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 Charity begins at home
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| Upper East Side drippings. 11:30 AM. Photo: JH. |
The Astor Affair is not over. It was announced today in the papers that the son and only child of the late Brooke Russell Kuser Marshall Astor, Anthony Marshall (born Kuser), aged 83, has been indicted, along with a lawyer associate Francis Morrissey (known as Frank to his friends and acquaintances).
Mr. Marshall was indicted on 16 counts, accused of abusing his power of attorney and convincing his mother, Mrs. Astor, to sell property by falsely telling her that she was running out of money. He is also charged with stealing money from her as well as stealing valuable art work from her Park Avenue apartment. District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said that “Marshall and Morrissey took advantage of Mrs. Astor’s diminished mental capacity in a scheme to defraud her and others out of millions of dollars.” I’m guessing that the “others” in this case were certain institutions who were to benefit from her will and possibly her grandchildren, the children of Mr. Marshall who are now also the step-children of Charlene Marshall, Mr. Marshall’s 3rd and much younger wife.
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| The gracious hostess and the wizened philanthropist of New York; the mother of the boy. |
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I ran into an friend of mine last night who is a prominent estate lawyer. I asked my friend for an estate lawyer’s opinion on the matter. Before I report it, I will express my own non-professional opinion.
The Astor Will case stinks for many reasons. My lawyer friend pointed out that it is now taking an estate matter into a criminal matter. Estate lawyers are not criminal lawyers.
What comes of this ultimately is a good look at the worst side of “polite” society today, namely more variations on the theme of greed and its various disguises.
The greed in this case started with the late Vincent Astor who was a selfish little boy with a terrible, selfish self-centered mother. He used his money to manipulate and push people around, especially members of his family. He was not inclined to share his father’s wealth, for example, with those who, like him, were issue of his father.
Mr. Astor had an unfortunate childhood. He was deprived of that maternal love, and was basically a man who remained a big baby all his life. That, and an obnoxious grown-up. It should also be noted that he had intelligence and he used it in a variety of interesting and generously charitable ways. He was also very respectful and in awe of his “distant cousin” Franklin D. Roosevelt.
When his father went down on the Titanic in the early Spring of 1912, Vincent, then 21, was his principal heir. His father, who was 49 at the time of his death, and about to become a father again with his new wife who was younger than Vincent, had not yet altered his will to accommodate more heirs (although he made provisions for those who might not have been considered).
It is conceivable that had he lived, John Jacob Astor IV might have been crazy about his youngest boy, the son he was never to know, (JJ Astor VI). His affection for his second son might have influenced him to leave the child more than a perfunctory $5 million trust fund. Although in 1912, $5 million went a lot further than $50 million today (no exaggeration here).
However, big brother Vincent got an estimated $150 million or 30 times that. So we’re talking billions in today’s dollars. Which was fine with Vincent who did not like his stepmother or half-brother and went as far as he could go to besmirch both and exclude them from the Astor family. |
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| Carrying Mrs. Astor coffin down the stone steps of St. Thomas'. Photo: JH. |
He was jealous. Late in life Vincent would be insanely jealous of another “young son,” one Anthony Marshall, the child of his last wife Brooke. Vincent Astor disguised his jealousy from himself with moral judgments about the other parties. Young Jack Astor, for example, was also a playboy who lived high, wide and handsome and married several times, so he fed Vincent’s rantings. Young Tony Marshall was merely his mother’s child. However, the subject was greed.
And the subject remains greed. From my vantage point I see a man, now in his eighties, who basically looked after his mother’s interests all her life. He was a good boy. I don’t know the man, have never met the man, but from all that I’ve been told about him by many who know him, and knew him, the good boy factor was important. Mama ruled. The boy’s father was a reprobate and not responsible. The stepfather was “the love of (Mama’s) life.” Mother was a romantic and not particularly maternal. After she divorced the boy’s father, she married the “love of (her) life.” And the boy’s last stepfather was basically a jealous nutcase.
He had a number of jobs in his life although it was always said that his mother’s influence played a part, implying that she made the difference in his professional life. That may be. That’s common practice. There is influence and then there is influence. Brooke Astor had both. What Tony Marshall was in the eyes of his mother’s world – that is the world who knew of him – was Brooke Astor’s Son. That was partly his circumstances and partly his personality. Another kind of son who had increased the size of his mother’s fortune from the low seven figures to the low nine figures might have been getting idolatrous pieces on the Business Pages of the Times for his financial prowess. Tony Marshall was not that kind of man. He was a good boy who did what he was supposed to do. |
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| Outside St. Thomas' Church for the funeral service for Brooke Astor. Charlene Marshall is speaking to the rector with her husband Tony Marshall on her right (white hair). Photo: JH. |
However, long before any of this happened, he was never regarded by his mother’s “friends” as being in the same league as his mother. And he was treated thusly. Politely perhaps, but thusly. I don’t know what it was like for him to grow up under his circumstances with that very sharp, clever and intelligent mother who lived a big life in a big theater and loved every minute of it. I bet it wasn’t so easy. But, he was a good boy.
I also know that the relationship he had with his mother was observable by others but not knowable. Only the child and the parent knows what that relationship is like, and there are many of us who are unable to articulate it. It may be that Mr. Marshall’s wife knows the truth of that mother/son relationship because from all reports, she is the good mother that he never really had. And he's still the boy; as we all are when it comes to Mother. This was his reward. Albeit with a mean twist of fate. Whatever his children knew of that mother/son relationship, they were never there; that’s life for all of us.
That is how I view it. I am sorry for all of the players because they are all part of an old and revolting scenario. As are the dozens of lawyers cashing in bigtime. I am sorry for the man whose mother left him in this legal bind, for she was not quite an innocent victim in terms of the Whole Story. She made many choices too, along the way. I am also sorry for the memory of the mother who did earn the glorious image that she had in the eyes of millions of New Yorkers and people all over the world. This matter leaves its tell-tale coffee and cigarette stains on that magnificent image. |
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| Alice Astor being drawn in a cart by her older brother Vincent Astor at the family estate Ferncliff in Rhinebeck, New York. This was according to Brooke, "the only happy picture of Vincent and his sister, taken on his birthday." |
It’s hard to stay a good boy all your life. Especially when you’re a son with a very powerful mother who has a big life away from you. I’m not saying it’s bad or she’s bad or wrong. But it’s hard. Boys love their mothers. Or at least would like to. Mother is everything. But in this particular case, when at his mother’s funeral Mr. Marshall stated that while New York had lost a great lady, he had lost a mother, it was taken more than one way; not everybody believed him. To some, he was expressing the grief of his loss of Mother. To others it was taken as a plea for-sympathy in the situation he’d created himself, namely what has finally come down: an indictment.
My lawyer friend last night did not agree with me. This friend saw it as a perfect example of the child taking advantage of the parent’s mental condition for his own enrichment. It happens all the time. I asked this lawyer how matters like this could be avoided. The answer was simple: “suck up, suck up to the mother ... or the father. Suck up to them to their dying day. Most children won’t do that. They can’t be bothered.” This lawyer didn’t think Tony Marshall had done that. This is assuming that he’s guilty as charged.
But the real problem my lawyer friend stated in summation last night was Greed. “Just greed, just terrible greed. It’s everywhere these days.” |
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