Shameless Facts About Peggy Hopkins Joyce, The First Gold-Digger
The Roaring Twenties were a time of debauchery, sensuality, and over-the-top antics—and no one embodied that spirit more than the infamous beauty, socialite, and woman-about-town Peggy Hopkins Joyce. Picture Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby coming alive off the page, except with a whole lot more scandal…and one truly heartbreaking end.
Peggy Hopkins Joyce Facts
1. She Ran Away With A Bad Boy
Peggy Hopkins Joyce was scandalous from the very beginning. Born Marguerite “Peggy” Upton in 1893, she turned naughty in a spectacular way. When she was 15—and already quite the looker—she ran away from her sleepy hometown of Berkeley, Virginia to take up with a touring Vaudeville cyclist. But before they got far, little Peggy dealt her beau a brutal betrayal.
2. She Was A Gold Digger
While on the road with her paramour, the teenaged Peggy met the millionaire Everett Archibald—and as soon as she locked eyes with the wealthy man, her Vaudeville lover was chopped liver.
Even at that tender age, Peggy knew what she wanted: Men with money. She quickly dumped her cyclist to take up with Archibald…but there were unexpected consequences.
3. She Was A Teenaged Bride
Peggy understood which side her bread was buttered on, and in 1910 she sealed the deal with Everett Archibald, marrying him in a quickie ceremony after nine months together. Bad idea. See, Peggy was already a dyed-in-the-wool hedonist, and as Archibald traveled around as a salesman, she took up with a series of men behind her husband’s back. It fell apart almost instantly.
