Real Lace
Authors: Stephen; Birmingham
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PRAISE FOR THE WRITING OF STEPHEN BIRMINGHAM
The Auerbach Will
A New York Times Bestseller
“Has the magic word âbestseller' written all over it ⦠Birmingham's narrative drive never falters and his characters are utterly convincing.” âJohn Barkham Reviews
“Delicious secretsâscandals, blackmail, affairs, adultery ⦠the gossipy Uptown/Downtown milieu Birmingham knows so well.” â
Kirkus Reviews
“An engrossing family saga.” â
USA Today
“Colorful, riveting, bubbling like champagne.” â
The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Poignant and engrossing ⦠Has all the ingredients for a bestseller.” â
Publishers Weekly
The Rest of Us
A New York Times Bestseller
“Breezy and entertaining, full of gossip and spice!” â
The Washington Post
“Rich anecdotal and dramatic material ⦠Prime social-vaudeville entertainment.” â
Kirkus Reviews
“Wonderful stories ⦠All are interesting and many are truly inspirational.” â
The Dallas Morning News
“Entertaining from first page to last ⦠Those who read it will be better for the experience.” â
Chattanooga Times Free Press
“Birmingham writes with a deft pen and insightful researcher's eye.” â
The Cincinnati Enquirer
“Mixing facts, gossip, and insight ⦠The narrative is engaging.” â
Library Journal
“Immensely readable ⦠Told with a narrative flair certain to win many readers.” â
Publishers Weekly
The Right People
A New York Times Bestseller
“Platinum mounted ⦠The mind boggles.” â
San Francisco Examiner
“To those who say society is dead, Stephen Birmingham offers evidence that it is alive and well.” â
Newsweek
“The games some people play ⦠manners among the moneyed WASPs of America ⦠The best book of its kind.” â
Look
“The beautiful people of
le beau monde
⦠Mrs. Adolf Spreckels with her twenty-five bathrooms ⦠Dorothy Spreckels Munn's chinchilla bedspread ⦠the âSt. Grottlesex Set' of the New England prep schools, sockless in blazers ⦠the clubs ⦠the social sports ⦠love and marriageâwhich seem to be the only aspect which might get grubbier. It's all entertaining.” â
Kirkus Reviews
“It glitters and sparkles.⦠You'll love
The Right People
.” â
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“A âfun' book about America's snobocracy ⦠Rich in curiosa ⦠More entertaining than
Our Crowd
⦠Stephen Birmingham has done a masterly job.” â
Saturday Review
“Take a look at some of his topics: the right prep schools, the coming out party, the social rankings of the various colleges, the Junior League, the ultra-exclusive clubs, the places to live, the places to play, why the rich marry the rich, how they raise their children.⦠This is an âinside' book.” â
The Washington Star
“All the creamy people ⦠The taboo delight of a hidden American aristocracy with all its camouflages stripped away.” âTom Wolfe,
Chicago Sun-Times
The Wrong Kind of Money
“Fast and wonderful. Something for everyone.” â
The Cincinnati Enquirer
“Dark doings in Manhattan castles, done with juicy excess. A titillating novel that reads like a dream. Stunning.” â
Kirkus Reviews
“Birmingham ⦠certainly keeps the pages turning. Fans will feel at home.” â
The Baltimore Sun
Real Lace
America's Irish Rich
Stephen Birmingham
For my father,
Thomas J. Birmingham
Codla saimh dhiubh agus slan libh
CONTENTS
3Â Â Â “Everything but the Light Bulb”
5Â Â Â Mr. McDonnell's Gimmick
6Â Â Â The Greatest Nose Count of Them All
7Â Â Â The Original Butter-and-Egg Man
8Â Â Â The Wedding of the Century
14Â Â And for My Eldest Son, One Set of Pearl Studs
15Â Â The Troubles of One House
16Â Â Why Don't the Nice People Like Us?
19Â Â The Buckleys of “Great Elm”
21Â Â Sons of the Priory, Daughters of the Sacred Heart
23Â Â Problems in the Back Office
FOREWORD
I grew up in a small New England city where Irish Catholics, or those of “Irish extraction,” were not asked to join the country club, and soâbeing of that extraction myselfâI have long been aware of the strong, and at the same time vulnerable, position of the Irish in American life. But more than my own personal experiences and sentiments have gone into the production of this book, and there are a number of people whom I would like to thank for their assistance, insights, impressions, memories, and materials. Most particularly I am grateful to Mr. John Murray Cuddihy of New York for access to his voluminous data on the Murray-Cuddihy-Bradley-McDonnell family complex, as well as for his own considerable researches on the general topic of the Irish in America. I am also indebted to Mr. Cuddihy's wife, Harriet De Haven Cuddihy, for help as well as for hospitality, nor should I overlook the two older Cuddihy children, Heidi and John, whoâdespite the fact that they have a perfect attendance record at their
Episcopalian Sunday school classes at St. Thomas'sâhelped make the many hours I spent in the Cuddihy household researching their Irish Catholic antecedents peaceful and productive.
I am also deeply grateful to Mr. Cuddihy's sister, Mary Jane Cuddihy MacGuire of Ste. Agathe, Quebec, for photographs, family recollections, and guidance in both Church and family matters, and I should also thank the Cuddihys' mother, Mrs. H. Lester Cuddihy, for her help and support. Mrs. Charlotte McDonnell Harris of New York was of great assistance with McDonnell family anecdotes, and Mr. John F. Murray, Jr. of Wainscott, New York, was similarly helpful in terms of his family, the Murrays.
Because many of the Irish families were large, the list of people who have helped me with this book is long, but there are certain individuals to whom I owe a special word of thanks. I would like to thank Mr. and Mrs. Donald W. Marshall of Bedford Hills, New York; Mrs. Alison Murray of Weston, Connecticut; Mr. Clendenin J. Ryan III of Far Hills, New Jersey; Father Regis Ryan, S.J., Mr. J. Patrick Lannan, Miss Mary Pritchard, Miss Martha Butler, Miss Margaret Thalken, Mrs. Marianne Strong, and Miss Julia McCarthy, all of New York, and the Hon. John D. J. Moore of Dublin who, from the outset, took a lively interest in, and encouraged, this project. I would also like to thank Mr. Joseph T. P. Sullivan, President-General of the American Irish Historical Society, for his interest and help. I am grateful to Mrs. Carol Buckley Learsy of New York for permission to quote from letters and memoranda of her late father, William F. Buckley, Sr.; to Father Robert J. Gannon, S.J., for permission to quote from the diaries and letters of the late Francis Cardinal Spellman; and to Mr. William G. Post of Rye, New York, for permission to quote a letter from his grandmother, Emily Post.
A number of authors proved important sources for this book, including Father Gannon with his biography of Cardinal Spellman; M. R. Werner and John Starr, whose
Teapot Dome
provided excellent insights into the career of Edward L. Doheny; and L. Clayton Dubois, whose revealing analysis of the Buckley family was published in the
New York Times Magazine
. Cecil Woodham-Smith's
The Great Hunger
offers probably the best account of the Irish potato famine, and John Brooks's
Once in Golconda
presents by far the most thorough and accurate version of the rise and fall of Allan A. Ryan.
At Harper & Row, I am grateful to my editors, Cass Canfield, Sr. and Mrs. Frances Lindley, for their help and encouragement. As always, I am indebted to my literary agent, Carol Brandt, for guiding the project throughout with cool precision.
And yet, while all of the above have contributed greatly to my book, I alone must be held accountable for any shortcomings or inaccuracies which may appear.
S.B.
Part One
THE F.I.F.'S.
Chapter 1
“WHAT HAPPENED?”
On an unseasonably warm early spring evening, Thursday, March 12, 1970, strollers past the tall glass windows of McDonnell & Company's main uptown office at 250 Park Avenue were presented with a curious sight. It was as though, someone commented, burglars had rifled the elegantly decorated offices of this, one of New York's oldest and most respected brokerage houses. Drawers of filing cabinets and secretaries' desks hung open, with papers cascading out and strewn about the floor, wastebaskets were overturned disgorging their contents, and lampshades were standing at rakish angles. New Yorkers in the neighborhood had become accustomed, over the years of the firm's tenancy at that prestigious address, to the normally tidy and ordered appearance of the offices behind the big panes of glass. Now, in their dishevelment, the offices looked as if they had been hastily, even angrily, vacated by the entire McDonnell & Company staff. “What's happening here?” one puzzled spectator asked.
