Security at a Society Wedding (1937)
Sometimes it’s not just the groomsmen who want to steal the bride on her wedding day. Extra security precautions have to be taken to ensure the safety of the couple and their guests during political and celebrity weddings. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. and Ethel DuPont married in 1937, it was the merging of two enormously powerful political and business families. The groom was the son of the President, who had just started his second term in office.
The bridge was the heiress to a major chemical corporation. The couple had 300 powerful, well-connected guests. As guests arrived, each car was inspected by security to make sure they had full credentials to attend the reception at the Owl’s Nest, the DuPont family home in Greenville, Delaware. The couple would have two children, Franklin Delano Roosevelt III and Christopher DuPont Roosevelt, and divorce in 1949.
