Original subtitles

♪ Work your body... ♪

[dance music playing]

♪

SARA AZARI: Vicki went from poverty

to living the life of a princess.

NARRATOR: As the mistress of Alfred Bloomingdale,

Vicki Morgan was promised an income for life.

AZARI: Alfred was really taking care of her more than

she could ever imagine.

GORDON BASICHIS: Alfred would

give Vicki something like $250,000 a year.

He paid for the car.

He paid for the house, which was a rental.

And he gave her a stipend every month.

MARA WILES: We're talking Cartier.

We're talking Tiffany's, fur coats.

She was living the highest standard of life.

NARRATOR: All she had to do in exchange

was whatever he wanted.

- ♪ Babe, you make it look easy. ♪

- No matter what part

of Alfred's life you're involved in,

it's about control.

LEAH CARROLL: Alfred was giving her this money

in exchange for her companionship.

And in exchange for her participation in the BDSM scene.

NARRATOR: BDSM is a sexual kink, where power dynamics are at play.

Often using bondage, pain becomes pleasure

between the submissive and dominant...

and in the '70s, it was extremely taboo.

CARROLL: This is...

a fetish for Alfred, it's something that

he doesn't do with his wife.

- ♪ Wantin', cravin' you... ♪

AZARI: On their third date,

Alfred takes Vicki

to a home in Hollywood Hills, which is

a BDSM party.

♪

CARROLL: Alfred got off on degradation.

He would engage in BDSM with the escorts,

then he would have sex with Vicki.

NARRATOR: Alfred Bloomingdale was a family man.

He was married to Betsy Bloomingdale.

And together they had three kids.

AZARI: On the other hand,

he kept a little dungeon

and engaged in S and M encounters

with some pretty

powerful people.

- President-elect Ronald Reagan met today

in Los Angeles with his kitchen cabinet.

This unofficial cabinet of close advisers

presented Reagan with their suggestions

for members of the official cabinet.

- We have between five and eight on every job,

I think, so far we've discussed...

REPORTER: You're looking just at the cabinet right now?

- No, we're looking at some of the agencies, too.

NARRATOR: Alfred Bloomingdale was heavily involved with politics,

specifically Ronald Reagan's career.

He brought Vicki along for Reagan's

campaign for president.

She often procured women for sex parties

for the most powerful men in America.

BASICHIS: Alfred used Vicki to gather different

information that could be useful

in both his business and politically.

He had Vicki listen in on different things

or just sleep with somebody,

and through pillow talk,

she would acquire different information that Alfred needed.

He used that for leverage and influence.

NARRATOR: Throughout the next 12 years, Vicki became

increasingly involved in Alfred's business affairs.

But she also wanted a life of her own.

CARROLL: There are times when Vicki wants to leave

and start dating somebody new and have a more

kind of normal courtship.

Alfred buys off some of her boyfriends.

BASICHIS: He would exert his power

to make sure that she stayed in the fold.

And then, of course, afterwards they would settle on a new deal,

and she would get more money.

- And her life remains totally

entangled with his.

♪

In 1981, Alfred is diagnosed with cancer.

And it's at this point that

Betsy is really able to

step in and keep Vicki away from Alfred.

She...

is able to stop Vicki's allowance.

And she's able to take away Vicki's apartment.

- Alfred and Vicki enter into a written

contract to pay Vicki

$10,000 a month

for a period of two years.

But Betsy cut her off.

- In 1982, Vicki hires a lawyer

and she files an $11 million palimony suit.

- She talks about-- in great detail--

the sex parties,

and what she had to give up

in part of her life in order to support Alfred.

PAT BUCHANAN: Is this not a shakedown of sorts?

- No, it's not a shakedown at all.

They've been together for 12 years.

That's a long time out of her life.

Doesn't she have some rights, too?

- The details were pretty damning.

And it coincided

with claims by Vicki

that she had information

about high-powered Reagan administration officials.

NARRATOR: But before the lawsuit

was settled, Alfred was gone.

Multi-millionaire Alfred Bloomingdale

has died of cancer at the age of 66.

He was a member of President Reagan's informal group

of friends and advisers called "the kitchen cabinet."

BASICHIS: Vicki was horrified by Alfred's death.

It made her crazy from watching him just fade away.

- She could no longer afford the house that Alfred put her up in.

She moves to the San Fernando Valley

and lives in a condo.

She even asked a friend, Marvin Pancoast,

to become her roommate

to help her with the rent.

- Marvin is...

really taken with Vicki.

AZARI: But she has no money, she's desperate,

so she embarks on writing a book.

It's a tell-all memoir called Alfred's Mistress.

- She wanted to capture the essence

of a certain relationship.

She didn't want to blackmail anybody

to try to pressure anybody,

but she was desperate.

CARROLL: She's always had this currency

in her back pocket, these secrets

that she knows about powerful men.

She decides she's gonna cash in on it.

NARRATOR: Vicki made a risky play.

And it was one she would immediately regret.

BASICHIS: She called me and said,

"I really fucked up."

♪