The shocking secret past of wild child turned NYC high-society doyenne

Beatrice Ashley knew she would cause a scandal marrying millionaire scion William Astor Chanler.

After all, Willie — a military officer, adventurer and former politician — came from storied New York stock: the Astors, the Stuyvesants, the Winthrops. Beatrice, on the other hand, was an actress. The dark-haired beauty performed under the name Minnie Ashley, and despite her Broadway bona fides, she was not above posing for racy pin-up “cabinet cards” in a straw cowboy hat and … little else. She had a slew of high-profile admirers, including newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Plus, she was already married. (A hasty union with a fellow actor when Beatrice was just 16, but it still looked bad.)