Clarence Hungerford Mackay (1874-1938)

He inherited a fortune of $45-million from his self-made father. He was a generous philanthropist (notably towards the improvement of the University of Nevada and for the welfare of the people at Roslyn, L.I.) but he had neither interest nor prowess in business and lived predominantly off his shares as President of the Postal Telegraph Company, founded by his father. In 1928, he prudently sold out to Sothnes Behn Brothers, the parent firm of International Telephone & Telegraph Company, for $300-million, but imprudently he chose to take payment in stock so that he could chair the merged companies U.S. division. After the Crash of 1929, ITT’s share price plummeted from $149.00 in 1928, to $3.45 in 1937, reducing his stock to just $6.9-million. While not altogether ruined, it was a spectacular fall and he sold off most of his art collection and just about managed to cling on to Harbor Hill until his death in 1938. His widow retreated to 3 East 75th Street, on which the bank foreclosed two years later.