Biography daddys doris duchess duke unauthorized
Daddy's Duchess
August 20, 2021
Having just finished Sallie Bingham’s The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke, I returned to this book written by 2 former employees in 1987. While it is a short 200 pages, I didn’t finish it 20 years ago and couldn’t finish it now.
Patrick Mahn was hired in the mid-80’s to put Duke’s finances on a computer. The task was large and he concluded that when you add up the portfolio of stocks, bonds etc., actual gold stored in Switzerland, the market value of her homes and art collections, she was the richest person in the world. (Upon her death in 1993 her estate was valued at $5.3 billion).
Mahn and his co-writer Tom Valentine could have made a credible book if they stuck with the finances. After detail on how rich she was in the 1980’s the hatchet job begins. While there are surely credible stories here (there is plenty of other documentation on how poorly Duke treated people) these authors go overboard in sympathy of her alleged victims. It is hard to make the case that her first husband was somehow abused by her. His $10,000 per month allowance from her (in the 1940s) was not enough. He dug her gold and after two years of marriage kept litigating to get more.
Her father is portrayed in negative terms. There is no mention of his philanthropy inclusive of Black churches and health services - the authors tell of his divorce where he left his (clearly cheating) wife without support. There are pages on Rubi Rubirosa that seem to be designed for guilt by association. The collection of art from Islamic countries is damned (or is it sneered at) through the several pages of quotes from a Vogue magazine article. The Kahanamoku brothers are not surfing or ukulele instructors but procurers of men for orgies.
The writing is poor, often substituting the text of legal documents in lieu of explaining what happened. I got as far as the Jimmy Castro story which is a word salad. Other than the Duke and Castro being totally zonked on drugs, I couldn't put together the meaning of what the authors were saying. For instance, RE the proposed ownership of Falcon’s Lair – are the authors implying that Duke reneged on a deal to give Castro half ownership for piano lessons? This is where I quit.
The book stands as an example of Sallie Bingham’s point. Through the haze of sexism and sensationalism we have not come to know or understand this important philanthropist.
Patrick Mahn was hired in the mid-80’s to put Duke’s finances on a computer. The task was large and he concluded that when you add up the portfolio of stocks, bonds etc., actual gold stored in Switzerland, the market value of her homes and art collections, she was the richest person in the world. (Upon her death in 1993 her estate was valued at $5.3 billion).
Mahn and his co-writer Tom Valentine could have made a credible book if they stuck with the finances. After detail on how rich she was in the 1980’s the hatchet job begins. While there are surely credible stories here (there is plenty of other documentation on how poorly Duke treated people) these authors go overboard in sympathy of her alleged victims. It is hard to make the case that her first husband was somehow abused by her. His $10,000 per month allowance from her (in the 1940s) was not enough. He dug her gold and after two years of marriage kept litigating to get more.
Her father is portrayed in negative terms. There is no mention of his philanthropy inclusive of Black churches and health services - the authors tell of his divorce where he left his (clearly cheating) wife without support. There are pages on Rubi Rubirosa that seem to be designed for guilt by association. The collection of art from Islamic countries is damned (or is it sneered at) through the several pages of quotes from a Vogue magazine article. The Kahanamoku brothers are not surfing or ukulele instructors but procurers of men for orgies.
The writing is poor, often substituting the text of legal documents in lieu of explaining what happened. I got as far as the Jimmy Castro story which is a word salad. Other than the Duke and Castro being totally zonked on drugs, I couldn't put together the meaning of what the authors were saying. For instance, RE the proposed ownership of Falcon’s Lair – are the authors implying that Duke reneged on a deal to give Castro half ownership for piano lessons? This is where I quit.
The book stands as an example of Sallie Bingham’s point. Through the haze of sexism and sensationalism we have not come to know or understand this important philanthropist.