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Charles William Post, a farm-machinery salesman, in 1893 concocted the first batch of Postum out of wheat, molasses and bran on his kitchen stove in Battle Creek, Mich., where he had gone to boost his strength in a sanitarium run by his future rival, John Harvey Kellogg, creator of corn flakes. Post followed Postum up with Grape Nuts and Post Toasties. He taught his only child the business, had her sit in on directors' meetings at the age of eleven, took her along on factory tours (and incidentally taught her boxing). When she married Socialite Edward B. Close in 1905, she brought Father along on the honeymoon to Italy and Egypt. She and Close had two daughters, Adelaide and Eleanor. Marjorie inherited several million dollars, plus control of the Postum Co. She divorced Close in 1919, married Manhattan Stockbroker Edward F. Hutton (Dina's father) a year later. Hutton built the company into General Foods Corp. (JellO, Maxwell House, Yuban, Birds Eye). At last reports, Mrs. Post still held about 7% of the outstanding stock, worth $128 million. The Huttons also built Mar-A-Lago, a 115-room Spanish "cottage" in Palm Beach, and acquired a 350-ft. yacht, but their marriage ran aground. Marjorie in 1935 divorced Hutton on grounds of adultery.
Shortly thereafter, she married Washington Lawyer Joseph E. Davies, who in 1935 became Franklin Roosevelt's ambassador to Moscow. Relying on what she had learned from her art dealer, Lord Duveen, Madame Ambassador began acquiring her extensive collection of czarist icons and chalices when they were put on sale by the Soviet govern-ment at 50 per gram of silver content. Mrs. Post and Davies were divorced in 1955, and she subsequently married and divorced Pittsburgh Industrialist Herbert May. The names of her latest escorts (Hotel Consultant Serge Obolensky, former Secretary of the Navy Fred Korth) provoke speculation in gossip columns, but friends insist that she does not plan to marry again. Her schedule would scarcely leave her time.
Bears & Bulls. Home base for Mrs. Post's constant flurry of house parties and charity benefits is Washington's Hillwood, a 22-room Georgian mansion set on 24 acres overlooking Rock Creek Park. Invitations to Hillwood are only slightly less sought after than those to the White House. The house, already bequeathed to the Smithsonian, is furnished with Gobelin tapestries and Louis XVI furniture (including chairs made for Marie Antoinette). It is surrounded by a garden with plants from Buckingham Palace and Mount Vernon. In the French Regency dining room, guests—including Cabinet Ministers and royalty—eat from Austrian Emperor Franz Josef's gold-plated service. Recently, the White House gratefully accepted Mrs. Post's gift of some of her extra tablecloths. The pleasures are somewhat simpler at Topridge, mountaintop summer hideaway near Saranac Lake, N.Y. Guests are flown in aboard Mrs. Post's 16 passenger Viscount, the Merriweather, then transported by limousine, launch and canopied cable car to her rustic aerie. The living room is furnished with stuffed bears, a cigar-store Indian, beaded rugs, totems, the war bonnets of Sitting Bull and Geronimo—all of which takes two servants four hours to dust. Each guest is assigned a cabin with one butler and one maid.