Cornelius Vanderbilt IV (April 30, 1898 – July 7, 1974) was a newspaper publisher, journalist, author, and military officer.
He desired to live a "normal" life but was burdened by large debt and could not maintain the lifestyle associated with his family's social position to which he had become accustomed.
He was preparing to enter Yale University when his studies were interrupted by the entry of the United States into the First World War in April 1917 – shortly before his 19th birthday.
Shortly after the United States declared war on Germany, much to the chagrin of his mother, Vanderbilt enlisted in the U.S. Army in July 1917, at the age of 19.
He was originally assigned to the headquarters of the ammunition train of the 27th Division of the New York National Guard, commanded by Major General John F.
The younger Vanderbilt was promoted to the rank of wagoner (equivalent to a corporal) on August 24 and served as a transportation instructor at American Lake, adjacent to Camp Lewis for the remainder of his military service.
[11] Despite claiming to uphold the highest standards of journalistic excellence, the publishings lasted only two and a half years, largely due to predatory competition by newspapers owned by William Randolf Hearst.
[15] Then, in 1931, he was engaged by Columbia Pictures to make a comedy about the city, in association with John P. Medbury, a humorist[16] In 1934 Vanderbilt made the anti-Nazi documentary, Hitler's Reign of Terror.
[17] This film was made covertly by Vanderbilt while visiting Nazi Germany shortly after Hitler's rise to power.
In the film, Vanderbilt describes Hitler as a combination of politician Huey Long, preacher Billy Sunday and gangster Al Capone.
It featured several re-enacted scenes including a brief meeting with Hitler and an interview with former German emperor Kaiser Wilhelm, which was necessary as the original encounters were not filmed.
He comments, "all of them building high fences and beating their heads against a stone wall, hating each other and boiling in their own juices and ... playing, for all it's worth, the game called Society.
"[19] The book also recounts Vanderbilt acquaintance with a number of high-profile personages, some of whom he was able to interview during his trip to Europe in 1933, while gathering material for his film Hitler's Reign of Terror.
These include President Franklin Roosevelt, Kaiser Wilhelm, Benito Mussolini, Pope Pius XI, Joseph Stalin, and Al Capone.
In addition to Farewell to Fifth Avenue, Vanderbilt authored other books, including a biography of his mother titled Queen of the Golden Age and Personal Experiences of a Cub Reporter.
[1][26] His first wedding, an elaborate affair for over 3,000 people, took place on April 29, 1920, where Vanderbilt married New York socialite Rachel Littleton (1901–1988), the sister of prominent lawyer and politician Martin W.
[31] Logan, after a subsequent marriage and divorce to actress Ruthelma Stevens, later committed suicide in Miami after ending up penniless.
[35][36][37] On January 4, 1935, the 36-year-old Vanderbilt married Helen Virginia Varner (1908–1979), who was 26, after meeting her in Albuquerque, New Mexico, three years earlier while he was writing a novel and she was sketching.
She was a grandniece of Porfirio Diaz (1830–1915), the former President of Mexico, and a granddaughter of Dr. Francisco Castillo Nájera (1886–1954), the former Mexican Ambassador to the United States.
[41] Later that same year on September 7, 1948, the 50 year-old Vanderbilt married Patricia Murphy Wallace (1920–1971), who was 28, at the Pickwick Arms Hotel in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Among the guests at the wedding, which took place at the home of his lawyer, John Sinai, were Charles H. Russell, the Governor of Nevada, and George W. Malone, U.S.