Journal Gazette from Mattoon, Illinois • Page 8

-01 tlllHllllllHlllllllllHIllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllHllilllHnil'- i Stg8M ,1 7 we days before Hubert decided he couldnt be I il JT I in the days before C'dhert decided he couldnt be Ar. flnrf Afrj. Cilberi Kahn, photographed together responsible for hit wife's debts. UST actly one month apart, Gilbert Hannah Williams, vho married Roger Wolf Jand Koger Woltt Kahn rented space in New York morning newspapers and told the world that financially their wives go longer rated with them. Gilbert and Otto are rich young men.

Their father it Otto H. Kahn, millionaire, international financier, former president oi the Metropolitan Grand Opera Company, one-time vice president of the Philharmonic and patron of the arts. Now, at the; same- time, the wo sons are having matrimonial difficulties. Roger Kahn, not long ago, inserted a notice ro the persona advertising columns oi a New York newspaper. It read Liu this: "Notice is hereby given that Mrs.

Roger W. Kahn ot Hannah W. Kahn is not authorized to contract any obligation oi M7 Kahn and vho it no treating Ner York td her tongs once more, law some day. The WhelanWowned town and country houses. The Williamses counted their money carefully.

Hannah's father drove taxicab for a while and her mother ushered a theater. The family lived in the mining district of Pennsylvania. After a while Roger went to Europe. Hannah went WKeTe sne 'married Charles Kaley, an orchestra leader. But in June of 1927 that marriage was annulled.

That same year Roger's name was linked with that of Virginia Franck. a Broadway dancer, from Lynbrook, Long Island. The romance faded and was forgotten, though. Roger stayed single. HANNAH WILLIAMS and her sister performed in a successful sister act Then Hannah was given a part in "Sweet and Low." where she won ttage fame singing "Cheerful Little Earful." In January, 1931, it had been five yean since the younger Kahn and the girt from Penny sylvania had first met They hadn't forgotten.

They decided that they really loved each other. But they didn't give a'party to announce it Instead, they went to the Kahn estate at Woodbury, Long Island, and were married in the presence of a few members of the family on Jan. 26, 1931. A justice of the peace performed the ceremony. Hannah Williams left the stage following her marriage.

Her husband asked her to do to. Meantime he was leading his orchestra in engagements and writing some songs, at a tide-line. Then the separation came. Nobody knew what hal happened. All that was known was that Hannah Williams took a suite oi rooms at a fashionable hotel and started to earn her own living.

She obtained an engagement at the swanky Central Park Casino to prove that she could still dance and sing. She didn't sue for a divorce. She just septv rated from her husband, who then announced that he wasn't writing checkt for anything the any kind in my name or my behalf on my credit or responsibility. Signed, Roger W. Kahn." One month later Gilbert Kahn issued an ultimatum.

It read: "My wife, Mrs. Gilbert Kahn or Anne W. Kahn, is not authorized to contract any obligations of any land in my name or in my behalf on my credit or responsibility." "3 Olio Kahn, nho it fighting Lydia Linagren't Within ajnonlhof each other, both rpHE sons aren't the only 1-- members of" the family who are having troubles. Mme. Lydia LindgTen, opera singer, has been voted a new trial in her suit for $500.000 -against Otto H.

Kahn for breach of verbal contract Gilbert Kahn, the older son, now 29, has followed the career that the scion oi a wealthy family is supposed to do. He went to Princeton University, was active in campus activities, and was graduated. Then he announced that he intended to be a banker, too, but he didn't want a position handed him. He wanted pa earn his way as he went. Along with some other wealthy youths, he got a job as a clerk with a national trust company.

He fell in love, also. Not with a chorus girl, but with a debutante rrom his own world, bought TTO KAHN. for years the president of sons of Otto H. Kahn advertised the failure of their marriages and in the meantime opera singers continue to add to their father's worries I I it: Anne Eliza- the Metropolitan Grand Opera Company, is having his troubles because of a suit that started in the days when be was all-powerful. Mme.

Lydia Lindgren, the Swedish singer, sued him ior breach of verbal contract is 1931. She bad three grievances which she wanted settled, she said. First so ber story went, Kahn had agreed to replenish a $150,000 trust fund he had established tor ber 1926. In the second place, sEe insisted that be had promised to give ber $30,000 in an annuity. He was going to get ber professional engage beth Whelan, daughter of the formo president of the United Cigai Stores Company, was the girl he chose.

She announced the engagement at a bridge luncheon. Her Mrs. Charles A. Whelan, was present, supervising all the them any longer. The endowment of brides with their husbands' goods, which makes an interesting sentence some marriage ceremonies, was out for the Gilbert Kahns exactly as it had been for the Roger Kahns just one month before.

Rogei Wolff Kahn it just 24 years eld. He didn't follow in his brother's footsteps. He hired her at a tpecrat entertainer for hit club. She Wat tlim and lithe, and her hair mas auburn and her eyet danced right along with her act his own orchestra. There was parental opposition at first, but after his father, beard him play a few tim-s be changed his mind and became enthusiastic over his son's 7 accomplishments.

iHE orchestra played night club and vaudeville engagements. He didn't go into the banking world. He didn't marry a society girl or have a big wedding. He didn't announce his engagement And he never made any remarks about economics. Yet his marriage tumbled down from its pedestal just when hit brother's did.

All his life Roger knew that his father had an ear for music as well as a mathematical mind that could jiggle financial figures. He wa-iust as glad that Gilbert had in-' 'THE wedding itself took place at a fash-l-- ionable hotel in New York. Tne wedding cake was seven feet high. ITie list of guests covered a considerable portion of uje Social Register. Gilbert announced that he, and Anne were going to keep bouse in a small, inexpensive apartment They didn't want to live beyond their income.

The world nodded it head and approved. This should last, it said. Gilbert was taken into the firm ot Kuhn, Loeb and Company, as a partner, in 1930. The couple had had a child in the meantime mentl and didnt she also said. He had promised to do all of these things, she told the court if she would drop a $250,000 slander suit against Mme.

Julia Ctaussen of the Metropolian Grand Opera Company, in which Kahn had been named. She said she dropped the suit But Kahn paid her only Then Roger opened his own night club. The opening night is still remembered in society. The tables were huge glass-covered bowls, in which gold fish did acrobatic stunts. Individual aquariums rested under every chair.

Exotic colored lights shone over the glass floor. The orchestra, too, was good. Kahn led it and he didn't miss a trick. It was about this time that he 3 Lydia Lindgren, ho hat on nen trial in her halJ-njUion-doUar latrtuil against Otto Kahn. girl D0W niee old.

rheu lite to- herited the banking tendency. He received the musical ear. gether was following the standardized pattern Roger Wolff Kahn. iphose romance crashed. Grand opera and symphony con $13,000, she added.

So she sued. The case was dismissed October of 1931. Justice Charles J. Druhan, who did tbe dismissing, said that there was no proof of contract and that the slander action bad been fraudulent But a new trial has been ordered for young couples who make the right moves ail the way through the game, it teemed. But something went wrong.

After eight yean of married life the romance faded. Gilbert announced that Anne's bills weren't hit bEa and be didn't intend to pay more. Thej were very young. He was 19 and she was 17. Hannah Williams had grown up an atmosphere entirely djflerent from that of Anne Whelan, who was going to be her sister-in- certs were hit father i favorites.

But Roger needed the wail of saxophone and the tom-tom beat of a drum to satisfy his sense "of rhythm. A When he was 1 7 he decided that he wanted met Hannah Wuuams. tie hired her at a special entertainer for his dub. She was tlim and lithe and ber hair was auburn and her eyes danced right along with bet act The boy and the girl were good friends. Nothing hi a- 'iiiiiiiiiiiinioiiiiiiiiii! sJ r-n mil.