The Rapid Bankruptcy of a Marriage
Actress Mabel Hite recounts a whirlwind three-week marriage to a spendthrift heir who burned through a $20,000 fortune in a spree of champagne and faro banks.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Mabel Hite is seeking a divorce from her husband, E. E. Hamlin. The couple met in Denver in February 1901 while Hite was performing in 'The Telephone Girl.' Despite only a two-week acquaintance, Hamlin—a handsome college boy with $20,000 in investment funds—persisted with daily marriage proposals, flowers, and champagne. They married shortly after, but Hamlin’s wealth evaporated quickly. Hite reports that during their three-week union, Hamlin spent lavishly on clothes, diamond jewelry, and high-stakes gambling in San Francisco. Within weeks, he had lost his fortune, pawned the jewelry he bought for her, and fallen into heavy drinking. Hite eventually paid for his ticket back to Chicago and has not seen him since. She intends to file for divorce on the grounds of non-support and drunkenness.
“I was dazzled by the money and the rings he gave me, but my awakening was a rude one. I never saw a man drink so much whisky as Ellis did.”
Public fascination with the financial ruin and private drama of celebrities remains a staple of our media, though today's 'divorce court' reporting has migrated from the society columns to the endless churn of social media speculation. Hite’s story highlights a very real era where marriage was often the only legal path for a young woman to reclaim her financial independence from a reckless spouse.
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