda and her other friends via phone
calls and stopped seeing anyone in person.
The last time she was seen by her relatives was at a funeral in
1968. In one poignant vignette, some of
her family would stand across the street and wave at her apartment when they
were in town.
After being diagnosed
and treated for skin cancer, Huguette entered the hospital and refused to leave
. . . for the next twenty years. This all
seemed very non-ethical to me. The
hospital and staff basically kept her on as she gave them large monetary gifts
and they tried ways to convince her to give them more money. She also hired a private nurse, Hadassah
Peri, who worked 7 days a week, 12 hours a day to be by Huguette’s side for the
remainder of her life. For this service,
Hadassah received $31 million in cash throughout Huguette’s life and was also
named in her will. Also named in the
will were her attorney Wallace Brock and her accountant Irving Kamsler. Not named was her family.
Before Huguette’s
death, some of her relatives started to wonder why they couldn’t see her and
whether she was receiving proper care.
After her death the questions remained, especially on whether their aunt
was being used for her money by those that should have been taking care of her.
Overall, I was saddened
by the fact that Huguette wanted a private life and in death her life is
anything but private. I was also saddened
that almost everyone around her was motivated by her wealth. Although these two points made me sad, her
story was riveting overall. It gives you
a glimpse of the Gilded Age and well as life of a wealthy lady through the
twentieth century. It also has themes of
greed. I highly recommend it.
Book Source: The Kewaunee Public Library
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