Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date.
For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now.

A Dangerous Woman: American Beauty, Noted Philanthropist, Nazi Collaborator - The Life of Florence Gould
400See details
Overview
A revealing biography of Florence Gould, fabulously wealthy socialite and patron of the arts, who hid a dark past as a Nazi collaborator in 1940’s Paris.
Born in turn-of-the-century San Francisco to French parents, Florence moved to Paris at the age of eleven. Believing that only money brought respectability and happiness, she became the third wife of Frank Jay Gould, son of the railway millionaire Jay Gould. She guided Frank’s millions into hotels and casinos, creating a luxury hotel and casino empire. She entertained Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, Joseph Kennedy, and many Hollywood starslike Charlie Chaplin, who became her lover. While the party ended for most Americans after the Crash of 1929, Frank and Florence stayed on, fearing retribution by the IRS. During the Occupation, Florence took several German lovers and hosted a controversial Nazi salon. As the Allies closed in, the unscrupulous Florence became embroiled in a notorious money laundering operation for Hermann Göring’s Aerobank.
Yet after the war, not only did she avoid prosecution, but her vast fortune bought her respectability as a significant contributor to the Metropolitan Museum and New York University, among many others. It also earned her friends like Estée Lauder who obligingly looked the other way. A seductive and utterly amoral woman who loved to say “money doesn’t care who owns it,” Florence’s life proved a strong argument that perhaps money can buy happiness after all.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781250092212 |
---|---|
Publisher: | St. Martin''s Publishing Group |
Publication date: | 02/20/2018 |
Pages: | 400 |
Product dimensions: | 6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.60(d) |
About the Author
Born and raised in the United States, SUSAN RONALD has lived in England for more than twenty-five years. She is the author of seven books, including A Dangerous Woman, Hitler's Art Thief, Heretic Queen, The Pirate Queen, and Shakespeare’s Daughter.
Table of Contents
Part I The Aspiring Chanteuse
1 San Francisco 3
2 From Fire to Flood and Death 14
3 La Parisienne 27
4 War and the Boy Next Door 37
5 Young Mrs. Heynemann 50
6 Home Again, War, and Folies 58
7 The Man They Call "Franck" 68
Part II The Crazy Years
8 Taming All Those Monsters 87
9 Leaving the Perfumed Air of Bohemia 100
10 Careless People 106
11 An Amusing Intermezzo for Millionaires 118
12 Taking Stock 130
13 The Monégasque Feud Fit for a Prince 140
14 Hollywood Calling 152
15 The Phoenix Rises 159
16 Scandal, America, and Separate Lives 168
17 Dark Horizons 178
Part III Darkness Falls
18 Fifth Columnists and Fellow Travelers 191
19 Fall of France 202
20 Ludwig 213
21 The "Anything Goes" Occupation 219
22 In the Garden of Earthly Delights 230
23 The Occupation, 1942-1943 238
24 Florence the Banker 248
25 Liberation and Treason 261
Part IV Still A Gould
26 No Safe Havens 279
27 Paper Clips and Friends Cast Long Shadows 284
28 A Fortune to Give Away 296
29 Queen of the Riviera 307
Epilogue 315
Author's Note and Acknowledgments 321
Cast of Characters 325
Glossary 337
Notes 339
Selected Bibliography 365
Index 371