Marion Graves Anthon Fish

Marion Graves Anthon Fish (nickname, "Mamie"; June 8, 1853 – May 25, 1915), often referred to by contemporaries as Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish,[1] was an American socialite and self-styled "fun-maker" of the Gilded Age. She and her husband, Stuyvesant Fish, maintained stately homes in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island.[2]

Marion Graves Anthon Fish
Born
Marion Graves Anthon

June 8, 1853
Castleton, New York
DiedMay 25, 1915 (aged 61)
Glenclyffe, New York
NationalityAmerican
Other names"Mamie", Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1876)​
ChildrenLivingston Fish
Marian Anthon Fish
Stuyvesant Fish Jr.
Sidney Webster Fish
Parent(s)William Henry Anthon
Sarah Attwood Meert
RelativesJohn Anthon (grandfather)

Early life

Marion ("Mamie") Graves Anthon, as she was called, was born in the vicinity of Grimes Hill, which at the time may have been known as Castleton Heights, in Castleton, New York. At the time this was a town in Richmond County, New York, the area along with the rest of Richmond County of Staten Island later became part of New York City. She was the daughter of Sarah Attwood Meert and Gen. William Henry Anthon (1827–1875),[3] a successful lawyer and Staten Island assemblyman.[4][5] Her paternal grandfather was the jurist John Anthon (1784–1863).[4] Mamie was of Dutch, English, French and German ancestry.[6] She grew up on Irving Place in Manhattan and received only a rudimentary education and, by her own admission, could barely read and write.[7]

Society hostess
Stuyvesant Fish House at 25 East 78th Street, in New York City

Fish ruled as one of the so-called Triumvirate of American Gilded Age society, known as the "Four Hundred", along with Alva Vanderbilt Belmont and Tessie Oelrichs.[8] She became a notable leader of high society (in New York City at her townhouse at 25 East 78th Street, at her stately home Glenclyffe in Philipstown, New York, and at her mansion Crossways in Newport, RI) by virtue of her quick wit and sharp tongue. Grandees attending her dinner parties would be greeted with the occasional insult, "Make yourself perfectly at home, and believe me, there is no one who wishes you there more heartily than I do." One man was greeted with "Oh, how do you do! I had quite forgotten I asked you!"[9]

In collusion with her antics, Harry Lehr often served as a co-planner of outrageous parties. A widely repeated story says that one was given in honor of "Prince Del Drago of Corsica", who turned out to be a well-dressed monkey introduced by Joseph Leiter. Given too much champagne, the monkey proceeded to climb the chandelier and throw light bulbs at the guests.[10] But Lehr "denied that he had ever given such a dinner",[11] although in 1905, it was said to have taken place the year before.[12] At another of her parties, dancers holding peanuts would feed an elephant she rented as they danced by it.[13]

Fish's cattiness respected no rank, for when Theodore Roosevelt's wife sought to keep a frugal household, Fish was quoted as condescendingly saying of Mrs. Roosevelt "It is said [she] dresses on three hundred dollars a year, and she looks it."[14]

Personal life

On June 1, 1876, Mamie married Stuyvesant Fish (1851–1923), the director of the National Park Bank of New York City and president of the Illinois Central Railroad. He was the son of Hamilton Fish (1808–1893).[15] Together, they had four children, three of whom lived to adulthood:[16]

  • Livingston Fish (1879–1880), who died at six months[3]
  • Marian Anthon Fish (1880–1944),[17][18] who married Albert Zabriskie Gray (1881–1964), the son of the Judge John Clinton Gray,[19] on June 12, 1907.[20] They divorced on December 5, 1934.[21]
  • Stuyvesant Fish Jr. (1883–1952),[22] who married Isabelle Mildred Dick (1884–1972), daughter of Evans Rogers Dick, in 1910[23]
  • Sidney Webster Fish (1885–1950),[24] who married Olga Martha Wiborg (1890–1937), daughter of Frank Bestow Wiborg, in 1915.[25] In 1939, he married Esther Foss, the daughter of Gov. Eugene Noble Foss. She had previously been married to George Gordon Moore, a polo player whom she divorced in 1933, and Aiden Roark, another polo player whom she married in 1934 and divorced in 1937.[26][27][28]

Mamie died on May 25, 1915, and is buried near Glenclyffe at the Church of St. Philip-in-the-Highlands.[15][29] Her Newport "summer cottage", Crossways, is now a condominium.[30][31]

In the HBO series, The Gilded Age, Mamie Fish is portrayed by actress Ashlie Atkinson.[32]

References
Notes
  1. "Google Books Ngram Viewer". books.google.com. Retrieved 2022-03-27.
  2. "MRS. FISH, LEADER OF SOCIETY, DEAD; Wife of Stuyvesant Fish Dies Suddenly of Cerebral Hemorrhage at Glenclyffe. WAS LAVISH ENTERTAINER Her Mother Goose and Flower Balls Were Features of Newport – Gave Liberally to Charity". The New York Times. 27 May 1915. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  3. College, Radcliffe (1971). Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Harvard University Press. p. 620. ISBN 9780674627345. Retrieved 7 April 2017. Sarah Attwood Meert anthon.
  4. "OBITUARY.; GEN. WILLIAM HENRY ANTHON". The New York Times. 9 November 1875. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  5. "PRICES OF RARE COINS.; THE SALE OF THE ANTHON COLLECTION BROUGHT TO A CLOSE". The New York Times. 19 November 1879. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  6. Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Radcliffe College, 1971, page 620.
  7. Gavan 41.
  8. Gavan 40.
  9. Vanderbilt, 239 and New York Social Diary
  10. Vanderbilt, 227–45.
  11. "Harry S. Lehr Dies; Once Social Leader". The New York Times. Vol. 78, no. 25913. January 4, 1929. p. 25. Retrieved 2022-03-27.
  12. "Tale of the Cities—No. 3. Newport", Broadway Weekly 4:82:11 (September 8, 1905)
  13. Dalton 47–8.
  14. Dalton, 54.
  15. "Notable and Fanciful Quotes"
  16. Times, Special To The New York (26 April 1923). "FISH'S ESTATE LEFT TO THREE CHILDREN; Financier Leaves Nothing to Charity, Holding That Such Gifts Are Only to 'Gratify Vanity.'". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  17. "Obituary 1 – No Title". The New York Times. 31 January 1944. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  18. "MRS. MARION FISH GRAY; Daughter of Late Stuyvesant Fish, Illinois Rail Head". The New York Times. 30 January 1944. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  19. "Albert Z. Gray Dies at 83". The New York Times. 30 August 1964. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  20. "ALBERT Z. GRAY WEDS MISS MARIAN FISH; 5,000 Guests Invited to the Ceremony at St. Bartholomew's in Madison Avenue. CRUSH AT THE CHURCH Guests Present from Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, and Elsewhere – MacCracken-Dodd Wedding". The New York Times. 13 June 1907. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  21. Times, Special To The New York (5 December 1934). "DIVORCES ALBERT Z. GRAY.; Wife Waives Alimony in Obtaining Decree at Newport". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  22. Times, Special To The New York (27 June 1952). "STUYVESANT FISH, FINANClER, DEAD; Retired Stockbroker, 69, Was of Family Noted in Society Father Headed Railroad". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  23. Times, Special To The New York (6 May 1910). "STUYVESANT FISH, JR., TO WED; Engaged to Miss Mildred Dick. Daughter of Evans R. Dick". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  24. Times, Special To The New York (7 February 1950). "SIDNEY W. FISH, 64, ONCE LAWYER HERE". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  25. Times, Special To The New York (19 April 1937). "MRS. SIDNEY FISH, A SOCIETY WOMAN; Member of the East Hampton Summer Colony Dies at Her California Home". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  26. "Wife Divorces Aidan Roark". The New York Times. December 23, 1937. Retrieved 2011-04-07. Mrs. Esther F. Roark, formerly of Boston and Pebble Beach, Calif., won a divorce today from Aidan Roark, film executive and polo star. She testified that he was rude and brusque.
  27. Times, Special To The New York (27 November 1954). "MRS. SIDNEY FISH". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  28. "SIDNEY FISH MARRIES; Mrs. Esther Foss Roark Is Bride of New Yorker in West". The New York Times. 11 January 1939. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  29. Times, Special To The New York (27 May 1915). "Newport Mourns for Mrs. Fish". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  30. Crossways.
  31. Times, Special To The New York (8 October 1923). "FISH HEIRS SELL A FARM.; One of Many Acquired by Financier In Putnam Valley". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  32. Smittle, Stephanie (21 January 2022). "Ashlie Atkinson plays Mamie Fish in HBO's 'The Gilded Age,' and it is going to be glorious". Arkansas Times. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
Sources
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