Mike and Tony, the two of you are incorrect in your perceptions of the financial status of Tilly during the last few years of his life and at the time of his death.
Mike, you wrote, "Does the fact that Tilly and Mozart were broke when they died make their creations any more or less valuable?"
Tony, you wrote, "From what I know of Mozart, and what I've read on here about Tillie, it was more a case of neither observing Mr Macawber's dictum. Had either of them had a more controlled lifestyle and invested when times were good, then by the standards of their day they recieved adequate funds to live very well indeed."
Though not wealthy, Tilly was by no means broke nor destitute. While it is true that he lost his Harrington Park home to pay back taxes owed in 1936, this was not as a result of his lacking funds or not having paid. He was caught in the middle of a situation where the person who held his mortgage was supposed to be paying the taxes out of the funds he was given and HE failed to do so, theerby causing the tax sale.
If it hadn't occurred while Tilly was traveling for the PGA he would have been able to prevent it. Still, he was able to return in time to stop the auction and so retain almost all of the home's furnishings including a large number of extremely valuable antiques. I have personally seen some of these and many are worth at or near 6 figures and more today.
He offered many of these for sale in California at the antiques store that he opened three years later. If one is broke, how can you afford to transport a household full of furnishings clear across the country, especially when a moving company is paid to do this.
In addition to this, Tilly had given his wife a number of very valuable pieces of jewelry that they never sold or got rid of. If he was broke at this time, these would have surely been sold. Again, many are still in the family possession and are quite lovely as I have seen these as well.
Finally, Tilly had several other sources of income. He was working for the Pacific Coast Golfer magazine and what almost everyone is unaware of is that his father's company, the Tillinghast Rubber Goods Company, was still in business and would not be closed till some five years after his death. Though small, this too supplied him with a bit of income.
In addition, he also rid himself of some golf-related items such as his personal library that he sold to a gentleman from Virginia in whose family it still resides.
No, Tilly was not broke when he died and he was not rich either.
Yes, he misspent and wasted funds throughout his life, but nowhere near the amounts that most people think he did. This is a story, similar to some of the ones about his drinking, that have simply grown in the telling.
Just thought I'd clear that up. THere is a wonderful biography of Tillinghast now available in which one can find all of these facts and more!
