The Ne'er-do-well

[PrettySquareGal]

Were there any famous and stylish ne'er-do-wells during the golden era?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Some would classify the Duke of Windsor in that category. At least I would.

There was also a famous conman by the name of Oscar Hartzell, who managed to pull off a gigantic land swindle in the Midwest by claiming to be the heir to a fabulous fortune assembled by Sir Francis Drake -- he had all the suave manners and moves down, and dazzled the cornbelters with his phony British accent and aristocratic style, despite being a born-and-raised native of Iowa.

The wartime spivs of Britain were rather glamorous fellows, with their pencil moustaches, spectator shoes, and loud ties.

 

[renaissancemedici]

Some would classify the Duke of Windsor in that category. At least I would.

That was my first thought as well. Along with his wife.

 

[Undertow]

H.H. Monroe (aka Saki) used to write about a rakish Reginald who was both a dandy and a cad. But then I guess that's fiction...

 

[Edward]

That was my first thought as well. Along with his wife.

Only him and his wife? I would make a fair case for all on the Civil List... To be fair, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, as they became, were hte only ones who ever expressed public Nazi sympathies.

 

[Stanley Doble]

George Sanders an exiled Russian aristocrat, remarked in his autobiography that he wanted to go all the way the easy way, and if that didn't work he would settle for getting part of the way the easy way. Is that what you had in mind?

Or someone more like Errol Flynn?

After some more thought it seems like the Golden Age was full of ne'er do wells.

Have you seen a mini series called The Charmer starring Nigel Havers? He seems to be exactly the type you are talking about.

The Captain and the Enemy by Graham Greene seems to be about another ne'er do well. I got it yesterday and haven't read it yet.

Lizziemaine when you say spectator shoes do you mean those brown suede jobs with the thick crepe soles that were in vogue in the demi monde just then?

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I mean the type of person, male or female, who aspired to do nothing other than loaf, meander, or did the minimal to get by. They can come from old money, royalty or the ghetto. I think of beach combers, Bowery Bums in suits, mooches, mamas boys and so on.

I like to glamorize the idea that many of the "losers" of society were still well-dressed or had a sense of style. Not like today.....

 

[Stanley Doble]

"My father, called Duke, taught me skills and manners; he taught me to shoot and to drive fast and to read respectfully and to box and to handle a boat and to distinguish between good jazz music and bad jazz music." A warm description of what it might take to become a man, what a father needs to teach his son. But ultimately also a good description of the ‘bullshit artist' Duke was. "He was lavish with money, with others' money. He preferred to stiff institutions: jewelers, car dealers, banks, fancy hotels."

From The Duke of Deception, Geoffrey Wolf's biography of his father.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think every neighborhood had its "Kingfish," a slick operator who always had an angle, always had a scheme, and never seemed to hold an actual job for very long. My own father was rather out of this mold, although he wasn't very good at it.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Famous and stylish ne'er do well seems a contradiction in terms. I can see stylish and notorious though.

There must have been quite a few who answered that description. Who managed to coast through life on their wit and charm until their relatives and friends gave up on them and the world at large got wise to their tricks. Then fell into poverty and obscurity leaving no trace of their passing.

 

[Stanley Doble]

There was Prince Mike Romanoff who cut quite a swath through New York and ended up running a restaurant called Romanoff's in Hollywood. Here is an account of his bizarre career.

http://allkindsofhistory.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/a-russian-prince-on-a-wichita-road-gang/

 

[Marc Chevalier]

There was Prince Mike Romanoff who cut quite a swath through New York and ended up running a restaurant called Romanoff's in Hollywood. He was a phony but did work at running his restaurant.

And he wore suits from "Oviatt's". Got 'em on credit, and actually paid James Oviatt back on time.

 

[filfoster]

Wait a minute, let me get this on. Ok, I'm braced: Nikola Tesla (since everyone else got the Windsors already). For a guy who reputedly had so many super inventions he didn't exactly cash in, did he? Besides AC current, where's zero point energy? The Death Ray? Time travel and all the other ubertech things his acolytes credit him with?

 

[Haversack]

If the description of Ne'er-do-well includes that of being a professional house guest, then I believe David Niven spent a year in that occupation between resigning his commission in the HLI and arriving in Hollywood. Obviously not a long time career.

Another form of Ne'er-do-well would be a Remittance Man. This is someone from a well-off family who has become an embarrassment/disgrace to his family and is sent far away and told to stay there. In order to provide encouragement to stay far away and to keep the wolf from the door, he is regularly provided with an amount of money, (a remittance.) Generally, this was not a lot so your remittance man would have to rely on his breeding and charm.

Yet another type of Ne'er-do-well, is that of a 'Captain Sharp'. Again someone with a good background but insufficient means. They befriend well-off people from the sticks/provinces/country visiting the City, (London/Paris/Kansas City,etc.), and show them the sights/introduce them to the right tailor/restaurant/club. Besides being treated to all the nice things by the marks, the Captain Sharp also gets kick-backs from the businesses he touts. And if gambling is involved, the pigeon really gets plucked.

 

[Dan Rodemsky]

Check out the Jimmy Buffett song "Remittance Man". Professional houseguest sounds like fun! Unfortunately I have to rely on my limited talents to make a living.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Wait a minute, let me get this on. Ok, I'm braced: Nikola Tesla (since everyone else got the Windsors already). For a guy who reputedly had so many super inventions he didn't exactly cash in, did he? Besides AC current, where's zero point energy? The Death Ray? Time travel and all the other ubertech things his acolytes credit him with?

But he did cash in. He received some VERY large checks from Westinghouse for his alternating current inventions. These paid for his experiments in Colorado and New York and to some extent at Wardenclyffe. He also maintained 2 suites in a New York hotel all his life, one for living quarters the other for a work space. Furthermore, he won a lawsuit that proved him to be the inventor of radio although I don't know if he collected royalties, he could have.

No doubt there were other inventions that paid off. He held many patents, spent money freely on the things he wanted to spend it on and never seemed to run short or complain of poverty. The fact that he lived an ascetic life style had more to do with his personal inclinations and mental quirks than poverty.

As for his inventions you are surrounded by them. If you wanted to follow up all his patents are now in the public domain. You are free to look them up and use them as you please.

He also published a number of interviews and newspaper articles outlining his discoveries. There was no doubt that all the inventions he described, he had actually developed and tested before he revealed them. He was very plain about that. He might speculate about how they could be used in the future but the inventions themselves were a reality.

Many of the things he discovered were rediscovered years later and credited to other people.

Having said that, there are a lot of exaggerated stories told by other people but he is not responsible for that.

I don't know what Tesla's name is doing in this discussion. He was the opposite of a ne'er do well. The only person ever to think that was Thomas Edison, his employer. He saw Tesla returning home in a dishevelled state at 5:00 in the morning and accused him of being a playboy. Tesla replied that he had just returned from working all night repairing one of Edison's power plants.

 

[dhermann1]

You can yank David Niven's name from that list. However there was a guy named Kip Niven (no relation), who I've heards like that about. David Niven was a GREAT star, both in the USA and Britain, as well as having a very distinguished war record.
Would you say that Samuel Insull qualifies?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Insull

 

[Tomasso]

Would you say that Samuel Insull qualifies?

Insull was hardly a layabout. He was one of the most industrious men of his era.

 

[dhermann1]

Again, the most interesting bad guys are the ones who are also good guys. I guess Insull created a situation for himself that was just untenable.
If we could go back another generation, I think my great grandfather could qualify. He was born in 1841 into a wealthy Pittsburgh family, and received a nice fortune when he reached his majority. He started a lumber yard in Tionesta PA (about 80 miles north of Pittsburgh) in 1875. The day before the business was set to open, the whole thing burned up. Total loss of $100,000. Those are 1875 dollars, maybe 2 million or more today. Anyway, things went downhill from then on for poor old G. W. Dithridge. He had many opportunities that he passed up because he thought they were "beneath" him. He always had to be the big shot Gilded Age capitalist. But he just couldn't pull it off. At one point he worked for the Iron Car Company. They were one of several companies tring to build railroad passenger cars that were safer than the telescoping death traps of the early days. I have a blank stock certificate form the company. I recently read a claim (from about 1900 I think) that the Iron Car Company was actually a big stock scam. I suspect that my poor old Great Granddaddy was the innocent stooge of some real ne'er do wells, who used him as a front.
Later, from 1899 till 1911, he was in Chihuahua, Mexico, operating a general store, still writing letters to his long suffering family, telling them that wealth and success were just around the corner. His wife, in the meantime, raised 6 daughters and a son, and sent all her daughters to college. One of them got her MD in 1901.
He never achieved that success. He managed to bust up a couple of romances for his daughters, and only two of he six ever married.
I have probably a couple hundred letters from and to him from his entire life (among a couple thousand letters in total). Fascinating old coot. Definitely a ne'er do well, tho God knows a well meaning one.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Jelly Roll Morton (1885?-1941)
aka Ferdinand Joseph LaMotte

In his early years the colorful, larger-than-life jazz legend and self-styled "originator of jazz" had quite a varied career starting out as the proverbial piano player in the cathouse and variously doing turns as a vaudeville comedian*, pool hustler and even a pimp (allegedly).

*his Jelly Roll monikker was the name of a character he portrayed in his vaudeville days.

Hilma Burt's Mirror Ballroom, New Orleans, 1907
The piano player is believed to be a young Jelly Roll Morton