The Four Husbands of Marjorie Merriweather Post
The Four Husbands of Marjorie Merriweather Post
Several years ago there was a documentary on the life of Marjorie Merriweather Post. I was waiting for them to say, like any good alumni, that she sold her estate to Long Island University. They never mentioned that the daughter of the cereal magnate, sold her Brookville, N.Y. property, in the land of The Great Gatsby, to be a future university center; However, they mentioned her personal life and reinforced the risks/rewards of marrying a “rich gal”. She was generous, exacting and according to more than one biographer willing and able to exercise her dominance over many of the men who came-a-courtin’ for C.W. Post’s daughter.
Among her many talents, she was a socialite, corporate executive, role model to women in business and art collector. She also had a major romantic life that kept the tabloid business humming most of her time on earth. First up, among these high-rollers, was the old-line Connecticut lawyer who helped her gain control of her future empire from her step-mother, who had been her father’s secretary and was only 10 years older than Marjorie.
Mr. and Mrs Edward Close.
1. Investment banker Edward Bennett Close was of Greenwich, Connecticut (wedding photo above). They had two children and were divorced in 1919. He was called into military service during WWI in 1917. He was a Captain with a subsequent battlefield promotion to Major. He saw active duty in France, receiving the French Médaille d’Honneur des Affaires Étrangères. During this same time, Mrs. Close funded an entire U.S. Army hospital with full medical supplies and staff. It would eventually have a capacity of 2,460 beds. (Marjorie Merriweather Post: a biography by Kenneth Lisenbee)
Honorably discharged in 1918. Edward Close came home a hero, after being decorated by the French government … Nevertheless, his homecoming was less than happy. In his absence, Marjorie had grown increasingly independent. The war, and (her) time in New York away from Ed, had enabled her to consider the possibilities of another existence. (According to American Empress: The Life and Times of Marjorie Merriweather Post By Nancy Rubin.)
In many ways he was the most sympathetic of her discarded husbands. Like many veterans of many wars, he came home changed. Just like many spouses of many soldiers, young Miss Post seemed to grow up too. During the time when Edward Close was fulfilling his military service in Europe, Mrs. Marjorie Post Close grew increasingly independent. In part she was assisted by a new circle of sophisticated friends that seemed to take her off the Long Island suburbs and led her into Manhattan on a regular basis. In November of 1919, they divorced. She retained custody of their two daughters Adelaide and Eleanor. (ibid: Lisenbee).
The death of Edward Close’s mother-in July 1919-did not help his immediate situation. However, he would soon remarry-to Elizabeth Taliaferro-for the rest of his life. Edward Bennett Close was, through that 2nd marriage, the grandfather of movie, TV and stage actress Glenn Close.
2. Post, herself, was married for a second time, in 1920, to financier Edward Francis (E.F.) Hutton.
When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_ygqPepLjM
Together Post and Hutton developed a larger variety of food products, including Birdseye Frozen Foods.
Mr. Hutton, reportedly the love of her life (after her father), multiplied Miss Post's fortune many times. This was especially true after she talked him into buying the pioneering Birds Eye "frosted foods" company. The company became the General Foods Corporation in 1929. Post and Hutton divorced in 1935.
The happy marriage -- during which the couple built their "little cottage by the sea" Mar-a-Lago -- foundered only when Hutton showed his philanderer's stripes, daring even to dally with his wife's live-in maid. To prove his infidelity, when that was the sole ground for divorce, Miss Post set elaborate traps for her husband involving bells, silken threads and talcum powder to detect footprints. (Rubin)
Hutton and Post had one daughter, actress Dina Merrill who spent much of her childhood at the estate on Long Island. She adopted the name Merrill after Charles E. Merrill-of Merrill Lynch & Co. financials-so to not embarrass the Hutton family name. ("An Actress Turns to Finance: History Proves That Both Dina Merrill and Her Daddy Knew Best". People.)
The rumor was that her father “hated” business rival Hutton.
Dina Merrill was married to producer Ted Hartley and Academy Award winning actor Cliff Robertson.
Do I actually have to say, “see photo shown”? (Dina Merrill IMDb credits.)
3. Post married her third husband, Joseph E. Davies; Newlyweds Marjorie Merriweather Post and Joseph E. Davies, a 59-year-old Washington, D.C. lawyer, honeymooned on her yacht in 1935. He became the US Ambassador to the USSR. They had no children and were divorced in 1955.
Author of Mission to Moscow, he insisted the Moscow Show Trials (1936-1938) were legitimate and supported Joseph Stalin-for a time.
When Davies became the US Ambassador to the USSR, Post accumulated a vast obsessive collection of Imperial Russian collected artworks, including nearly 90 Faberge pieces, 60 Russian porcelain dining services featuring dishes from Empress Catherine the Great, 25 silver religious chalices, two minutely detailed Imperial Easter eggs and the nuptial crown of Empress Alexandra. (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/why-this-american-cereal-heiress-amassed-a-huge-russian-art-collection)
Catherine the Great Faberge Egg (1914).
To learn more about the Hillwood Museum: https://www.hillwoodmuseum.org/museum
“She was in Moscow at just the right time, when Stalin and his government were selling objects for hard currency to build up armaments,” said Alison Hilton, professor of art history at Georgetown University.
The marriage to Mr. Davies fell apart in the early 1950s when he became ill and ill-tempered, which she could not stomach. As a life-long Christian Scientist, she insisted on a positive outlook and could not confront human frailty, "or illness or people on their way down who had caved into their problems." (https://www.nytimes.com/1973/09/13/archives/mrs-marjorie-merriweather-post-is-dead-at-86-a-rich-working-woman.html.
4. Husband number four was Herbert May, an executive vice president of Westinghouse. They married in 1958, her 4th marriage and his 2nd. However, "a set of photographs arrived on Post’s desk ...
Donald Trump ended up buying the Mar-a-Lago property for $7 million in 1985.
... they showed graphic and irrefutable evidence that (Herbert) May was ... naked and cavorting with younger men around the pool at the estate Mar-a-Lago."
They divorced in 1964. May was the “poorest” of Marjorie’s husbands. She set up a trust for him. He died on March 11, 1968 in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. He was 71 years old. (http://www.paulbowles.org/marjoriemerriweatherpost.html)
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Post died at her Hillwood Washington D.C. estate on September 12, 1973, after a long illness, and was buried there. (Mrs. Marjorie Merriweather Post Is Dead at 86". The New York Times. September 13, 1973.)
(This article originally appeared on the Long Island University Class of 1990 Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1440945796095966/about)
American Empress: The Life and Times of Marjorie Merriweather Post, Nancy Rubin Stuart (c) 1995, 2005 ISBN: 0-595-30146-0
Edward Bennett Close: http://www.closeancestry.com/2016/04/edward-bennett-close-1882-world-war-1/?fbclid=IwAR2fCly4nAChTs-U2IpG-zViom3rKfF7iFYkjYvIawoIbMslS6KgVKxItbw
E.F. Hutton commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_ygqPepLjM
M.W. Post Obituary: https://www.nytimes.com/1973/09/13/archives/mrs-marjorie-merriweather-post-is-dead-at-86-a-rich-working-woman.html (retrieved June 5, 2021)
Majorie Merriweather Post: A Biography, by Kenneth Lisenbee, (c) 2009
"An Actress Turns to Finance: History Proves That Both Dina Merrill and Her Daddy Knew Best". People. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
Merrill IMDb.com: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0581277/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
(https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/why-this-american-cereal-heiress-amassed-a-huge-russian-art-collection)
'A night with thunder in the sky he packed his bag and left,' Paul Bowles wrote in a short autobiographical piece in 1986—referring to an es
Herbert A. May (1891-1968), an executive vice president of Westinghouse, was a socialite and avid fox hunter who liked to entertain at Ro
Mrs. Marjorie Merriweather Post Is Dead at 86". The New York Times. September 13, 1973. (retrieved June 12, 2021)
