Mr. and Mrs. Howell on "Gilligan's Island"

Okay so maybe this isn’t a “great debate” but I would like to hear anybody’s comments here. In your opinion, did Mrs. Howell marry Thurston Howell III for his money?

Why did you post it in Great Debates if you didn’t think it belonged there?

Oh heck no. The former Eunice Wentworth came from money herself, clearly of the same social class as Thurston.

I think this thread will do a it better in Cafe Society.

She married him because he was the voice of Mr Magoo, and she’s a sucker for cartoons.

That and she was looking for a fine studly, much younger thing, being Lovey was a cougar.

I’m thinking if Mr Howell had been into trophy wives, he’d have been shacked up with Ginger and Lovey would have been sharing a hut with Mary Ann.

Ginger would have found Thurston 30 years too young.

The Howells were madly in love.

This. Thurston indicated that Lovey’s family was “loaded.” She also spoke fluent French and Italian, indicating a classical education.

Love is blind, in other words.

Lovey was originally the madam of a high-class call-girl outfit on the Upper East Side. Her personal talents gained the affections of Thurston. Missed by the camera on the TV show were her sessions where she tried to pass on her skills to Ginger and Mary Ann, who never could quite rise to her level.

Because it’s STILL a debate. If people wish to debate this question in Cafe Society, well I have no problem with that. I see some entertaining answers here.

LOL! I guess he preferred Eunice Wentworth over “Charlie.”

After thinking about this a little more, it would not surprise me to learn that the Wentworth fortune was what first captured *Thurston’s *fiduciary interest, and was a major reason for him to propose the merger, um er, marriage.

It certainly appeared to me that Mrs. Howell very much loved Mr. Howell, and as others have said, she had her own money.

I was always under the impression that Thurston Howell III married ‘up’. Not that he was nouveau riche, but he lacked the refinement that Eunice Wentworth did.

According to Wikipedia, Howell was a multibillionaire until the depression. He emerged from it a mere multimillionaire.

Howell made it big in “structured settlements”-he founded JG Wentworth.

I think the real questions are: How many changes of clothing did they bring on a “three-hour tour” – and why in the world were they also carrying several suitcases full of *cash *with them?