By Independent News Roundup
When I was in college in Boston I knew an old history professor who told me that, in his youth, he had been pals with an extremely handsome and charming young man who worked as Huntington Hartford’s procurer.
For readers who don’t remember Huntington Hartford: he was born in 1911 in New York. In 1922, when he was eleven years old—upon the death of his father, Edward V. Hartford—he inherited a fortune of $90 million. To get a sense of what $90 million was worth in 1922, consider that the Titanic—the biggest and most luxurious ship ever built—cost $7.5 million in 1912.
Having inherited $90 million at the age of eleven in 1922, young Huntington wasn’t motivated to work for a living. During the 1950s, which coincided with his forties, he poured money into yachts, art collecting, and exotic travel. In 1959 he purchased Hog Island in the Bahamas, which he renamed Paradise Island.
Huntington didn’t like modern art and modernist architecture, and he used his fortune to try to go against the grain of modernism—a project that was doomed to failure. In New York he funded the Huntington Hartford Theater and the Gallery of Modern Art in which he championed old-master realism — a taste for which he was ridiculed by the critics of his day.
He also had a voracious appetite for beautiful women, which is where my professor friend’s pal swung into action. He himself was gay and had no sexual desire for women, but because he was so handsome and charming, he was devastatingly effective at approaching women, anywhere and anytime. After breaking the ice, he confessed that he worked for a gentleman of great wealth and taste who owned a beautiful property and liked to entertain. Would the ladies like to attend a party at his house? And so, Hunt Hartford went about getting women—young, but of the age of consent—back to his lair.
For all of his faults, Huntington Hartford strikes me as infinitely more sympathetic than that legion of rich and famous men were pals with Jeffrey Epstein and fascinated by his ability to organize a titillating party. Long after Epstein pled guilty in 2008 for procuring a child for prostitution, many of these guys remained avid to be his pal and attend his parties.
What’s wrong with these dorks? If they were so excited by the prospect of hedonistic sexual adventure, couldn’t they figure out a way to make it happen without Epstein’s assistance?
I want to be clear that I am not endorsing any form of debauchery. I am merely recognizing that debauchery has always been a temptation for rich and powerful men.
The repugnant and embarrassing decadence of our 21st century even finds expression in the poor quality of our playboys. I wonder if this is a symptom of the general decline of masculinity.
Compare the wimpy perverts in Epstein’s circle to August the Strong, Elector of Saxony (as Frederick Augustus I) from 1694 and later King of Poland (as Augustus II). Famous for his Herculean physical strength, extravagant lifestyle, and patronage of the arts, August the Strong transformed Dresden into the premier baroque cultural center of Europe. He is reputed to have simultaneously maintained dozens of mistresses with whom he fathered approximately three hundred children.
I am not endorsing the lifestyle of August the Strong, but merely noting that he did build one of the most beautiful and cultured cities in Europe — sadly bombed and incinerated for no good strategic reason by the British Royal Air Force in February 1945.
What thing of lasting beauty did Jeffrey Epstein and his dorky pervert friends build?
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