The Backstory: All the money in the world…and a torturous upbringing

You’d think having the richest father in America would make you fabulously happy. But for Consuelo Vanderbilt, it meant a cruel childhood and a forced marriage to a jerk with a title.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Imagine you're the child of one of the richest men
in America. You have everything you could possibly want, but
at the same time nothing you really want. You spend
the summer in the most extravagant house in Newport, Rhode Island.
Your mother physically and emotionally tortures you to make you
into her vision of the perfect heiress. I'm Patty Steele
Conziuelo Vanderbilt. All the money in the world, but decades

(00:24):
of misery. That's next on the backstory. The backstory is back,
all right. It's eighteen seventy seven. Consuelo Vanderbilt is born
to Alva and William Vanderbilt. He is the richest man
in America after inheriting his father's fortune, and he wasn't
afraid to spend money. He owned world class race horses,

(00:48):
a sailing yacht that won America's Cup in eighteen ninety five,
a two hundred foot steam yacht considered the most luxurious
in the world, as well as massive homes in New
York City, on Long Island, France, and eventually in Newport,
Rhode Island called Idelaer. The family's Long Island summer house.
When Conzuela was a little girl was her favorite. It

(01:10):
had one hundred rooms, but it was an old wooden
house informal, and the children loved sailing, crabbing, and fishing
during their summers there. Then, for her mother's thirty ninth birthday,
her father built an insane mansion in Newport, Rhode Island.
Consuela was just eleven when they began building Marble House,
a fifty room mansion that needed thirty six servants to

(01:33):
run it, including butler's maids, coachmen, and footmen. The house
cost eleven million dollars to build, that is equal to
three hundred and seventy five million today. Seven million dollars
alone was spent on five hundred thousand cubic feet of marble.
The house has a room called the Gold Room, completely

(01:53):
decorated in real gold leaf. But Conzuelo said Marble House
was like a prison, with huge walls rounding it and
heavy drapes to keep out the sun and the sound
of the ocean. Her mother was obsessed with looking like
royalty and spending like royalty. When the family's mansion in
New York City was finished in eighteen eighty three, Alva

(02:13):
throw a party for one thousand people. That cost a
staggering two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which would equal
six million dollars today. But the one thing she couldn't
buy was acceptance. The Vanderbilts were looked at as new
money as opposed to old money. She wanted to add
an aristocratic bit of blood to the family. Conzuela was

(02:34):
her ticket. Her mother totally dominated her, bordering on cruelty.
She specifically wanted her daughter to marry into European aristocracy.
In her autobiography, Conzuelo says her mom made her wear
a steel brace with an iron rot which ran down
her spine and fastened around her waist and over her
shoulders and up to the top of her head, so

(02:55):
that her posture would be regal. She was educated at
home by governess and tutors, learned German and French. By
the time she was eight. She studied history, literature, math, Latin,
and science. She took music lessons and every day included
an hour of exercise in central Park. She needed to
carry herself like royalty. Alva was tough. She had whipped

(03:17):
Consuelo with a writing crop for minor issues, and when
she was a teenager and complained about the clothing her
mother had picked out for Alva said, I do the thinking,
you do as you're told. Imagine that life. But now
she's recognized as a great beauty and it's time for
her to find the perfect son in law for her mother.
Alva chooses Charles Richard John Spencer Churchill, ninth Duke of Marlborough.

(03:42):
Not really a catch except for the title. Folks describe
him as surly, critical, suspicious, and without intellectual qualities, and
his family is low on funds. Wow, very appealing. Conzuelo
does not share her mother's enthusiasm for this guy. She's
a total opposite, intelligence, sensitive and lovely. Worse yet, she's

(04:03):
in love with another man, Winthrop Rutherford, a young guy
from a powerful famili's who's considered the handsomest bachelor in
New York society, and he's totally in love with Consuelo,
but he doesn't have a title. The two managed to
find time with each other, and during a bicycle ride
on Riverside Drive, he proposes and she accepts, and that's

(04:25):
the last time they saw one another. Alva finds out
about the proposal and watches Consuelo like a hawk, intercepts
her male refuses to allow Rutherford into the house. She
sweeps Conswello off to Europe, and when Rutherford follows, Consuelo
is forbidden to see him. Alva introduces her to a
number of young guys with titles. They all want her

(04:46):
and her money, but Alva is fixated on the Duke.
She invites him to Newport to visit Marble House, expecting
him to propose to Consuelo. The board Duke makes Alva wait,
but finally propose to Consuello, whose fate is sealed. The
wedding is set for November sixth, eighteen ninety five. There
are three hundred cops lining the streets around Saint Thomas's

(05:10):
Church on the Upper East Side of New York City,
with thousands of people filling the streets to catch a
peek at the big shots. The heartbroken bride is weeping
as she walks to the altar, like a lamb headed
for slaughter. The Duke shows up late for the ceremony
after last minute negotiations to squeeze even more money from
Consuello's father. It seems the only thing he really cares

(05:33):
about is his ancestral home. Blenheim Palace, and he needs
all the money he can get his hands on from
the Vanderbilt fortune. This is the height of the dollars
for Duke's craze among rich Americans looking to forge merital
ties with titled but not so rich Europeans. Meantime, a
few months before the wedding, Alva divorces William Vanderbilt and

(05:55):
marries another millionaire down the street in Newport. She gets love,
her daughter not so much. Consuelo stayed married to the
Duke for twenty six years and had two sons with him.
She was really respected among British aristocrats for her charitable
work and for saving Blenham Palace with her family money.
They finally, however, divorce, and at the age of forty six,

(06:17):
Consuelo finally gets to marry for love. She died in
nineteen sixty four at the age of eighty seven on
Long Island in Southampton, but was buried in a churchyard
next to her younger son in England, near Blenham Palace.
Not exactly the life of luxury you might expect for
the daughter of the richest man in America. Hope you're

(06:43):
enjoying the backstory with Patty Steele. Follow or subscribe for
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(07:06):
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back Story with Patty Steele, the pieces of history you

(07:27):
didn't know you needed to know.