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Palm Beach Babylon by Murray Weiss and Bill Hoffmann: book review



Palm Beach Babylon: The Sinful History of America's Super-Rich Paradise (1992, this edition 2015) is about the island in Florida where the rich and famous live and vacation. 


The book mentions the island’s founder Henry Flagler – establishing Palm Beach in 1894 for the ‘recuperative powers of Florida’s sunshine’ – as well as its guests, visitors, and residents: Isadora Duncan, Gloria Swanson, Marjorie Merriweather Post, the Kennedys, Larry Flynt, John Lennon, Estee Lauder, Donald Trump, the Dodges, Helmsleys, Pulitzers, Vanderbilts, Mizners, and Madoffs – to name a few. 

The book is more than tales of sex, drugs, and parties – or of mansions and El Mirasol. There is history behind the stories. After Henry Flagler’s death in 1913, his wife, Mary Lily, became America’s first ‘independent female millionaire.’ And the scandals start with her death in 1917 – and the autopsy of her body to determine whether her death was a result of foul play. 

The stock market and real estate crash of 1929 affected millionaires badly – literally overnight: ‘fortunes were gutted, businesses wrecked, jobs lost, lives ruined.’ Enter resident Joe Kennedy, his family fortune, and his mansion, the ‘Winter White House.’ 

Keeping to a rough chronological order, the book is separated into people and themes, rather than a strict timeline, which is an easy and orderly way to read about Palm Beach’s history of residents. For example, 60-year-old Robert Young’s railroad disaster of 1958 (and the years that led to his disaster), followed by the Kennedys in the 1960s, with the inauguration of John F Kennedy as America’s 35th president in 1961.

An interesting chapter is about John Lennon’s purchase of property in Palm Beach in 1980 – the first worldwide acclaimed musician to reside there. The authors write of Lennon’s reunion at Palm Beach with his son Julian after 16 years apart. 

The authors conclude in 1990 with the trial of Jeffrey Diamond for attempting to blackmail Roxanne Pultizer’s fiancé. For this 2015 edition, the authors add an epilogue which summarizes the lives of the residents and the introduction of the Trumps, and President Donald Trump’s private country club, Mar-A-Lago, built by Marjorie Merriweather Post.

The book presents a novel way of defining part of America’s history in terms of it business people and entrepreneurs, celebrities and politicians, and the way they live in the tropical Florida haven of the rich and famous. 







MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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