Editing Barbara Hutton

{{Short description|American philanthropist and socialite (1912–1979)}}
{{POV|date=December 2021|talk=NPOV Challenge}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Barbara Hutton
| image              = Barbara Hutton on a ship (cropped).jpg
| caption            = Hutton in the 1930s
| birth_name         = Barbara Woolworth Hutton
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1912|11|14}}
| birth_place        = [[New York City]], U.S.
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1979|5|11|1912|11|13}}
| death_place        = [[Beverly Hills, California]], U.S.
| resting_place      = [[Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)|Woodlawn Cemetery]], [[The Bronx]], New York
| spouse             = {{Ubl
  | {{marriage|[[Mdivani|Alexis Mdivani]]|1933|1935|end=div}}
  | {{marriage|Count Kurt von [[Haugwitz|Haugwitz-Reventlow]]|1935|1938|end=div}}
  | {{marriage|[[Cary Grant]]|1942|1945|end=div}}
  | {{marriage|Prince [[Igor Troubetzkoy]]|1947|1951|end=div}}
  | {{marriage|[[Porfirio Rubirosa]]|1953|1954|end=div}}
  | {{marriage|Baron [[Gottfried von Cramm]]|1955|1959|end=div}}
  | {{marriage|Prince Pierre Doan|1964|1966|end=div}}
  }}
| occupation         = [[Philanthropist]], [[Beneficiary|heiress]]
| years_active       = 1933–1979
| children           = [[Lance Reventlow]]
| relatives          = {{Ubl
  | [[Frank Winfield Woolworth]] (maternal grandfather)
  | [[Charles Sumner Woolworth|Charles S. Woolworth]] (maternal granduncle)
  | [[Edward Francis Hutton]] (paternal uncle)
  | [[Dina Merrill]] (paternal first cousin)
  }}
}}
'''Barbara Woolworth Hutton''' (November 14, 1912 – May 11, 1979) was an American [[debutante]], [[socialite]], [[beneficiary|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.<ref>{{Cite web|date=August 9, 2019|title=Barbara Hutton: The 'Poor Little Rich Girl' Who Had Everything Except Happiness|url=https://thoughtcatalog.com/jeremy-london/2019/08/barbara-hutton/|access-date=June 9, 2020|website=Thought Catalog|language=en}}</ref>

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 neglect of her father and the early loss of her mother at age four who died from suffocation due to [[mastoiditis]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Mrs. Hutton Found Dead. Daughter of F. W. Woolworth Suffocated in Her Room at the Plaza  |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1917/05/03/archives/mrs-hutton-found-dead-daughter-of-fw-woolworth-suffocated-in-her.html |quote=Mrs. Franklyn Laws Hutton, who was Edna Woolworth, daughter of F. W. Woolworth, was found dead in her apartment at the hotel Plaza. ... |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 3, 1917 |access-date=December 3, 2011 }}</ref> Rumors have persisted that she committed suicide.<ref name="Plunkett-Powell, Karen p. 131">Plunkett-Powell, Karen; Remembering Woolworth's: A Nostalgic History of the World's Most Famous Five-and-Dime, MacMillan, p. 131.</ref> This set 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 was an inconsistent and insecure parent to her one child, exacerbated when the divorce from her second husband ended in a bitter custody battle, and she subsequently developed [[anorexia nervosa]]. Her son [[Lance Reventlow]] died in a 1972 plane crash, leaving Hutton devastated. A life of lavish spending, paired with exploitation by those entrusted to manage her estate, brought Hutton to the verge of bankruptcy before her death.

==Early life==
Born in [[New York City]], Barbara Hutton was the only child of Edna Woolworth (1883–1917), who was a daughter of [[Frank Woolworth|Frank W. Woolworth]], the founder of the successful [[F.W. Woolworth Company|Woolworth]] five-and-dime stores. Barbara's father was Franklyn Laws Hutton (1877–1940), a wealthy co-founder of [[E. F. Hutton & Company]] (owned by Franklyn's brother [[Edward Francis Hutton]]), a respected New York investment banking and stock brokerage firm.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.investmentnews.com/galleries/forgotten-facts-about-the-great-brokerage-titans | title=Forgotten facts about the great brokerage titans - InvestmentNews | access-date=October 27, 2020 | author=stewart | publisher=investmentnews.com}}</ref> 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. Merrill related on [[Biography (TV program)|A&E's ''Biography'']] that for a time Barbara lived with them following the death of her mother and abandonment by her father.<ref>Barbara Hutton; a candid biography - Page 17</ref>

Edna Hutton reportedly died on May 2, 1917, age 33, from suffocation due to [[mastoiditis]],<ref>{{cite news |title=Mrs. Hutton Found Dead. Daughter of F.W. Woolworth Suffocated in Her Room at the Plaza|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1917/05/03/archives/mrs-hutton-found-dead-daughter-of-fw-woolworth-suffocated-in-her.html |quote=Mrs. Franklyn Laws Hutton, who was Edna Woolworth, daughter of F. W. Woolworth, was found dead in her apartment at the hotel Plaza on May 2, 1917. ... |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=May 3, 1917 |access-date=December 3, 2011 }}</ref> but rumor persists that she committed suicide by poison in despair over her husband's philandering,<ref name="Plunkett-Powell, Karen p. 131"/> especially as the coroner decided that no autopsy was necessary.<ref>Pitrone, Jean Maddern; F.W. Woolworth and the American Five and Dime: A Social History, McFarland, p.59</ref> Four-year-old Barbara discovered her mother's body; the trauma haunted her for the rest of her life.<ref>Gressor, Megan & Cook, Kerry (2005). She never truly got over the trauma [https://books.google.com/books?id=uWuLNjXXOF4C&pg=PA260 ''An Affair to Remember: The Greatest Love Stories of All Time''], p. 260. Fair Winds Press.</ref> After her mother's death, she lived with various relatives, and was raised by a [[governess]]. Hutton attended Miss Hewitt's Classes, now [[The Hewitt School (New York, New York)|The Hewitt School]] in New York's [[Lenox Hill]] neighborhood and [[Miss Porter's School|Miss Porter's School for Girls]] in [[Farmington, Connecticut]]. She became an [[introvert]]ed child who had limited interaction with other children of her own age. Her closest friend and only confidante was her cousin [[James Paul Donahue Jr.|Jimmy Donahue]], the son of her mother's sister.<ref name=site>{{cite web |url=http://www.paulbowles.org/photosjanebowles.html |title=Jane Bowles, Libby Holman Reynolds and Barbara Hutton |work=The Authorized Paul Bowles Web Site |publisher=www.paulbowles.org |access-date=2007-04-13 |archive-date=2019-02-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190216112141/http://www.paulbowles.org/photosjanebowles.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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 Hutton's grandmother Jennie (Creighton) Woolworth died and bequeathed to her $26.1 million (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=26100000|start_year=1924}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}). Another $2.1 million in stock from Edna's inheritance was placed in a separate trust - both trusts were administered by Franklyn Hutton. By the time of her 21st birthday in 1933, Barbara Hutton's father had increased her inheritance to $42 million ($966,549,230.77 in 2023{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}) not including the additional $8 million from her mother's estate, making her one of the wealthiest women in the world.<ref>Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story</ref>

In accordance with New York's [[upper class|high society]] traditions, Barbara Hutton was given a lavish [[debutante|débutante]] [[ball (dance)|ball]] in 1930 on her 18th birthday, where guests from the [[Astor family|Astor]] and [[Rockefeller family|Rockefeller]] families, amongst other elites, were entertained by stars such as [[Rudy Vallee]] and [[Maurice Chevalier]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://madame.lefigaro.fr/celebrites/barbara-hutton-la-vie-scandaleuse-dune-heritiere-croqueuse-de-diamants-et-de-maris-020721-197220|title = Barbara Hutton, la vie scandaleuse d'une héritière croqueuse de diamants… et de maris|date = July 11, 2021}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Columbia |first1=David Patrick |title=What a Swell Party it Was! |url=https://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/what-a-swell-party-it-was/ |website=[[New York Social Diary]] |access-date=26 December 2022 |date=January 19, 2021}}</ref>

She lived in the family home at 4 East 80th Street<ref name="DianeTuman">{{cite news |last1=Tuman |first1=Diane |title=New York's Woolworth Mansion Listed for $90 Million |url=https://www.zillow.com/blog/new-yorks-woolworth-mansion-listed-for-90-million-37724/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303000347/https://www.zillow.com/blog/new-yorks-woolworth-mansion-listed-for-90-million-37724/ |archive-date=2014-03-03 |access-date=December 26, 2022 |publisher=[[Zillow|Zillow Porchlight]] |date=March 20, 2011}}</ref> on the [[Upper East Side]].

==Marriages==

Popular poet [[Ogden Nash]] then took note of Hutton's public private life in the following light verse:

<blockquote>Said [[Aimee Semple McPherson|Aimee McPherson]] to Barbara Hutton,<br>
"How do you get a marriage to button?"<br>
"You'll have to ask some other person."<br>
Said Barbara Hutton to Aimee McPherson</blockquote>

Barbara Hutton married:
# 1933: [[Mdivani|Alexis Mdivani]], a self-styled [[Georgians|Georgian]] prince, divorced 1935
# 1935: Count Kurt Heinrich Eberhard Erdmann Georg von [[Haugwitz|Haugwitz-Hardenberg-Reventlow]], divorced 1938
# 1942: [[Cary Grant]], divorced 1945
# 1947: Prince [[Igor Troubetzkoy]], divorced 1951
# 1953: [[Porfirio Rubirosa]], divorced 1954
# 1955: Baron [[Gottfried von Cramm|Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt von Cramm]], divorced 1959
# 1964: Pierre Raymond Doan, a Vietnamese chemist, divorced 1966

===Alexis Mdivani===

{{expand section|date=January 2014}} 
Her first husband, Alexis [[Mdivani]], used her great wealth to his advantage. As a social climber, member of an exiled [[Nobility of Georgia (country)|Georgian nobility]] with the rank of [[aznauri]] (untitled nobility), 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]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Heyman|first1=David C.|title=Poor Little Rich Girl: The Life and Legend of Barbara Hutton|date=1983|publisher=Random House|location=New York, NY|pages=34–38}}</ref> Alexis was already married to Louise Van Alen, a friend Barbara met at [[Bailey's 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 {{Ill|Isabelle Roussadana Mdivani|de|Roussadana Mdivani}} (aka ''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 Sebastián|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,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Heyman|first1=David C.|title=Poor Little Rich Girl: The Life and Legend of Barbara Hutton|date=1983|publisher=Random House|location=New York, NY|page=63}}</ref> but Roussie threatened Barbara with negative publicity if she did not marry her brother.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Moats|first1=Alice-Leone|title=The Million Dollar Studs|date=1977|publisher=Delacorte Press|location=New York, NY|pages=105–120}}</ref> Alexis and Barbara were married on June 22, 1933, in the Russian Orthodox Church in Paris, France. Barbara's father provided a $1 million dowry. After spending millions of Barbara's inheritance on a home, polo ponies, clothes and men's jewelry, Alexis and Barbara divorced in March 1935.

===Kurt Haugwitz-Hardenberg-Reventlow===
Count Kurt von [[Haugwitz|Haugwitz-Hardenberg-Reventlow]], with whom she had her only child, a son named [[Lance Reventlow|Lance]], was her second husband.<ref>This fabulous century - Page 156</ref> Reventlow dominated her through verbal and physical [[spousal abuse|abuse]], which escalated to a savage beating that left her hospitalized and put him in jail. He also persuaded her to [[relinquishment of United States nationality|give up her American citizenship]], and to take his native [[Denmark|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 nervosa|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.

Hutton's divorce from Reventlow gave her [[child custody|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 school]]s.

In 1938, Hutton had a brief affair with [[Howard Hughes]] in London at the [[Savoy Hotel, London|Savoy Hotel]], where Hughes spent several afternoons with Hutton.    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 felt he must absolutely be in control of a situation."<ref name="ReferenceB">"Howard Hughes - The Untold Story" by Peter Brown and Pat Broeske</ref>

Hughes had met Hepburn on the set of one of Cary Grant's movies, while visiting with Grant. Howard Hughes and Cary Grant were close, long-time friends.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

===Cary Grant===
In 1937, Hutton and her then husband moved into their newly built home, Winfield House, in [[Regent's Park|London's Regent's Park]]. They had purchased the property from the [[Crown Estate|Crown Estate Commission]] in 1936 and were granted permission to build a new home on the land.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Ambassador's Residence - Winfield House |url=https://uk.usembassy.gov/our-relationship/our-ambassador/ambassadors-residence/ |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=U.S. Embassy & Consulates in the United Kingdom |language=en-US}}</ref> As [[World War II]] threatened in 1939, Hutton moved to California. She supported the commandeering of Winfield House by the British Forces and its use for various wartime services during the war.

Hutton 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 bond]]s, she received positive publicity after being derided by the press as a result of her marriage scandals. In [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]], she met [[Cary Grant]], one of the biggest movie stars of the day, and later married him on July 8, 1942. According to the [[Embassy of the United States, London|US Embassy website]], following their marriage, Grant was in London for the war effort and visited [[Winfield House]]. Hearing criticism of Hutton by US broadcaster, [[Edward R. Murrow]] of her abandonment of her London home, Grant suggested Murrow visit the house before levelling unfounded criticism. Following the war, Hutton gifted Winfield House to the US Government to be used as the official residence for the [[List of ambassadors of the United States to the United Nations Human Rights Council|US Ambassador]].<ref name=":0" />

The press dubbed Hutton and Grant, "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.<ref>Cary Grant: A Class Apart, Graham McCann, Pg. 159</ref>

===Igor Troubetzkoy===
Hutton left California and moved to [[Paris]], France, before acquiring a palace in [[Tangier]]. Hutton then began dating [[Igor Troubetzkoy]], an expatriate [[Russia]]n prince of very limited means but world renown. In the spring of 1948 in [[Zürich]], 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]]. Hutton's 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.<ref>Barbara Hutton; a candid biography - Page 160</ref>

===Porfirio Rubirosa===
Her next marriage, lasting 53 days (December 30, 1953 – February 20, 1954), was to [[Dominican Republic|Dominican]] [[diplomat]] [[Porfirio Rubirosa]], a notorious international playboy who meanwhile continued his [[affair]] with actress [[Zsa Zsa Gabor]].<ref name=divasite>{{cite web|title=Barbara Hutton biography at divasthesite.com |url=http://www.divasthesite.com/Society_Divas/barbara_hutton_a.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515132841/http://www.divasthesite.com/Society_Divas/barbara_hutton_a.html |archive-date=May 15, 2011 }}</ref><ref>The very rich: a history of wealth - Page 135</ref> She was granted Dominican citizenship in 1953.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mnEKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OUsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4794,4716056&dq=barbara-hutton+citizenship&hl=en|title=Barbara Hutton, Playboy Will Wed Wednesday|work=Ellensburg Daily Record|date=December 30, 1953|access-date=April 22, 2013}}</ref>

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."<ref>{{cite news| last=Battelle| first=Phyllis| title=Dazed Bride Wears Black, Carries Soda and Scotch at Spanish Ceremony| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19531231&id=P3BQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xA8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=5368,4033899|newspaper=[[The Milwaukee Sentinel]]| date=December 31, 2014| access-date=August 27, 2014}}</ref>

Hutton then spent time with Americans James Douglas<!-- son of [[James H. Douglas Jr.]] --> and Philip Van Rensselaer. Her lavish spending continued; already the owner of several [[mansion]]s around the world, in 1959 she built a luxurious [[Japan]]ese-style palace on a 30-acre (120,000&nbsp;m<sup>2</sup>) estate in [[Cuernavaca]], [[Mexico]].<ref>Frommer's Portable Acapulco, Ixtapa & Zihuatanejo - Page 156</ref>

===Gottfried von Cramm===
Her next husband was an old friend, German tennis star [[Baron]] [[Gottfried von Cramm]]. This marriage also ended in divorce. He later died in an automobile crash near [[Cairo]], [[Egypt]], in 1976.<ref>Barbara Hutton; a candid biography - Page 214</ref>

===Raymond Doan===
In Tangier, Hutton met her seventh husband, Prince Pierre Raymond Doan Vinh [[na Champassak]]. This marriage, too, was short-lived.<ref>F.W. Woolworth and the American five and dime: a social history</ref> Doan's title was bought for him by Hutton from the former royal family of the [[Kingdom of Champasak]] (roughly located in modern [[Laos]]).<ref>[https://madame.lefigaro.fr/celebrites/barbara-hutton-la-vie-scandaleuse-dune-heritiere-croqueuse-de-diamants-et-de-maris-020721-197220 Marc Lambron], Babara Hutton, la vie scandaleuse d’une héritière croqueuse de diamants… et de maris, Madame Figaro, 11 juillet 2021.</ref>

===Other relationships===
Hutton lived with [[Frederick McEvoy]], purchasing a chalet at a ski resort in [[Franconia, New Hampshire|Franconia]], New Hampshire, after her marriage to actor Cary Grant. The couple never married and remained friends until McEvoy's death in 1951.<ref name="TCM">{{cite news| url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article50284868?searchTerm=fred%20mcevoy&searchLimits=| title=Woolworth Heiress May Marry Austn| work=[[The Courier-Mail]]| location=[[Brisbane]]| date=April 13, 1946| access-date=August 27, 2014}}</ref><ref name="SR">{{cite Sports-Reference |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/mc/freddie-mcevoy-1.html |title=Freddie McEvoy Biography and Olympic Results |access-date=October 26, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417114722/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/mc/freddie-mcevoy-1.html |archive-date=2020-04-17}}</ref>
Hutton frequently appeared intoxicated in public and was notorious throughout her life for lavish spending.<ref>{{cite book |last=Barry Robe |first=Lucy |date=1986 |title=Co-starring famous women and alcohol |publisher=CompCare Publications |page=[https://archive.org/details/costarringfamous00robe/page/26 26] |isbn=9780896381001 |url=https://archive.org/details/costarringfamous00robe/page/26 }}</ref> She was known to make gifts to total strangers.<ref>{{cite book |last=Martel |first=Judy |date=2006 |title=The dilemmas of family wealth: insights on succession, cohesion, and legacy |page=150 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=9781576601907}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Van Rensselaer |first=Philip |date=1979 |title=Million dollar baby: an intimate portrait of Barbara Hutton  |publisher=The University of Michigan |isbn=9780399123665}}</ref>{{page needed|date=November 2019}}

==Art and jewelry==
Over the years, apart from an important inheritance which included [[Old Master]] paintings and important sculptures,<ref name="ReferenceA">F.W. Woolworth and the American five and dime: a social history - Page 203</ref> she also personally acquired a magnificent collection of her own which included the spectrum of arts, porcelain,<ref name="ReferenceA"/> 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 S.A.|Cartier]].<ref>Cartier, by Hans Nadelhoffer, pg 124</ref><ref>Barbara Hutton; a candid biography - Page 166</ref><ref>F.W. Woolworth and the American five and dime: a social history - Page 166</ref> Among her pieces of jewelry was the {{convert|40|carat|g|adj=on}} Pasha Diamond, which she purchased as an unusual octagonal brilliant-cut but had recut into a round brilliant, bringing it down to {{convert|36|carat|g}}.<ref>Cartier By Hans Nadelhoffer Pg 325</ref>

==Final years and death==
[[File:F W Woolworth Woodlawn jeh.JPG|thumb|right|Woolworth family [[mausoleum]]]]
The death of her only son Lance Reventlow in a plane 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.<ref name=winfield>{{cite web| url=http://london.usembassy.gov/rcwinfld.html| title=Ambassador's Residence: Winfield House| publisher=Embassy of The United States in London, U.K.| access-date=August 27, 2014| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140825232732/http://london.usembassy.gov/rcwinfld.html| archive-date=August 25, 2014}}</ref> 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 [[myocardial infarction|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 close to her said that was not the case. She was interred in the Woolworth family [[mausoleum]] at [[Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx|Woodlawn Cemetery]] in [[The Bronx]], New York.

== In popular culture ==

* ''[[Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story]]'' (1987), based on David Heymann's biography, a television miniseries starring [[Farrah Fawcett]] as Barbara Hutton with [[Fairuza Balk]] portraying her at age 12 and Matilda Johansson at age 5.  [[James Read]] portrays Cary Grant. 
* ''[[Phantom Thread]]'' (2018), set in 1950s London a haute couture dressmaker (played by [[Daniel Day-Lewis]]) struggles with inspiration and relationships. The character Barbara Rose (played by [[Harriet Sansom Harris]]) is inspired by Barbara Hutton around the time of her marriage with Rubirosa. 
* ''[[Rubirosa (TV series)|Rubirosa]]'' (2018), a Mexican web television series co-starring [[Gabriela de la Garza]] as Barbara Hutton. 
* ''As The Money Burns'' (2020–present), a history podcast reconstructing the Great Depression through the lives of heirs and heiresses.  As a primary heiress, Barbara appears in multiple episodes beginning with the second episode "Welcome to Newport, Part 1" which covers the summer before the 1929 Wall Street Crash.  Other episodes include her debutante ball, her bow at Buckingham Palace, and other key events and moments in her life.

==See also==
* [[F. W. Woolworth Company|Woolworths]]
* ''[[Lady Hutton]]'' (yacht)
* [[List of people from Morelos, Mexico]]

{{Portal bar|Biography}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Further reading==
Several books have been written about Barbara Hutton, the best known of which are:

* ''Barbara Hutton: A Candid Biography'', by Dean Jennings (F. Fell, 1968, 301pp.)
* ''Million Dollar Baby: An Intimate Portrait of Barbara Hutton'', by Philip Van Rensselaer (Putnam, 1979, 285pp.)
* ''Poor Little Rich Girl: The Life and Legend of Barbara Hutton'', by C. David Heymann (L. Stuart, 1984, 390pp.)
* ''In Search of a Prince: My Life with Barbara Hutton'', by Mona Eldridge (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1988, 210pp.)

A bibliography:

In 1987, a television motion picture titled ''[[Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story]]'' starred [[Farrah Fawcett]] in the role of Barbara Hutton.

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline}}
* {{IMDb name|1344304}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutton, Barbara}}
[[Category:1912 births]]
[[Category:1979 deaths]]
[[Category:American billionaires]]
[[Category:American socialites]]
[[Category:American debutantes]]
[[Category:Jewellery collectors]]
[[Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)]]
[[Category:Hutton family]]
[[Category:People from the Upper East Side]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of the Dominican Republic]]
[[Category:Princesses by marriage]]
[[Category:Woolworth family]]
[[Category:Hewitt School alumni]]
[[Category:Miss Porter's School alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American women]]
[[Category:20th-century American people]]