Astor Trial Offers Glimpse Into High Life

For a generation of New Yorkers, her very name -- Brooke Astor -- evoked images of high-society at its very highest.
    
Now, the final, vulnerable years of the legendary socialite are on display in the trial of her son, who is accused of trying to loot her multimillion dollar estate.
    
Greed and theft may be the focus of the prosecution, but the court proceedings have also opened a door into the glamorous lifestyle of upper-crust Manhattanites.
    
And, oh, what a royal life it was for Astor before her death in 2007 at age 105.
    
Her closest friend, Annette de la Renta, wife of fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, testified that New York's grande dame once gave her a necklace made of elliptical gold pieces encrusted with 528 diamonds weighing a total 33 carats.
    
Other witnesses have talked of doting chauffeurs, always a hand wave away when Astor went for walks, or invitations from a Rockefeller to fly to Maine on a private jet.
    
Prosecutors say that, at the end, all was not well in Astor's life.
    
They say her mental state deteriorated in her final years, and her son, 84-year-old Anthony Marshall, is charged with exploiting her decline so he could plunder her $198 million fortune before and after her death.
    
His co-defendant is 66-year-old Francis Morrissey, a once-suspended lawyer accused of forging Astor's signature on at least one of the amendments to her will.
    
At the trial, prosecutors trying to show that Astor was not of sound mind played a 35-minute video that may have given the Manhattan jury some clues, but also put her dazzling lifestyle on display.
    
The softly lit video recorded Astor's 100th birthday party at the Rockefeller family estate at Pocantico Hills in Westchester County in March 2002.
    
As expected, the event was a grand affair. The large banquet space was encircled by Grecian columns with a dance floor in the middle.
    
The tables held candles and flowers, and a band played popular standards while guests -- more than 100 were invited -- danced in high-fashion gowns and tuxedos.
    
Astor was resplendent in a blue gown and jacket, wearing diamonds and pearls. With former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and former Chase Manhattan Bank Chairman David Rockefeller at her side, she bobbed her head and moved her body to the music's rhythm.
    
The society doyenne was accompanied to the fete by Lord William Waldorf Astor of the British branch of the family that created the Astor fortune. She was greeted upon arrival by Rockefeller, the party's host.
    
The New York Times noted the event under the headline, "The Grandest of Dames Turns 100 in Style.''
    
Prosecutors believe the tape shows jurors that in 2002, Astor was already mentally incompetent. They say she refers to no one by name.
    
But defense lawyers say her two-minute speech at the cherry-blossom-bedecked lectern shows she knows what she is doing when she tells Rockefeller to stand and take a bow, saying "We had such a good man give us such a good time.''
    
"There is no doubt she is fully aware of the occasion and where she was,'' Kenneth Warner, one of Marshall's lawyers, said outside court.
    
Alice Victor, Rockefeller's executive assistant who helped planned the event and select the guests, testified Thursday that Astor did not dance at her party, "much to her regret,'' because she had a cut on her leg.
    
Society singer and bandleader Bobby Short sang "From This Moment On'' and "Happy Birthday.''
    
Guests captured fleetingly on camera included Barbara Walters, the late TV newsman Peter Jennings, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the de la Rentas.
    
Rockefeller read a congratulatory note from then-President George Bush and wife Laura, and Marshall read brief tribute to his mother from Prince Charles.