Done & Dunne
A podcast exploring writer Dominick Dunne's quest for justice amidst his incisive commentary of the high society set. Alicia (Trashy Divorces) leads a far ranging romp through the novels and Vanity Fair columns of one of the 20th century’s most unforgettable literary contributors. Covering courthouses and country clubs, Dunne’s voice was one for the ages, and Done & Dunne ensures that voice can continue to resonate with audiences today.
Episodes
The Murder of Stanford White
The architect Stanford White is credited with a host of landmark structures in Newport, New York City, and beyond. But it was his sexual predation of young girls, especially the young model and showgirl Evelyn Nesbit, that led to his shocki…
The Big Four | Ginevra King, Fitzgerald’s Original Daisy Buchanan
Alicia climbs on her literary soapbox in this episode, the last to cover in our Big Four Spiderwebs episodes. Ginevra King was F. Scott’s Fitzgerald’s first love, and oh my – did she stick to his heart and writing for years, also with a lit…
The Big Four | Edith Cummings, The Fairway Flapper
If you like golf, this is definitely the episode of The Big Four for you! Edith Cummings is the gal in our spotlight in this episode, and she led quite a life. Edith was one of the premier amateur golfers during the Jazz Age popularly known…
The Big Four | Courtney Letts
Holy cats! In this episode we meet the second of our Big Four, Courtney Louise Letts. Courtney was beautiful, glamorous and voted one of the world’s best dressed women. Courtney was also married four times, with some distinguished husbands…
The Big Four | Margaret “Peg” Carry
In a departure from Newport this week, we are taking a detour to Lake Forest, Illinois to discover The Big Four. The Big Four was a Girl Gang unlike any other. These daughters of privilege are Margaret Carry, Courtney Letts, Edith Cummings,…
Touring Bellevue Avenue | Miramar
In this episode we continue our tour through Newport, Rhode Island, looking at the last block of Bellevue Avenue with Miramar as our focus today. Completed in 1914, Eleanor Elkins Widener finished this grand Gilded Age home to honor her hus…
Edith Wharton and Her Gilded Age
Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Edith Wharton came by her subject matter the old-fashioned way: she was born into a prominent New York City family, and was subjected to the mores of the city's high society circle from birth. This did not su…
Teardown in The Platinum Triangle
For this holiday episode, we take a diversion from The Gilded Age in Newport to visit the Fabulous Late 1980s in Hollywood, specifically The Platinum Triangle, the area in Los Angeles that encompasses Beverly Hills, Holmby Hills and Bel Air…
Touring Bellevue Avenue | Belcourt
Oliver Belmont becomes quite the talk of the town when the entire first floor of this grand home is comprised of stables for his prized horses. Oliver will not stay single for long, marrying the recently divorced Alva Vanderbilt in a move t…
Touring Bellevue Avenue | Champ Soliel
In today’s episode, we continue our tour of Bellevue Avenue to explore Champs Soliel, the last great home built in Newport in 1929, truly shitting down the Gilded Age. We get to know its owner, Lucy Wharton Drexel Dahlgren, who led quite an…
Touring Bellevue Avenue | Seaview Terrace, The Cloisters, Fairholme, and Anglesea
In the continuation of tour down Bellevue Avenue in Newport. Rhode Island, this week we take a little detour to one street, packed with a whole lot of history. Ruggles Avenue is this side street, and four homes were very important when it c…
Newport Mystery | David Marriott and Father Phillip Magaldi
We continue our sleuthing in Newport in today’s episode, focusing in on a little more reporting from our man Dominick Dunne. Dunne covered the second trial of Claus von Bulow, and in so doing, uncovered a few more shady characters. Today, w…
Newport Mystery | Paul E. Molitor, Jr.
Alicia definitely falls into a rabbit hole in this episode from the Patreon Vault. Dominick Dunne writes just one little paragraph in his reporting on the von Bulow case that was definitely worth investigating. Dunne makes a mention about P…
Touring Bellevue Avenue | Clarendon Court
We continue our tour of Bellevue Avenue in Newport today, focusing specifically on one grand home, Clarendon Court. This home and property had a whole lot of history before Sunny and Klaus von Bulow moved into it in the early 1970s. In this…
Touring Bellevue Avenue | Chateau-sur-Mer, The Breakers, Seaview Terrace, Rosecliff, Beechwood, Marble House, and Beaulieu
This week we continue our tour of Newport’s Bellevue Avenue with seven more glorious homes including Chateau-sur-Mer, The Breakers, Seaview Terrace, Rosecliff, Beechwood, Marble House and Beaulieu. There are many Gilded Age high society fol…
Touring Bellevue Avenue | Kingscote, The Isaac Bell House, Bell Court, The Elms, and Chepstow
Join Alicia as we begin our leisurely stroll down Bellevue Avenue, backdrop of the Gilded Age in Newport, Rhode Island. We start at the top at The Casino and work one block southward. This first episode focuses on five homes including Kings…
Duchess Fever | The Jewelry Auction of Wallis, Duchess of Windsor
In this very last Wallis episode, we bring our man Dominick Dunne, who attended and breathlessly reported on the 1987 auction of her jewelry at Sotheby’s in Geneva. This story is packed with so many spiderwebs – all kinds of folks attended …
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor | The King and Queen of International Society
In our finale of the Wallis, Duchess of Windsor series, we spend time with the Duke and the Duchess in their time as the toast of international society. David and Wallis appear in all the best places and at all the best tables, but ultimate…
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor | Doing Time in the Bahamas and Post War Days
The Duke and Duchess should be in their long-awaited wedded bliss period, but King George VI is going to take his brother David up on that past offer to be of assistance, and off the newlyweds go to the Bahamas. The Duke will have a pretty …
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor | Creatures of International Curiosity
Married life begins for Wallis and David, and although it is a time of decorating homes and settling into domestic bliss for the couple, there are troubled times brewing. David and Wallis take a trip to Germany they will come to regret in s…
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor | Becoming the Duke and Duchess of Windsor
In December of 1936, David is off the throne and has a little time on his hands. The former king cannot reunite with his love Wallis at the moment, as her final divorce decree from Ernest Simpson is still pending within the court system. Da…
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor | The Instrument of Abdication
We have journeyed into this trashy series to fall of 1936, and the abdication of Edward VIII is coming fast and hard. The world now knows about Wallis, and everyone has an opinion about the love affair the world can’t stop discussing. From …
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor | The Countdown to Abdication
No one inside or outside the palace seems all too pleased in this continuing episode of our Wallis series. We are definitely on the countdown to the December 1936 abdication of Edward VIII, and the events of the summer and fall really turn …
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor | The King is Dead, Long Live the King
King George V has passed, and it is David’s time to assume the throne. The new King of England is pretty okay with it, for now – but only if his rules are followed. The people of England are pretty fired up about the monarch who they feel w…
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor | That Woman
This week, we bring Wallis and the Prince of Wales together, and it is some scandalous stuff. Walls sells out her friend Thelma. David is resolved to get Wallis into his inner court world, no matter what he must do, even with enemies on all…
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor | Thelma Furness
This week, we progress in our journey to the last lover of the Prince of Wales, before Wallis, that is. Thelma Furness enters the picture. Thelma comes with her own legend, being one of the Magical Morgan Twins, along with her sister Gloria…
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor | Freda Dudley Ward
We continue our journey into the love life of the Prince of Wales this week introducing the lovely, and married, Freda Dudley Ward. This phenomenal woman was romantically involved with David for 15 years, and he sure liked it that way, unti…
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor | Edward’s Early Loves
In this week’s exciting episode of our Wallis, Duchess of Windsor series, we change the focus to the Prince of Wales. With a complicated childhood without a whole lot of family love, you can see how it would be easy for David to be swayed …
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor | Becoming Mrs. Simpson
Upon her return to the United States, Wallis will finally obtain her divorce from Win Spencer, and soon enough meet her next husband, Ernest Simpson. Slightly problematic, Ernest is married at the time, but who can stop true love? Wallis wi…
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor | Her Lotus Year and The China Dossier
Hold onto your conspiracy theories in this one, darlings! Wallis took a lot of heat for the year she spent in the Orient, her Lotus Year. Many folks pinned a whole lot of terrible deeds on Wallis this year, largely all untrue. Her year in C…
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor | Becoming Mrs. Spencer
In this second installment of Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, we visit steamy Pensacola, Florida, and meet Wallis’s first husband, Earl Winfield “Win” Spencer, Jr. This flyboy will woo and wed Wallis, only for the relationship to reveal some ve…
Wallis, Duchess of Windsor | Baby Bessie and Breaking Baltimore
Welcome to a whole spider of a series - Wallis, Duchess of Windsor! We know her story, or we think we do. In this first episode, we meet Bessie Wallis Warfield, just a tiny girl making her way in the world surrounded by a whole lot of famil…
Coco Chanel | Fashion, Fragrance, and Fascism, Finale!
In our conclusion of the life and times of Coco Chanel, we travel through the years 1936 to the end of her life in 1971, and a little beyond too. With the passing of time, more has come to light about Coco’s affair with a German spy, and h…
Coco Chanel | Fashion, Fragrance, and Fascism, Part Two
In this continuation of the life and times of Coco Chanel, we take the legendary designer through the Roaring 20s to the mid-1930s. This was an action packed time in her life, including even more expansion into a fragrance line, an entrée i…
Coco Chanel | Fashion, Fragrance, and Fascism, Part One
In a multi-drop week here on Done and Dunne, we begin our investigation into Coco Chanel, legendary fashion and fragrance designer, with a little fascism on the side. Her life was long and complicated. Today’s episode includes Coco’s story …
Yachts and Things | The Found Mystery Chapter of Answered Prayers
In this surprise double drop episode, we rediscover a missing chapter of Truman Capote’s Answered Prayers. This missing chapter reveals a bit about the time Truman and Katharine Graham spent on a yacht touring the Greek islands, with all th…
And Audrey Wilder Sang....
This week we go from one Audrey to another. In this episode, we get to know Audrey Wilder. Audrey was a tremendous lady – wife of legendary director Billy Wilder, Hollywood hostess, and bosom friend of our man Nick. Audrey also goes way bac…
Dunne Profiles | Audrey Hepburn
In our continuation of love today for Audrey Hepburn, we discover the brilliant writing of Dunne from May of 1991 in Vanity Fair, and so much more about this remarkable lady. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Pa…
The Life and Loves of Audrey Hepburn
In the first of a double drop this week, Alicia takes you through the life and loves of Audrey Hepburn. Much is included within this initial episode to make Dunne’s profile of Hepburn, coming next, even more extraordinary. Included are deta…
Hever Castle | Two English Queens and an Astor Brat
In celebration of all things Anne Boleyn this week on the 489th commemoration of her death, this episode has you traveling with Alicia on a tour of Hever Castle in the Kent countryside. Its double-moated history begins long before Anne Bole…