Comstock heir Clarence Mackay cut his daughter out of his will for marrying Irving Berlin, and after her baby died he took her back

In 1873 John Mackay and his partners Fair, Flood and O'Brien opened the Consolidated Virginia mine in Virginia City, Nevada. It produced $61 million. Mackay died in London in 1902 and left most of his estate to his wife and his son, Clarence. Clarence's family lived at Harbor Hill, a 648-acre estate on Long Island. In 1922 his daughter Ellin, 21, met the songwriter Irving Berlin. Clarence objected that Berlin was much older, a widower, in show business and Jewish; Ellin was Catholic. He sent her to Europe. On 4 January 1926 the couple married at New York's City Hall. Clarence had his lawyer redraw his will to leave her out. Reports put her loss at about $9 million to $10 million. Their son, Irving Jr., was born on 1 December 1928 and was found dead in his crib on Christmas Day. Clarence visited them, and father and daughter were reconciled. Clarence sold Postal Telegraph to ITT for shares and got through the Depression by selling art and antiques. He married the singer Anna Case in 1931 and died of cancer on 12 November 1938. A New York Times headline of 8 December 1938 reported that his widow would get $2,050,000 and the city house, and that his three children would share the rest^†. Ellin and Irving Berlin were married for more than 60 years, until her death in 1988.