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from a clipping that someone sent me about this very fancy marriage in Wheeling, West Virginia, and upon being duly wed, they immediately took off for Capri and really never came back.

That's quite a big jump if you think of it. This must have been around 1907, 1908. They first rented and then I guess they bought a house, Villa Discopoli, a lovely house, and they lived there from 1908 till pretty much the end of the decade of the 1910s, close to 1920.

Till after the war?

Till after the war.

Did you ever ask your father why they left and went to Capri?

He thought Wheeling was a pretty terrible spot [laughter] and I guess my mother went along with it, because neither of them ever came back to stay. As a matter of fact, my father never came back to stay in the U.S. except when he was pushed out during the war, during World War II.

But going back to the early days, it was a pretty glamorous life in Capri because what few people realize is that Capri has been invaded by rather fancy people for now two thousand years. With every generation, they complain about all these dreadful people who arrive. Well, it's been going on for two thousand years. In fact, Tiberius lived in Capri for quite a few years.