Tomorrow’s print edition of the New York Times will carry a long, intriguing story about Faith Hope Consolo.
Faith Hope Consolo (Photo/Beatrice de Gea for the New York Times)
Contrary to years of self-description, the glamorous real estate broker did not follow her real estate executive father into the business. Her mother was not a child psychiatrist. Consolo did not attend Miss Porter’s School for Girls, nor did she earn a degree from Parsons Paris.
And she most definitely did not grow up in Westport.
Consolo fabricated nearly every fact about her life, beginning with her age (she was 73 when she died in late 2018, not 69) and her birth in Cleveland (not Shaker Heights, Ohio).
But these 2 paragraphs attracted the attention of alert “06880” reader Heather Grahame, who definitely did grow up here:
She also claimed that she moved to the tony suburb of Westport, Conn., as a young girl, but she really grew up on a dead-end street in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.
Ms. Consolo’s longtime friends and colleagues never knew the truth, including Joseph Aquino, Ms. Consolo’s business partner for 26 years. “I remember once we were together in Westport, and I was all excited for her to show me the house where she grew up,” Mr. Aquino said. “But she got really vague and seemed sad, so I just dropped it, figuring she didn’t want to talk about it.”
I posted a story about her death a year ago, on “06880.” I asked anyone with a memory of her to share it. There were comments — but only one person thought she remembered her. Another woman mentioned their time together in Brooklyn.
Faith Hope Consolo, as a young girl in Brooklyn. (Photo courtesy of the New York Times)
This weekend’s Times piece is a sad story about an allegedly glamorous figure — one who felt she had to obscure her past, in order to be accepted by Manhattan’s elite.
But just think: Of all the places she could have pretended to have grown up, she chose Westport, Connecticut.
Real-life realtors here must be very impressed.
(Click here to read the full New York Times story.)
To repeat my comment on the earlier article — ‘My son worked for her in the 70s. He said she was “tough as nails, but you had to be.” ‘
In fact, she was so tough, she wouldn’t allow him to ever have lunch with me, although I worked about a block away from him.
She must have been afraid of the Westport centered conversations you’d have that might raise suspicions.
Done!
The current NYT story is a wonderful insight into the deception that lurks in everyday life. I personally found it charming that she invented a childhood of wealth and privilege, when it’s more fashionable among today’s fabulists to concoct stories of childhood deprivation and abuse.
With all due respect, she’s dead. Maybe she was ashamed of growing up where she did. How does this post amount to anything but mean-spirited gossip – what are you trying to accomplish with it?
Agreed. Totally inappropriate.
Actually, I felt the NYT piece was respectful toward Ms. Consolo’s memory, and I think Dan’s piece is respectful as well. Insofar as having your deceptions outed, either before or after death, that is the penalty you risk by publicizing a false life-story in the first place.
I’m impressed with her success there. Imagine how many times she encountered Westporters in her career? Must have been torture to pretend. Real Estate biz is very tough..my guess is that she thought she needed an edge.
Channeling Don Draper!
Or perhaps the “Baron Von Langendorff.” i gather he was an Austrian Jewish refugee and the aristocratic title was made up.