The Phantom of Fifth Avenue: The Mysterious Life and Scandalous Death of Heiress Huguette Clark (51 page)

Chris Sattler, a high-end Manhattan contractor originally hired by Huguette to renovate her Fifth Avenue apartment, became one of her lifelines to the outside world during her twenty years in the hospital.

(Left to right) Karine McCall, Ian Devine, and Carla Hall—three of the Clark relatives who grew concerned about Tante Huguette’s whereabouts.
(Photograph by Angela Jimenez)

Huguette’s painting of the view from her Fifth Avenue apartment, where she lived until 1991. The last time she was seen by her relatives was in 1968.
(Reproduced with the permission of the Estate of Huguette Clark)

W
hen Huguette Clark’s obituary appeared on page one of the
New York Times
on May 25, 2011, the executives at Grand Central Publishing—publisher Jamie Raab, editor in chief Deb Futter, and executive editor John Brodie—were so intrigued by Huguette’s life that they wanted to know more. Since my first book,
Mrs. Astor Regrets
, centered on the final years of another memorable
Social Register
centenarian, Brooke Astor, they thought of me for this book project. I am very grateful to the three of them for sending me off on an absorbing three-year quest to understand the reclusive, talented, and much-misunderstood Huguette Clark.

As he shepherded this idea into a manuscript, John Brodie has been the dream editor, very supportive and a pleasure to work with. His astute suggestions and advice have made the book so much better. I am grateful to unflappable production editor Carolyn Kurek and savvy senior publicist Caitlin Mulrooney-Lysky for their efforts on my behalf. Also, the efforts of copy editor Mark Steven Long, vetting attorney John Pelosi, and Karen Andrews, Grand Central’s senior VP for legal and business affairs, were much appreciated.

I want to thank my agent, Gail Hochman, for her friendship, encouragement, and rapid-fire skill as a negotiator. This was a whirlwind experience from phone call to contract: within weeks I was on a plane to Butte to learn about Huguette’s copper-baron father, Sen. William Andrews Clark.

I appreciate everyone who took the time to speak with me. But two people—both close to Huguette Clark—made all the difference in
the world, granting me exclusive interviews. Wanda Styka, Huguette’s goddaughter, not only discussed in multiple conversations her half-century relationship with Huguette, but spent weeks searching through file cabinets of archival materials from her father, Tadé Styka, who was Huguette’s painting teacher and confidant. Wanda found letters, journal entries, and appointment calendars chock-full of information about Huguette, and even translated her father’s Polish notes into English on my behalf.

Christopher Sattler, who was Huguette’s assistant for twenty years, proved an invaluable source of anecdotes and observations. He spoke to Huguette five days a week; she told him stories about her past. Like Wanda, Chris cared deeply about Huguette, and his memories convey her intelligence, her unwavering passion for perfection, and her thoughtful personality.

Several other people believed in this book early on and were enormously helpful but requested anonymity. I send along my heartfelt thanks for your guidance and friendship.

My book is both a biography of Huguette Clark and the story of the high-stakes fight over her $300 million fortune. I was able to talk to virtually all the key players in this legal battle, and I have tried to explain how Huguette’s unusual life choices and complicated relationships led to this public drama. Huguette’s embattled accountant, Irving Kamsler, who worked for her for thirty-two years, gave me six hours of exclusive interviews, and Huguette’s lawyer, Wallace Bock, who spent twenty-four years on retainer, also spoke to me at length on the record. On the other side of this fight, six of the Clark family members who sued to remove Wallace Bock and Irving Kamsler as executors of Huguette’s will granted me interviews. I am especially grateful to the three Clark relatives—Ian Devine, Carla Hall, and Karine McCall—who discussed their lawsuit and family history in several on-the-record sessions.

The lawyers involved in the probate court fight were exceptionally patient with my endless questions. Thanks in alphabetical order to Harvey Corn, John Dadakis, Carl Distefano, John Graziano, Thomas LeViness, Jason Lilien, John Morken, and Peter Schram. I am also grateful to Irving Kamsler’s lawyers Marci Goldstein and Robert Giacovas.

Kati Despretz Cruz, the granddaughter of Huguette’s closest friend, Suzanne Pierre, offered a wealth of information. The Lyle family—Gordon Lyle Jr.; his sister, Tina Harrower; and his daughter, Lucy Tower—summoned up decades of recollections of Huguette and her mother, Anna. Roberto Socas, whose mother was Huguette’s tutor, shared memories and a trove of photographs of the Clark family.

Special thanks to: Ellen Crain and Lee Whitney of the Silver-Bow Historical Society in Butte, Bellosguardo caretaker Mario Da Cunha, Ilde Smilen of Milbank Tweed, art appraiser Beverly Jacoby, psychiatrists Dr. Anna Fels and Dr. Chandler Rainey.

I am grateful to the journalists who graciously provided guidance. Lael Morgan, the author of
Wanton West
, and Montana journalist Steve Shirley both made the ultimate gesture and sent me their notes. Ben O’Connell of C-SPAN gave me a crash course in Montana history;
Washington Post
reporter David Montgomery wrote a terrific piece about the Corcoran and helped with details; Andrew Alpern, the author of
Apartments for the Affluent
, provided information about 907 Fifth Avenue;
New York Post
reporter Julia Marsh kept me on top of breaking news.

My dear friend Jere Couture, copyright lawyer extraordinaire, provided legal advice and endless encouragement. Jere died this past August, a tremendous loss.

Alyson Krueger, a 2011 graduate of NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, has been the ideal meticulous fact-checker. Malika Toure, a 2013 Arthur L. Carter graduate, and Margaret Yang, a graduate of NYU’s MA Literary Translation program, translated nearly one hundred letters from French to English. Andre Tartar translated
Le Sénateur Qui Aimait La France
by André Baeyens. NYU MA scholars Kate Beaudoin and Georgette Yacoub provided research assistance. I am very grateful to all of the above for their help, but any mistakes are mine.

I have been blessed with wonderful friends: Jane Hartley, Ralph Schlosstein, Susan Birkenhead, Tom Curley, Michelle and Stephen Stoneburn, Mary Macy, Mandy Grunwald, Benjamin Cooper, Louise Grunwald, Liz Loewy, Paul Giddens, Suzanna Andrews, Tamar Lewin, Gail Gregg, Christine Doudna, Rick Grand-Jean, Susan
Chira, Michael Shapiro, Caroline Miller, Eric Himmel, James Wetzler, Rita Jacobs, Judy Miller, Jason Epstein, Elaine and Tino Kamarck, Joe Klein, Victoria Kaunitz, Swoosie Kurtz, Jenny Allen, Diane Yu, Michael Delaney, Lisa New, Larry Summers, Nancy Leonard, Urban Lehner, Jeff and Christine Rosen, Thea Lurie, Joel Kaye, Josh Gotbaum, Joyce Thornhill, Dotty Lynch, Morgan Downey, Joanne Hubschman, Margo Lion, Kate Feiffer, Chris Alley, Patricia Bauer, Ed Muller, Alexis Gelber, Mark Whitaker, Jeff Greenfield, Dena Sklar, Jill Lawrence, John Martin, Richard M. Cohen, David Weisbrod, Peggy Simon, Hillary Ballon, Orin Kramer, Larry Rockefeller, Wendy Gordon, Nancy and Charlie Kantor, Peggy Noonan. Some friends are gone but remain in my heart: Ron Silver, Henry Hubschman, Wendy Wasserstein, Susannah McCorkle.

For the past five years, Graydon Carter and Aimee Bell of
Vanity Fair
have kept me busy with enjoyable assignments, and I am very grateful. Thanks to my NYU colleagues for their support: Robert Boynton, Perri Klass, Brooke Kroeger, Pamela Newkirk, Adam Penenberg, Mary Quigley, Charles Seife, and Carol Sternhell.

My husband, Walter Shapiro, makes me laugh, critiques my topic sentences, and created an entire imaginary sleep clinic to deal with my middle-of-the-night insomnia. When you’re lucky in love, everything else is manageable. I spied Walter in 1972 at the
Michigan Daily
newsroom—what an adventure it has been.

My father, David Gordon, now ninety-one, and my mother, Adelle Gordon, now eighty-eight, are a constant inspiration—engaged with the world, loving, and supportive. The other lights of my life: my nephew Jesse Gordon, his wife, Meghan Wolf, their delightful toddler, Ozzy, my nephew Nate Gordon, and Jenny Rakochy. Special thanks to Nate, a photo editor at
Sports Illustrated
, who organized the photographs for this book. My sisters-in-law, Sarah Cooper-Ellis and Amy Shapiro, remain my close friends. I cherish my uncle Melvin Silverman and aunt Beverly. I miss my brother, Bart Gordon, even more as the years go by.

M
ERYL
G
ORDON
is the author of
Mrs. Astor Regrets: The Hidden Betrayals of a Family Beyond Reproach
. She is an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in
Vanity Fair
, the
New York Times
, and
New York Magazine
, and is the director of magazine writing at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. A native of Rochester, New York, and a graduate of the University of Michigan, she lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with her husband, Walter Shapiro.

M
y main sources of information for this book consisted of personal interviews with more than one hundred people and a vast array of documents.

I am tremendously grateful to the administrators of Huguette Clark’s estate for allowing me to read and quote from material in seventy-six boxes—more than twenty-five thousand documents—that belonged to Huguette Clark and were removed from her Fifth Avenue apartment after her death. This trove included Huguette’s 1920 diary; her sister Andrée’s 1919 diary; family letters written by Huguette, Andrée, and their parents, Sen. William Andrews Clark and his wife, Anna; hundreds of personal letters and telegrams; and thousands of photographs, receipts, and business letters dating back to 1926; plus items of historic interest, including the 1925 contents of William Andrews Clark’s wallet and his Senate briefcase.

At press time, I was the only reporter allowed to see the entire archive: seventy-one boxes stored at the Manhattan offices of the law firm Milbank Tweed plus an additional five boxes at Christie’s storage facility in Brooklyn. I was also the first journalist allowed, on January 21, 2014, to tour Huguette’s Santa Barbara estate, Bellosguardo. Special thanks to the lawyers who made both possible: Peter Schram, for the public administrator; Carl Distefano of the New York Attorney General’s office; and Thomas LeViness, the co-administrator for the estate and trustee for Huguette Clark’s intellectual property. The Clark family archival material will eventually go to the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at UCLA in Los Angeles.

Huguette Clark took painting lessons for thirty years from artist Tadé Styka, who was also her frequent evening escort, taking her to the Ziegfeld Follies, to the 1939 World’s Fair, and dancing at the Rainbow Room. His daughter, Wanda Styka—Huguette Clark’s goddaughter—generously made exclusively available to me the appointment calendars, journal entries, and letters of her parents, Tadé and Doris Styka, dating from 1935 through 1980. These documents enabled me to reconstruct much of Huguette’s life during that period.

Other vital material: William Andrews Clark’s letters to his lawyer, W. S. Bickford, and other archival documents at the Montana Historical Society in Helena; William Andrews Clark’s letters to
Butte Miner
editor J. S. Dobell, plus bound volumes of Montana newspapers and other archival materials at the Silver-Bow Historical Society in Butte.

I relied on databases for newspaper stories from 1869 through 2013: ProQuest Historical, LexisNexis, Old Fulton NY Post Cards, the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America, NewspaperArchive.com, America’s Historical Newspapers, Ancestry.com, Genealogy.com. Books are also listed separately in a bibliography.

From August 2011 through September 2013, I attended court hearings for the Huguette Clark probate case and read the voluminous depositions and legal documents, File 1995/1375, Manhattan Surrogate’s Court, 31 Chambers Street.

Interviews:
former Corcoran Gallery directors Paul Greenhalgh and David Levy, Ian Devine, Carla Hall, Karine McCall, Wallace Bock, Irving and Judi Kamsler, Cynthia Garcia, Beverly Bonner McCord, Martha FitzSimon, Stanley Pitts.

Depositions:
Ian Devine, Carla Hall, Erika Hall, Karine McCall, Paul Clark Newell Jr.

Articles cited:
“Mr. Clark of Montana,”
Washington Post
, December 3, 1899; “Morris-Clark Wedding,”
New York Times
, May 29, 1900; “Fortunes Which Exceed a Hundred Million,”
New York Times
, February 24, 1907; “Coolidge Cuts Silken Cord Opening Art Gallery Annex,”
Washington Post
, March 11, 1928; “Mrs. John H. Hall,”
New York Times
, March 22, 1968; Bob Thompson, “Corcoran Director Quits; Trustees Shelve Gehry Plans,”
Washington Post
, May 24, 2005; Katherine Boyle, “Corcoran’s Clark Sickle-Leaf Carpet Breaks World Record at Sotheby’s Auction,”
Washington Post
, June 5, 2013.

Documents:
Information on monthly fees of Wallace Bock and Irving Kamsler; Huguette M. Clark probate case; File 1995/1375. Carla Hall speech at the Clark reunion, courtesy of Carla Hall.

Books:

Laura Coyle and Dare Myers Hartwell,
Antiquities to Impressionism: The William A. Clark Collection
, Corcoran Gallery of Art, 2001.

Lewis Hall,
The William A. Clark Collection, Treasures of a Copper King
, Corcoran Catalog, 1978.

Writer’s Note:
Anna La Chapelle’s name is sometimes spelled as LaChapelle, but Anna signed both Huguette’s birth certificate and a Montana marriage register using La Chapelle.

Interviews:
Wallace Bock, Ian Devine, Carla Hall, Karine McCall, Irving Kamsler.

Depositions:
Hadassah Peri, Dr. Jack Rudick, Christie Ysit.

Articles cited:
Tommy Hallissey, “Porno Sting Nabs Temple President,”
Riverdale Press
, September 20, 2007; Megan James, “Kamsler Admits Guilt in Child Pornography Case,”
Riverdale Press
, October 2, 2008; Carol Vogel, “Art Auctions Buffeted by Events,”
New York Times
, April 30, 2003; “A Splendid Hospital on the East Side Has Been Built Largely with Contributions from Poor People,”
New York Daily Tribune
, December 28, 1902; Joshua Kosman, “Agnes Albert—Pianist, S.F. Symphony Supporter,”
Los Angeles Times
, June 20, 2002; “Alumni Spotlight: Ian Devine, Class of 1968,”
Bridge
, Palm Beach Day Academy; Jacqueline Trescott, “A Museum’s Fortunes on the Decline,”
Washington Post
, January 5, 2011.

Interviews:
Wallace Bock, Kati Despretz Cruz, Tina Lyle Harrower, Gordon Lyle Jr., Caterina Marsh, Christopher Sattler, Wanda Styka, Lucy (Lyle) Tower.

Depositions:
Geraldine Coffey, Dr. Louise Klebanoff, Paul Newell Jr., Dr. Robert Newman, Hadassah Peri, Dr. Henry Singman.

Documents:
Beth Israel Medical Center Statistical Review, average stay 5.5 days; Anna La Chapelle trust; Archives, estate of Huguette M. Clark. Huguette Clark’s letters to her father: With thanks to the Estate of Huguette Clark for access to review, and permission to extensively quote from, her letters.

Interviews:
Irving Kamsler, Daniel Osborne, Christopher Sattler, Erin Sigl.

Speeches:
William Andrews Clark speech, 34th Annual Convention, Montana Society of Pioneers, Livingston, September 5, 1917; William Andrews Clark speech, Montana Society of Pioneers, September 9, 1920; William Andrews Clark speech, 41st Annual Convention, Society of Montana Pioneers, August 28, 1924; Montana Historical Society, Helena.

Articles and research:
“Whiskaway Brings $125,000,”
New York Times
, August 12, 1922; “Rich Men of Montana,”
Washington Post
, July 30, 1895; “Fortune His Wedding Gift: A Montana Millionaire’s Son Marries,”
San Francisco Chronicle
, July 1, 1896; “The Men Behind Bryan,”
Hartford Courant
, August 29, 1896; “W. A. Clark Buys Fortuny,”
New York Journal
, February 8, 1898; “Columbia Gardens, Butte’s Famous Summer Resort,”
Butte Miner
, December 22, 1901; “William Andrews Clark,”
Cosmopolitan
, February 1903; “Son of Senator Clark Is Sued,”
San Jose Evening News
, May 20, 1905; “In the Matter of Chinese: Senator Clark Raises His Voice Against Importing Coolies to Compete with Whites,”
Anaconda Standard
, December 9, 1905; “Lost $20,000 on Wheel,”
Washington Post
, October 9, 1908; “Senator
Clark’s Son Sued,”
Christian Science Monitor
, May 2, 1911; Henry R. Knapp; Kenneth Ross Toole, “The Genesis of the Clark-Daly Feud,”
Montana Magazine of History
, April 1951; Byron Cooney, “Personal Reminiscences and Side Lights about Senator W. A. Clark,”
Montana American
, undated clip, Montana Historical Society archives; “Montana’s Political Feud,”
New York Times
, January 25, 1899; “A Bronze Door by Bartlett,”
New York Times
, November 7, 1897; “Fortunes Which Exceed a Hundred Million Dollars,”
New York Times
, February 24, 1907; “Clark Properties Sold to Anaconda,”
New York Times
, August 23, 1928; Christopher Gray, “When Spain Reigned on Central Park South,”
New York Times
, June 17, 2007; Michael P. Malone, “Midas of the West: The Incredible Career of William Andrews Clark,”
Montana, The Magazine of Western History
, Autumn 1983; Mary Montana Farrell, master’s dissertation, University of Washington, 1933; Beverly Bonner McCord, “The Senator’s Kin,” 2008 essay; PITWATCH: Berkeley Pit News 2013; Copper King Mansion Tour Script, 2011.

Books:
The following books provided especially valuable background for
chapters 4
and
5
:

W. A. Clark entry in “Personal History and Reminiscences: Silver Bow County,” in
History of Montana 1739–1885
, Warner, Beers, & Co., 1885.

John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes,
American National Biography
, vol. 4, Oxford University Press, 1999.

C. P. Glasscock,
The War of the Copper Kings
, Riverbend Publishing, 1939.

Donald MacMillan,
Smoke Wars: Anaconda Copper, Montana Air Pollution, and the Courts, 1890–1920
, Montana Historical Society Press, 2000.

Michael P. Malone,
The Battle for Butte
, University of Washington Press, 1981.

Progressive Men of the State of Montana
, A. W. Bowen & Co., date unknown.

Dennis Swibold,
Copper Chorus: Mining, Politics, and the Montana Press, 1889–1959
, Montana Historical Society Press, 2006.

Interviews:
Tina Lyle Harrower, Gordon Lyle Jr.

Articles:
“They Knocked Him Out: One of Butte’s Fakirs Found Guilty by a Jury,”
Anaconda Standard
, November 14, 1890; “Americans in Paris: Brilliant Women Who Live in the French Capital,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, May 6, 1893; “In Fairyland,”
Anaconda Standard
, August 28, 1895; “For Honor and a Prize,”
Helena Independent
, May 28, 1889; “The Death of Paul Clark,”
Anaconda Standard
, March 14, 1896; “Death of Paul Clark: Suddenly Expires at Andover While at School,”
Butte Weekly Miner
, March 12, 1896; “Clark’s New York Palace,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, February 19, 1899; “Protegee of Copper King,”
Boston Daily Globe
, March 20, 1900; “Clark Lucky in Love If Not in Politics,”
New York World
, April 27, 1900; “Copper King’s Protegee,”
Pharos-Tribune Logansport
, May 19, 1900; “Senator Clark, Whose Election Is Being Investigated,”
San Francisco Call
, February 27, 1900; “Senate Committee Against Mr. Clark: Decision Based on Bribery,”
New York Times
, April 24, 1900; “Another Man Named to Succeed Clark,”
New York Times
, May 19, 1900; “Hard Man to Throw Down,”
Washington Post
, May 27, 1900; “Clark of Montana,”
New York Times
, November 13, 1900; “Gossip of the Capital City,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, November 18, 1900; “W. A. Clark Again a Senator,”
New York Times
, January 17, 1901; “Miss Laube in Politics,”
Anaconda Standard
, April 18, 1901; “Hattie Rose Laube Can’t Prove It by Clark Himself,”
Anaconda Standard
, April 21, 1901; “Beauty and Wealth United by Marriage,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, June
20, 1901; “Millionaire Senator Is on the Jump,”
Los Angeles Times
, July 28, 1901; “A Rich Father Has Charles Clark,”
Los Angeles Times
, July 20, 1902; “Senator Clark to Wed Again?”
Los Angeles Times
, May 4, 1904; “Another Rumor,”
Anaconda Standard
, July 1, 1901; “Mrs. W. A. Clark Jr., Dead,”
New York Times
, January 2, 1903; “Woman Would Sue Clark in Public,”
Los Angeles Times
, April 18, 1903; “Senator Clark in Breach of Promise Suit,”
New York Times
, April 19, 1903; “Clark Denies Lady’s Soft Impeachment,”
Los Angeles Times
, April 19, 1903; “Clark’s Daughter Seeks Divorce,”
Bellingham Herald
, November 19, 1903; Frederick Ackerman, “The Toil for Millions: Is There Pleasure in It?”
Dallas Morning News
, December 6, 1903; “Senator Clark’s Daughter,”
Macon Telegraph
, November 25, 1903; “Modern Croesus a Very Sick Man,”
Minneapolis Journal
, April 22, 1904; “Senator to Be Married,”
New York Press
, May 8, 1904; “Senator Clark Says He Is Not to Be Married,”
Omaha World-Herald
, June 19, 1904; “They’re Married and Have a Baby,”
Anaconda Standard
, July 12, 1904; “Clark Tells Why,” July 13, 1904; “Principals in the Wedding Whose Announcement Surprised Butte Yesterday,”
Anaconda Standard
, July 13, 1904; “Clark Surprise: Senator’s Family Not Apparently Pleased,”
Boston Daily Globe
, July 13, 1904; “Mrs. Clark Had Visited Here,”
Salt Lake Tribune
, July 13, 1904; “Senator Clark Quarrels with Son,”
Des Moines Capital
, July 15, 1904; “Details of Great Love,”
Anaconda Standard
, July 21, 1904; “May Marry Senator Clark,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, March 1904; “Having Astonished All Europe, Boy Genius Will Dazzle America,”
Atlanta Constitution
, May 15, 1904; “Billionaire Clark to Lead to Altar Poor Girl,”
Atlanta Constitution
, June 19, 1904; “W. A. Clark’s Ward, Whose Marriage to Him Three Years Ago Is Announced,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, July 12, 1904; “Clark Is Wed Again,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, July 12, 1904; “Mrs. Clark’s Mother in Dark,”
New York Times
, July 13, 1904; “Senator Clark Tells of Bride,”
Washington Times
, July 13, 1904; “Clark Baby a Mystery,”
Kansas City Star
, July 15, 1904; “Mrs. W. A. Clark Nee Anna La Chapelle,”
Seattle Star
, July 16, 1904; “Romance of the Harp in Senator Clark’s Marriage,”
Minneapolis Journal
, July 22, 1904; “Senator Clark’s Brother-in-Law Has Thrown Money to the Birds,”
Tacoma Times
, July 27, 1904; “Why He Kept the Wedding Secret,”
Hawaiian Star
, August 22, 1904; “Million-Dollar Babe Is Motherless,”
Boston Globe
, January 2, 1905; “Photoplay News,”
Washington Post
, March 1, 1914; “Montanans Crash Films,”
Los Angeles Times
, June 23, 1929.