One Was Mrs. Hearst. One Lived at His Castle. Inside Their Two Worlds

Hey guys! We're now on Spotify 🎧 Join us here: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Cvs0yj... At 9:50 a.m. on August 14, 1951, William Randolph Hearst died in Marion Davies's house in Beverly Hills, and his sons had the body removed before she woke. His wife of 48 years, Millicent, flew in from New York and led about 1,500 mourners at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, while Marion stayed home. For 25 years the two women had divided one fortune and one continent: the Clarendon on Riverside Drive and Beacon Towers on Long Island for the wife, San Simeon and a 110-room beach house in Santa Monica for the companion. In 1937 Marion wrote him a $1 million check to save his empire, and the divorce that would have let him marry her fell apart over a single magazine. So which of them really had him? Subscribe to the channel: @velvetsociety-s7l In this video, we talk about the two women who shared William Randolph Hearst, including Millicent Willson's start as a Broadway bicycle girl and her 1903 wedding at Grace Church, Marion Davies's stammer and the Ziegfeld Follies, the $1.5 million When Knighthood Was in Flower, the wedding ring thrown on the Clarendon floor at Christmas 1922, the September switch between New York and San Simeon, Millicent's Free Milk Fund and her castle at Sands Point, Ocean House and the Gothic Suite, Churchill's "two charming wives," the talkies and the stammer, the 1937 collapse and Marion's million-dollar rescue, the Cosmopolitan demand that ended the divorce, Citizen Kane, the last years on Beverly Drive, the funeral Marion missed, and the shares she gave up for $1. 🔔 Subscribe for more of the women who lived inside America's great fortunes, told side by side and in full. 💬 Comment where you're watching from, and tell me whether the wife who kept the name or the companion who kept the years came out ahead. 📢 Share this with a friend who loves Hollywood history, on Facebook, on Reddit or in the family group chat. Every share helps this channel more than you'd think. Chapters: 00:00 Opening 01:17 The Chorus Girl Who Became Missus Hearst 09:02 The Stammering Girl From the Follies 17:15 Two Addresses on One Island 25:04 A Continent Between Husband and Wife 33:20 The Wife's Kingdom on Riverside Drive 50:39 The Star Whose Pictures Stopped Paying 59:04 The Birthday Circus and the Bill 1:07:24 The Price Millicent Put on Divorce 1:15:48 The Last Years on Beverly Drive 1:23:19 The Funeral With One Woman Missing 1:30:43 What Each Woman Kept in the End Sources: PBS American Experience, Citizen Hearst https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexpe... Hearst Castle (Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearst_... Daytonian in Manhattan, The Clarendon, 137 Riverside Drive https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.co... Time, "Hail and Farewell" (1951) https://content.time.com/time/subscri... TCM, Star of the Month: Marion Davies https://www.tcm.com/articles/021711/s... PBS SoCal, Marion's Playground: The Story of the Annenberg Community Beach House https://www.pbssocal.org/departures-c... American Heritage, Lord of San Simeon https://www.americanheritage.com/lord... DISCLAIMER: This video is based on real historical events and figures, drawn from the sources listed above alongside primary archives, biographies, court records, period press, and leading historical scholarship. While every video is heavily researched, occasional minor inaccuracies in dates, quotes, or specific details may occur — historical sources sometimes disagree, and interpretation is sometimes required where the historical record is silent. Any errors are unintentional. #MarionDavies #MillicentHearst #WilliamRandolphHearst #Hearst #HearstCastle #SanSimeon #OceanHouse #SantaMonica #BeverlyHills #RiversideDrive #BeaconTowers #SandsPoint #ZiegfeldFollies #SilentFilm #CitizenKane #Hollywood #NewYorkSociety #WomenInHistory #AmericanHistory #History #Documentary #VelvetSociety