Material Girl

I'll take one in every color - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by Trebor Snillor

Hunky’s
Today I’m writing from Hunky’s Café on Cedar Springs. I wanted a change of scenery and wi-fi is available here. We’re having a late October heat wave, so I won’t be baking in their sidewalk seating area. It’s sunny and festive inside here – we have the ambience of a 50’s diner. I love the atmosphere except for the loud foursome behind me.

Film Noir for Moi
I just watched 1944’s Double Indemnity on Netflix. Directed by Billy Wilder it is possibly the best film noir ever made. Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck were at their peaks and I barely paused the TV while watching it. It has a couple of interesting twists which I forgot about. Hard to believe that Walter Neff was later the genial father on My Three Sons.

Queen of Versailles
Last week I watched a documentary about the wealthy Siegel family in Orlando Florida. David Siegel owns the largest timeshare corporation in America. I figured it would be like a fun Donald and Ivana Trump special – wasn’t quite expecting what I saw. Queen of Versailles actually focuses more on David’s wife Jackie. The ex-1993 Miss America is shown indulging their 8 children in extravagant toys and making plans for their new, 90,000 square foot Versailles knock-off (largest house in America).

The movie is a documentary that began filming circa 2007 before the financial crisis. The producer had access to the Siegel’s and their home for extensive interviews. What struck me immediately was the question “How much is enough?”. Mr. Siegel is quoted as saying, “I’m not materialistic”. Jackie belies this by declaring that their 26,000 square foot mansion is “bursting at the seams” and they need 90,000 square feet. Jackie clearly feels that if a dollop is good a truckload is way better. She has @ 10 white Pomeranian lap dogs gracing every scene. The maids are shown picking up dog poop while the boy actually steps in some. Every commissioned oil painting of the couple shows Mr. Siegel dressed as a knight or a king. Nothing low-key here.

The 2008 crisis hits and the Siegel’s are seriously affected. It seems the timeshare business needs plentiful, cheap loan money. They must suspend construction on Versailles and lay off thousands of employees. David at one point says that his kids may have to apply for student loans – I’m wondering if one of their gaudy lamps couldn’t pay for at least a year in Harvard for one kid. They lay off all but four maids, who are still needed to push 5 loaded shopping carts out of a local toy store at Christmas. A new bicycle has to fight for space in a garage already overflowing with bikes and sports gear. Jackie visits an old high school friend – she’s shocked that her Avis rent car doesn’t come with a driver. David tells her to cut back, but at no point does it seem like it looms large in her mind.

My impression from all this is not that the Siegel’s are terrible, bad people. Jackie is a friendly people person with a lot of exuberance for life. I think she seems more like an addictive-personality who doesn’t know how to apply the brakes on the materialism gravy train. She just has more enabling than your average hoarder or shop-a-holic. Even one of the teenage children says that enough is never really enough.

Recovery
Since 2008, the timeshare industry recovered and the Siegel’s are back in the saddle. Mr. Siegel restarted construction on Versailles. The Siegel’s filed a lawsuit against the producers of Queen of Versailles.. They felt the portrayal was defamatory. The case was decided in the producer’s favor although more litigation could follow. I’m still at Hunky’s and a schizophrenic man has started talking either to himself or me – not sure. Will take that as a cue to wrap this up and enjoy what remains of this extremely hot afternoon.

© 2014 Snillor Productions