Marlene Wagman-Geller

Nov 10, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

 

“But we had the money, or rather it had us. We were held fast in its clutches.”

- Evalyn Walsh McLean in her memoir, Queen of Diamonds.

 

 

The mystery behind James Cameron’s 1997 Titanic centers on why Rose tossed “The Heart of the Ocean” into the waves above the sunken ship. A theory is Cameron based his celluloid jewel on “The Hope Diamond”: both were priceless blue gems, entangled with tragedy.  Evalyn Walsh McLean would have been a forgotten footnote of a fabulous fortune had her path not crossed that of the fabled diamond.

 

The story of a society queen began when nineteen-year-old Thomas Walsh travelled on steerage from Tipperary, Ireland, to America. He built bridges for the Colorado Central Railroad until he heeded the clarion call, “There’s gold in them that hills!” Rumor was rife that miners had located gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Infected with “mining fever,” he headed for Deadwood. As the wagon convey was full, he took the second and discovered Native Americans had scalped and killed all the passengers from the first transport. When Thomas failed to find a mine, he opened a hotel in Leadville, Colorado.

 

In Leadville, Thomas struck romantic gold. Although a Roman Catholic, he wandered into a Protestant Church where he fell for the woman in the choir. He married Carrie Bell Reed in 1879.  Thomas moved to a mining camp in Sowbelly Gulch, where he and his bride lived in a converted railroad boxcar. After losing their first born, they doted on children Evalyn and Vinson. 

 

While living in Ouray, Colorado, with Carrie Bell out of town, and as Vinson was a toddler, Thomas confided in ten-year-old Evalyn, “Daughter, I’ve struck it rich.” After two decades, Thomas had discovered a gold mine. Thomas’ Camp Bird Mine churned out $5,000 a day. He eventually sold Camp Bird Mine for $5.2 million, and a share of future proceeds. The wealthy Walshes left for Washington, D. C. where the press referred to Thomas as the “Colorado Monte Cristo.” Thomas scooped up real estate near the White House. In gratitude for the millionaire’s endorsement, President McKinley invited the Walshes to a White House reception and appointed Thomas as a commissioner to the Paris Exposition of 1900.

 

The Walsh family set sail on the White Star liner, SS Majestic; and spent a year at the Elysée Palace Hotel in Paris. The couple hosted a party aboard a Seine River steamer, a floating pleasure dome.

 

For a tour of the continent, Thomas arranged for a private train-replete with five cars. An emotional stopover for Thomas were the days in Ireland. As a devout Catholic, Thomas was also moved when the Walshes had a private audience with Pope Pius. Another destination was in the resort town of Ostend for a meeting with Belgium’s King Leopold II. The royal met with Thomas as he wanted him to invest in his copper and silver mines in the Belgium Congo. Despite the lure of further riches, Thomas refused; Leopold’s colonialism had claimed ten million lives, a reign about which Joseph Conrad wrote “Heart of Darkness.” The King visited the family in the States where he went for the St. Louis World’s Fair.

 

The prospect of the royal visit was partially the impetus for Thomas to build a four-story, Beaux Arts Washington, D.C. mansion located at 2020 Massachusetts Avenue in the center of what is currently Embassy Row. (The Indonesian Embassy occupies the site of the Walsh former residence.) The vast estate took twenty-three servants to maintain. The home’s architectural jewel was a three-story reception hall with a stained-glass dome. The top floor held a ballroom and a theater. A pipe-organ delivered music to the dining room during meals. The central staircase was reminiscent of an ocean liner made of mahogany. At the conclusion of a dinner party, a giant flower balloon opened, and songbirds flew out, serenading the guests. Another gala was for Alice Roosevelt, President Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter.

 

When Evalyn was nineteen, the Walshes rented Beaulieu, a “cottage” in Newport, from Cornelius Vanderbilt III. The siblings spent the summer attending balls, lawn parties, and the beach which they drove to in Evalyn’s red Mercedes. In Rome, Evalyn had met Prince Altieri who possessed matinee idol looks. He had proposed and Evalyn was considering the prospect of becoming a princess and living in a palace. Sensing her father was distraught at the thought of leaving his daughter in Europe, she offered to break up with the prince in exchange for a red Mercedes that she drove in Paris and Monte Carlo. The question that directed Evalyn’s days was, “What amusing thing can I do next?”

 

On an August afternoon, brother and sister went to the Clambake Club for a luncheon. On the return to Beaulieu the Mercedes careened out of control and struck a wooden bridge. Evalyn ended up in the water, trapped under the car. In her terror, all she could think of was Vinson.  Rescuers brought her to Alfred G. Vanderbilt’s nearby mansion; she had sustained a broken leg, while the impact had resulted in her brother’s death. To help through the physical and emotional grief, Evalyn became addicted to morphine.

 

Edward Beale “Ned” McLean, a man she had known since age nine, kept her company, bringing along records for her gramophone. Ned’s grandfather, Washington McLean, owned The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Washington Post, and a railroad line. His family home, named Friendship, located two blocks from the White House, was a Florentine villa designed by John Russell Pope who had also been behind the Jefferson Memorial and the National Gallery of Art. His alcoholism led to Evalyn’s observation, “he got drinking so frightfully he used to have to tie a handkerchief around his arm to get the drink up."

On a 1908 July afternoon, while on a Denver drive with the chauffeur in the front, Ned and Evalyn discussed their plans for their future. Evalyn decided against a wedding because she figured they would both be too drunk of scared to walk down the aisle. They eloped the next day; the Walshes and McLeans both gave the newlyweds a gift of $100.000. The couple took a three-month honeymoon in Europe and the Mideast. They purchased a two-seater Mercedes in Paris and it waited for the McLeans when they docked in Amsterdam. Evalyn always kept the car as a souvenir from this happy time, the way other women would a champagne cork, faded violets, or ticket stub. Other purchased were a chinchilla coat, a travelling case of gold that held toiletries, the replica of one made for the Crown Princess of Germany. In Constantinople Evalyn told the American ambassador, John G. A. Leishmann, of her desire to visit the Yildiz Palace to meet with the Sultan, the Caliph of all Mohammedan faithful. Before they returned home, the couple visited Cartier’s in Paris and left with the 95- carat diamond, “The Star of the East,” that they acquired for $120,000. Her mother-in-law remarked the necklace Jewish, inferring it was vulgar.

In 1909, Evalyn gave birth at 2020 Massachusetts to her son Vinson of whom the press heralded: “the hundred-million-dollar baby.” The doting family purchased a golden crib and a golden tub; King Leopold sent a quilted canopy. One of the first to welcome the baby was President Taft. Thomas’ cancer diagnosis occurred at this juncture, and Evalyn and Ned rushed to San Antonio, Texas. President Taft was among the mourners; Carrie Bell and Evalyn were too distraught to attend the internment. The McLeans remained in Texas to help Carrie Bell in her bereavement. They felt horrible at their separation from Vinson, and when their baby was two months old, they received kidnapping threats.

When Evalyn and Ned vacationed in Paris, jeweler Pierre Cartier visited the mining and newspaper heirs at their Hotel Bristol. He carried a package that held a magnificent jewel that Evalyn had seen on the Sultan’s favorite concubine. Cartier shared that during the Turkish Revolution the woman had died from stab wounds. For full disclosure, Cartier explained the notoriously cursed Hope Diamond’s history began in seventeenth century India when Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a French adventure, plucked it from the eye of a Hindu idol. In revenge, the temple’s priests placed a curse on all who owned the blue diamond. Perhaps the first victim of the curse was Tavernier; a pack of wild dogs mauled him to death in Constantinople. A subsequent owner, Louis XIV, died from smallpox. The Sun King passed the jewel to his heir, Louis XVI who, along with his queen, lost their heads to Madame Guillotine. After forty years, the stone showed up in England in the possession of banker Henry Thomas Hope-that gave the gem its deceiving moniker. Following his death, Abdul Hamid II, the Sultan of Turkey, gifted it to Subaya; she died of stab wounds and an uprising deposed the Sultan.

While Evalyn pooh-poohed the curse-she felt bad luck objects delivered her fortune; however, the setting was not to her liking. Realizing few people could afford the jewel, Cartier reset it on a chain of diamonds, and encircled the blue stone with more diamonds. Cartier left for America aboard the Lusitania, along with the Hope Diamond. He paid a visit to 2020 Massachusetts and, after trying it on, Evalyn decided she had to possess the beautiful blue diamond. Evalyn’s Great Dane Mike sometimes walked the mansion with the fabled gem affixed to his collar. Although she did not believe in the curse, Evalyn still asked Monsignor Russel to bless the blue diamond.

Evalyn recalled with fondness those heady days when “the dining room tables were 75 feet long -100 people at each table” and 2,000 guests filled their home and gardens. Vinson’s birthday parties were also elaborate: for party favors, each boy received an electric railroad train, each girl received an expensive doll. The doting mother recalled she never spent less than $150,000 for each of her son’s big day. They also treated their son to a private showing of the circus. One day, Ned said that the three-year-old Vinson needed a companion as he was mainly in the company of bodyguards, governesses, and other adults. He suggested bringing a black child into their home to serve as his son’s friend who could later serve as his valet. The parents of five-year-old Julian agreed. When the Walshes and Julian-dressed in the same fashionable attire as Vinson-travelled to the South, the black Pullman porters were shocked at the sight of the black child in the company of the “hundred-million-dollar baby.” The plan fizzled, and the couple returned Julian, along with money. After the arrival of siblings John, (nicknamed Jock), Edward Jr. (Neddie), and Emily-who later changed her named to Evalyn, Vinson gained nonrefundable playmates. President Harding and First Lady Florence were Emily’s godparents.

The family spent weekends at Friendship where Ned added an 18-hole golf course on which Presidents Harding and Coolidge played. (Harding also used the home for his extramarital liaisons). First Lady Florence Harding and Evalyn both were adherents of fortuneteller Madame Marcia. The superstitious Florence was fearful of the Hope Diamond. A llama, purchased from the Ringling Brothers Circus, wandered the grounds, as did a donkey and goats. A madcap monkey spilled alcohol on Senator, (and future president), Harding’s white suit, a parrot cried out curses learned from a diplomat. The McLean children rode on miniature horses and a brightly painted buggy that had once belonged to P.T. Barnum’s star, General Tom Thumb. He last soiree at Friendship took place on New Year’s Eve, 1936, on Jock’s 21^st birthday that included 325 dinner guests, with an additional 325 for dancing. As she did for most galas, Evalyn wore the Hope diamond, the Star of the East, along with six diamond bracelets. Fifteen private detectives guarded the walking Fort Knox. Cole Porter wrote of the heiress in his lyrics, “Anything Goes.” Idaho senator William Edgar Borah said of the ballroom, “This is what brings on revolutions.”

In 1919, Ned decided to go to the Kentucky Derby; to keep an eye on his drinking, Evalyn came along. Worried about leaving the children, they hired two security guards, and left instructions there were to be no outings. Disregarding the directive, Ned’s valet, Meggett, took Vinson for a stroll. A Ford, going no more than eight miles per hour, hit Vinson as he ran across the road. Despite hitting his head, Vison was able to walk home. He suffered from paralysis later in the afternoon. Before he passed away, Vinzon asked his grandmother, “Is it wicked for me to love Mother more than God?”  Understanding the unbearable grief of losing a son, Evalyn contributed $100,000 for the return of the kind napped Charles Lindberg Jr.

By the end of the 1920s, the Walsh-McLean marriage was collapsing. The political elite ostracized Ned for his involvement in President Harding’s Teapot Dome Scandal. Ned accused his wife of marital meandering, and they separated in 1929. At a Santa Monica party, Ned fell for Rose Davies, the sister of Marion, the mistress pf publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst. To live with Rose, Ned moved to Beverley Hills where he leased a house from cowboy star Tom Mix. He procured a divorce and served it to Evalyn wrapped as a 1932 Christmas present. With his escalating mental instability, Evalyn committed her husband to Baltimore’s Sheppard and Enoch Pratt sanatorium. Doctors diagnosed him with amnesia caused from alcoholism. In the hospital he met fellow patient Zelda Fitzgerald who recalled he went by the name Mr. Orlo, and that together they danced the hokeypokey. Ned died in his hospital room, convinced he was a German spy. When The Washington Post faced bankruptcy, Evalyn relinquished ownership to Eugene Meyer for $825,000. His daughter, Katharine Graham, later ran the paper.

Washington, D.C.s hostest with the moistest last home was situated in Georgetown, perched on a hill. The estate held an oversized portrait of her friend, President Harding. The mansion held the remains of her former six estates, all of which she had lost due to her dwindling fortune caused by Ned’s financial mismanagement and her over-the -top spending. Arranged around the swimming pool were larger than life statues of Molière, Rembrandt, Beethoven, and Louis XIV. Under a tree lay a headstone beside a tiny grave with the inscription: General Monkey. The Most Loyal, Faithful and Loving Friend I Ever Had.

Friends headed to the Georgetown home to bid farewell to Evalyn who passed away from pneumonia. On her deathbed she wore the Hope Diamond and other prized jewels. Many suspected the reason behind her decline was she had lost her will to live after Evalyn had died at age twenty-four from an overdose of sleeping pills. She left behind her four-year-old child, Mamie Spears Reynolds. Evalyn’s great-grandson Joseph Gregory said his grandmother teethed on the blue diamond.

The Walshes sold the Hope Diamond to acclaimed jeweler Henry Winston. Ronald Winston, CEO of Henry Winston, who valued the Hope diamond at $200 million stated it was “the most expensive object that can be held in one hand.” Nine years later, Winston donated the diamond to the Smithsonian. Rather than deliver the priceless gem by an armored car, Winston sent it through the U.S. mail. James Todd, the postal worker who had delivered the gem, had a series of unfortunate events. A truck crushed his leg, he injured his head in a car accident, his house burned down, and he lost his wife and dog. An estimated 7 million view the fabled stone each year. After gracing the necks of the wealthy and the damned for three centuries, the Hope diamond had found its final home, ending the goddess Sita’s curse.

 

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