Meet Edward West “Daddy” Browning and his 15-year-old bride, Peaches. Daddy Browning was an Upper West Side real estate developer who lived on West 72nd Street and had a penchant for publicity. In the 1920s, he ran an ad in the New York Herald Tribune seeking to adopt a 14-year-old girl, supposedly as a playmate for his daughter.
Thousands of gold-digging applicants flooded his office, and in 1926 he met and married Frances Belle Heenan, a wannabe actress from Washington Heights he nicknamed Peaches. The two delighted in their Jazz Age excess and tabloid celebrity status.
Of course, it didn’t end well. After 10 months of flaunting their bizarre relationship, they landed in divorce court, the press dutifully reporting all courtroom details. Daddy Browning died in the 1930s, and Peaches lived into the 1940s.
Tags: Daddy Browning, New York in the 1920s, Peaches Browning, Upper West Side
Ephemeral New York 
September 24, 2008 at 9:49 pm |
I’m an historian working and living in NYC for many years and have just published my second book, a 20,000 word, heavily illustrated non-fiction account of Daddy Browning’s life entitled “Call Me Daddy – The Life and Loves of Edward West Browning, New York’s Jazz-Age Lecher King.” It’s available FREE in its entirety at http://www.edwardwestbrowning.blogspot.com
I’d appreciate your passing this information along to anyone interested in this fascinating crazy tale, much larger that just the Peaches Browning chapter…
Thanks,
Ben Feldman
New York Wanderer Press
September 24, 2008 at 11:23 pm |
Sure thing–it’s a great story.
June 15, 2009 at 1:24 pm |
Free access to the text of this book is no longer available. Check its website for purchase information for the beautifully illustrated paperbound book, available from the publishers and from Amazon and select Barnes and Noble retail stores in Manhattan.
June 21, 2009 at 1:27 am |
why does peaches have a bandaged arm and face?
April 10, 2010 at 11:12 pm |
Autumn, I believe the reason for the bandaging is because before her marriage to “Daddy,”somebody, believed to be a jealous suitor, broke in and threw a mixture of chloroform, I think it was, and acid on her face and neck whilst she slept.
May 29, 2010 at 12:13 pm |
So, unless I am mistaken, Peaches was only 46 when she died. What caused her death?
May 29, 2010 at 5:26 pm |
The details of Peache’ sorry demise are all in my book “Call Me Daddy” which you can purchase for $20 including postage directly from me: email me at feldman_benjamin@hotmail.com
February 28, 2018 at 6:36 pm |
Reading Call Me Daddy really hit home. One of its characters, that dentist, Dr Charles Wilen, who eloped with Browning’s wife to France ended up staying there for the rest of his life (except for a short return to the States to escape the persecution of Jews by the Nazi in 1940). In the 1930’s Charley was in partnership with Alec Kramarenko, the inventor of the first underwater spear gun and the “Monogoggle”, the first single lens diving goggles. It so happens that he seduced his partner’s wife, making me his biological son.
If I live long enough to finish and publish it, my book “Memoires of a French Bastard” might show that sex addiction and womanizing is truly hereditary. I guess I couldn’t help it.
March 2, 2018 at 1:23 pm |
Gabriel: I am Daddy Browning’s biographer. I would like to meet you. Please email me at feldman_benjamin@hotmail.com I live in NYC
August 6, 2019 at 3:42 pm |
Dear Mr. Feldman.
Please forgive the long time it has taken me to answer to your request to contact you, I’ve been busier than a one armed paper hanger. I have enough info on the life of Charles Wilen after his escapade with young Mrs West. His life was even more interesting then. His son, my half brother, was very famous and continued the saga. My nephew, Charley’s grandson, has papers on the family that just by themselves are worthy of a best seller.
You can contact me at gabouk1@cs.com or y phone at (870)834-4382
Looking forward to talk to you
Gabriel Kramarenko