126. The Heiress Tour | The Casino and Gordon Bennett!
Done & Dunne
Hemlock Creatives
4.7 • 630 Ratings
🗓️ 2 October 2023
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this week’s episode in our Heiress Tour, we explore the life and legend of James Gordon Bennett, Jr., known internationally for his sporting, sailing, and spending. His is a story you won’t soon forget – like the expletive that is named for him. Bennett is the man to blame for a great deal of the coming age in Newport R.I. when he establishes The Casino in 1880.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Dun & Dun. I'm Alicia, your hostess on this podcast journey, All Things Dominic Dunn, where nothing is linear and everything is connected. Thank you for joining me today as we continue our heiress tour, taking our trolley through time visiting Newport, Rhode Island. This week we are |
| 0:23.6 | investigating the casino and the trashy and incredible man behind it, Gordon Bennett. I say that |
| 0:32.4 | with great aplomb as Gordon Bennett is an exclamation used across the pond in a way meaning astonishment or |
| 0:41.7 | surprise. Maybe it substitutes in for a curse word. Who is Gordon Bennett? And what is the casino in |
| 0:50.8 | Newport? And how does it all come together to get us to our gilded age heiresses and homes? |
| 0:59.9 | Gordon Bennett, he is a whole heap of hot mess. |
| 1:04.3 | Perhaps the Gordon Bennett term comes from Henry Gordon Bennett. |
| 1:10.6 | He's a disgraced Australian general who deserted his troops. |
| 1:16.6 | There's another Gordon Bennett from Pontefract. He is a biscuit maker with a penchant for bicycling around |
| 1:23.9 | Hill and Dale in the town shouting his name, Gordon Bennett, for everyone to know that |
| 1:30.0 | Gordon Bennett was around. This claim is a little dubious, but this Gordon Bennett probably |
| 1:36.2 | made great biscuits, and I'm a fan of those both Southern and British. Perhaps Gordon Bennett is a euphemism to stand in for the Lord's name. |
| 1:48.6 | To lessen the offense of the cussing, you can see how that might develop. |
| 1:54.9 | Gordon Bennett, it is a charming expletive, and the likeliest guy the term term is given credit to, is our Gordon Bennett today. |
| 2:04.6 | This one, James Gordon Bennett, Jr. And you could say he had his charms, too. This Gordon Bennett's story is key to Newport, Rhode Island, and our coming gilded age world of heiresses. |
| 2:21.7 | Again, Gordon Bennett, charming, expletive, and quite an interesting man. |
| 2:26.8 | From Warwickhistory.com, I do have this excerpt here about James Gordon Bennett, Jr. |
| 2:33.0 | James Gordon Bennett Jr. is described as a talented, flamboyant, |
| 2:38.7 | often outrageously rude, rogue, rascal and pillar of society. He was a confirmed bachelor, |
| 2:47.3 | notorious drinker, womanizer, and prankster. He spent from $30 to $40 million on whims and openly |
| 2:55.9 | admitted his love for women, alcohol, and racing. He is the man who sent Stanley to find Livingston, |
| 3:03.6 | the one who brought yachting and coaching to a fine art in Newport and the man who built the casino. |
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