Barbara Hutton
Barbara Woolworth Hutton (born November 14, 1912 in New York City , † May 11, 1979 in Los Angeles ) was a wealthy American department store heiress.
Life
Barbara Hutton was the granddaughter and heiress of Frank Winfield Woolworth , the founder of the US department store chain FW Woolworth Company . In May 1917, at the age of four, she found the body of her mother Edna (née Woolworth), who had committed suicide in her suite in the Plaza Hotel in New York. At the age of only seven, Barbara inherited over 50 million US dollars (around 637 million US dollars based on current purchasing power).
She was considered the richest woman in the world and was married seven times, including from 1942 to 1945 to Cary Grant (husband no.3) and the German tennis professional Gottfried von Cramm (husband no.6). Soon the extravagant woman, who with every divorce - with the exception of the divorce from Cary Grant - became poorer by millions, was regarded as a symbol of the “poor rich girl”. Their only son, Lance Reventlow , died in a plane crash in 1972 at the age of 36 .
From the 1950s onwards, she had increasing alcohol and drug problems. After the death of her only child, she lost all support. The former party queen and jet set icon died, practically impoverished, forgotten, abandoned and sick of a heart attack at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles. She was buried in the Woolworth Crypt next to her mother. When she died, she had just under $ 3,500 in her accounts. In her life she had "brought through" almost a billion dollars (in terms of today's purchasing power).
Her life was filmed for television in 1987 with Farrah Fawcett in the lead role ( Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story , directed by Charles Jarrott ).
Marriages
- 1933–1935 with Prince Alexis Mdivani , an exiled Georgian prince
- 1935–1941 with Count Kurt von Haugwitz-Hardenberg-Reventlow; Son Lance Reventlow (1936 - 1972)
- 1942–1945 with Cary Grant , actor
- 1947–1951 with Prince Igor Trubetzkoj
- 1953–1954 with Porfirio Rubirosa
- 1955–1960 with Gottfried von Cramm , tennis player
- 1964–1966 with Prince Raymond Doan Vinh
literature
- Mona Eldridge: In search of a prince. My life with Barbara Hutton . Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1988, ISBN 0-283-99500-9
- Clemens D. Heymann: Poor little rich girl. Life and Legends of Barbara Hutton . Goldmann, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-442-09552-2
- Philip Van Rensselaer: Million Dollar Baby. Intimate portrait of Barbara Hutton . Hodder & Stoughton, London 1980, ISBN 0-340-25606-0
Web links
- Barbara Hutton in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Literature by and about Barbara Hutton in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hutton, Barbara |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hutto, Barbara Woolworth |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American millionaire, heiress to Frank Winfield Woolworth (founder of the department store chain Woolworth) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 14, 1912 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 11, 1979 |
| Place of death | los Angeles |