James Hazen Hyde

James Hazen Hyde was born in Manhattan on June 6, 1876, the son of Henry Baldwin Hyde, founder of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, and Annie Fitch Hyde. At the age of twenty-three he inherited control of Equitable, one of the most powerful financial institutions in the nation, and held directorships in nearly fifty allied corporations.

Equitable Life Assurance Society

Hyde became a leading figure in New York society at the turn of the twentieth century. A bibliophile, Francophile, and art collector, he founded the Alliance Française in America and maintained close ties to French culture throughout his life. He was a member of the exclusive Coaching Club and kept one of the largest private stables and carriage collections of his time.

Photos from the Versailles Ball

On January 31, 1905, he hosted the famous "Versailles Ball" at Sherry's Restaurant, transforming its ballroom into the gardens of Louis XVI's court. The event, though widely admired for its artistry and spectacle, was used by rivals within Equitable to question his judgment and suggest extravagance at the company's expense. Though a subsequent investigation cleared him of impropriety, the scandal damaged his reputation, and within a year he resigned his post and left New York for France.

Hyde lived in France for more than three decades, actively engaged in cultural, social, and charitable circles. He returned to the United States in 1941 and made his home at the Savoy-Plaza Hotel on Fifth Avenue. Each summer he stayed at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Springs, a tradition he kept until the end of his life.

Marthe Leishman

Helena Holbrook Walker

Marthe Celine Stephanie Dervaux

He married three times: in 1913 to Marthe Leishman, daughter of the American diplomat John George Alexander Leishman; in 1930 to Helena Holbrook Walker, Principessa della Torre e Tasso; and in 1932 to Marthe Céline Stéphanie Dervaux. He was the father of Henry Baldwin Hyde (1915–1997).

James Hazen Hyde died in Saratoga Springs on July 26, 1959, at the age of eighty-three, on the hundredth anniversary of the founding of his father's company. He was buried in the Hyde Family Plot at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.