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| The Little Extras - The Society Divas | |
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| The Little Extras - The Society Divas | |
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When
christened the “Million Dollar Baby”
by a relentless press, you are expected to lead a grossly extravagant
existence. Doris Duke personified
the epitome of what happens to the very, very rich – indulgent
and irreverent to life’s responsibilities. A dichotomy
of errors, Duke displayed both flippancy and fiscal responsibility throughout
her life. Her
father was James Buchanan “Buck” Duke,
a gruff man who organized the American Tobacco
Company, the largest tobacco trust in the nation. Over ninety
percent of the nation’s tobacco being smoked, packed or chewed was a product
of W. Duke and Sons.
Eventually forced to dissolve the trust in 1911, Duke invested heavily in real
estate and also created Duke Power,
a massive energy concern. When Doris was born on November 22, 1912, his
fortune was an estimated $80 million dollars. Buck
Duke cherished his only child and repeatedly implored upon her that she would
inherit a massive fortune and to trust no one
because of it. Doris was raised in austere American castles on the Upper
East Side of Manhattan, Newport, RI (“Rough
Point”) and Somerville, New Jersey (“Duke
Farms”). She grew up amongst the wealthy but Doris Duke's
money was a different cup of tea altogether. Her chauffeur/ bodyguard carefully
monitored all her outings - for fear of kidnapping was an obsession with her
father. Doris grew in height to almost
six feet tall by age thirteen and
she had a very prominent chin (that
she eventually altered surgically). All this plus her frequent public
exposure just for being Doris Duke only made the shy girl retreat even
further. With her body rejecting her like that, it was hard for Doris to
trust herself, let alone anyone else. Nonetheless, she persevered. In 1925 her beloved father abruptly fell ill with pneumonia. The story goes that his scheming wife, Nanaline, wanted him dead. Deciding it was time; the wife locked them away in his bedroom for several days. Away from the servants and away from Doris. With the windows wide open in the bitter fall chill, Nanaline Duke kept her husband uncovered while she was swathed in layers and layers of furs, carefully watching him expire. Nanaline was the major beneficiary but Doris wound up suing her mother for control of the estate and won. The value was greatly diminished after the Wall Street crash of 1929, but Doris inherited $30 million dollars when she turned 30, in 1942 and controlled the family’s giving. Being
rich during the Depression was difficult. The tempo of the
times didn’t jibe with the ultra-luxe living of people like the Dukes.
Society divas were written up in the newspapers daily which left readers both
fascinated and disgusted by the extreme living. Doris,
however, learned philanthropy early on in life. She carefully
watched her father’s 1924 endowment of Duke
University (formerly Trinity College) in North Carolina, often
traveling incognito to ensure her father’s wishes were being met. The
Duke family contributed greatly to public programs
and this began her management of the family fortune. While in control of a checkbook, she hoped to escape from a domineering mother, Doris met and married semi-millionaire James H.R. Cromwell in 1935 when she was 23. Cromwell had a taste for rich women; he was previously married to auto heiress Delphine Dodge. The couple had a child in 1940, Arden, who died twenty-fours hours later. Losing the one thing she knew would love her for herself, Doris mourned the baby the rest of her life. After that the marriage weakened and three years later the couple divorced. During World War II, Doris worked in a canteen for sailors in Egypt, earning $1 dollar a year. “I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do something real to help in this war…I’ve discovered, I guess, that it’s fun to work.” She said this was the most useful period of her life. Following the war Doris stayed in Europe and wrote for the International News Service. Moving on to Paris she worked for Harper’s Bazaar as well. Had she been forced to work for a living, Doris might have forged a career for herself, but being Doris Duke was a career in itself. During this period she met and married superstud and divo, Porfirio Rubirosa. A Dominican diplomat and playboy, “Rubi” as he was called, had a reputation as a great lover with an enormous appendage. For years it was a joke in restaurants that the pepper mill offered by the waiter be called the ‘Rubirosa.’ Their affair quickly led to a proposal, but the rich lead a complicated legal life. Some accounts claim that before the ceremony he fainted when presented with the ironclad prenuptial agreement. The marriage only lasted a year, leaving Doris exhausted. In 1953 Rubi would also marry Barbara Hutton, Duke’s only “rival” in that very select world of heiresses, cementing his other reputation as a fortune hunter. Wounded from her bad marriages, Doris developed wanderlust and traveled the world in search of adventure. She could be found wandering with Massai warriors in Africa as well as a Southern Baptist meeting, singing in the choir. Duke also proved to be a proficient jazz pianist and even penned a few tunes. She fell in love with Hawaii and built the great estate Shangri-La on Diamond Head. In Hawaii, Doris met Olympic surfing champion Duke Kahanamoku. They carried on a torrid love affair for years. She also had affairs with General George S. Patton, Errol Flynn (who didn’t?) and Pulitzer-prize winning author Louis Bromfield. She
also had a passion for the restoration of Newport,
one of America’s oldest towns. Her own estate, Rough Point, on exclusive Bellevue
Avenue, was adjacent to the public pathway, Cliff Walk.
Doris and Newport town officials argued over its right-of-way for years.
Then things in Newport changed dramatically in October 1966. Duke and her
interior decorator, Edward Tirella,
pull up to the mansion. Tirella gets out of the car to open the estates’
heavy iron gates. At first, Doris claims not to have been driving, then
changes her mind and says her foot “accidentally” dropped on the
accelerator, first dragging Tirella across the street, then crushing him
against a tree. The gilded gossip mill went to work as fast as Doris and
her lawyers did. People said she and Tirella were arguing and had a big
fight on their way to the house. No matter what happened, one week after
the manslaughter the investigation was dropped, simply described as an
“unfortunate accident.” The Chief of Police retired a
month later and Tirella’s family was paid a hefty sum of money after a civil
suit. Then Doris suddenly and publicly gives $25,000 to fix the access to
Cliff Walk. The arguments cease and public access is reclaimed.
Not too long after the accident and still under the shadow of a scandal, Duke
founded the Newport Restoration Foundation
in 1968. The Foundation helped to restore some of Newport’s oldest
structures and rejuvenated tourism in the area. Many
considered this appeasement disguised as altruism. With
the whiff of humiliation behind her, Doris Duke begins to lead a more solitary
life. Tending to her charities, Doris emerges as a leading
benefactress of the arts. Shuttling between her many estates,
including “Falcon Lair” in
Beverly Hills, the former home of Rudolph
Valentino, her vast farmlands in
New Jersey, which houses her extensive art collection or a
penthouse on Park Avenue, she sought happiness – finding it
in bits and pieces but received the most satisfaction from her philanthropy.
The
Doris Duke menagerie grew more and more bizarre. When she purchased an
airplane from a Middle Eastern businessman she had to adopt
two camels as part of the deal. Baby and Princess lived at
Rough Point and helped themselves to all the vegetation on the grounds. When a
hurricane threatened Newport, the two camels were brought indoors to live in
the solarium that had a large pool and views of the ocean raging outside. In
1988, while at Shangri-la, she became involved with a Hare
Krishna devotee and former belly dancer named Chandi
Heffner whom she believed was a reincarnation of her long-dead
daughter, Arden. This is a case of the apple not falling far from the tree.
Doris’ father Buck asked her to wait for him until he could return to earth
in a reincarnated state. Perhaps fulfilling a prophecy of sorts, Duke legally
adopted the 35 year old and the two lived together as mother
and daughter. Rumors abounded that Duke was simply legitimizing her lesbian
relationship with Heffner; others said she was finally
careening off into the mental wild blue yonder.
Either way, she doted on Heffner for the next three years. Duke gave her a
ranch in Hawaii and included Heffner in her will. However, like so many
people in Doris’ life Chandi disappointed her and the “mother &
daughter” fought often. In 1991 Duke had the adoption
reversed and Heffner was banished from the kingdom. “After giving the matter prolonged and serious consideration, I am convinced
I should not have adopted Chandi Heffner…" Duke said in her will.
As any diva will tell you, one of the advantages of money is never having to
live with the consequences of your mistakes. During
this time she also made friends with the Philippine President and his wife, Ferdinand
and Imelda Marcos.
Around the time of their exile, Marcos was given a $5 million dollar loan
(which they had to repay while most loans Duke made were forgiven upon her
death). Imelda Marcos and Duke were very close friends and again people
spoke of a lesbian affair.
This has never been proved or disproved, but Duke certainly didn’t go to any
lengths to dispel these rumors, or other strange occurrences in her life.
Once, during an intimate dinner party at Shangri-La, Imelda and Doris were sitting together when their friend, actor Jim Nabors came out of the pool and accidentally cut his toe. Duke's pet leopard was freely roaming the property at the time and when Duke saw that Nabors was bleeding she firmly urged him to move towards the house, “Slowly, very, very slowly.” Entering the fold
was a new butler, Bernard Lafferty,
a dimwitted Irishman with a penchant for drink who was formerly the butler for
singer Peggy Lee. He soon developed a close
relationship with his employer. Very close. As Doris’
health grew more and more precarious, Lafferty began holding off the visitors
that came to see her, especially when she was in residence at Falcon’s Lair.
Stepbrother Walker Inman, Jr. and cousin Ambassador Angier Biddle Duke, whom
she saw frequently throughout her life, found themselves turned away by the
peculiar butler. Even her own staff found it difficult to perform basic
functions around Duke with the ever-present Lafferty hovering over his
mistress. Duke died in 1993 at the age of eighty after injuries resulting from a fall nearly immediately after having plastic surgery as well as suffering from a heart condition. Within 24 hours of her death, Duke was cremated, her ashes scattered along the Pacific Ocean and the remainder taken to a small Missouri town where Duke had enjoyed the music at a tent revival there. However, following the funeral of the enigmatic woman, whiffs of "the butler did it" began to surface. If
nothing else, Doris Duke was considered a shrewd
money manager and investor. She smartly parlayed her $30
million dollar inheritance into a massive $750 million dollar fortune.
Duke' entire estate was worth over one
billion dollars. Loving animals as she did, Doris ensured
the camels were provided for and that a $100,000 dollar trust was set aside
for her beloved dog. The majority of the money was earmarked for charity
through the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
that supported the arts, environmental causes and life sciences. What
shocked everyone was when the semi-illiterate Bernard Lafferty was named trustee
of the Foundation, providing him with a payment of over
$4 million dollars and a lifetime
annuity of $500,000. Slowly,
Lafferty began to emulate his late employer
– literally. He attempted to slim down his rotund figure; colored his
hair to match Duke's and even took to wearing her couturier dresses around the
mansion. While
the directors of the Foundation carefully gave out the monies as stipulated in
Duke' fifty-page will, Lafferty began to spend
and spend – far beyond his annual stipend. He was the
person who handed over the checks to high-profile charities such as $2 million
to Duke University for AIDS research and $1 million dollars to the Elizabeth
Taylor AIDS Foundation. Lafferty became the much-publicized
figurehead for all that was good with Doris Dukes giving and he had to go.
After much legal wrangling Lafferty was ousted
as co-executor of Duke's will and was finally given an undisclosed amount to
go away. Depressed
and embittered over his removal, Lafferty eventually spent his last years
drinking and carousing. He died peacefully in his sleep in his Los Angeles
home in November 1996. The Doris Duke
Charitable Foundation continues to support social, cultural and health-related
programs today. (Written by Blair Schulman)
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