The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 93

PP 1f-' If 7 mmi m-s Bf KM to jfm. SS fSP SS Ma MB 8 a a ss as as? ss mm js vljxt sss as a iff Jr His Present Wife "Considers It a Privilege to Support Such an -Artist19 for Five Years, but the Duchess if V.X d'Andria, Who Also Supported Him $61,000 Worth, Now Wants Her Money Back, and His First Wife, He Nff Says, Chased Him With a Gun and Collected $75 a Week FROM Him Mrs. Eleanore Ropers Hageman, tho Composer'! Third Wife, Who Is Entirely Satisfied to Support Him. i 1 YfJ I Composer Hugemnn at Work on a Musical Score, and a Scene From the Play of "Caponsacchi," Which, Like Mr. llagcman's (Jrand Opera, Had Its Source in the Foct Browning's Famous "The Ring and the Book." All the women had come resplendent in new finery, jewels, furs, or other expensive Christmas gifts from their husbands.

He 1 hi see that their eyes sparkled like diamonds as they proudly showed their new treasures to each other. But the one woman who had done everything for her husband, sacrificing finery and other luxuries to support him when he had finished his opera and strove to have it accept had nothing whatever to show for it, in the way of a Christmas present. It was his wife, and the thought was unbearable. As he felt instinctively in his empty pockets, it seemed as though his heart would burst, but what could he do? His troubled eye fell on the score of his op The Duchess Carafa d'Andria, Who Was Composer llagcman's Second Wife, and Thinks He Ought to ray Her Back $61,000. Lucille d'Avril Zehrlng, the rrcscnt Duchess's Predecessor, -y Who Caused Annoyance by Using the Title After Her Divorce.

Tlv Duke d'Andria, Courageous Officer and Nobleman, Who Helped Lead the March of the Fascist I on Rome lit October, 1923. the referee declared the hearing closed. But next day Referee Ehrhorn received the following letter on lovely perfumed and monogrammed stationery, worthy of a Duchess and a lady eminent in the beauty business: "Dear Sir: "I am informed that my former husband, Richard Hageman, in filing bankruptcy claims, says he has no assets. "His debt to me is considerable, a note of $61,000 with interest since 1926. When I divorced him, I demanded no alimony, although I played a great part in assisting him in his career.

"During our years together, it is public knowledge that he was one of the most successful teachers in America and that he began writing and publishing music only after we came together and after I began to advise him and stimulate his interest in that direction. "When we separated I felt it only fair to demand a return of the actual money I put into his career nothing else. The year before I divorced him vhe began writing his opera 'Caponsacchi which is to be produced by the Metropolitan Opera Company. "As I gave up my own career and saw very much of-him, which can be substantiated in letters written to me by him, I feel justified in demanding an explanation for his claiming he has no assets, when he has composed an opera which is scheduled to be pro-. duced at the Metropolitan Opera House, and which has been performed in-Europe.

"May I ask for an accounting? Very Bincerely, Renee Thornton Carafa d'Andria, Formerly Renee Thornton Hageman." "It never Renees but it pours," Mr. Hageman might have punned sadly when notified that the hearing had been reopened to ascertain what had become of this operatic asset, which the composer had not mentioned at all. In spite of the unsympathetic questioning of the duchess's attorney, Samuel Meyers, of New York City, an emotional scene, worthy of a third act climax or a big moment in an opera, was brought out. The time and place were Christmas Day, 1934, at the American Embassy in Vienna, where a-gay party was in progress. One of the most eminent guests was Richard Hageman, celebrated musical director, whose opera was about to be produced in the Austrian capital, an unprecedented honor for an American.

ExaKed by this triumph, Mr. Hageman was probably the happiest man at the party at first. Then, as so often happens to the artistically temperamental, i spirits suddenly dropped to zero, making him perhaps the most unhappy man In Vienna. THAT mysterloua thing, known as artistic temperament, differs strangely among operatic songbirds, especially when love and money are involved. The present wife of Richard Hageman, cgmposer of the opera former musical director of the Metropolitan and the Chicago Civic Opera Companies, testified that it was a privilege to support such an artist for five years.

On the other hand his previous wife, now the Duchess Carafa d'Andrea, who did the same thing, wants her $61,000 back. But he said that the wife before her, a singer like the others, chased him around with a gun, paid nothing and collected $75 a week from the artist. In the course of that very first divorce, way back in 1916, Mr. Hageman pointed out to the court one important difference in their temperaments. He said: "A good row is a tonic to her, but to me it is poison." They differed fundamentally also in-their feelings about Rcnee Thornton, opera finger and descendant of Matthew Thornton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who was destined to be Mrs.

Hageman Number Two and to pay $61,000 for the privilege. Composer Hageman said that, one day, while he was thinking of harmonies, his wife walked in and showed him a revolver, asking him if he knew what it was for. On the grand-opera stage, daggers, swords and other old-fashioned weapons are favored for homicide, but the composer thought he knew and said so. However, the lady, whose stage name was Rosina Van Dyck, went on to explain further, so he alleged, that it contained just three bullets, one to kill Miss Thornton, one to kill him and the third herself. This would have been unusually accurate and economical shooting, but Mr.

Hageman says he talked her out of the venture and they had a divorce instead. He described his life with Rosina as "an utterly abhorrent antithesis of marital bliss." In spite of the fact that he is a famous man and his last two wives say they acted as meal tickets, Mr. Hageman found himself, the other day, playing the leading role in a drama without music in the bankruptcy courts of New York City, before Referee Oscar W. Ehrhorn, and revealing what he could do in the way of temperamental impulse. The composer had testified that he had no assets, no bank account, no securities, no jewelry, no car, nothing but the clothes on his back as against debts totaling $76,262.

Since none of the creditors was present to object, Christmas, 1934, and that is exactly what he wrote down. Mr. Meyers pointed out that at the time of his divorce from wife Number Two, Mr. Hageman had handed her a note reading as follows: "I owe my wife, Renee Thornton Hageman, the sum of $61,000 for money loaned to me at various dates between 1920 and 1926, and will repay said sum at the rate of $3,000 per year, beginning to date." After Renee divorced her composer she married the Duke Fabio Carafa d'Andria, Italian nobleman and courageous officer who was the chief commander during the Fascist march on Rome in October, 1922. She had had a predecessor, quite as temperamental as any, Lucille d'Avril Smith Zehring, who had been one of the famous Mack Sennett bathing beauties.

Lucille apparently didn't understand that divorce not only cut away her husband but the title marriage had loaned her. So there were two charming ladies each calling herself the Duchess d'Andria. This was annoying, so the duke made a statement that his "episode" with Lucille had been declared void by an annulment from the Rota in Rome after a final decree of divorce had been granted him in New Jersey. "The only one," he wrote, who has the right to assume my name and the prestige of my family is my wife Renee, who before her marriage to me was Renee Thornton, as she has been accepted by my family." Nevertheless, Mr, Hageman was discharged from bankruptcy but the Duchess is bringing suit in the Chancery Court for that $61,000, on the ground that his note is not dischargeable in bankruptcy because it calls for payments to be made in the future, over a space of time. Mr.

Hageman's one great asset which no creditor can attach seems to be his third wife. era, lying on the piano. The third Mrs. Hageman had paid for the printing of that too, but the thing itself was his brain-child, his very own. Stepping to the piano with "an expression on his face that commanded instant silence he made a short and beautiful speech, right from his heart, stating that he was turning the one asset he had in the world over to his wife and why.

It brought tears to the eyes of that wife and also of others. That Christmas present might be worth more money than any of the others and it might be worth almost nothing at all for such is the gamble of the stage. Yet such was the romantic majesty of the deed, that he knew he had eclipsed all the other husbands in the eyes of their wives. Borrowing a fountain pen from one of the attaches he paused and asked how he was to put the gift into the cold language of the law. A lawyer, who had presented his wife with a priceless coat of unborn Persian lamb, stepped forward and advised him: "Write down exactly what you have just said.

It may sound more like poetry but it happens to be legal be- cause you have stated your motive and even the consideration." So Composer Hageman wrote it on the back of the score and sealed It with a kiss. Up went his spirits to the zenith again, for he saw that his devoted wife was proudest and happiest of all. That was why he had not listed "Caponsacchi" as an asset of his. Even the cold and cynical questions of Lawyer Meyers could not knock all the romance out of that scene when he put the present Mrs, Hageman, the former singer, Eleanore Rogers, on the stand. The questions and answers were as follows: Q.

Where do you live A. Hotel Salisbury. Q. How much rent do you pay there A. $135.

We have just moved in there. Q. Who pays the rent? A. I do. Q.

Have you a source of income? A. I have. Q. Will you name it, please? A. It comes from the Manhattan Trust Company.

Q. trust estate, isn't it? A. A trust estate, yes. Q. WTiat is the amount of the trust estate? A.

It was that once. It is considerably less now. Q. What is the principal amount now? A. I think it is about $50,000.

Q. Why the reduction? A. Why everyone's reduction Simply depreciation, bonds depreciated, mortgage defaulted. Q. How long have you had this trust estate? A.

Since November, 1928. Q. Who has been paying the expenses? A. I have. Q.

Living expenses A. I have. Q. You have been paying them exclusively? A. Yes.

Q. How much has it cost you? A. All I had. Q. And what sum would you say that is during the past five years? A.

I have never stopped to figure it out, but every cent I had since that time. Q. What else did you use the money for? A. I used it towards furthering the opera "Caponsacchi." Q. In what way? A.

I paid for translation of the English into German. I paid all the expenses of traveling in going to places and seeing that the opera was performed. Q. During this time Mr. Hageman did not earn anything at all? A.

We sacrificed. He didn't earn anything at all. No. Q. When you married Mr.

Hageman, that was in Europe? A. That was in Europe, in Berlin. Q. At that time you knew that he did not have any revenue? A. Yes, I did.

Q. You expected, therefore, to meet the living expenses for the two of you out of your trust fund? A. Yes. I considered it a privilege to help a great artist. The witness then told how her husband had given her the opera.

Q. Was it written on the score of the opera in the way of an assignment of this to you? A. Very much the same thing that my husband said to me when he gave me the opera. Q. Let us hear it? A.

I can't recite it for you. Q. Give us an approximation. A. It is just something about "To my wife I give this, my child, 'Caponsacchi, and maybe in some way or other this will make up to you for all you have done for me." That was also the little speech he made me when he presented me with the opera on 9 l'J3ti, by American Weekly, luc Great Britain Rights Beeerred..