What defines Art Deco architecture?

Art Deco architecture is defined by its prominent use of geometric shapes (like zigzags), chevrons and sunburts, streamlined forms and stylized ornamentation often applied to buildings with a strorng vertical emphasis and a monolithic appearance.  It features a rich variety of materials including steel, chrome and decorative glass reflecting a celebration of the modern, industrial age with a focus on luxury and leisure. 

Bold geometric forms, sleek and elongated figures, classical influences, modern materials and high-quality craftsmanship are all hallmarks of the Art Deco style.

Today, the city of Napier in New Zealand counts over 140 Art Deco-style buildings in its central business district with plenty more found in the city's suburbs.  Napier is considered the "Art Deco Capital of the World".  Napier hosts an annual Art Deco Festival each February to celebrate its history attracting enthusiasts from around the world.  Much of the 1930s architectue is lovingly cared for giving the city the feel of a perfectly preserved 1930s film set. 

"Nowhere in the world will you find as immense a collection of Art Deco architecture in such a small space, all next door to each other.  Not even South Beach Miami."

Sally Jackson, general manager of the Art Deco Trust

Even the local McDonald's is housed inside an Art Deco building at 5 Thackeray Street. To help protect, preserve and promote Napier's rich architectural heritage, the city formed an Art Deco Trust in 1985.  

Actors Who Didn't Get Certain Roles that Ultimately Became Iconic Roles

Role:  Rose in Titanic

Gwyneth Paltrow reportedly passed on the role which ultimately went to Kate Winslet.  Paltrow once joked she chose other films with "great characters and stories" over a movie about a ship.  

Role:  Jack in Titanic

Matthew McConaughey was supposed to portray Jack Dawson.  When negotiations fell through, Leonardo DiCaprio was installed in his place.  The iconi film generated over $2 billion at the box office.  Before DiCaprio was cast, Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp were considered for the iconic part.  Despite McConaughey's feelings about his audition that he felt "went really well" .. DiCaprio landed the role and both actors will likely agree their respective careers turned out just fine. 

Role:  Allie Hamilton in The Notebook 

Britney Spears reportedly auditioned and blew the casting directors away though the part ultimately went to Rachel McAdams.

Role:  Elle Woods in Legally Blonde

Christina Applegate reportedly turned down the role which went to Reese Witherspoon because she was leery of playing another "dumb blonde" character after her role as Kelly Bundy in Married... with Children.

Role:  Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

The role of Indiana jones was originally intended to go to Tom Selleck who was a huge hit in "Magnum, P.I." (1980) at the time.  The show was reluctant to let their star perform in a movie that was obviously destined to be a mega hit.  The moustached actor was forced to choose between the two roles and decided to honour his original commitment to the TV show.  

Role:  Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump (1994)

The classic role of Forrest Gump was initially offered to John Travolta.  He declined the part and has since openly admitted that passing on the role was the biggest mistakes of his career.  

Role:  Harrison Ford in Star Wars:  Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

Burt Reynolds once admitted that his biggest regret was passing up the role of Han Solo.  Reynolds once said:  "I think that has to be the biggest mistake of my career.  I blame the agent.  It was not all down to me."

Role:  Al Pacino in The Godfather Part II (1974)

Jack Nicholson declined the role of Don Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972) trilogy.  Years later he explained why he turned down the role:  "I knew the film was going to be a great film, but at that time I believed Indians should play roles written for Indians and Italians should do the same."

Role:  Daniel Craig in Casino Royale (2006)

Hugh Jackman declined to be considered for taking the part of 007 around the time of the first X-Men (2000).  Later, the actor said he turned down the role out of fear he would get typecast and that it would limit his opportunities in the future.

Role:  Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire (1996)

Director Cameron Crowe has admitted he worte the sports drama with Tom Hanks in mind.  Hanks couldn't take the role as he was busy directing a film. 

Role:  Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct (1992)

Michelle Pfeiffer turned down the offer to star at Catherine Tramell because she found the bare-all scenes too daunting.

Role:  Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman (1990)

Meg Ryan declined an offer for the role.  The actress has said that she thinks the movie is degrading towards women and she wasn't the only one who thought so. 

Role:  Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Johnny Depp had to decline the role because of scheduling conflict with other projects.

Sometimes actors make the decision to turn down a huge role, only to regret it later.  Other times, things simply don't go their way.  Even the very best can still botch an audition.  

Uranium glass glowing under ultraviolet light.

Uranium Glass

Uranium glass is glass which has had uranium added to a glass mix before melting for coloration.  The proportion usually varies from trace levels to about 2% uranium by weight, although some 20th-century pieces were made with up to 25% uranium.

First identified in 1789 by German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1743-1817), uranium was soon being added to decorative glass for its fluorescent effect.  

Uranium glass was made into tableware and household items, but fell out of widespread use when the availability of uranium to most industries was sharply curtailed during the Cold War.  Most uranium glass is now considered to be antiques or retro-era collectables, although there has been a minor revival in art glassware.  

Vaseline Glass is a particular color of yellow-green glass.  Not all yellow-green glass will turn florescent green with a UV light is shined on it.  "If it doesn't glow green, it's not vaseline glass.  Vasline glass was primarily made from 1840, up to just before WWII and then was continued from 1959 to the present.  Vaseline glass was in its heyday during rhe Victorian period from the 1880s to the 1920s.  Most green depression glass wil glow.

 

Lucy Murals

 in 

Jamestown, New York

Gary Peters & Gary Peters, Sr. 

 California, Here We Come

32 Harrison Street

Jamestown 

New York

Job Switching

24 E. 3rd Street

Jamestown, New York

Season 2 Episode 1

I Love Lucy

Lucille Ball

Vivian Vance

Elvia Allman, factory foreman

Circa 1952

Why did Ethel get removed from boxing chocolates?

Ethel had been in four departments, after being kicked out of the boxing department because she kept pinching the chocolates to see what kind they were and Lucy related.  The boss tells them .. "if a candy goes unwrapped, they'll be fired".

Sidenote:  Turns out actresses Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance received some actual training in dipping and wrapping chocolates at the See's candy factory on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles before filming the 1952 scene on a re-created production line back at their Hollywood set.  

Postage Stamp

261 E. 3rd Street

Jamestown, New York

Circa 1999

Lucy & Ricky

406 Spring Street

Jamestown, New York 

Vitameatavegamin

Spoon Your Way to Health

311 Spring Street

Jamestown, New York

Lovely Lucy

Lucille Ball Memorial Park

Celoron, New York 

Sculptor Carolyn Palmer revealed this life-size statue of Lucille Ball on August 6, 2016 on what would have been her 105th birthday.  

Other Murals Around Chautauqua County

Vibrant Celebration

Chuck Tingley

120 Foundry Alley

Jamestown, New York

Greetings from Chautauqua

Gary Peters, Sr. & Gary Peters, Jr. 

standing 

beneath the T and the A

Greetings From Chautauqua Lake

By

Urban Inspirations

Vincent Alejandro, mural artist

Erie Street

Mayville, New York

 

Union Street

Westfield, New York 

Circa 2022

Gifted to the village of Westfield by the Lakeshore Center for the Arts

Wendy Santilli, graphic designer

Sharri Gollnitz and her team of artists

Tyler Pitts of Drywall, Trim and Paint (prep work)

Funds were made possible from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Market Street

Westfield, New York

Created by Dominic Laporte 

from

Ottawa, Canada

for

Paint CHQ

Westfield, New York

 

 

 

The Chautauqua County Partnership for Economic Growth and Chautauqua County Department of Planning and Development are pleased to announce five world-renowed muralists have been selected to paint four large-scale, public murals during the inaugural Paint CHQ mural festival slated for the second week of September.  

Four communities have been selected to host the murals.  They are Dunkirk, Falconer, Sherman and Westfield.  The participating artists and their mural site locations are Alain Welter (Dunkirk), Mandi Caskey (Falconer), Emily Ding and Justin Suarez (Sherman), Dom Laporte (Westfield).  These nationally and internationally recognized artists are from Luxembourg in western Europe; Columbus Ohio; Houston, Texas; Rochester, New York and Ottawa, Ontario.   

The Paint CHQ mural festival celebrations kick off on Friday, September 12 at 5:00 in Westfield with other community events in Dunkirk, Falconer and Sherman continuing all day on Saturday, September 13.  

In addition to the installation of the murals in each community, Paint CHQ will also feature Artist Talks from September 8 through September 11. Each Artist Talk is a free event open to the public which is encouraged to meet with the muralists, hear about their careers and ask questions.  The full Artist Talk schedule can be found online at the link below.

www.choosechq.com/paintchq/

The public murals would not be possible without the cooperations from the four property owners who each signed up to participate in the Paint CHQ mural festival.

The Colburn Block in Dunkirk at 123 Central Avenue

States Lanes in Falconer at 16 E. Main Street

The Cornerstone Restaurant in Sherman at 104 E. Main Street.

Grace & Abe's in Westfield at 14 N. Portage Street

The public is encouraged to visit the mural sites to watch the mural progress, but they are asked to maintain a safe distance from heavy equipment and save their questions for the Artist Talks.  The mural themes will highlight community themese and celebrate the region by creating themes that feature native wildlife along with the agricultural and fishing industries.  

Westfield mural, in progress

Photo taken September 1, 2025. 

Samuel Henry Kress Portrait

painted by

Leopold Seyffert

Circa 1953

S. H. Kress was the second of seven children descending from German and Irish immigrants.

The life of Samuel Henry Kress (1863-1955) falls naturally into three stages, the hard-one-struggles of his youth in rural Cherryville, Pennsylvania, the brillance of his mercantile success with the S. H. Kress & Company variety stores and with the distribution of his incomparable collection of European paintings and sculpture to scores of art museums across the land with the Kress Foundation's philanthropic programs. 

The Kress story, once familiar to most Americans, has been said to epitomize American opportunity and the virtues of stern discipline, vigorous hard work and generosity.

Samuel Kress had already passed his 65th birthday when, in 1929, he established the Foundation that bears his name.  With the same dedication that marked the creation of his commercial empire, he had recently planed the seeds of what would eventually become a major collection of Italian Renaissance art.  Between 1929 and 1961, Samuel Kress and the Kress Foundation (with the participation of his brothers, Claude and Rush) assembled and distributed across the United States the 20th century's foremost collection of Old master paintings and other European works of arts.

 S. H. Kress & Company Five-and-Ten-Cent Store 

 Memphis, Tennessee.

Circa 1896

Before the establishment of the Kress Foundation in 1929, Kress was already a recognized benefactor to as many as 200 communities in more than half the country.  On Main Streets all across the nation, the vast retail empire of S.H. Kress & Company, established in 1896, operated a chain of five-and-ten-cent stores purveying affordable, durable and cheerful domestic merchandise.  Designed to exacting company standards, the handsome Kress stores were cherished not only for their quality merchandise, but also as prominent local landmarks.  The downtown Kress stores were celebrated beacons of prosperity and progress examples of urban architectural design and sources of municipal pride. 

S. H. Kress & Company

Birmingham, Alabama 

The most distinctive and best remembered Kress stores were a group of more than fifty Art Deco buildings, dating from 1929-1944 and designed by Edward F. Sibbert*, the company's longtime chief architect.  Sibbert's buildings streamlined the Kress image by using sleek modern facades, simple yet distinctive ornament and color characteristic of the Kress brand.  Curved glass display windows led the shopper through heavy bronze doors into an interior of rich marbles, fine woods and large customized counters set crosswise down a long sales floor.  Well-positioned hanging lamps created a bright atmosphere for an endless array of inexpensive items (there were 4,275 different merchandise on sale in 1934).  Everything from the constantly restocked merchandise to the popular soda fountain in the basement which encouraged customers to linger. 

*Edward F. Sibbert was a Brooklyn born American architect.  He is best remembered for the fifty or so retail stores he designed during a 25-year career as the head architect at the S. H. Kress & Co. hain of five-and-dimes.  His tenure at Kress coinciced roughly with the company's peak years of success and many of his Art Deco-style buildings have survived beyond the chain's 1980 demise and are in use today utilizing other purposes.

In 1929, Sibbert answered an advertisement in a newspaper and was hired by the S. H. Kress Co.  Samuel H. Kress was in the process of dismissing his head architect, George Mackay and it is possible Sibbert worked with MacKay in designing the store for Pueblo, Colorado.  Sibbert continued as Kress' chief architect for 25 yeas, designing chain stores across the United States in a consistent format and style, recognizalbe by its use of ornamental terra cotta.  

Sibbert was a member of the American Institute of Architects and American Society of Civil Engineers. He retired to Pompano Beach, Florida after living for many years in New York City.  Sibbert passed in Pompano Beach May 13, 1982.

Edward F. Sibbert 

(1899-1982)

Like the great movie houses of the day, the "dime store" and the Kress store were a popular destination during hard economic times. 

Each Kress store was a gift of civic art to its community.  Grandest of all was Edward Sibbert's masterpiece, the Kress flagship store at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 39th Street in New York City which opened in 1935.

The Flagship* Store

39th and 5th Avenue

NYC

*A flagship store is a retailer's most important or prominent store, often serving as the company's first or most well-known location.  It is a place where brands showcase their identity, experiment with new concepts and offer customers a unique shopping experience. They may be the largest store in the chain, the one with the highest sales volume.

The seven-story marble structure designed for everything shopping comfort, its Art Deco elegance was graced with Mayan-style hieroglyphs of goods for sale on the exterior and airborne Mayan gods in relief on the sales floor.  Awarded a gold medal for architectural quality, the store represented the zenith of the Kress empire in luxury, modernity and retailing capacity.  In December 1938, it was also the locale of the most astonishing Christmas display in the history of Fifth Avenue with Samuel Kress' acquisition of Giorgione's Allendale Nativity, placed on view for holidays shoppers.  Like most of the Kress stores across the nation, the Fifth Avenue emporium was supremely successful and its demolition in 1980 sadly marked the end of an American era.  

Once neglected by architectural historians, the study of 20th-century commercial architecture is now receiving the attention it most certainly deserves.  The National Building Musuem in Washington, DC stewards the archives that document the building history of 221 Kress stores in 28 states.  It also has published A Guide to the Building Records of S. H. Kress & Co. 5-10-25 Cent Stores.

 

Doris Duke 

(1912-1993)

Doris Duke and her Father, James Buchanan Duke.

Doris Duke was the only child of James Buchanan Duke and Nanaline Holt Duke.  Doris' life was marked by both privilege, philanthropy and intrique regarding her two marriages and a child named Arden who only lived 24 hours and whose father was never really determined.   She was known for the extensive charitable donations, particularly to Duke University, Princeton University and other institutions.  

Doris Duke did not inherit the Duke mansion in Charlotte, North Carolina.  She did inherit Duke Farms in New Jersey, Rough Point in Rhode Island and a mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York City.  Doris and her mother, Nanaline Duke eventually donated the Fifth Avenue mansion to New York University's Institute of Fine Arts in 1958.

The 5th Avenue Mansion 

While her father purchased the Duke Mansion in Charlotte (Myers Park) and expanded it, it was not part of her inheritance.  Instead, the estate was purchased by Charles Campbell Coddington (1878-1928) after J.B. Duke's passing.  

Doris Duke was an American billionaire tobacco heiress, philanthropist and socialite.  She was often called "the richest girl in the world".  Her great wealth, luxurious lifestyle and love life attracted significant press coverage, both during her life and after her passing at Falcon Lair in Los Angeles. 

Duke married twice.  The first time in 1935 to James H. R. Cromwell. They embarked on a world honeymoon spending significant time in the Middle East and in Asia  The couple had a daughter, Arden who was born prematurely in Honolulu on July 11, 1940 and only lived for 24 hours. Many who knew Doris feel the father of that child was not James Cromwell and say "anyone who knew Miss Duke knows that". 

Duke and Cromwell divorced in 1943.  After the divorce, Cromwell remarried and had two children demonstrating he had a life beyond his marriage to Doris Duke.  Doris, after the divorce, continued her philanthropic activities and built Shangri La in Honolulu, Hawaii.  

Shanghri La

4055 Papu Circle

Honolulu, Hawaii 

Shangri La was constructed from 1935-1937.  It was inspired by Doris' extensive travels throughout North Africa and Western, Central,  South and Southeast Asia and the landscapes of Hawaii'i.  Over the course of 60 years, Duke assembled and impressive collection of nearly 4,500 artworks, cultural resources and architectural designs through commissions from artisans, purchases from dealers and bazaars, or received as gifts. The collection is particularly strong in ceramics, wood, glass and textiles from 1600 to 1940. As part of her lasting desire to promote the sturdy and understanding of the art and cultures experienced during her travels, Doris Duke directed in her will that Shangri La be "available to scholars, students and others interested in the furtherance and preseration of Islamic art and make the premises open to the public."  In 2002, Shangri La opened as the only musuem dedicated exclusively to Islamic art in the United States. 

James and Doris Duke Cromwell 

On September 1, 1947, while in Paris, Duke became the third wife of Porfirio Rubirosa, a diplomat from the Dominican Republic.  Duke paid Porfirio's second wife $1 million to agree to an uncontested divorce.  Rubirosa was a known playboy having been married to Barbara Hutton, heiress to the Woolworth fortune on December 30, 1953.  The marriage lasted 1 month following a 3 month engagement.

Duke's passions varied widely.  She was a news correspondent in the 1940s.  She also played jazz piano and learned to surf, competitively.  At her father's estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey she created one of the largest indoor botanical displays in the United States.  She was also active in preserving more than 80 historic buildings in Newport, Rhode Island.  Duke was close friends with former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.  In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with Kennedy Onassis being appointed the vice president.

In 1930, when Doris turned 18, the 6 foot tall Duke was presented to society as a debutante at a ball at Rough Point, the family residence in Newport.  She received large bequests from her father's will when she turned 21, 25 and 30.  Her mother died in 1962 leaving her jewelry, a coat and an additional $250 million.  When Duke came of age, she used her wealth to pursue a variety of interests including extensive travel and the arts.  She studied singing with the voice teacher of opera singer, Beverly Sills in New York City.  She spoke French fluently and after WWII she moved to Paris and wrote for Harper's Bazaar. 

Due to her extensive travel she purchased her own Boeing 737 and redecorated the interior of the plane to travel between homes and her trips to collect art.  

One of the famous homes Doris Duke purchased was Falcon Lair.  It was an historic 11 bedroom Mediterranean-style villa above Benedict Canyon once owned by silent film star, Rudolph Valentino.  In 1925, Rudolph Valentino purchased the 4 acre estate for $175,000 (equivalent to $3,138,000 in 2024) and named it Falcon Lair inspired by a film he planned to make with his wife, Natacha Rambova.  The estate was designed by Wallace Neff and featured a Spanish Revival style house.  After Valentino's passing, the estate was sold several times.  Eventually, Doris Duke acquired it and lived there for many years, using it as her West Coast home. Duke reportedly lived in a state of isolation at Falcon Lair.  It was even referred to as a "prison", by some.  Doris passed while in residence at Falcon Lair at age of 80. 

The historic main house was demolished in 2006.  Today, the former stable building and three-bay garage, converted into a guesthouse and pool pavilion, an elaborate gated entance, plus an open-air chapel are the only remaining structures of the original estate.  This remaining portion of the estate has been listed for sale at various times, most recently in 2019 for $4.95 million.

Falcon Lair

1436 Bella Drive

Benedict Canyon

Los Angeles, California 

The Fatal Crash That Plunged Doris Duke Into Scandal

It was about 5 p.m. on a Friday in October 1966 when the millionaire heiress Doris Duke, hounded by gossip columns for decades, drove a rental Dodge Polara station wagon into infamy.  Duke, then 53, was leaving her Newport, Rhode Island estate with her close companion of ten years, the interior set designer Eduardo Tirella, 42, according to reports at the time.  Tirella drove the two down the driveway before getting out to open the mansion's front gates, as Duke slid over to the driver's side.  "It was something we'd done a hundred times before," she reportedly told police. As Tirella opened the gates she would then usually drive the car through as he closed them.  This time, though, it all went terribly wrong.  As the New York Daily News recounted at the time, the car "struck the heavy, 15-foot high, 20-foot wide wrought iron gate with such force the gate sprang open.  Several inch-square, five-foot long sections of iron were torn out. The vehicle dragging Tirella's body, lurched across two-laned Bellevue Avenue and hit a large tree."  

The damaged infamous Rough Point Gates

 Duke was found nearby seemingly in a fog, bleeding from wounds.  She was released from the hospital after 30 stitches treating cuts to her lip and chin, but would not be interviewed by police until nearly two days after the event, as questions and a blinding media glare only grew more intense.  Her physician, Dr. Philip   McAllister told reporters Doris was in shock and officers wouldn't formally interview Duke until that Sunday afternoon. Dr. McAllister told the New York Daily News that subjecting Doris to police questions so soon after the tragedy would have been "inhumane".

The slow speed of the police investigation clearly concerned the Rhode Island Attorney General J. Joseph Nugent who soon announced he would ask police for a full report.  "This is an extraordinary case," Nugent told reporters.  "I can make a judgement independent of the police in the matter, if necessary".  The rumors grew quickly.  As the New York Times would later report, there was speculation that Duke had been drunk behind the wheel and that it wasn't an accident, after all!  When asked about such a possiblity, Duke's doctor pronounced it "unthinkable", saying the two "were devoted".  Besides, there was "no evidence of alcohol in the blood of either Miss Duke or Tirella" according to Dr. McAllister who just happened to also be the state's acting medical examiner.

The doctor didn't stop there.  "Wealth does not bring happiness. And I'm convinced that enormous wealth brings great handicaps."

Rumors notwithstanding, Police Chief Radice would rule Tirella's death "an unfortunate accident".  He added, "As far as I am concerned, the case is closed." Nugent, the attorney general, never apparently questioned the investigation and the case was closed.  All evidence at the site that there had ever been accident .. vanished.  The rented station wagon was hauled away,  the gates were repaired and the media disappeared.  One of Tirella's eight siblings, Alice Romano, filed two negligence suits of $1.25 million each, one against Duke and another against Avis Rental.  Duke was found negligent in the the civil trail and was order to pay $75,000 to the Tirella family.  Romano appealed the court's decision, alleging that the jury's award was inadequate, but it was dismissed.  

If Duke's money had been a curse to herself while she was alive, it seems to have had the same effect on her distnad relatives.  Duke was said to change her will often, replacing her nephew, Walker Patterson Inman, Jr. as executor with her butler, Bernard Lafferty. Lafferty was set to receive a $5 million fee and $500,000 a year for life (Duke's dogs were left a $100,000 trust fund), but he died in 1996.  She reportedly left Inman $7 million in a trust.

Duke might not have been surprised had she lived as she once told a journalist in 1945 over a glass of wine at the Hassler Hotel in Italy

"All that money is a problem sometimes."

A Vanity Fair article was written in July/August 2020 by Peter Lance titled Homicide at Rough Point.

A writer by the name of Alyssa Maxwell wrote a book titled Murder at Rough Point.

On October 7, 1966, the wealthy heiress Doris Duke hit and killed her friend, Eduardo Tirella while behind the wheel of a renter car.  Whether his death at age 42 was an accident or an intentional act of murder, is still up for debate nearly 60 years later!  In 2021, the investigation was reopened.

Eduardo Tirella 

On the last full day of his life, October 6, 1966 Eduardo Tirella flew into Newport, Rhode Island, the storied summer colony of the country's old money families.  He was met at the airport by Doris Duke,, the richest woman in America, and they drove to Rough Point, her 10-acre estate on Bellevue Avenue .. Newport's Millionaire's Row.  Eddie, as friends knew Tirella, had just told intimates that after a decade as the artistic curator and designer of Duke's estates in New Jersey, Bel Air, Honolulu and Newport he was planning to sever his professsional ties with Doris, for good!  Now, it was time to let his patron and constant companion know, face-to-face!

The handsome Tirella, a war hero and Renaissance man, had just finished advising on a new Tony Curtis film, Don't Make Waves, and was working on his Hollywood career.  Anxious to move to the West Coast full-time, he intended to load his effects into a rented station wagon, drop them at his family's home in New Jersey and then fly back to California.  But nobody left Doris Duke without consequences.  Tirella, who was gay, had been warned by his friends that Duke might over react to his pending departure.  

Late the next afternoon, Tirella and Duke had a heated argument, overheard by the estate's staff.  Moments later, the pair got into the two-ton station wagon with Tirella behind the wheel and headed off for an appointment.  Approaching the property's immense iron gates, Eduardo stopped the car and got out of the station wagon to unlock the gate. 

Suddenly, Doris slid into the driver's seat, released the parking brake, shifted into drive and hit the accelerator resulting in Tirella's untimely death.   

🔎 🔍 

Ninety-six hours later, with no inquest and basing the authorities account of the crash entirely on the word of Doris Duke .. Newport police chief, Joseph A. Radice declared the death of Tirella .. accidental.  Case closed.  

Sidenote:  The fact that Doris' staff heard Eduardo and Doris arguing and he was intending to sever ties with her leads me to believe she ..

.. got away with murder ..