... even though the "civic" gave him a pension of 9,000 pounds a year (I think it was), presumably for the rest of his life. Hmm ... sounds like he went back to gambling, or at least over-spending. Poor Harry, never learned.
shareHe did live to age 89 though, which was quite remarkable back in those days.
shareThe show compresses Harry Selfridges' life; he was not ousted from the store until 1941, and his Wikipedia bion does not mention how much his "reduced pension" was. Suffice it to say that the fixed income combined with the War years must've made life very difficult for Harry. And although the tv series portrays an amicable (albeit strained) relationship between Harry and his son, in real life Harry was quite estranged from his family (with the exception of Rosalie).
share6,000 he got
shareThat's right; thanks. Pretty good amount to live on in those days, for most folks.
shareA few years later, Selfridges (the store lost its apostrophe when he left) cut his pension from £6,000 to £2,000 a year and he ended up in a rented flat in Putney. Often he took the bus to Oxford Street to gaze at his creation. By then, his clothes were so shabby that he was once arrested as a vagrant.share
I know njgill, addiction is an equal opportunity target. Satan has the best excuses. Addiction's goal is to get you to do what you know you should stop despite the consequences. Maybe Harry lied to himself saying who cares he'd lived this extraordinary life? And he did. But his addiction(s) cost many others too, not just him. The lies, the broken promises, the cover-ups, the remorse and guilt. All very sad. But I don't think anyone saw what he had as an addiction back then, and his 'big headed' ego, and gift for gab, would have worked to talk everyone, even the therapist, out of it. That's what addicts do best: talk.
Great show! Loved every minute of it. I'd love to get a tube of that deep blue-pink-reddish lipstick the ladies wore. Or find out who makes it, what it's called. Truth? I found this looking for that!
GFW
This only makes me more convinced that the REAL life story of Harry Selfridge would be even better then this write-up.
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