Barbara Hutton: A Tragic Heiress Worth $387 Million

New York's Plaza Hotel may 2nd 1917 in a suite on the fifth floor lies the dead body of a 33 year old woman she is Edna Hutton daughter of the founder of the Woolworth retail Empire she has just killed herself with strychnine poison her body is discovered by her daughter Barbara she is just four years old the trauma will haunt this million-dollar princess for the rest of her life she had such an unhappy beginning the fact that her mother committed suicide the fact that her father didn't care for her the fact that she was no only child and she was a very lonely child Barbara is born in New York in 1912 to Edna and Franklin Hutton but the most significant figure in Barbara's life is her grandfather self-made multi-millionaire frank Winfield Woolworth he dies when Barbara is 12 leaving her a trust fund of 28 million dollars Barbara's money is tended carefully by her father Franklin but he neglects her emotionally she was at a very young age put into a boarding school and when everybody went home for Christmas she would be sitting there waiting with her suitcase and nobody would come that kind of story is heartbreaking you don't need to be rich or poor it's just something that doesn't leave you Barbara will grow up to be beautiful insecure and very very rich she has everything except love she learned that you had to buy people that she was only worth anything if you can give things and that was part of her natural personality in 1930 barber turns 18 and just after the Wall Street Crash her father throws her the most lavish coming-out Bowl that money can buy that was a huge of her the supposed to have cost about $60,000 maurice chevalier was there dressed as father Christmas giving our presents an enormous event at the absolute height of the depression it went down very very badly with the great American public to escape the bad publicity Barbara sets off on a tour of Europe in London she's presented at the royal court as a debutante and meets the future King Edward Prince of Wales he was rumored that Barbara Hatton had an affair with him it is not inconceivable because the future Edward the eighth did know a lot of American young women very well you

Channel: Smithsonian Channel

Views: 809,966

Rating: 4.8362713 out of 5

Keywords: depression, Barbara, dime, Throne, suite, fund, Britain, plaza, clerk, Europe, ball, london, Documentary, Frank, affair, wall street, store, video, Woolworth, public, smithsonian, retail, NY, Winfield, Barbara Hutton, Woolworths, rich teens, rich children, Million Dollar, American Princesses, Beautiful, Doomed, doomed rich children, rich people, American rich people, Woolworth store, American stores, millionaires, American millionaires, Smithsonian millionaires, inheritance, trust fund, trust fund baby, rich

Id: mywcfs5sF3U

Length: 3min 31sec (211 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 05 2016