How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
—Revelation 18:7
3238 Spending For Luxuries
In the United States in 1950, 10% of all income was spent for luxuries ($50 billion). By 1980, 30% of all income went to luxuries ($350 billion).
3239 Howard Hughes’ Fortune
The total personal assets of Howard Hughes who died in April 1976 are estimated to be $2.3 billion. A nocturnal creature, billionaire Howard Hughes liked to watch TV while most people were sleeping. During his four-year sojourn at Las Vegas’ Desert Inn, his prime viewing hours were from midnight to 6 a.m. Trouble was, they did not coincide with local station KLAS transmissions; which ended at 11 p.m.
According to Hank Greenspun, who owned the station, Hughes’ aides kept badgering him to program Hughes’ favorite westerns and aviation through the wee hours. Greenspun finally asked a Hughes emissary, “Why doesn’t he just buy the thing and run it the way he wants to?”
The rich recluse obliged, paying Greenspun $3.6 million—and promptly scheduled his favorites from 11 to 6.
3240 Some Wealthy Women
According to a special report from Paris, “there are 1,000 women whose personal expenses exceed $200,000 annually. More than a dozen spend over $1,000,000.”
Sparks gives several illustrations of this kind of compulsive spending:
—In a two-hour spending spree in Paris, Jackie Onassis spent $20,000.
—Barbara Hutton once bought dress designer Lanvin’s entire collection—that is, one each of 158 dresses and coats. The average being $1,100, she paid $173,800.
—The Queen of Thailand ordered 200 dresses, including a gold lamé evening gown covered with $1 million worth of diamonds from the royal collection.
—Prairie Overcomer
3241 On Spending Sprees
There is the story of “Coal-Oil Johnny” Steele, who ran through two million dollars in a few years. He spent $8000 for clothes in a single day. A hotel clerk in Philadelphia failed to accord him proper deference. “Coal-Oil Johnny” leased the entire hotel for a day for $10,000—and fired the clerk. Then there was the Marques of Hastings, who wagered his entire inheritance on a single horse race—and lost. And “Diamond Jim” Brady who had a separate, complete set of jeweled studs, rings, and cuff links for every day of the month, and gave chorus girls a thousand dollars apiece for attending his parties.
3242 Most Expensive Dress
An Associated Press release from Paris reports “the world’s most expensive dress—a jewel-encrusted gown” valued at two million dollars. Actress Gina Lollobrigida will wear this luxurious gown which is literally “powdered with tiny diamonds” and other costly gems. The show must go on regardless.
3243 A Clothes-Buying Wife
Irving Barr took his wife to divorce court for her “excessive and ridiculous” clothes-buying habits. His wife’s wardrobe included: 106 blouses, 92 pairs of slacks, 87 necklaces, 81 pairs of shoes, 62 pant suits, 31 evening dresses, 60 purses, 23 robes, 23 nightgowns, 55 body shirts, 47 slip-overs, 39 sweaters, 36 bracelets, 27 vests, 25 halter tops and 10 watches.
3244 She Had A Thousand Dresses
The personal wardrobe of one of Chicago’s wealthiest women—an estimated twenty-five thousand pieces of apparel—has been sold at public auction for $40,000.
The clothes included more than one thousand dresses—with a purse to match each dress—some five hundred coats and fifteen hundred pairs of shoes. The highest price paid for any item was $1,250 for a full-length mink but many dresses and coats sold for fifty cents.
Mrs. Wolfner was sixty-two when she died. She left an estate of $3.1 million to her two adopted sons.
3245 She Never Wore Dress Twice
There died some time ago, in Paris, the widow of James C. Ayer, the millionaire patent medicine man. On the death of her husband, Mrs. Ayer had come into the possession of fifteen million dollars. At the time of her own death she was more than seventy-one years old, and yet she was in society almost to the last. It is said that she never wore a dress the second time, and kept hundreds of such garments on hand in order to delight the eye by their beauty.
—The Pacific
3246 Gowns Or Crowns
Some years ago there appeared one day in the same daily paper two accounts, one of an American woman who had just spent $70,000 for Paris dresses; and the other of a woman, a beautiful Christian character, who, being questioned in a legal matter, modestly admitted that she had given many millions of her estate to various righteous causes. “Well,” as someone remarked, “it is a matter of taste—Paris gowns or heavenly crowns.”
—Christian Statesman
3247 To Live In Dresses Or In Lives
The contrast between two lives was noted by Dr. Harold E. Luccock. The first was a woman who died in London, famous as “the best-dressed woman in Europe.” She left almost a thousand frocks, but with each frock she had worn “the same unseeing eyes, the same deaf ears, the same enameled, painted face.” The second was a man who died in the same city, with but one suit, blue with a red collar on the coat. He was William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army. He had but one costume, but he lived in a thousand lives.
—Christian Herald
3248 “The Necklace”
Guy de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” tells the sad story of a young woman named Mathilde who aspired to be welcomed in big society. However, she was the wife of an ordinary French citizen.
One day Mathilde’s husband obtained an invitation to attend an elegant ball.
The young woman borrowed from a wealthy friend a suitable necklace to wear at the state occasion.
The lovely adornment received many compliments from the aristocracy of the evening; Mathilde lost the beautiful jewelry.
Her husband borrowed thirty-six thousand francs, tapping every available source. He bought a necklace that looked exactly like the one Mathilde had worn. Mathilde returned this to her friend, telling her nothing of what had happened.
For ten agonizing years, the couple slaved and toiled to pay back the thirty-six thousand francs they had borrowed. They sold their home, dismissed servants, and lived in a slum in order to pay the fearful debt. Each worked at two jobs in a desperate attempt to pay off the debt.
After it was finally paid, Mathilde saw her well-to-do acquaintance one day. She confessed all and revealed the misery she had suffered in paying for the replacement.
It was then that her friend explained that the necklace Mathilde had borrowed was only made of paste. It was worth five hundred francs or less.
—David Garlock
3249 Costliest Bed
The costliest bed in all history cost 30 million dollars and was used by a Persian empress in the 19th century. This bedstead was the golden Peacock Throne, the dazzling chair of state of the Mogul emperors of India, which was encrusted with a hundred-weight of precious stones, surmounted by a glittering diamond “sun.” It was carried away from Delhi by the Persian conqueror Nadir Shah. When Fath Ali Shah became ruler of Persia in 1797, he allowed his consort, the beautiful Taus Khanum, to use the Peacock Throne as her private couch.
—Selected
3250 A $500,000 Bath
The young prince in “The King And I” later became King of Siam. Once he spent half a million dollars for a single bath. He built the Golden Temple on the Menam River in 1887 at a cost of $500,000 for the sole purpose of enabling his ten-year-old son to take one solitary, ritual bath. The structure was used only that once and was never occupied again.
The Temple of the Bath is surrounded by four smaller pagodas, all encrusted with heavy plates of gold and gems. In the center is the fabulous marble and gold swimming pool—in which the solemn $500,000 bath was administered to the prince.
3251 Ancient French Halls Renting
Paris (UPI)—How about a party in the bedroom of King Louis XIV, complete with a brocaded four-poster bed? Or cocktails overlooking the cell Marie Antoinette had left for the guillotine? Or even champagne in the hall of a chateau once owned by a warrior friend of Joan of Arc?
All these are among sites the French government is offering Frenchmen and foreigners alike to rent out for private parties, receptions, concerts or business conferences.
Begun cautiously three years ago with the 17th-Century Chateau at Maisons-LaFitte, the project is now gathering speed and bookings—from all over France and some from abroad for functions ranging from family weddings to international business conferences.
One of the big parties there, was a combined Franco-Russian reception, at a cost of $2,181 for the chamber. The same price rents the entire chateau and grounds at Maisons-LaFitte, which has a royal bedroom thrown in for good measure.
It was used by Louis XIV at least once in 1671 when the king left Paris to mourn the death of his young son, the Duke of Anjou. Experts have rebuilt the four-poster bed in the style of the period, complete with sumptuous drapes and curtains.
Another big draw is the famous monastery of Mont St. Michel off the Normandy coast—a combined national monument and religious institution.
Another available is the 12th-Century castle of Chateaudun in the Loire Valley.
Its most famous inhabitant was Dunois, a local warlord and one of the earliest to rally against the English in the 15th Century.
There the Culture Ministry offers a huge medieval dining hall. for $200 for the room.
3252 Rushing To Buy Most Expensive Cars
London (Reuter)—Dollar millionaires, Middle East oil princes, even British businessmen, are queuing up to buy the most expensive production car in the world, a 30,000 sterling Rolls Royce.
The rush to buy the car, although few details of it are yet available, means prospective buyers have to join a two-year waiting list.
A Rolls spokesman described the car, codenamed Delta, as “the most beautiful car in the world.”
The spokesman said the super-Rolls, which is designed mainly for export to the American and Middle East markets would incorporate all the latest advances in motor car engineering.
Rolls expects to make about 60 of the cars yearly but already 150 people have placed orders.
3253 Most Magnificent Drama
The most spectacular drama presented in the United States was “The Miracle” which played the Century Theatre in New York in 1924–1925 and then went on tour for four years. As the action took place in a cathedral with the audience as the congregation, the Century had to be changed into a Gothic edifice with pews, a great altar and stained glass windows. This work took 11 months and cost, with the costumes for the 700 actors, over $500,000. So extensive was the show’s equipment that, on the road, it required 204 freight cars to transport it and three weeks to set it up in each city.
—Selected
3254 Laundry Took One Year
It is said that during the California Gold Rush, Boston ships carried the laundry of the gold miners all the way across the Pacific to Manila, P. I., and Canton, China, to be laundered and starched. It took a year before the miner received his laundry back.
3255 Russian Churchmen’s Irrelevant Talk
In his book, Only One Way Left, George McLeod tells about the night the Bolsheviks were plotting the Russian Revolution. While they discussed ways of relieving the economic plight of the Russian people, a group of leading Orthodox clergymen was talking about the latest style in vestments to wear in official appearances.
The record is clear about what the Russian Czar did during the most crucial three days of the Bolshevik Revolution. In his diary, he wrote:
“Spent all my free time reading a French book about Caesar’s conquest of the Gaul … Visited a monastery and kissed the ikon … Wrote to Alix (The Czarina), and drove down the Bobruisk highway to the chapel; there went for a walk … In the evening played dominoes.”
3256 Epigram On Luxury
• He who buys what he needs not, sells what he needs.
—Japanese Proverb
• A luxury is something you don’t need but can’t do without.
• Who but Americans can afford chairs that vibrate and cars that don’t.
—San Diego Union
• We know that a fool and his money are soon parted, but how did they ever get together in the first place?
—E. C. Mckenzie
• A publisher’s wife told Irving Hoffman, “It’s not true that I married a millionaire. I made him one.” “What was he before you married him?” asked Irving. The wife answered, “A multi- millionaire.”
• There is only one thing for a man to do who is married to a woman who enjoys spending money, and that is to enjoy earning it.
—E. W. Howe
See also: Extravagance ; Jewelry ; Leisure ; Pleasure.