Summary of Meryl Gordon's The Phantom of Fifth Avenue

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The Corcoran Gallery of Art, located just two blocks from the White House, is a privately funded museum. It usually closes at 5 p. m. on Fridays, but on the night of October 24, 2008, the lights were still burning well into the evening. With a two-story atrium and a sweeping staircase, the museum is often rented out for weddings and parties.

#2 Karine Albert McCall, a petite and slender sixty-eight-year-old blonde, had arrived with her husband, Donald McCall, a retired cellist. The grandchild of Charles Clark and his banking heiress wife, Celia, Karine had grown up in luxury at her grandmother’s San Francisco Tudor castle.

#3 Huguette Clark was a client of Wallace Bock, an attorney who handled her legal affairs. She was close with Kamsler, her accountant, and would call him frequently.

#4 The Clark family had a reunion at the museum, and while some were trust funders, others lived off their salaries. The senator had bequeathed an estimated $15 million to his surviving children, but fortunes have a way of diminishing as they pass through several generations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822536234

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Insights on Meryl Gordon's The Phantom of Fifth Avenue

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 16

Insights from Chapter 17

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Corcoran Gallery of Art, located just two blocks from the White House, is a privately funded museum. It usually closes at 5 p. m. on Fridays, but on the night of October 24, 2008, the lights were still burning well into the evening. With a two-story atrium and a sweeping staircase, the museum is often rented out for weddings and parties.

#2

Karine Albert McCall, a petite and slender sixty-eight-year-old blonde, had arrived with her husband, Donald McCall, a retired cellist. The grandchild of Charles Clark and his banking heiress wife, Celia, Karine had grown up in luxury at her grandmother’s San Francisco Tudor castle.

#3

Huguette Clark was a client of Wallace Bock, an attorney who handled her legal affairs. She was close with Kamsler, her accountant, and would call him frequently.

#4

The Clark family had a reunion at the museum, and while some were trust funders, others lived off their salaries. The senator had bequeathed an estimated $15 million to his surviving children, but fortunes have a way of diminishing as they pass through several generations.

#5

The Corcoran party was a chance for the family to meet Huguette Clark, a centenarian who had been a living link to the glittering era of family history. She had played with her older sister, Andrée, in the Salon Doré when it was part of her father’s Fifth Avenue house.

#6

The Corcoran Gallery had a long-standing relationship with Huguette Clark, as she had been a loyal supporter of the museum for many years. But when the board canceled the Gehry addition, she cut her contributions.

#7

The Kamslers were upset by the lack of respect they felt was shown to Huguette, and complained about it to the Corcoran’s executive assistant. The family members began to treat the Kamslers like lepers.

#8

The guests of the luncheon included Stanley Pitts, an amateur historian who had written his master’s thesis on William Andrews Clark. He had been told that Clark was a rascal and tight-fisted, but the Clark descendants invited him to tell his story.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The events that triggered Karine’s newfound interest in her great-aunt Huguette began with a British tax on foreigners that she and her husband feared might be ruinous to their finances. They considered their options, and an adviser inquired if Karine would inherit money in the future.

#2

Karine was shocked to find out that Huguette’s closest known associates were a convicted felon and an accountant who was convicted of pedophilia. She asked her brothers if