He claims to have inherited almost nothing. His mother died in “genteel poverty” in Mexico, having long since divorced Auschinschloss (who then married Jackie O’s mother) and exhausted her inheritances from him and her father. (Vidal and his mother absolutely hated each other, so any estate she had would have gone to his younger half-siblings.) Vidal’s father was a wealthy man (he founded three airlines) but he lived until Vidal was well into middle age and had several other children from subsequent marriages who would have shared any inheritance.
Vidal talks of being broke in the 1950s due to several books flopping in succession and to the insane income tax laws of the time (he claims to have earned $100,000 one year in the early 50s and paid $90,000 in agents fees and income tax). That’s when he went to Hollywood to work as a screenwriter (insert his famous and highly disputed by Charlton Heston Ben Hur gay-subtext anecdote here) for several years strictly to become financially secure.
So- he says he inherited nothing but he’s definitely prone to embellishment. I do know that Howard Austen (his live-in partner for half-a-century) managed his investments full time. (They were apparently never a romantic item- Vidal claims they never had sex.)
Oh i think I actually know this one: Gore’s mother was married to Hugh Auchincloss, and after they divorced Hugh went on to marry Jackie’s mom making them step-siblings. He is a very distant cousin of Al Gore.
According to a bio I read of him since he wasn’t directly related to Auchincloss or the Bouvier/Kennedys he was far less wealthy than his roots would suggest.
Yeah, Elton John spends money like it’s effing water. The Atlanta Urinal-Constipation used to run the occasional oddity of his spending, like how Elton tried to put a $60,000 Range Rover on his AMEX. If I remember the story correctly, the salesman didn’t recognize him and actually laughed at him when he pulled out his card - one of those supposedly super-rare black AMEX cards - but the manager knew who he was (and, one would suppose, the average income of a black AMEX card holder) and gladly swiped Elton’s card. Elton was also famous for spending $200,000 on random shopping sprees at Lenox Square or picking up $8,000 worth of CDs at Tower.
Well, in fairness, $200,000 at Lenox Square is just 8 sweaters at Neiman Marcus and two designer Barbies at FAO Schwartz. (For non-Atlantans, Lenox Square is the mall you have to have a credit check to park at.)
Well, it’s not that posh. Sure it has “ritzy” stores like Needless Markups, Burberry, Crane and Co. and whatnot. But it also has “regular” stores like Macy’s, Eddie Bauer, Abercrombie & Fitch, The Gap abd others. Even Phipps Plaza has places where us regular folk can shop.
Hijacking my own thread, but once I was in Phipps Plaza and a car driven by two Latino fellows stopped me. “Hey man, look what we got…” and they pulled out a McDonald’s sack filled with Tiffany & Co. empty boxes- “you buy your girlfriend something from the pawn shop, put it in this box… she think you got it from Tiffany! You’ll get some poosay! Only $25!”
Had they been $10 I’d have bought one to applaud their initiative and entrepreneurial spirit, but having no girlfriend twasn’t worth it. (I still wonder where they got these- this was clearly the real item and not just a knock off- I wonder if Tiffany’s tosses boxes in their trash cannister?)
He owns a resort and winery in Los Olivos, Santa Barbara County. It seems pretty expensive and that is some very pricy real estate (he apparently owns some 700 acres of vineyards). He was just in the news (maybe last summer) because he was donating a big chunk of land to his neighbors, the Santa Ynez Chumash.
Let me put on my genealogist’s hat here. Jackie would have been Gore Vidal’s step-sister only if Hugh Auchincloss was related by blood to either Jackie or Gore, which he was not.
What i find fascinating are the obituaries that you sometimes see in newspapers…somebody was a leading quarterback for the NY Jets (in the 1960’s) or something like that…and you find out they were broke. The people who have retained their wealth did so because they were smart enought to invest it. If you are suddenly rich, and decide you want a $20 million mansion, you can piss it away faster than spit…maintaining a big estate is one of the worst investments you can make.
I also think that before the residuals were available to actors, most had very little income once they retired.
Course I’d love to see Paris Hilton’s obit (ca 2070): paris Hilton died at the motion pictures actor’s home…her estate totalled $1.76…
When Bud Cort was offered the male lead in Harold & Maude, a fairly low budget movie (with the only big price tag already given to Ruth Gordon), he was offered $60,000 plus 5% of the film. Afraid the film would flop (an 80 year old does it with a 20 year old? Who wants to see that?) he settled for $100,000 and 0%. Bad move: while the film wasn’t a blockbuster, it was a hit and the midnight showings and then subsequent TV and video rights would have earned him millions. Instead he was freeloading off Groucho Marx (courtesy of a friendship with Groucho’s concubine Erin Fleming) and joining cults in the 70s rather than counting his money.
The flip side of this, of course, is Alec Guinness’s brilliant “nah… pay me less but give me some points in the movie” deal for Star Wars that made him probably the richest actor in England. (You can just imagine Rex Harrison kicking himself [or his wife] with “why didn’t I bloody think of that!”.)
> Course I’d love to see Paris Hilton’s obit (ca 2070): paris Hilton died at the
> motion pictures actor’s home…her estate totalled $1.76…
Not likely. Paris Hilton is wealthy, not just rich. All that partying didn’t really cost her that much in comparison to her wealth (and, I suspect, she was comped for things like her clothes, since designers often give clothes to people who will put them into the news spotlight). She and Nicole Richie are being well paid for doing The Simple Life. In some ways, I think of her as someone who is playing a part, as the stupid rich girl who throws away her money. The first thing wealthy people teach their children is “Never touch the principal,” and I suspect that she lives on the interest on her money, not the principal.
Fred MacMurray starred in: Alice Adams** (1935), Trail of the Lonesome Pine* (1936), The Texas Rangers* (1936), Dive Bomber* (1941), Take a Letter, Darling* (1942), Flight for Freedom* (1943), No Time for Love* (1943), Double Indemnity** (1944), The Egg and I* (1947), The Caine Mutiny** (1954), The Rains of Ranchipur* (1955), The Apartment** (1960), The Absent Minded Professor* (1961), Bon Voyage!* (1962), Kisses for My President* (1964), The Happiest Millionaire* (1967).
Oscar nominees.
** Oscar nominees for Best Picture (4).
A greater thing is social revolution, arrest and deportation. (I detest the notions of inherited wealth, though I’ll admit if I had some my views might be different.)
Some odd inheritance trivia about Hollywood stars:
John Wayne (a member of the “rich but not as rich as you’d think he’d be” crowd- he lost a bundle on The Alamo) left an odd will paying his children under 35 an amount equal to $5,000 for each year between their age at his death and 35. Those over 35 received $5,000 each. His will was challenged from several directions (including by his wife, Pilar, from whom he was separated) and probate costs reduced it to less than half of what he left.
Peter Sellers was on his way to amend his will to disinherit his fourth wife, Lynne Frederick, whom he was in the process of divorcing, when he had a fatal heart attack. Consequently she inherited almost his entire estate (worth about $12 million) while his children were given very modest bequests (a few thousand dollars). Lynne Frederick then briefly married David Frost who lived off of Sellers’ fortune with her (she also sued several tabloids and movie studios successfully, adding to it). I’ve never read a nice thing about her and there was actually some comments to the effect of “good” when she died at 40 of alcoholism and drug abuse. I’m not sure who her heirs were or if she left Sellers’ fortune intact.
Bing Crosby left no provision for his children from his first marriage, though this was in part because they had inherited the estate of their mother Dixie Lee.
Alex Haley left one of the most disastrous legal quagmires possible when he died, with an estranged wife not written out of the will and the discovery that there was a lot of property but no cash and lots of debt, etc… It took years to straighten out during which time his property (including his papers for Roots) was sold at auction and ultimately his estate broken even- the sale of property paid his debts with nothing left.
I have heard very mixed reports on Sammy Davis Jr.'s estate; I know that his older children were provided for due to trust funds set up long before his death, but his widow ended up hostessing at a restaurant and there is a rumor his body was exhumed to remove the fortune in jewelry he was wearing. His widow seems to be doing well now (financially and in other ways) so apparently the smoke finally cleared.
If I may hijack this thread for a political comment, the only good reason Paris Hilton exists is as a reminder of why we should never get rid of the estate tax.
Donald Sutherland did something similar with his appearance in Animal House. The way he tells it, they didn’t have the money in the budget to pay him even the per diem that SAG requires and offered him a percentage of the gross instead. Sutherland insisted on the per diem (which was something like a couple hundred dollars at most) and got it. He later figured up that if he’d taken the percentage it’d have yielded something like $60 mill. He’s said that ever since he’s required a percentage, and none of the movies he’s been in have been the hit of that Animal House was.
Similar story with the very first, orginal recording of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” The singers could opt for $250 scale or a percent of the profits. Murray “Judas” Head was the only one to go for the profits. That made him a millionaire the first year, and is still providing royalties.
The cast of The Sound of Music got screwed out of almost all their royalties. When they were getting ready to start production, the producers went around to all the actors individually, and said, “Okay, everyone’s agreed to sign over their rights to royalties for record sales, etc. and if you don’t do it, we’ll get someone to replace you.” Because of an odd quirk, the only royalties the cast gets are from when it’s shown on TV.