Gottfried von Cramm
Who was the spouse of Barbara Hutton between May 1957 and Feb 1958?
Barbara Hutton Barbara Woolworth Hutton ( November 14 , 1912 – May 11 , 1979 ) was an American debutante , socialite , heiress , and philanthropist . She was dubbed the Poor Little Rich Girl : first when she was given a lavish and expensive debutante ball in 1930 amid the Great Depression , and later due to a notoriously troubled private life . Heiress to one-third of the estate of the retail tycoon Frank Winfield Woolworth , Barbara Hutton was one of the wealthiest women in the world . She endured a childhood marked by the early loss of her mother at age four to suicide and the neglect of her father , setting the stage for a life of difficulty forming relationships . Married and divorced seven times , she acquired grand foreign titles but was maliciously treated and often exploited by several of her husbands . Publicly she was much envied for her possessions , her beauty and her apparent life of leisure ; privately she remained deeply insecure , often taking refuge in drink , drugs , and playboys . Hutton had one child , Lance Reventlow , with her second husband , but was an inconsistent and insecure parent and the subsequent divorce ended in a bitter custody battle . She later developed anorexia nervosa and perhaps thereby prevented further childbirth . Her son died in a plane crash in 1972 at the age of 36 , leaving her devastated . She died on May 11 , 1979 , at age 66 . At her death , the formerly wealthy Hutton was on the verge of bankruptcy as a result of both lavish spending and exploitation by those entrusted to manage her estate . Early life . Born in New York City , Barbara Hutton was the only child of Edna Woolworth ( 1883–1917 ) , a daughter of Frank W . Woolworth , the founder of the successful Woolworth five-and-dime stores . Barbaras father was Franklyn Laws Hutton ( 1877–1940 ) , a wealthy co-founder of E . F . Hutton & Company ( owned by Franklyns brother Edward Francis Hutton ) , a respected New York investment banking and stock brokerage firm . She was a niece by marriage of cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post , who was for a time ( 1920–1935 ) married to E.F . Hutton ; thus their daughter , actress-heiress Dina Merrill ( born Nedenia Hutton ) , was a first cousin to Barbara Hutton . Dina Merrill related on A&Es Biography of the Woolworths , that for a time Barbara lived with them following the death of her mother and abandonment by her father . Edna Hutton reportedly died on May 2 , 1917 , age 33 , from suffocation due to mastoiditis , but rumor persists that she committed suicide by poison in despair over her husbands philandering , especially as the coroner decided that no autopsy was necessary . Four-year-old Barbara discovered her mothers body . After her mothers death , she lived with various relatives , and was raised by a governess . Hutton attended Miss Hewitts Classes , now The Hewitt School in New Yorks Lenox Hill neighborhood and Miss Porters School for Girls in Farmington , Connecticut . She became an introverted child who had limited interaction with other children of her own age . Her closest friend and only confidante was her cousin Jimmy Donahue , the son of her mothers sister . Jimmy Donahue inherited a portion of the Woolworth estate with Barbara and also grew up to have notorious , and public , drug , alcohol and relationship problems . In 1924 , Barbara Huttons grandmother Jennie ( Creighton ) Woolworth died and bequeathed to her $26.1 million . Another $2.1 million in stock from Ednas inheritance was placed in a separate trust - both trusts were administered by Franklyn Hutton . By the time of her 21st birthday in 1933 , her father had increased her inheritance to $42 million ( over $1 billion in 2020 ) , not including the additional $8 million from her mothers estate , making her one of the wealthiest women in the world . In accordance with New Yorks high society traditions , Barbara Hutton was given a lavish débutante ball in 1930 on her 18th birthday , where guests from the Astor and Rockefeller families , amongst other elites , were entertained by stars such as Rudy Vallee and Maurice Chevalier . The ball cost $60,000 , a veritable fortune in the days of the Depression . Public criticism was so severe that she was sent on a tour of Europe to escape the onslaught of the press . She lived in the family home at 4 East 80th Street on the Upper East Side . Marriages . Popular poet Ogden Nash then took note of Huttons public private life in the following light verse : Said Aimee McPherson to Barbara Hutton, How do you get a marriage to button? Youll have to ask some other person. Said Barbara Hutton to Aimee McPherson Barbara Hutton married : 1 . 1933 : Alexis Mdivani , a self-styled Georgian prince , divorced 1935 2 . 1935 : Count Kurt Heinrich Eberhard Erdmann Georg von Haugwitz-Hardenberg-Reventlow , divorced 1938 3 . 1942 : Cary Grant , divorced 1945 4 . 1947 : Prince Igor Troubetzkoy , divorced 1951 5 . 1953 : Porfirio Rubirosa , divorced 1954 6 . 1955 : Baron Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt von Cramm , divorced 1959 7 . 1964 : Pierre Raymond Doan , divorced 1966 Alexis Mdivani . Her first husband , Alexis Mdivani , used her great wealth to his advantage . As a social climber , he and his siblings were part of the Marrying Mdivanis from Georgia who claimed to be princes after they fled Tbilisi in 1921 due to the Soviet invasion of Georgia . Alexis was already married to Louise Van Alen , a friend Barbara met at Baileys Beach in Rhode Island and a member of the Astor family , when he met Barbara in Biarritz , France . Their meeting was engineered by Alexis manipulative sister Roussie who was always propelling her family into wealthy marriages even if a divorce was required . Roussie and Alexis devised a plan that would enable Alexis to divorce Louise , seduce Barbara , and force her into marriage all at once when Alexis , Louise , Barbara , Roussie , and others were visiting San Sebastian , Spain . Roussie timed Louise and other witnesses to a visit a guest cottage while Alexis seduced Barbara . The group caught the couple , prompting Barbara to flee to Paris to avoid facing the scandal , but Roussie threatened Barbara with negative publicity if she did not marry her brother . Alexis and Barbara were married on June 22 , 1933 , in the Russian Orthodox Church in Paris , France . Barbaras father provided a $1 million dowry . After spending millions of Barbaras inheritance on a home , polo ponies , clothes and mens jewelry , Alexis and Barbara divorced in March , 1935 . Kurt Haugwitz-Reventlow . Count Kurt Haugwitz-Reventlow , with whom she had her only child , a son named Lance , was her second husband . Reventlow dominated her through verbal and physical abuse , which escalated to a savage beating that left her hospitalized and put him in jail . He also persuaded her to give up her American citizenship , and to take his native Danish citizenship for tax purposes , which she did in December 1937 in a New York federal court . At this point she lapsed into drug abuse . Hutton then developed anorexia , which would plague her for the rest of her life and would leave her unable to have further children . Lance Reventlow , the son , became a race car driver and builder of his own well-respected sports car , the Scarab , in the golden age of American sports car racing . Huttons divorce from Reventlow gave her custody of their son after a bitter court dispute . As her father had done , she left the raising of her child to a governess and private boarding schools . In 1938 , Hutton had a brief affair with Howard Hughes in London at the Savoy Hotel , where Hughes spent several afternoons in Huttons round satin bed . Hughes , at the time , was engaged to Katharine Hepburn and had come to London to meet with government officials and arrange permission to overfly Europe as part of a plan to circumnavigate the globe by air . Hutton later recalled that he saw I had difficulty reaching orgasm and tried desperately to make me do so the first time . . . thereafter pleasing himself and saying that I would not have one anyway . If I touched myself , he angrily brushed my hand away . He could not take it when a woman lost herself in pleasure because he felt he must absolutely be in control of a situation . Hughes had met Hepburn on the set of one of Cary Grants movies , while visiting with Grant . Howard Hughes and Cary Grant were close , long-time friends . Cary Grant . As World War II threatened in 1939 , Hutton moved to California . She was active during the war , giving money to assist the Free French Forces and donating her yacht to the Royal Navy . Using her high-profile image to sell war bonds , she received positive publicity after being derided by the press as a result of her marriage scandals . In Hollywood , she met Cary Grant , one of the biggest movie stars of the day , and later married him on July 8 , 1942 . The press dubbed the married couple Cash and Cary , though Grant did not need her money nor did he need to benefit from her name , and he appeared to genuinely care for Hutton . Nevertheless , this marriage also failed . Grant did not seek or receive any money from Hutton in their divorce settlement . Igor Troubetzkoy . Hutton left California and moved to Paris , France , before acquiring a palace in Tangier . Hutton then began dating Igor Troubetzkoy , an expatriate Russian prince of very limited means but world renown . In the spring of 1948 in Zurich , Switzerland , she married him . That year , he was the driver of the first Ferrari to ever compete in Grand Prix motor racing when he raced in the Monaco Grand Prix , and later won the Targa Florio . He ultimately filed for divorce . Huttons subsequent attempted suicide made headlines around the world . Labeled by the press as the Poor Little Rich Girl , her life made great copy and the media exploited her for consumption by a fascinated public . Porfirio Rubirosa . Her next marriage , lasting 53 days ( December 30 , 1953 – February 20 , 1954 ) , was to Dominican diplomat Porfirio Rubirosa , a notorious international playboy who meanwhile continued his affair with actress Zsa Zsa Gabor . She was granted Dominican citizenship in 1953 . In a scathing review of the marriage ceremony in the Milwaukee Sentinel , Phyllis Battelle coined the oft-quoted phrase : The bride , for her fifth wedding , wore black and carried a scotch-and-soda . Hutton then spent time with Americans James Douglas and Philip Van Rensselaer . Her lavish spending continued ; already the owner of several mansions around the world , in 1959 she built a luxurious Japanese-style palace on a 30-acre ( 120,000 m ) estate in Cuernavaca , Mexico . Gottfried von Cramm . Her next husband was an old friend , German tennis star Baron Gottfried von Cramm . This marriage also ended in divorce . He died in an automobile crash near Cairo , Egypt , in 1976 . Raymond Doan . In Tangier , Hutton met her seventh husband , Prince Pierre Raymond Doan Vinh na Champassak . This marriage , too , was short-lived . Raymond Doan was an adopted member of the former royal family of the Kingdom of Champasak . Other relationships . Hutton lived with Frederick McEvoy , purchasing a chalet at a ski resort in Franconia , New Hampshire , after her marriage to actor Cary Grant . The couple never married and remained friends until McEvoys death in 1951 . Hutton frequently appeared intoxicated in public and was notorious throughout her life for lavish spending . She was known to make gifts to total strangers . Art and jewelry . Over the years , apart from an important inheritance which included Old Master paintings and important sculptures , she also personally acquired a magnificent collection of her own which included the spectrum of arts , porcelain , valuable jewelry , including elaborate historic pieces that had once belonged to Marie Antoinette and Empress Eugénie of France , and important pieces by Fabergé and Cartier . Among her pieces of jewelry was the Pasha Diamond , which she purchased as an unusual octagonal brilliant-cut but had recut into a round brilliant , bringing it down to . Final years and death . The death of her only son Lance Reventlow in an air crash in 1972 sent Hutton into a state of despair . By this time , her fortune had diminished , due to her extreme generosity , including donating Winfield House to the United States government as a residence for its UK ambassador . Alleged questionable deals by her longtime lawyer , Graham Mattison , also ate away at her fortune . Eventually she began liquidating assets in order to raise funds to live , yet continued to spend money on strangers willing to pay a little attention to her . She spent her final years in Los Angeles , living at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel , where she died from a heart attack in May 1979 , aged 66 . One biographer wrote that , at her death , $3,500 was all that remained of her fortune , but some who actually knew her said that was not the case . She was interred in the Woolworth family mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx , New York .