(2 of 2)
A Manhattan court ordered pink-cheeked, white-whiskered Realtor-Philanthropist August Hecksher, 88, to continue paying plump, blonde Operasinger Frieda Hempel, 51, $15,000 a year for the rest of her life. Thus aired was an interesting domestic relationship. In 1926 Singer Hempel divorced her husband, supposedly to wed Millionaire Hecksher. Year later, she sued Millionaire Hecksher for breaking an oral contract to pay her $48,000 a year to "sing for no one but him." Philanthropist Hecksher settled with a written contract to pay her $15,000 a year for life, in return for which he retrieved numerous letters he had written her. Having paid Frieda Hempel her annuity for seven years, he halted last December, asserting Singer Hempel injured his "peace, quiet, and happiness" by "accosting" him in "public places."
