There were no two-way radios
or telephones to alert an aspiring
paparazzi when a celebrity was
within camera range . . . photographers like Eddie Jackson had to target their quarry and wait for an opportunity to shoot. This never before seen photo of Cornelius Vanderbilt III and his wife Grace headed for church on Easter Sunday in 1915 relates this fact.
Cornelius Vanderbilt III was the
great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, railroad and steamship financier who at the age of 16 borrowed $100 from his mother to start a boat freight business to carry merchandise and other goods from Staten Island to New York City. This modest start led to owning many steamships and railroads. When he died in 1877 he left behind a fortune of over $100 million. When he was 70 years old, Cornelius Vanderbilt decided that the wave of the future was in railroads. He invested heavily in many railroad companies. A few years later, his New York Central railroad eventually controlled the lucrative route between New York and Chicago. When he died he was the richest man in the U.S. “Neily” Vanderbilt III (shown in photo) an entrepreneur in his own right, patented more than 30 inventions
for improving locomotives. After visiting Paris and London, he soon partnered with August Belmont Jr. to build the Interborough Transit Company for the construction of New York City’s first subway.
