George Huntington Hartford II (April 18, 1911 – May 19, 2008) was an American businessman, philanthropist, stage and film producer, and art collector. He was also heir to the
A&P supermarket fortune.
After his father's death in 1922, Hartford became one of the heirs to the estate left by his grandfather and namesake,
George Huntington Hartford
George Huntington Hartford (September 5, 1833 – August 29, 1917) headed the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) from 1878 to 1917. During this period, A&P created the concept of the chain grocery store and expanded into the country's ...
. After graduating from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
in 1934, he only briefly worked for A&P. For the rest of his life, Hartford focused on numerous other business and charitable enterprises.
He owned
Paradise Island
Paradise Island is an island in The Bahamas formerly known as Hog Island. The island, with an area of (2.8 km2/1.1 sq mi), is located just off the shore of the city of Nassau, which is itself located on the northern edge of the island of ...
in
the Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the a ...
, and had numerous other business and real estate interests over his lifetime including
the Oil Shale Corporation (TOSCO), which he founded in 1955.
Hartford was once known as one of the world's richest people. His final years were spent living in the Bahamas with his daughter, Juliet.
Early life and education
Huntington Hartford was born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, the son of Henrietta Guerard (Pollitzer) and
Edward V. Hartford (1870–1922). He was named George Huntington Hartford II for his grandfather,
George Huntington Hartford
George Huntington Hartford (September 5, 1833 – August 29, 1917) headed the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) from 1878 to 1917. During this period, A&P created the concept of the chain grocery store and expanded into the country's ...
. His father and uncles,
John Augustine Hartford
John Augustine Hartford (February 10, 1872 – September 20, 1951) was the longtime President of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company ("A&P"), serving in that position for 35 years from 1916 until his death. His father, George Huntington H ...
and
George Ludlum Hartford
George Ludlum Hartford (November 7, 1864 – September 23, 1957) was the longtime chairman and treasurer of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P), serving in those positions for over 40 years from 1916 until his death. He was the suc ...
, privately owned the
A&P Supermarket, which at one point had 16,000 stores in the U.S. and was the largest retail empire in the world. In the 1950s A&P was the world's largest grocer and, next to General Motors, it sold more goods than any other company in the world. ''Time'' magazine reported that A&P had sales of $2.7 billion in 1950. His maternal grandfather was from an Austrian Jewish family, and his maternal grandmother, who was Protestant, had deep roots in South Carolina. Hartford's father was a successful inventor and manufacturer who perfected the automotive
shock absorber
A shock absorber or damper is a mechanical or hydraulic device designed to absorb and damp shock impulses. It does this by converting the kinetic energy of the shock into another form of energy (typically heat) which is then dissipated. Most ...
. Along with his brothers, Edward was also an heir to the A&P fortune and served as A&P's corporate secretary as well as one of three trustees that controlled A&P's stock.
After Hartford's birth, the family moved to
Deal, New Jersey
Deal is a borough in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, settled by Europeans in the mid-1660s and named after an English carpenter from Deal, Kent. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 900, an increa ...
, a wealthy community on the Atlantic shore.
After Huntington's father died when he was 11, his mother moved the family to a mansion in
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...
, known as "Seaverge" next to
Rough Point
Rough Point is one of the Gilded Age mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, now open to the public as a museum. It is an English Manorial style home designed by architectural firm Peabody & Stearns for Frederick William Vanderbilt. Construction on ...
, the mansion owned by tobacco heiress
Doris Duke
Doris Duke (November 22, 1912 – October 28, 1993) was an American billionaire tobacco heiress, philanthropist, art collector, horticulturalist, and socialite. She was often called "the richest girl in the world". Her great wealth, luxurious l ...
. The family also lived on a plantation in
South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
called "Wando" as well as an apartment on Fifth Avenue in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
.
After his father died in 1922, Hartford's mother sent him to
St. Paul's School. He later majored in English literature at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
.
After his graduation from Harvard in 1934, he went to work at A&P headquarters in New York in the statistical department. He lived on a trust fund that generated about $1.5 million per year.
On 10 November 1936, he purchased the sailing ship ''
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language; though he did not spe ...
'' from Alan Villiers which he converted to a private yacht, and donated to the
U.S. Maritime Commission as a sail training ship in 1939.
Career
In 1940, Hartford invested $100,000 to help start a newspaper, ''
PM'', with
Marshall Field III
Marshall Field III (September 28, 1893 – November 8, 1956) was an American investment banker, publisher, racehorse owner/breeder, philanthropist, grandson of businessman Marshall Field, heir to the Marshall Field department store fortune, ...
and worked as a reporter for the publication. An avid sailor, he donated his
yacht
A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...
to the
Coast Guard
A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...
at the start of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. During the war he was commissioned in the Coast Guard and commanded the Army supply ship ''FS-179'', commissioned in May 1944, in the Pacific Theater. Hartford twice accidentally ran the ship aground.
After the war, he moved to Los Angeles and attempted to purchase
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures Corporation (currently held under Melange Pictures, LLC) was an American motion picture production-distribution corporation in operation from 1935 to 1967, that was based in Los Angeles. It had studio facilities in Studio City a ...
and
RKO Studios
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...
from
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in t ...
. Huntington also started a modeling agency and an artists' colony, and opened a theater.
In the 1950s, Hartford purchased a penthouse duplex on the 13th and 14th floors of
One Beekman Place in the 1950s after moving from an apartment at the River House in New York City. He owned a home called "Pompano" on 240 El Vedado Drive in
Palm Beach, a estate in
Mahwah, New Jersey called "Melody Farm", a Hollywood estate known as "The Pines" (also known as
Runyon Canyon Park
Runyon Canyon Park is a park in Los Angeles, California, at the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains, managed by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. The southern entrance to the park is located at the north end of Fuller Av ...
), a townhouse in London, a home in
Juan-les-Pins
Juan-les-Pins (; oc, Joan dei Pins) is a town in the commune of Antibes in the Alpes-Maritimes department in Southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera, it is situated between Nice and Cannes, to the southwest of Nice Côte d'Azur Air ...
France and a house on
Paradise Island
Paradise Island is an island in The Bahamas formerly known as Hog Island. The island, with an area of (2.8 km2/1.1 sq mi), is located just off the shore of the city of Nassau, which is itself located on the northern edge of the island of ...
in the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the a ...
.
Hartford owned Huntington Hartford Productions which produced several films including the
Abbott and Costello
Abbott may refer to:
People
* Abbott (surname)
*Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849–1921), American painter and naturalist
* Abbott and Costello, famous American vaudeville act
Places Argentina
* Abbott, Buenos Aires United States
* Abbott, Arkansas ...
film, ''
Africa Screams
''Africa Screams'' is a 1949 American adventure comedy film directed by Charles Barton and starring Abbott and Costello that parodies the safari genre. The title is a play on the title of the 1930 documentary ''Africa Speaks!'' The supporting ...
'', in 1949. In 1950, Hartford produced ''
Hello Out There
''Hello Out There!'' is a one-act play by the Armenian-American playwright William Saroyan written early in August 1941.
Plot
The play is set in a small Texas jail. There are two major characters, Photo-Finish and Emily, whom Saroyan refers to sim ...
'', the last film of
James Whale
James Whale (22 July 1889 – 29 May 1957) was an English film director, theatre director and actor, who spent the greater part of his career in Hollywood. He is best remembered for several horror films: '' Frankenstein'' (1931), '' The ...
, the acclaimed director of the
1931 version of ''Frankenstein''. He produced several films starring Marjorie Steele and encouraged her to become an artist.
In 1955, Hartford founded the Oil Shale Corporation, later known as Tosco, and was its majority shareholder and chairman. Tosco was later acquired by
ConocoPhillips
ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production. It is based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas.
The company has operations in 15 countries and has production in ...
. He also set up the Denver Research Institute at the
University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...
to find alternate methods of oil extraction. During this period, he also wrote and produced ''The Master of Thornfield'', a stage adaptation of ''
Jane Eyre
''Jane Eyre'' ( ; originally published as ''Jane Eyre: An Autobiography'') is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first ...
'' that ran for two weeks in Cincinnati starring
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian-American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, freque ...
as
Mr. Rochester
Edward Fairfax Rochester (often referred to as Mr Rochester) is a character in Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel ''Jane Eyre''. The brooding master of Thornfield Hall, Rochester is the employer and eventual husband of the novel's titular protagonist ...
. This partnership led to Flynn staying in Hartford's pool-house briefly in 1957–58 and is the origin of a legend that "The Pines" was Flynn's estate.
Later, Hartford produced the play on Broadway.
In 1963, Hartford offered The Pines as a gift to the city but was turned down by Mayor
Sam Yorty.
As Lloyd Wright recalled in 1977, "Here was this very wealthy man, and he wanted to give something very stunning to Hollywood. The Chambers of Commerce, the hotel owners and the various businesses were jealous of the park and with the help of the city officials, the city refused to give us permits. Hunt was so angry that he wanted to get out immediately and sold the property to
ulesBerman who destroyed the mansion and let the place run down."
When his uncle George Ludlum Hartford died in 1957, the trust set up by the elder George Huntington Hartford was liquidated and Hartford inherited his portion of the estate. The ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' estimated his wealth in 1969 as half a billion dollars. In 1959,
Mike Wallace
Myron Leon Wallace (May 9, 1918 – April 7, 2012) was an American journalist, game show host, actor, and media personality. He interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers during his seven-decade career. He was one of the original correspo ...
introduced him on television interview as being worth half a billion dollars.
In 1959, Hartford bought Hog Island in the Bahamas, renaming it
Paradise Island
Paradise Island is an island in The Bahamas formerly known as Hog Island. The island, with an area of (2.8 km2/1.1 sq mi), is located just off the shore of the city of Nassau, which is itself located on the northern edge of the island of ...
. He developed it over the next three years hoping to turn it into another
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...
. One feature of his Ocean Club was a cloister built from the disassembled stones of a monastery that
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...
had stored in a Florida warehouse.
In an interview with
David Frost
Sir David Paradine Frost (7 April 1939 – 31 August 2013) was a British television host, journalist, comedian and writer. He rose to prominence during the satire boom in the United Kingdom when he was chosen to host the satirical programme ...
on British television, Hartford stated that the flag he created for Paradise Island was in the shape of a "P" and that he wanted to put it on the moon as a symbol of peace for the world. Hartford was responsible for getting the gambling license for Paradise Island by hiring Sir
Stafford Sands, a Bahamian lawyer.
In 1969, Hartford produced the Broadway show ''
Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?
''Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?'' is a play written in 1969 by Don Petersen. It has three acts, and helped to launch the careers of actors Al Pacino and Ron Thompson.
Title
The title of the play is explained by the character Fullendorf, who sai ...
'', which opened at the
Belasco Theater
The Belasco Theatre is a Broadway theater at 111 West 44th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue, in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Originally known as the Stuyvesant Theatre, it was built in 1907 and ...
starring the then-unknown actor
Al Pacino
Alfredo James Pacino (; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he has received numerous accolades: including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy ...
. Pacino won a
Tony for his performance.
Patronage of the arts
Hartford was a patron of the arts, building an artists colony above Los Angeles and later a gallery in New York City, and his opinions on the arts were equally strong. He criticized Abstract Expressionists, believing they had ushered in a great "ice age of art," freezing out the grand traditions of music, painting and sculpture; he described
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
as a "mountebank".
[Sam Watters]
Colony in Pacific Palisades nurtured top artists in 1950s, 1960s
''Los Angeles Times'', January 10, 2009, accessed August 19, 2013. Beyond expressionism, he derided the "
beatnik
Beatniks were members of a social movement in the 1950s that subscribed to an anti-materialistic lifestyle.
History
In 1948, Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation", generalizing from his social circle to characterize the under ...
, the
Existentialist, the juvenile delinquent, the zaniest of abstract art, the weirdest aberrations of the mentally unbalanced, the do-nothing philosophy of
Zen Buddhism
Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), an ...
" as a result of wanton "abuse of liberty and freedom."
[ He had strong opinions against the work of ]Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thr ...
, T. S. Eliot, and Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter El ...
, as well as art dealer Sidney Janis
Sidney Janis (July 8, 1896 – November 23, 1989) was a wealthy clothing manufacturer and art collector who opened an art gallery in New York in 1948. His gallery quickly gained prominence, for he not only exhibited work by the Abstract Expressio ...
.[
To support the art that he enjoyed, Hartford built an artists' colony in ]Rustic Canyon
Rustic Canyon is a residential neighborhood and canyon in eastern Pacific Palisades, on the west side of Los Angeles, California. It is along Rustic Creek, in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Geography
The residential neighborhood is bordered a ...
, above the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. Buying more than 150 acres in 1948, he hired Lloyd Wright (son of Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
) to adapt existing structures and design new ones. When it opened in 1951, it had more than a dozen cottages and a central dining room for distinguished artists, composers and craftspeople who won scholarships for one to six-month retreats.[ For nearly 15 years, more than 400 colony artists generated international success with exhibitions, concerts, theater performances and ]Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...
s; included among them were composers Ernst Toch, Norma Wendelburg, and Ruth Shaw Wylie, writer and activist Max Eastman, and painter Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realist painter and printmaker. While he is widely known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching.
Hopper created subdued drama ...
.[
Hartford also renovated and opened a theater which he renamed the ]Huntington Hartford Theater Huntington may refer to:
Places
Canada
* Huntington, Nova Scotia
New Zealand
* Huntington, New Zealand a suburb in Hamilton, New Zealand
United Kingdom
* Huntington, Cheshire, England
* Huntington, East Lothian, Scotland
* Huntington, ...
, which opened in 1954. For ten years the Hartford Theater was Los Angeles's premier venue for Broadway-scale productions featuring the stars of the time.
Hartford's taste for Los Angeles began to wane, however, after the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum).
LACMA was founded in 19 ...
rejected an exhibition he proposed. He decided to build his own museum in New York City, the 1964 Gallery of Modern Art on Columbus Circle, declaring that building a museum in Los Angeles was like putting up "a theater in Oklahoma" due to a lack of audience.[ With the financial commitment to a new museum in New York and tiring of his art colony, he asked local government officials and wealthy patrons to contribute to the colony's support. Lacking what he felt would be sufficient commitment, he shut down the colony in 1965][ (he had sold the Huntington Hartford Theater in 1964).
]
Art collection
Hartford owned an extensive art collection. In an interview by Edward R. Murrow on his show '' Person to Person'' he gave a tour of the collection at his Beekman Place apartment including Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally cons ...
's "Portrait of a man, half-length, with his arms akimbo", which sold at Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémi ...
auction house in London on December 8, 2009 for $33 million, a world record for a Rembrandt.
To house his extensive collection of 19th- and 20th-century art, Hartford built the Gallery of Modern Art at 2 Columbus Circle in Manhattan which opened in 1964. Pointedly, it did not include Abstract Expressionism
Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
which Hartford panned in his book, ''Art or Anarchy''. Hartford was a patron of the architect Edward Durell Stone
Edward Durell Stone (March 9, 1902 – August 6, 1978) was an American architect known for the formal, highly decorative buildings he designed in the 1950s and 1960s. His works include the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City, the Museo de A ...
who designed the modernist marble-clad structure often derided as the "lollipop building". Stone had previously designed the Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...
for the Rockefeller family
The Rockefeller family () is an American industrial, political, and banking family that owns one of the world's largest fortunes. The fortune was made in the American petroleum industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by broth ...
.
Hartford commissioned Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...
to paint '' The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus'' for the museum's opening. The museum also included Hartford's paintings by Monet, Manet
A wireless ad hoc network (WANET) or mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a decentralized type of wireless network. The network is ad hoc because it does not rely on a pre-existing infrastructure, such as routers in wired networks or access points ...
, Degas, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in th ...
. Hartford closed the museum after five years. Later the building housed the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and was recently rebuilt with a new facade to house the Museum of Arts and Design.
Personal life
Hartford was married four times, all ending in divorce, and had five children. His mother intended Huntington to marry Doris Duke
Doris Duke (November 22, 1912 – October 28, 1993) was an American billionaire tobacco heiress, philanthropist, art collector, horticulturalist, and socialite. She was often called "the richest girl in the world". Her great wealth, luxurious l ...
, but in April 1931, Huntington married Mary Lee Epling, the 18-year-old daughter of a dentist from Covington, Virginia. They divorced in 1939. In 1938, Huntington had a son, Edward "Buzzy" Barton, with dancer Mary Barton. Hartford supported the boy financially but refused to legally acknowledge him as his son. In 1967, Edward Barton died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Huntington's second wife was Marjorie Steele, an aspiring actress whom Hartford married in 1949. The couple had two children, Catherine (born 1950) and John Hartford (born 1953 or 1954). The couple divorced in 1960. Catherine Hartford died of a drug overdose in June 1988. John Hartford later became a musician and music teacher. He died of throat cancer on April 15, 2011.
In 1962, Hartford married Diane Brown at Melody Farm in Mahwah, New Jersey. They had a daughter, Cynara Juliet, before divorcing in 1970. Five years later, he married Elaine Kay but was divorced again in 1981.
Later years and death
In February 2004, he and his daughter moved to Lyford Cay in the Bahamas.
Hartford died at his home in Lyford Cay on May 19, 2008 at the age of 97. The cause of his death was not publicly released. His remains are interred at Lakeview Memorial Gardens & Mausoleums in Nassau
Nassau may refer to:
Places Bahamas
*Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence
Canada
*Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792
*Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...
.
In popular culture
* Hartford was portrayed by John McMartin in the 2004 film '' Kinsey'', directed by Bill Condon
William Condon (born October 22, 1955) is an American director and screenwriter. Condon is known for writing and/or directing numerous successful and acclaimed films including '' Gods and Monsters'', '' Chicago'', '' Kinsey'', ''Dreamgirls'', ...
.
* Hartford's Ocean Club, situated on Paradise Island, was featured in two James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors hav ...
films: '' Thunderball'', in 1965, and '' Casino Royale'' in 2006. His then-wife, Diane Brown, has a cameo in ''Thunderball'' as the woman James Bond (Sean Connery
Sir Sean Connery (born Thomas Connery; 25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. Origina ...
) briefly dances with at the ''"Kiss Kiss"'' Club in Nassau, and in ''Casino Royale'' as a card player at the Ocean Club.
References
External links
*
"Huntington Hartford wins race in his yacht, The Joseph Conrad, from Newport to Bermuda"
''Time'', September 20, 1937
New York Times archives on Huntington Hartford
''Time'' archives on Huntington Hartford
"Chicago Tribune", March 9, 1969
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartford, Huntington
1911 births
2008 deaths
20th-century American businesspeople
American art collectors
American businesspeople in the oil industry
American expatriates in the Bahamas
Film producers from New York (state)
Philanthropists from New York (state)
American theatre managers and producers
Huntington Hartford
Harvard University alumni
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company
People from Deal, New Jersey
People from Manhattan
People from Palm Beach, Florida
People from Greater Los Angeles
St. Paul's School (New Hampshire) alumni
Film producers from New Jersey
Film producers from Florida
People from New York City