Cooper partnered with Howe once again to tell the story of another (once) fabulously wealthy family, the Astors. For the Vanderbilts, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794 - 1877) made the family's initial fortune in the 1800s, from transportation. For the Astors, John Jacob Astor (1763 - 1848) accumulated the family's original wealth in the 1700s and 1800s, from the fur trade and from being a slumlord.
The fur trade
John Jacob Astor was born in Waldorf, Germany in 1763 and arrived in America in 1783. On the voyage over, John Jacob learned he could get rich by buying and selling animal pelts, and all he needed was the fortitude to travel into the wilderness. Astor was enthusiastic, though working with pelts has been described as "repulsive to anyone not used to bad smells, blood, and mess."
"John Jacob Astor
Processing furs is a smelly bloody business
In 1785 Astor married Sarah Todd, and "together they forged an alliance that would become nothing less than a juggernaut." Sarah had a knack for business, and she supported her husband's fur trading trips while she took care of the household and bore eight children.
Sarah Todd Astor
Astor was a shrewd and opportunistic entrepreneur, and he eventually outsourced collecting and trading pelts to become a merchant and real estate mogul. Thus Astor stayed in in New York City while others carried his furs across oceans.
Cooper and Howe include daunting tales of fur trading voyages, like one in which the ship Tonquin put four men into a whaleboat to find a path through breakers, and "within minutes....the ocean swallowed them whole, never to be seen again." Three additional sailors lost their lives before a safe path was finally found.
The ship Tonquin in the breakers
By 1834 Astor was worth $2,000,000, the equivalent of about $72+ million today. John Jacob got out of the fur business and entered the real estate market, buying up properties in New York City. In time Astor would (essentially) become the proxy landlord of crowded slums across Manhattan. These slums housed myriad poor immigrants in unsanitary, crowded, squalid conditions while a river of cash flowed into the Astor family's coffers."
Slums in 19th century New York City
Slum Living in 19th century New York City
Among other things, Astor used some of his fortune to build hotels like the Astor House, which became a cultural touchstone in 19th century America, hosting guests like Edgar Allan Poe, Abraham Lincoln, and Davy Crockett
Astor House Hotel
John Jacob Astor's most civic-minded act was probably his endowment of what is now the New York Public Library: "An institution....where any city resident can obtain a library card, and thus, access to an honest-to-God Gutenberg Bible".....as well as 50 million items (books, music, artworks. movies, etc.)
New York Public Library
When John Jacob Astor died in 1848 he was the richest man in America, worth about $25 million, the equivalent of about $650 million today. Astor left his fortune to his son (and business partner) William Backhouse Astor (1792 - 1875), a rather dull, nondescript fellow, described as "the richest and least attractive young man of his time."
William Backhouse Astor
Nevertheless, William was a shrewd businessman who expanded his father's slumlord enterprises and increased the family's wealth. In 1833, William and his wife, Margaret Armstrong Astor, moved their family to their new house on Lafayette Place in lower Manhattan, where many of the Astor relatives built mansions. A historian notes, "New Yorkers used to drive down Lafayette Place to stare at the mansions and wait for the Astors to come out."
Margaret Armstrong Astor
The home of William and Margaret Astor on Lafayette Place
Though the Astors had vast wealth, they couldn't escape the less savory aspects of New York City. "New York was a crowded, congested, cough-filled, filthy, stinking cesspit of gaping inequality." The city also experienced the Astor Place Riot in 1849 - over rival Shakespearean actors, and the Draft Riots in 1863 - over conscription of soldiers for the Civil War.
New York City Draft Riot in 1863
The Astors had big families, and because money and prestige were involved, there was envy, jealousy, back-biting, rivalry, undermining, etc. among the relatives - who might tussle to have the most elegant hotel; the best home; the highest-ranking position; the finest gala; and so on. Cooper and Howe document some of these occurrences, and it's entertaining to get a peep at the Astors' personal lives.
One of the Astors, William Waldorf (Will) Astor (1848 - 1919), the grandson of William Backhouse Astor, got so dissatisfied with his life in America that he moved to England.
William Waldorf (Will) Astor
Will had an impressive resume: he could speak French, German, and Italian; went to Columbia Law School; and had a job in an Astor enterprise. Will wanted to branch out, so he entered politics and became a state senator. Will's wife was Mary (Mamie) Dahlgren Paul, a pretty socialite from Philadelphia, and the couple had five children.
Mary (Mamie) Dahlgren Paul Astor
Will made two 'mistakes.' First, he urged his wife Mamie to compete with his aunt Caroline for the title of THE Mrs. Astor. Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor (1830 - 1908) defined and dominated New York society during the Gilded Age (1870s - 1890s). In Caroline's view, "Someone had to decide what constituted American taste. Someone had to stand ready to demonstrate that the United States need not be overshadowed by the old societies of Europe." Mamie's attempted coup wasn't successful.
Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor (THE Mrs. Astor)
Will's second mistake was to run for the U.S. House of Representatives. Will was too fastidious to campaign in the slum tenements, and he wore gloves when he deigned to 'press the flesh.' After Will lost the election the newspapers turned on him, one of them writing "The moral is that the possessor of an honored name, of great wealth, of sound ability, and of unexceptionable private character may throw away all these advantages when at a critical moment in his political career he forgets what is due to his constituents as well as to his own independence and self-respect."
Will became bitter and he and Mamie eventually moved to England, where Will desperately sought a title. Will was SUCH a snob that he was an outlier. even in British society. The authors write, "In general, the British aristocracy held its nose and overlooked Will's behavior, which they considered boorish, including his disparaging remarks about Edward's mistress ("royal strumpet"), South Africans, and Jewish people." In any case, Will received a title, and in time became a viscount.
Cooper and Howe write much more about the famous Astor family, whose fabulous wealth ended when socialite Brooke Astor gave most of the family fortune away in 1996, for philanthropic purposes.
Brooke Astor
Sadly, the Astor name was sullied in 2009, when Brooke Astor's son Anthony (Tony) Marshall, was "convicted of tricking his late mother out of millions, and changing her will while the New York City socialite was incompetent and suffering from Alzheimer's in her final years."
Anthony Marshall and his wife Charlene
In addition to the main stories about the Astor family, Cooper and Howe include sketches tangentially related to the narrative, such as the story of a cat burglar called José Hermidez, who targeted the Waldorf Astoria hotel;
Waldorf Astoria Hotel
an anecdote about actress Mary Astor (1906 -1987), who was born Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke and wasn't related to the Astors at all;
Actress Mary Astor
the fact that the Astor Hotel bar was a 'liferaft' for gay men for at least two generations;
Astor Hotel Bar
a discussion of the 1997 movie Titanic, because John Jacob Astor IV (1864 – 1912) was a passenger on the doomed ship; and more.
John Jacob Astor IV
Cooper and Howe provide a fascinating picture of the fabulously wealthy Astors, who - like many such dynasties - got their 'start up' money through less than stellar means. I enjoyed the book, including the side stories, and look forward to more collaborations between the authors.
Rating: 4 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment