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| Dilworth and Mellon's Party Moment |
Certainly you recall him as a handsome, distinguished, upper-crust gentleman – so competent that many feel he was the best Philadelphia mayor of the 20th century.
Born rich, he was raised mostly in Manhattan, attended private boarding school and spent summers with his family in Southampton on Long Island among other wealthy families, including the Mellons of Pittsburgh.
Dilworth says he started drinking during those Southampton summers. He later recalled getting into “a good deal of trouble” because of his boozing.
We don’t know the year, but Dilworth was invited to the “coming out” party for debutante Ailsa Mellon. Her father, Andrew Mellon, was super-rich and very powerful. He would later become U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
Dilworth remembered dancing with Ailsa while he was “terribly drunk. And I lost my lunch all over Miss Mellon and her dress.”
Dilworth’s parent learned about their son’s barfing episode and were furious - but not half as angry as Andrew Mellon.
The next day Dilworth’s mother insisted he go to the Mellon house and apologize .
“She didn’t trust me, so she marched me around to the Mellon household. Old man Mellon was the coldest man I ever saw. I don’t believe he had ever been drunk,” Dilworth said in an interview.
“So, I was ushered in by Mother and had to apologize to the old man and it was like talking to a stone statue. And he just sat there absolutely frozen and he said, ‘Well, I’ll overlook it because of your mother.’”
From time-to-time, Dilworth’s drinking problem re-emerged. Ailsa Mellon inherited great wealth, married a U.S. Senator and was an important philanthropist and patron of the arts.