Those Vanderbilt men... everything for an Interview! Did you know Anderson Cooper wasn’t the first?

Ok, you might be known to drool over Anderson Cooper’s field reporting, the intrepidness of his trips and snarky comments… you might also know that his father was a great writer, his mother a published author and his late brother was a promising one – there is even an award granted in his name for young short story writers -… but Anderson was not the first Vanderbilt with a passion for journalism. Have you ever heard about Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr (actually the IV)? Or the Village Voice – Vanderbilt connection (and we don’t mean the Musto douche bag!)?

So here we go!

Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr. (1898-1974) was the author of one of “the most important interviews of the 20^th Century” as compiled by Christopher Sylvester. The subject: Al Capone. He was the son of the of Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr. (the III) who was scorned by his father Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr (the II) and cut from the family fortune because he chose to marry an older woman whom he disapproved. Even without the Vanderbilt fortune, Vanderbilt Jr. (III) Didn’t suffer any economic nuances, because his bride’s parents where also rich. And he was a successful business man in his own right.

Vanderbilt Jr. (IV) was raised in Newport Conny and during his childhood he frequently visited Europe. Against his father’s wishes, he became a journalist when he finished his tour of duty at World War I. He was the New York Herald’s correspondent for which he interviewed the Irish poet Lord Dunsany, Belgium writer Maurice Maerterlinck and Edward, the Prince of Wales. He was the New York Times Albany collaborator and worked for United Press and Universal Service in Washington. Later he will become a freelance journalist . In 1923 he founded and presided Vanderbilt Newspapers, a group of tabloid newspapers in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami, but this endeavor quickly faced economic problems, forcing them to close on an early stage. He also was the Associated Editor for The New York Mirror (1925-1929).

During the ‘30s he became a collaborator with Liberty Magazine, specializing in Interviews. Among his interviewees were General Pershing, Pio XI, Mussolini, General Pilsudsky (Poland’s leader), Stalin and President Hoover. He also interviewed Hitler a couple of times. The first of them, after Hitler was arrested due to his participation in the unsuccessful Brewery Revolt in Munich. Vanderbilt threw a brick to a window in order to be arrested and bribed guardians in order to get the contiguous jail cell next to Hitler. Everything for an interview. Years later, he refused an offer to interview Hitler again because he was against the condition of “donating” $5,000 to the fund for the families of killed Nazis soldiers. He also interviewed Stalin (even when many thought he was an ogre, he thought Stalin looked more as a school teacher) many times. During the first interview, when Vanderbilt arrived, Stalin was reading a book. Later he would find out that he was reading the Bible and that he had read it in 4 languages. “He spoke more as an American Entrepreneur instead of a Red Russian leader”, Vanderbilt declared.

The last time he interviewed him, he correctly interpreted that Stalin was about to sign a non aggression treaty with Germany and had the opportunity to notify President Roosevelt about it before it happened

Vanderbilt Jr (IV) endlessly worked for Roosevelt’s Presidential Campaigns during the 1930s. He refused a job offer at his administration, but he accepted the post of Presidential Advisor, without salary or perks, and worked directly with FDR an array of issues. In 1942 he was granted with the Distinguished Service Cross from the FBI for his contribution in the arrest of a Japanese radio operator at the Pacific Coast. He wrote travel guides about Reno (1929) Park Avenue (1930), Palm Beach (1931) and in the 1940 he was a travel columnist for The New York Post and Affiliated News Features. He also published various memories: Personal Experiences of a Club Reporter (1922), Experiences of a Washington Correspondent (1929), Farewell to Fifth Avenue (1935) and Man of the World: My Life on Five Continents (1959). Vanderbilt Jr. (IV) married an astonishing seven times.

Before Vanderbilt visited Capone, he left a note to the hotel’s concierge with precise instructions if he didn’t show up in a specific time frame. In it, he wrote the address where he was going to meet Capone. The interview went well, and Capone and Vanderbilt were already planning to meet again for dinner when the phone rang. Capone answered and passing the phone to Vanderbilt Jr. (IV) he said: “It’s the police, they say I kidnapped you”.

Vanderbilt Jr.( IV) died in 1974 childless, ending the Jrs and the competition with the Buendía’s dynasty, but sometimes I think the Vanderbilt family is as complicated or doom as them.

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