Departures of note

Thomas Franklyn Manville Jr., heir to the Johns-Manville asbestos fortune, turned his personal life into a public spectacle, marrying 11 women in 13 marriages between 1911 and 1960. His first marriage, at age 17 to chorus girl Florence Huber, set the pattern: he wed her five days after meeting her under a Broadway marquee, and when his father threatened to annul the match, Manville staged a second ceremony in New Jersey and vowed to remarry her in nearly every state if necessary. His father cut off his allowance, forcing Manville to take a $15-a-week job in the family's Pittsburgh factory until Florence left him in 1917 over his repeated adultery.

Manville's wealth came from a trust fund that reportedly guaranteed him $250,000 upon each marriage, a setup that The New York Times later described as a scheme where he would pay a woman $50,000, keep $200,000, get a quick divorce, and remarry when he needed more money. His subsequent wives included showgirls, actresses, and a British journalist who interviewed him for the Hobo News; one marriage lasted only eight hours, and another ended when his wife, Georgina Campbell, died in a car crash in 1952 while driving to breakfast with him, though they were separated at the time. He described himself as a 'retired businessman' and lived on his fortified estate 'Bon Repos' in New Rochelle, New York, equipped with burglar alarms, armed guards, and 20 telephones, where he often carried two pistols.

Manville's final marriage, in 1960, was to Christina Erdlen, a 20-year-old German waitress he met in White Plains, New York; she inherited the bulk of his estate, valued at $1.1 million, after his death on October 8, 1967. His ninth wife, Anita Manville, wrote a biography titled 'The Wives and Lives of Tommy Manville,' which inspired a camp musical by Jackie Curtis. Manville was likely the model for Gary Cooper's character in the 1938 film 'Bluebeard's Eighth Wife,' and his marital record earned him an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. At his death, it was estimated he had spent more than $1.25 million on divorce settlements.