The Helen Morgan Page

It is unclear when Helen Morgan met Arthur Loew …

… but what is clear is that by early 1929, they were an item. They were an item despite the fact that Arthur, son of Marcus Loew, was still very much married to Mildred, daughter of Adolph Zukor, founder of Paramount Pictures.

It was Marcus, the money behind Loews Theatres and MGM, who purchased Pembroke, the Long Island Gold Coast mansion of the late Joseph De Lamar, at public auction in October 1924.

This drawing gives a good layout to the ground floor.

Marcus Loew likely became aware of the property, or at least, the availability of the property earlier in 1924, when it was used as a filming location for the Gloria Swanson film A Society Scandal.

After Marcus’ death in 1927, Arthur bought out the shares of the property from his mother and twin-brother David and kept Pembroke for himself.

The eighty-room mansion was situated on Long Island’s north shore on forty-six acres.

In addition to more pedestrian luxuries like Tiffany glass, tennis courts, an indoor shooting gallery, swimming pool …

… and home theatre, Pembroke boasted a private golf course, a tropical house …

… and rows of greenhouses that kept the estate in fresh vegetables year-round.

And, of course, a Japanese garden …

… and tea pavilllion.

Arthur’s improvements to the property included the addition of a landing field for his multiple airplanes and a private dock for his yacht. (During the warmer months, he commuted to Manhattan by boat.)

As with many Gilded Age cottages, upkeep and taxes proved to be burdensome after WWII. In 1956, Arthur had enough, boarded up Pembroke and moved into the beach house on the estate.

Uninhabited, the mansion fell into disrepair.

In 1963. he married Jacqueline Gebhard Tull, a Phoenix divorcee with three children, despite the fact that she was five years younger than his own daughter. He built his new bride a more human-sized house on the property while he tried to donate the mansion and other buildings to a church or university. No one wanted the expense of upkeep for the main house, and so, Arthur demolished it.

Jackie (wife number four) was by his side when Arthur died of cancer on September 6, 1977, fifty years and one day after the death of his father.[i]

Although he willed the new house to Jackie, the bulk of the land and the majority of the other outbuildings he successfully donated to Dartmouth once the onus of the main house was removed from the equation.

Jackie sold the new house and re-married within a year of Arthur’s death.

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[i]       Variety, September 14, 1977.