Millionaire and Actress

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12283, 31 October 1925, Page 11

Millionaire and Actress

Rejected Beauty’s Terrible Pfophecy I “I SHALL HAUNT HIM TILL I GET HIM! ”

ITHIN six months of ■aiCflA the death of the beautiful American rJEviKIfV? * actress, Charlotte Carter, who had ofKBff fared him her love, Reggie % Vanderbilt, has her second and N yQJy successful attempt upon her life, this former Hoffman girl, with her dying breath, said as she had "been unable to sever her affections from Vanderbilt in life, so she would haunt him from her tomb. The story of this passion is given m the following interview by a ‘‘Sunday Chronicle” representative. “Tf I cannot persuade Reggie Van derbilt to marry me I will kill myself find haunt him to death. It will take me barely six months.” This dreadful threat, uttered by the beautiful American actress, Charlotte Carter, who attracted tremendous attention in London two years ago when she stayed at Claridge’s, has just Come true with apnnlling exactitude. Charlotte Carter, known as the bestdresred girl in New York, committed suicide there. Reginald Vanderbilt, the famous American millionaire, died within six months almost to the day. “Charlotte Carter came of excellent family,” said a rich American woman friend of hers who lives in Park lane to me in an exclusive interview. “Her uncle was a political power in Washington, and she originally met Reginald anderbilt at a society charity show. Charlotte sold him a flower in a booth of which she was in charge. ” ‘I did not know who he was,’ she told me afterwards, ‘hut we looked at each other, and I fell in love at first sight. I did not find out who he was for some months, when I saw him again at the Horse Show, and callecKhim over to my box.’ GORGEOUS TRESSES “Charlotte then went on the stage and became one of the Gertrude Hoffman girls. She was one of the most beautiful creatures I have ever seen. At the time of her death she was onlv with magnificent thick ropes of the most gorgeous Titian red hair imaginable. She had. 100, great burning grey eyes. “Charlotte was. however, a mmdv person When she felt blue she had only one cure—she would r*o out and buy the most expensive clothes she could find. “Vanderbilt was married at the time, hut. there was a divorce. This was wonderful news for Charlotte, who would never he content not to mnrrv him. He. so she told me. promised fi ithfnllv to do so. “Then somo quarrel arose, and she cnme to England, where she took A im"*Mficcnt apartment at ClaridgeV “She ordered the most cost I v wardrobe, was Re-mi dancing niehtiv at ♦he Embassy and Giro’s She also’frothe Rifz at time and where received 'the flattering attention that her beauty deserved. VANDERBILT EVERYWHERE “She was not hanpv, however,” the continued. “ ‘T came away from America,' she said, ‘because T wanted to forget him. But England is too far nwav. And yet when T go hack to New A ork it is worse than ever T cannot forget hini for a moment. Everywhere I go I see his name, Vanderbilt. Vanjdrrbilt. Vanderbilt —Vanderbilt Hotel,

Vanderbilt avenue, Vanderbilt- everything.’ “So the two of us-—Chariotte and I —went to Paris, where we stayed at the Plaza Athene, the most expensive hotel there. Charlotte would go out day after day to the Rue de la Paix buying the most expensive clothes she could see in order to alleviate her depression. “She was not happy there either. ‘lf I do not get him,’ she said, ‘I will commit suicide.’ “So on we went to Deauville, and took a lavish suite, overlooking the sea, at the Grand Hotel. “It was at Deauville that she uttered the awful threat that has now come true. I shall never forget the scene. Charlotte was lying. , back in amethyst blue silk pyjamas—amethyst blue was the latest colour then—the moonlight streamed in through the open windows, and the lilt of the tango drifted up from the ballroom. . ‘lf I do not get him I will poison myself, and I shall haunt him until I get him,’ she drawled in a way far more frightening than if she had screamed it ‘And it won’t take me long. I ought to get him in six months at the outside.* “ ‘One thing I am sure of,’ she continued, looking at tho masses of perfumed orchids beside her on the table, ‘is that when you die you come back here again, and I —l shall spend all my time around Reggie.’ • LUXURY ON THIRTY-FIVE DOLLARS “A few days later she went back to. New York, where she arrived with exactly thirty-five dollars. Nevertheless, she took a vast and luxurious suite at the Plaza Hotel, and somewhere or other managed to get in touch witn Vanderbilt, who had meantime married The present Mrs Vanderbilt. “She dined with him and she left him, gloriously happy, only to receive a note next day from him in which he refused to see her again. Charlotte immediately took poison. “The maid in the hotel, however came m unexpectedly and the untiring efforts of New York's leading doctors pulled her round. “Attempted suicide 19, of cout-se, a punishable offence, and poor Charlotte was compelled to promise the authorities that she would never try to take her life again. “Money matters grew serious', however, and on March loth of tins year she made her second and successful attempt to poison herself. She was found dead in her apartment wearing a magnificent evening gown, with rouge on her cheeks and 1 lip stick on her mouth. That, I say, was on March 15th. Now Reggie Vanderbilt is dead—exactly six months after. “ ‘I am a failure both in love and work,’ she used to say when she was depressed. Well, at least, her terrible prophecy has come true.”