Word: drexel
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...beneath a looming portrait of John Pierpont Morgan Sr. stood the firm's traditional spokesman, Partner Thomas Lamont, flanked by Partners George Whitney and Harold Stanley. The newsmen crowded in about the fireplace while Mr. Lamont announced the resignation of three Morgan partners, two partners of Drexel & Co., the Philadelphia affiliate...
Undisciplined, purposeless, irresponsible, the great names in "King Lehr" and the Gilded Age careen from vulgarity to greater vulgarity, while poseurs prey on ignorance and snobbishness, social climbers spend fortunes trying to get accepted. Elizabeth Drexel Lehr fell in love, waited until after her mother's death to plan her divorce. Then her lover died. Harry Lehr had quieted down, showed symptoms of acute melancholia before the War, which finally put an end to his way of life. He grew more & more morose; his mind slowly failed; he became panic-stricken at the thought of his despised wife...
...young widow when Edith Gould introduced her to Harry Symes Lehr, Elizabeth Drexel was amused and entertained by him, found him tactful, with a flair for drawing out unsuspected talents, with an al- most feminine desire to please and say the right thing. Penniless, Lehr was a "little brother of the rich," hobnobbed with Wanamakers, Goulds, Fishes, Astors, Oelrichs. Born in Baltimore, son of a once-wealthy importer, he consciously made entertaining rich people his career. Tom Wanamaker was glad to let him occupy his apartment. Wetzel made his clothes free. Kaskel & Kaskel gave him the latest designs in shirts...
Sentimental, unworldly Elizabeth Drexel was amused and touched when Harry Lehr told her of the difficulties of living by one's wits. Courtship was brief and high-minded, although Elizabeth was hurt that Lehr pressed her for exact details of her fortune, wanted a marriage settlement. She gave him $25,000 a year and expenses. When he took his fiancee to lunch with Mrs. Astor, Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, Mrs. Oelrichs, Mrs. Belmont, they passed judgment on her, told him frankly, "We will make her the fashion. You need have no fear." But on their wedding night he dined alone...
Life in Newport, Saratoga, New York, Paris, was a round of extreme, extravagant, vulgar display, lit occasionally with sulphurous scandals, with conflicts that ended in tragedy or madness. The John Drexels had 26 carriages. Mrs. Drexel had ropes of pearls made into a Sam Brown belt. Moral standards were confused. Once James Van Alen picked up a local charmer and brought her home with him, outraged Newport ladies who broke their engagements for lunch. Mr. Van Alen's strict daughter refused to make the girl welcome, but agreed to lunch with...