Automotive industry heir Walter P. Chrysler Jr. (1909-1988) was the son of a man who had amassed a great fortune in founding the Chrysler Corporation. Walter Jr., knowing that he would inherit vast sums of money, could thus indulge his passion for collecting art, an obsession that resulted in transforming a minor provincial museum in Norfolk, Va., into one of the nation’s best, the Chrysler Museum of Art.
Walter Jr., who was a theatrical producer*, hung out in locations that had strong ties to the homosexual community. Although throughout his life he attempted to appear as a straight man, he had a home in Key West and displayed his growing art collection in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in a 19th-century church building he bought from the Methodists. The museum was nicknamed by locals as “The First Church of Chrysler” or “St. Walter’s”. The structure today serves as the Provincetown library.
*Among many others, he produced New Faces of 1952, which launched the careers of Eartha Kitt, Paul Lynde and Carol Lawrence. Chrysler also produced the film "The Joe Louis Story."
In 1956, Chrysler retired from business to devote his full-time attention to the arts. Soon thereafter an article appeared in Confidential magazine that exposed his homosexual activity, and there had been persistent reports that he had been discharged from the Navy because “he was found to be homosexual.” It was extraordinary for a healthy man to be discharged from the military during wartime.* Again, according to Earle, “That Chrysler led something of a double life was widely acknowledged. The fact that he was gay was noted by many of those who knew him professionally and personally."
*Peggy Earle, “Legacy, Walter Chrysler Jr. and the Untold Story of Norfolk’s Chrysler Museum of Art.”
In Andrew Lownie's recent biography of King Edward VIII (Duke of Windsor) "Traitor King" (2021) he mentions that Chrysler and the Duke had a sexual affair, in spite of the fact that both men were married to women. Lownie revealed that in 1944 Chrysler Jr had been forced to resign from the Navy after 16 enlisted
men had signed affidavits that Walter had sex with them, a crime at
the time. Another detail from Lownie's book is that during the Second World War, Chrysler Jr and the Duke had thrown a sex party for 1,000 sailors on a Navy ship docked in Jacksonville, Florida. Lownie's book states that Walter and David (as the Duke was known) "sucked so much cock that their lips were chapped for a week". Ahem. The Navy Intelligence investigation files related to Chrysler have somehow "disappeared".
In "Full Service" by Scotty Bowers (2012), Mr. Bowers claims that he procured partners of both sexes for both the Duke and Duchess. Fun times for all, it seems.
As Chrysler biographer Vincent Cursio mentioned, ‘...in 1938 there was enormous social pressure on gay men to marry and give the appearance of living a normal life.’ ” Walter Jr. married twice, but there were no children. His first wife, Peggy Sykes, whose marriage to Chrysler lasted less than two years, left a man with few friends. She noted that the major love of his life was "art collecting." Peggy stopped inviting people to their home for socializing, because Chrysler would usually freeze out everyone, often refusing even to speak to their guests. Further alienation arose from his tendency to pay bills late, or not at all.
While a 14-year-old boy attending prep school, Walter Jr. purchased his first painting, a watercolor nude, with $350 in birthday money from his father. A dorm master considered the piece lewd and destroyed it – a Renoir! Undeterred, he continued to collect art, but there were scandals along the way. Many of the artworks he purchased and displayed were called out as fakes. For that reason, Newport, RI, refused to accept the gift of his collection, which had outgrown its home in Provincetown. In spite of such notoriety, Walter Jr. had impressive credentials – he had been a key figure in the creation of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. However, much of his personal collection had to be stored in warehouses and lent out to museums across the country.
Walter Jr.’s second wife was from Norfolk, and he had himself been a Navy man stationed there, so he ultimately found success in 1971 when he presented Norfolk, Va., with his impressive collection of 10,000 art objects, to be housed in the Norfolk Academy of Arts and Sciences, which had been built in 1932. A condition of the gift was that the academy be renamed the Chrysler Museum of Art. As New York Times art critic John Russell said, "It would be difficult to spend time in the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, and not come away convinced that the most underrated American art collector of the past 50 years and more was the late Walter P. Chrysler, Jr." Chrysler's collection is especially strong in art glass and incorporates a large body of Tiffany lamps. Louis Comfort Tiffany had been his neighbor when Walter Jr. was growing up on Long Island.
www.chrysler.org
Your blogger recommends that you read the comments at the end of this post. Many are from friends/employees who knew the man and his same-sex proclivities.
Walter P. Chrysler Jr. enjoying a light-hearted moment with artist Andy Warhol:
Update: New photos of of the North Wales estate have become available, so I added them to this previous post.
Your blogger’s determined effort to enjoy a glorious fall day resulted in a drive to Warrenton, VA, a sleepy town in the center of fox hunting country. A brief conversation with locals informed me that North Wales, the current name of the estate formerly owned by Walter P. Chrysler Jr., had been sold recently. This morning I enjoyed researching the estate’s history to provide an update to this blog post about Mr. Chrysler.
In 1941, one year after his father’s death, Walter P. Chrysler Jr. used a portion of his recent inheritance to buy North Wales Farm (above), a fabled estate just outside Warrenton, Va., 45 miles west of Washington, DC (and a mere 30 miles from the home of your blogger). With a purchase price of $175,000, the property soon saw further expansion and improvements. The recently divorced Chrysler spent an additional $7.5 million on the estate, expanding the property to 4,200 acres. At the epicenter was a 56-room stone mansion (38,500 sq. ft. including 22 bedrooms, 17 baths and 16 fireplaces), formal gardens, tennis courts, ponds, bridges, fountains, not to mention miles of stone and board fences enclosing an estate that boasted more than 35 out-buildings.
The oldest part of the house, dating back to 1776, was a mere 5-bay two-story stone manor house (above) built for William Allason. In 1914 North Wales was bought by Edward M. Weld of New York. In 1930 Fortune magazine noted that Weld "stretched the house to 37 rooms, built a riding stable of 40 stalls and a six furlong race track, stocked the cellar with $50,000 worth of liquors and went broke." North Wales was then converted to an exclusive private club for the fox hunting and horse breeding set. In 1941 Chrysler returned the mansion and estate grounds to private use. At the time of Chrysler's residency the expanded mansion numbered more than 50 rooms, providing plenty of space for Chrysler to display highlights of his vast art collection of Monets, Picassos, Rodins, Braques, Matisses and the like. He then set about constructing more than 35 miles of internal, paved roads while adding a conservatory to the mansion (for his mother’s orchids), a swimming pool, an arcaded entrance to the equestrian center and a brick isolation barn.
Under Chrysler’s ownership, North Wales, with sweeping views of the Blue Ridge mountains, essentially functioned as its own community, home to a commercial poultry operation and various agricultural enterprises. Although he also raised cattle and sheep, Chrysler ensured that the estate retained its fame as a center for fox hunting and thoroughbred horse breeding. The splendidly furnished mansion was the site of many lavish charity events. Chrysler remarried in 1945, and his new bride used North Wales Farm as a center for raising champion long-haired Chihuahuas. However, in 1957 Chrysler sold North Wales Farm, a year after he retired from business in order to devote himself full time to the arts. The following year he opened the Chrysler Museum of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in a former church.
Now reduced to 1,470 acres, North Wales was purchased in 2014 by former Goldman Sachs partner David B. Ford of Greenwich, CT, for $21 million. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Mr. Ford had made headlines eight years earlier when he purchased the 30,000 sq. ft. French neoclassical-style Miramar mansion in Newport, RI, built in 1915 for the widow of Philadelphia mogul George Widener. Ford currently owns both mansions, all the better to avoid a cramped lifestyle (38,500 + 30,000 = 68,500 sq. ft. of luxe living). Impressive. Ford is also Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association and Chairman of the National Audubon Society. Now six years later, he has listed the estate for sale, so don't miss your chance.
Back in 1965 a friend and I was visiting the antique store on 3rd Avenue run by a buddy of my friend. Walter Chrysler, a patron of the shop, came in with a very young Latino boy with whom he had, apparently, just enjoyed an assignation. He had not enough cash on him to pay the lad and asked the proprietor to cash a check for him, which the proprietor did. It was a revelation to me that a man who looked so un-gay could be gay. Jim
ReplyDeleteI worked for him in the 70's at the museum and to me he looked very gay.
DeleteThe whole historical narrative around the house is BS. It's The Manor of Leeds. Always has been,
Deletehttps://goo.gl/maps/9UFQJssMqNQxbdBg7?coh=178572&entry=tt
How I happily enjoy stopping by this blog every once in a while to discover that all gays are not actors or musicians or writers–and I must say I am often very surprised by your "revelations," like this one. You do a great service to history and our community.
ReplyDeleteI worked at a New York gallery back in the early '80s. Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. was a client. Despite his portly, styleless businessman look everybody knew he was gay.
ReplyDeleteIn 1966 I was visiting P'town for the first time....as I was strolling on Commercial St. I came upon a portly, relatively disheveled man sitting at the end of a walkway that led up to what appeared a church. It was hot--he was sweating with a handkerchief to his forehead, there was a table by his chair with a basket of change sitting upon it. There was a sign displaying some sort of art gallery, requesting donations....
ReplyDeleteAt the time I was not aware that the "sweating man" was Walter Chrysler, Jr., but later learned that it was indeed him.
Many years later I attended post-grad studies at Old Dominion University in Norfolk...a bright and vivacious young lady was a classmate, and it turned out that she was a niece of WPC, and a Norfolk native--my friend's aunt was the second wife.
-- WPC lived in Norfolk in a fine house in the Ghent neighborhood near "his museum", and he was known to entertain, in "salon style gatherings", some the city's better-heeled young businessmen.
I remember his museum in P'town very well and first visited it in 1972. I lived in that town the next year and later, when the museum closed and disappeared, the impression I got from "the buzz" about it was that its contents had been judged to be pretty worthless - leaving Walter's reputation (in town) as something of a joke.
ReplyDeleteThanks for straightening his story out for me!
I worked for a year as the Registrar for the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, shortly after the collection arrived there. Mr. Chrysler's arrangement with the city was that, in return for changing the name to the Chrysler Museum, he would donate a certain number of works outright and place others in the museum marked "On loan from the collection of Walter P. Chrysler." The agreement further stipulated that upon his death, all the loaned works would become the property of the Museum. However, he never signed the paperwork to finalize the donation, in spite of the trustees' pleas as he lay dying. Upon his death, at least a third of the loaned Works became the property of his nephew Jack Chrysler. They were removed from the Museum, and later sold at Sotheby's Park Burnett. Make of that what you will.
ReplyDeleteHe maintained a New York residence, he also had a home near the Museum. He died in Norfolk, on Sept.17, 1988, after a long struggle with cancer.
ReplyDeleteI have know Walter for years he had a house in Norfolk filled with things from the 1900 the art and crafts movement. I went with him to his Apartment in New York at 72 and third ave I am a antique clock restoration. I don't remember the shop but Walter bought a alabaster and rod iron art Deco clock, the movement is a brass plate with Jeweled bushing and of coarse not working when at home at the Apt Walter had bought a alabaster with the zodiac sign along the sides and rod iron art deco clock I took the movement apart and clean it and I play a joke on Walter I told him do you remember how I took the movement apart because I can remember how to put it back together again Just Joking. I fix the clock and it was running great. the only thing that I though was funny is that his apt had white old carpet and in some spots it was like pot holes the carpet was worn out. Also he had it painters but the painter never covered his his furniture there was fine paint drop all over everything he was a big thing on e Brandon signed art deco furniture. At that time in the middle 80's Walter eyesight wasn't good. now that I am 57 my eye sight isn't what it was back then. I am Gay and my lover and I have been together for 13 years now and still going strong but I thought I would shear the time I spent with a man that gave me a wealth of information. Jamie
ReplyDeleteMr. Chryslers history in Provincetown has always been a little fugitive. He will certainly be remembered as one of the great "characters" and a cherished contributor to the fabric of the town.
ReplyDeleteI'm a British historian researching the Duke of Windsor, a friend of Chrysler. Love to hear any stories about them.Andrew Lownie
ReplyDeleteI'm this very moment reading your book on the Duke of Windsor, "Traitor King", which led me to an internet search of Walter Chrysler...and here you are too!
DeleteMy brother and I hung out with Walter frequently in the Eighties and he was so delightful and fun
ReplyDeleteHe was a father figure to both of us ❤️