Walther von Mumm

Baron Walther von Mumm was a German bobsledder who competed in the early 1930s. He finished seventh and last in the four-man event at the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.

von Mumm was also a German Baron who was the one-time "champagne king" of Rheims in France.

The Baron was an aviation pioneer who went to the United States in 1910 as a pilot of the French entry in the Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race. While in the U.S., he met Frances Scoville, the daughter of a Seneca, Kansas banker; they were married three years later at St. George's, Hanover Square, in London. She died in 1920 leaving one daughter, Mary, who was educated at a school at Aiken, South Carolina. Mary later died in an automobile accident with her aunt, Louise Scoville Treadwell.

Between meeting and marrying Miss Scoville, Baron von Mumm became involved with and survived after being shot by Mrs. Marie Van Rensimer Barnes, in 1912 in her Paris apartment. Society barrister Oliver Bodington represented Mrs. Barnes.

von Mumm returned to Germany at the outbreak of the War; his famous champagne winery having been confiscated by the French, Baron von Mumm sacrificed his prosperous 100-plus-year-old family business. After the War, he salvaged little of his fortune, and lost what remained in the 1929 Wall Street crash. Thus, the "Champagne King" saw his fortunes wither until he was living in a $10-a-week Manhattan rooming house.

In 1931, he tried to take his own life by shooting himself above the heart in the Long Island home of his old friend William H. vim Roth. His suicide note read: "Bury me as I am and keep this out of the newspapers." But Baron von Mumm rallied and recovered. ["New York Times", Nov. 2 1931]

Baron von Mumm's niece was prominent literary socialite, Elena Mumm Thornton Wilson, the 4th wife of Edmund Wilson, renowned essayist and critic.

References

* [http://www.todor66.com/olim/1932w/Bobsleigh_Fours.html 1932 bobsleigh four-man results]
* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,745215,00.html "Bobbing". "TIME". March 27, 1933. Features von Mumm.]