Saving Monticello: One Family's Struggle to Make Sure History was Remembered

What's up?

It's me, Don Toliver. If I could describe the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, I think I would describe it as very seamless. It can definitely be something that you can style.

It's like earing chandelier. Check out Bose.com for more. This episode is brought to you by Navy Federal Credit Union. With the new Cash Rewards Plus card, you can keep things pretty simple.

Simple. Like unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase. No spend categories. And now, when you spend $2K, you get $200 and a Walmart Plus annual membership.

The new Cash Rewards Plus card. Learn more at NavyFederal.org. Navy Federal Credit Union. Their members are the mission.

Navy Federal is insured by NCUA. Get your holidays started with the perfect tree in your perfect style from the Home Depot. Whether you want something that you can assemble in a few clicks, steal the show with over 2,000 color-changing bulbs, or a tree with lights that can be controlled by remote or foot pedal. The Home Depot has it all in our huge assortment of premium trees. Plus, get free delivery on over 2 million items this holiday from the Home Depot.

Subject to availability, see homedepot.com slash delivery for details. The Pope is dead. From Focus Features comes the electrifying new film, Conclave. We're about to choose the most famous man in the world.

Based on the international best-selling thriller. The Pope discovered something before he died. Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci.

Ambition becomes corruption. John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini. We sisters have eyes and ears. Top critics are raving. Conclave is hands down the best picture of the year. I had to find the truth. Conclave. Rated PG.

Parental guidance suggested. Only in theaters this Friday. This is Simone Boyce from The Bright Side. Beauty is about more than just beauty. It's about worth, individuality, and the power that comes from being your truest self. At L'Oréal Paris, beauty means embracing who you already are. Enhancing the diverse features, experiences, and personality that makes you, well, you. L'Oréal's beauty essentials combine innovative products with that classic Parisian touch to help you feel like your most confident self. Because taking on the world is a little less scary when you feel ready for your close-up. L'Oréal Paris. Because you're worth it.

Learn more at L'OréalParis.com. Not the least of which is his own residence in Charlottesville, Virginia. Monticello. Mark Leibson brings us the story of one family's fight to honor Jefferson with the preservation of this historic structure. Well, this story has several aspects to it. And, you know, at its heart, it's a story of historic preservation. It's a story of Thomas Jefferson. It's a story of architecture. Monticello. The history of Monticello.

And it's a Jewish-American history story, which we'll see as we get into it. It starts on one of the most amazing days in American history. And that was the day that Thomas Jefferson died. And I think you probably know what day that was. July 4th, 1826. On that day, up on the mountain at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson died about 1 o'clock in the afternoon. And then a few hours later, at his farm up in Massachusetts, John Adams died. Our second and third presidents died on the 50th anniversary of the republic that they were so instrumental in founding. And, you know, people reacted. I mean, they didn't have CNN back then, but people found out soon enough.

Sometimes in apocalyptic terms. I mean, John Quincy Adams wrote in his diary that these two men dying on this day was a visible and palpable manifestation of divine intervention. Now, whether it was divine intervention or not, I'd like you to know one other thing about July 4th, 1826, and Thomas Jefferson. When he died, he was over $107,000 in debt. Now, that's a lot of money today, but it was a small fortune back in 1826.

We're talking about at least $2 million. So the family was stuck with a $2 million debt. And who was the family? Who inherited it? Well, first it was Thomas Jefferson's daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph. Remember, Jefferson's wife, Martha, had died, and Martha, his oldest of two daughters, served many of the roles that his wife would be as hostess and so on. And then her son and Thomas Jefferson's favorite grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph.

So Jeff Randolph, as he was known, and Martha were from the Randolphs of Virginia, you know, one of Virginia's first families. But they were land rich and cash poor, and they didn't know what to do being saddled with this gigantic debt. So one of the things they did was the year after he died, in January 1827, they held what they called an executor's sale up on the mountaintop, in which they auctioned off Thomas Jefferson's possessions. Well, that sale took place. We don't know exactly how much it brought in. But we do know that it didn't do much to whittle down that large debt. So reluctantly, the Randolphs decided they would have to sell Monticello. And, you know, it didn't sell.

It didn't sell for five years. And it doesn't sort of compute in the 21st century. Monticello is, you know, an icon of American and world architecture. Monticello is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You know, it's the only residence listed as the UNESCO World. You know, what are World Heritage Sites? Well, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon, things like that. You know, if you have a nickel in your pocket, I know people don't carry change that much these days.

But if you do have a nickel, look on the back. There's an image of Monticello. Some people have liked to go up to Monticello, hold up a nickel in front of one of the entrances, and we can see the nickel view of Monticello.

And it is a gorgeous spot. I mean, it's almost impossible to take a bad picture of Monticello, standing as it is on this beautiful little mountain in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. So why did it take four and then almost five years for the Randolphs to sell Monticello? Well, Thomas Jefferson had some interesting ideas about architecture.

They weren't very common in early 19th century America. For instance, he was the first person to put a dome on a residence. You know that Monticello has a dome on it. You know, it was one of the first architecturally designed houses in the United States.

It had that dome. There is no giant staircase. You know, if you go into the entrance hall at Monticello, look around. There is no giant staircase like was common in large mansions of this type. There are two small doors on two sides of the entrance hall where you go upstairs. And in fact, Thomas Jefferson didn't really care about the upstairs. There were just mostly plain bedrooms up there for his grandchildren who lived with him. And you know, Jefferson didn't really believe in bedrooms, right?

On the first floor is his bedchamber, which is basically a bed in an alcove between his cabinet, which is his office, and the library. And it was on the top of a mountain, right? I mean, most of the plantations of the day were built down along, on flat ground, usually near rivers for transportation's sake. And you know, those roads were not paved. It's about a mile road up the mountain to Monticello.

And it was very difficult to bring whatever, including water, food, supplies up and down the mountain. So it finally did sell in 18... By the way, the Randolphs also sold off acreage. So Monticello and its surrounding properties, Jefferson inherited about 5,000 acres from his father, Peter Jefferson.

It was down to about 552 acres. And Randolph sold Monticello to a man named James Turner Barkley, who bought it for $7,000. Plus, he traded a house in Charlottesville.

We don't have time to talk about James Turner Barkley today, except to say that he was kind of eccentric. He was a medical doctor. He was a pharmacist. But he thought he could go up there at Monticello and make a silkworm business. So along Mulberry Row, he planted mulberry trees.

The silkworm business didn't work. You know, it appears as though he almost destroyed the 18-acre grove, what Jefferson called an ornamental forest. And we do know that he did not take care of the place. A visitor who came in 1834 wrote back that all is in dilapidation and ruin. So how did Monticello get to be in dilapidation and ruin by 1834? Thomas Jefferson, you name a field of endeavor, he was a true Renaissance man.

I mean, architecture, archeology, of course, philosophy. You know, he had the largest private library in the United States before he had to sell it to raise money. He sold it to the United States after the War of 1812, when the British burned the Congressional Library.

You know, he spoke seven languages. Of course, he was president, vice president, secretary of state, governor of Virginia. He wrote the Virginia Declaration of Religious Freedom. And, you know, I always illustrate it by that great quote that President Kennedy once said when he had a dinner at the White House for Nobel laureates. And he said, this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge that has been gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

Jefferson had all of these talents, but he was not good at business for whatever reason. You know, he inherited all these farms. He bought Natural Bridge.

It's in Virginia. It's a beautiful natural formation of rock. He thought he could make it into tourist attraction. You know, he bought it from the King of England, you know, during colonial days, but it never made a dime. He owned mills on the river down there, the Rivanna River.

They just leaked money. He had bad luck with his agriculture. All those farms, you know, it's like when the crops were good, prices were low. When the crops were bad, prices were high. He tried famously to grow grapes up there, start a wine business.

That never worked. You know, he loved to spend money. Bought the finest furniture and furnishings from all over the world, New York, Boston, London, Paris. And that place was just filled with beautiful furniture and furnishings. And you're listening to Mark Leapsen tell a heck of a story about not just a building, but a man. A man who did almost everything well except hold on to money. He spent more than he had, and in the end, one of the world's worst businessmen, but one of our great, great, great minds and the architect, in essence, of much of what we hold dear today. When we come back, more of the story of how Monticello was saved here on Our American Stories. Check out Bose.com for more. She talked to a design consultant for free and scheduled a professional measure and install. Look at you, a Hall of Fame sun.

Oh, I just picked the winning team. They're the number one online retailer of custom window coverings in the world. Oh, Blinds.com is the GOAT.

The GOAT. Shop Blinds.com right now and get up to 45% off select styles and a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Save up to 45% at Blinds.com. Rules and restrictions may apply. I had to find the truth.

The 2020 presidential election Tuesday, November 5th on MSNBC. Just a few years ago, only 3% of domestic violence shelters accepted pets, meaning many abuse survivors had to choose between staying in a difficult situation for their pet or leaving their pet behind. One in three women and one in four men experienced domestic abuse in their lifetime, and nearly half of survivors delay leaving because they can't bring their pets with them. Purina believes in the healing power of pets, particularly for survivors of abuse. They believe pets and people are better together, which is one of the many reasons they started the Purple Leash Project. Through the Purple Leash Project, Purina is helping break down one of the many barriers abuse survivors face, the lack of pet-friendly domestic violence shelters. Purina has helped increase the amount of pet-friendly shelters across the country from 3% to nearly 20% through the Purple Leash Project. With more pet-friendly domestic violence shelters, survivors and their pets can escape and heal together.

Visit purina.com slash purple to get involved. And we're back with our American stories and the story of Monticello. We just heard about the disarray that Monticello was in, now owned by James Turner Barkley. It was a shadow of what it had once been, this place of hospitality that Jefferson had made it.

Back to Mark Leapsom with the story. He was also overwhelmed with visitors. People would love to come up to Monticello, as they do now, to see what President Theodore Roosevelt called his essay in architecture. And they would come, family and friends would come, they would come with servants, they would come with enslaved people. Sometimes it wasn't uncommon to have 20, 30 or more people living there for days, weeks, months at a time sometimes. And so the place with Jefferson suffering financially, it just didn't have what we would call the money to do preventive maintenance. So James Turner Barkley, he just couldn't take living up there either. Visitors came up and bothered him, the Mulberry business didn't work, so he sold the place in 1834 to a most unlikely buyer. And his name was Uriah Phillips Levy, who was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy at the time. And he purchased Monticello from James Turner Barkley for $2,700. Now, Barkley had sold off acreage too, it was down to I think 190 acres, 182 acres, something like that. And the place was in dilapidation and ruin.

And what did Uriah Levy do? Well, he was a man of means and he repaired, preserved and restored Monticello after he took possession in 1836. And, you know, we have evidence from people who visited that he did really restore the place.

And preserve it and restore it, although preservation and restoration were not in the language. You can make an argument that Uriah Levy was the first American house preservationist. You know, this happened in 1830, starting in 1836. We usually look at Anne Pamela Cunningham, who bought George Washington's Mount Vernon from his heirs after he died, and saved it from being divided up and developed.

But this was 20 years before that. So, a little bit about Uriah Levy. He was a hero of the U.S. Navy, joined the Navy when he was 20 years old in 1812. He was born in 1792 in Philadelphia, and he was a fifth-generation American. He came from one of the most prominent and illustrious Jewish American families.

His great-great-grandfather came over here with a group of 40 Jews in 1733, escaping the Inquisition from Portugal, went to London. They arrived in Savannah, Georgia in the summer of 1733 and were among the founders of the city of Savannah, Georgia. His name was Dr. Samuel Newnish. He was the only medical doctor in the colony of Georgia. He helped stem an epidemic, probably of smallpox, and he was honored by Governor Oglethorpe of Georgia. He was also a founder of Congregation Mikvah Israel in 1733. It's the third oldest Jewish congregation.

It's still there, and of course not in the original building in downtown Savannah. Jonas Phillips, where Phillips comes from, Uriah Phillips Levey, that was his maternal grandfather, and he came to this country in 1836, a merchant from Germany, settled in Philadelphia, got caught up with the Revolutionary War fervor, and actually joined a Philadelphia militia unit and fought against the Brits. And he was influential in Uriah Levey, one of his favorite grandchilds, a love of country. His two heroes were John Paul Jones and George Washington growing up at his grandfather's knee, and was one of the reasons that Uriah Levey joined the U.S. Navy and became a naval war hero. Uriah Levey was born in 1892 in Philadelphia, always loved the sea, joined the Navy in 1812 to fight in the war, and he was a hero of the War of 1812. He was assistant sailing master on a ship called the Argus, which captured British ships in the Channel, and they captured 25 ships, and when they went to capture the 26th, the Brits won that battle, killed the captain, and kept the crew imprisoned for the rest of the war, including Uriah Levey. And Uriah Levey came home, went on to have a 50-year career in the U.S. Navy. He died in service in 1862. He was a Commodore. When he died, he was the first Jewish Commodore in the U.S. Navy. So Uriah Levey's naval career was recognized by the Navy. The first Jewish chapel on any naval base at Norfolk, Virginia, opened in 1942, named the Commodore Levey Chapel. There was a destroyer escort named after him in World War II, the USS Uriah P. Levey, which actually took part of Japanese surrender in the Pacific. And then about 15 years ago, I think it was 2006, the Commodore Uriah P. Levey Center was dedicated at the U.S.

Naval Academy. So his place in naval history is assured. As far as his owning Monticello, the question is, you know, why did he do it?

He never said it out in print that we know, but we can take an educated guess. One reason is that on his own, in 1833, while he was in Paris, while he was in the Navy, on his own, he commissioned a full-length statue of Thomas Jefferson by one of the top sculptors of the day, David D'Angers, and he donated that statue to the people of the United States, a plaster model. He donated it to New York City, which is where he lived. Congress got it in 1833, didn't quite know what to do with it. It was finally taken to the White House, and if you see old pictures in the first dawn of photography in the 1860s, you'll see that statue of Thomas Jefferson on the lawn of the White House, you know, facing Lafayette Park. It was taken inside in the 1870s because it wasn't doing very well outside a bronze statue.

It was cleaned up. It was first put in Statuary Hall in the Capitol, and today it is in the Rotunda, the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. As you come in one of the entrances, you'll see it on the right, and it's the only privately donated statue in the Capitol. If you look at the plaque, it says, donated to people of the United States by U.S. Navy Lieutenant Uriah Phillips Levy. Now, I said earlier that Levy was a man of means. He lived in New York City, and in the 1820s, he invested in rooming houses in a farming village in the city. That was Greenwich Village, and when the streets were paved and artisans and others moved in there, he made a fortune with his real estate ventures in New York City, which is what allowed him to purchase Monticello to repair, preserve it, and restore it. You know, he didn't live there full time, so Uriah Levy died in 1862 in New York City. He was still in service in the Navy, and he left a will in which no one knows exactly what he was thinking when he bequeathed Monticello to the people of the United States to be used as an agricultural school for the orphans of Navy warrant officers. I mean, we don't know if there were any orphans of Navy warrant officers at the time. So, Uriah Levy married late in life, didn't have any children, but he had lots of brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews.

There were 64 people who were named in the will, and they filed what's called a partition lawsuit against the will. And you're listening to Mark Leapson tell a heck of a story about the man who saved Monticello, and in a way, about the man who built it, too. And the book, by the way, is Saving Monticello, the Levy family's epic quest to rescue the house that Jefferson built. And Jefferson built his house in Charlottesville, Virginia, and also built the University of Virginia there, too. By the way, up the road is Madison's house, and not further up the road is Washington's. There's something special about the contribution of Virginia to the birth of this nation. When we come back, more of the remarkable story of Monticello is told by Mark Leapson here on Our American Stories. Today, I want to look like a toon.

Check out Bose.com for more. Conclave. Rated PG. Parental guidance suggested. Only in theaters this Friday.

Presidential election, Tuesday, November 5th on MSNBC. They believe pets and people are better together, which is one of the many reasons they started the Purple Leash Project. Through the Purple Leash Project, Purina is helping break down one of the many barriers abuse survivors face. The lack of pet-friendly domestic violence shelters. Purina has helped increase the amount of pet-friendly shelters across the country from 3% to nearly 20% through the Purple Leash Project. With more pet-friendly domestic violence shelters, survivors and their pets can escape and heal together.

Visit purina.com slash purple to get involved. Buying a home can be overwhelming these days. From start to finish, Navy Federal Credit Union's new Home Buying Center has everything you need to get to closing with confidence. Like verified pre-approval.

A pre-approval shows sellers you're a serious buyer, potentially giving you a competitive advantage when making an offer. Realty Plus connects you with an agent for continued support every step of the way. Lock and Shop lets you lock in your interest rate for up to 60 days while you shop.

No refi rate drop gives you peace of mind to buy now, knowing that if interest rates fall, you could decrease your rate without having to refinance for a small $250 fee. If you're overwhelmed by shopping for a new home, Navy Federal's new Home Buying Center has solutions for every step of the process. Learn more at navyfederal.org. Navy Federal Credit Union. Our members are the mission. Navy Federal is insured by NCUA Equal Housing Lender. Membership required. Terms and conditions apply. Loans subject to approval.

Call 1-888-842-6328 for details about credit costs. And we're back with our final segment on the battle to preserve part of Jefferson's legacy, his home, Monticello. Uriah Levy, the first Jewish Commodore in the US Navy, owned Monticello, but it just passed away in March of 1862. In his will, he left Monticello to, quote, the orphans of naval warrant officers.

But his nieces, nephews, brothers, and other relations weren't thrilled with that. And so they took legal action back to Leipsohn with the conclusion of the story. And the lawsuit was filed in New York, where he lived, and in Virginia. It took until 1879 for the lawsuits to win their way through the courts of Virginia and New York.

They wound up eventually in the Supreme Courts of both cases, and they weren't settled until 1879. Now, in the middle of that, while the heirs were fighting over his personal property, the Civil War happened. And, you know, people often ask that anything happen up at Monticello during the Civil War as far as action.

No. Charlottesville was a crossroads. Troops were always going in and out. There was tiny skirmishing that happened, but nothing that damaged Monticello. However, during the war, the South confiscated all property owned by Northerners. In November of 1864, the South took possession of Monticello, auctioned off all of Uriah Levy's property, including his enslaved people, and auctioned off Monticello. And it was purchased by a man named Ben Ficklin for something like $50,000 in Confederate money. Ficklin was a colonel in the Confederate Army. He never lived there, but he moved his family up there.

And this was in November of 64, but by the time the war ended just six months later in March, it went back to the family and the lawsuit dragged on and on and on. This is when Monticello went to its second period of deterioration. And we have photographic evidence of what it looked like from the early days of photography in the late 1860s into the 1870s. And the place looks worse than dilapidation and ruin. I mean, you could see for yourself in these old photographs that windows were broken, the shutters were hanging down, the roof was caving in, the grounds were in terrible, the terraces were rotted away, the grounds were in terrible condition. And one reason was that Monticello was under the care of a caretaker who didn't take very good care of it. His name was Joel Wheeler. He allowed University of Virginia students to have parties there.

So the place was wrecked. Well, the lawsuits were finally settled in 1879 when Uriah Levy's nephew, whose name was Jefferson Monroe Levy, yes, he was named after two presidents, he was the son of Uriah Levy's eccentric brother, bought out the other heirs for something like $10,500 and he took control of Monticello in 1879. And Jefferson Levy did what his uncle did, lived in New York City, but he spent significant amounts of time at Monticello. And with his money, again, a second member of the Levy family repaired, preserved and restored Monticello. Jefferson Levy, a lifelong bachelor, was a very social man. He often had, when he was at Monticello, he was often entertaining congressmen, senators, ambassadors, two presidents. Grover Cleveland made a trip up there, Theodore Roosevelt made a trip up there. He would also have the Bridge Club from Charlottesville come up, have meetings up there, the DAR, and so on and so forth. So, what's that expression?

No good deed goes unpunished. In 1912, a movement grew up to take Monticello from Jefferson Levy and turn it into a government-run shrine to Thomas Jefferson. It was led by a woman named Maud Littleton who was married to a New York congressman named Martin Wiley Littleton. And she decided that this would not stand. She started a national movement to condemn Monticello and turn it into a government-run shrine to Thomas Jefferson. She had influence. A bill was introduced in Congress to that effect in 1912 in which the government would condemn this private property and turn it into a government-run house museum.

She had the time, she had the money, she had the inclination, she got petitions, she had people working for her, she had articles written in newspapers and magazines. And this bill is debated in the summer of 1912. And Jefferson Levy, not a shy and retiring man, you know, he once said, when the White House is for sale, then I'll sell Monticello. So here we have this series of hearings in 1912 in Congress which were very bombastic.

Jefferson Levy and his lawyer, he hired a man named Tom Duke, Judge Duke from Charlottesville, who's like great-grandfather, was Thomas Jefferson's father's lawyer. And Judge Duke and Jefferson Levy fought it out with Mrs. Littleton and her supporters for the future of his house. Some people called it the War of 1912. Well, the War of 1912 ended in December when a bill came to the floor of the House of Representatives that would have done what we just said, condemned Monticello and turned it into a government-run house museum. It was defeated on what we would now call today a property rights argument. The government had never confiscated anybody's private property, much less tried to turn it into a government-run shrine to one of our founding fathers. You know, Jefferson Levy declared victory, but Mrs. Littleton did not concede defeat. So the bill was reintroduced in 1913.

There were more hearings in 1914. And then in October of 1914, Jefferson Levy, who had swore he would never sell the place, said, okay, okay, I will. And he said, he announced that he would sell Monticello for $500,000, which he reckoned was about half of what he had spent buying it, repairing it, preserving it, restoring it, and taking care of it. Well, you know, Congress could never wrap their arms around that $500,000 figure. Now, I have to tell you that the campaign to take Monticello from Jefferson Levy was tinged with anti-Semitism. Neither Mrs. Littleton nor her supporters ever said it out loud. Jews shouldn't own Monticello.

But she used code words in her speeches, in magazine articles, newspaper articles that were written on her behalf. For instance, they called the Levys aliens. They called the Levys outsiders.

And how could they be less aliens? I mean, at this point, Jefferson Levy is a sixth-generation American. It's unfortunate, but we can't tell the story without mentioning that. He announced that since Congress wasn't interested, he put Monticello on the market for that $500,000 asking price. He hired a realtor in Washington who specialized in Virginia Estates, and there was a beautiful sales brochure that was put out with a woodcut of Monticello on the cover. You open it up, there's testimonials from Theodore Roosevelt, from Marquis de Lafayette about how wonderful this place is.

And the next page says, all this can be yours for $500,000. Finally, in 1923, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation formed and met in New York City. It was made up of lawyers and financiers, some of whom had Virginia roots, and they agreed to Jefferson Levy's purchase price in 1923.

And I'll just end by reading to you from the closing table. This is in December of 1923, and a man who was there said that, this was December 1, 1923, the cash and the bonds and mortgage were delivered to Levy, and Levy signed the deed conveying full title to the property and all belongings to the foundation. This was a very emotional scene, and he burst out crying. He said that he never dreamt he would ever part with the property. Three months later, on March 6, 1924, at his home in New York City, Jefferson Levy died of heart disease five weeks short of his 72nd birthday. And I'll just finish by telling you that this man, Jefferson Levy, not a shy and retiring type, liked to compare himself to Thomas Jefferson. You know, he was named after Thomas Jefferson. He was a tall man, like Jefferson was. You know, he would make it a point to be at Monticello on Fourth of July, and he'd have an Independence Day party. He'd invite people up to the mountaintop from Charlottesville and guests. They would picnic, they would have bands, patriotic music, there'd be fireworks, and supposedly he would end the evening by coming out on the lawn and reciting the Declaration of Independence from Thomas Jefferson's music stand.

And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by Robbie Davis. And a special thanks to Mark Leipsohn for sharing the story of Saving Monticello, which, by the way, is the title of his book, Saving Monticello, the Levy family's epic quest to rescue the house that Jefferson built. And by the way, it's so true, when the house goes up for sale, well, no one wanted it at the time. It had a dome on it.

Houses didn't have domes. And of course, it was on top of a mountain. And in came the Levy family. First Uriah, and straight through to Jefferson, wanting to keep this legacy alive. And alive they kept it.

The story of Monticello, the story of the Levy family, the story of Thomas Jefferson, and so much more here on Our American Stories. Visit zinn.com or head to your local convenience store today to find yours in. Warning, this product contains nicotine.

Nicotine is an addictive chemical. Experience sensational sound with Vizio's Soundbar Collection. Starting at just $99, there's a soundbar for every budget.

With Dolby Atmos in every model, cinema quality sound is closer than ever. This collection features Vizio's simplest setup yet, so you'll be streaming your favorite iHeartRadio playlists in no time. Whether you're looking for a simple setup or the cutting-edge Elevate SE with 360° sound immersion and auto-rotating speakers, Vizio has you covered.

Head to Best Buy or Amazon to find the perfect Vizio soundbar for you. The all-electric Chevy Equinox EV combines everything you need when you're ready to go EV. Starting at $34,995, the 2025 Equinox EVLT gives you an impressive balance of all-electric range, safety features for peace of mind, and effortless technology, including the 17.7-inch diagonal display screen, all at a price you'll love. The Chevy Equinox EV is the fun-to-drive, all-electric SUV that gives you what you need to do exactly what you want. The manufacturer's suggested retail price excludes tax, title, license, dealer fees, and optional equipment. Dealer sets final price.

To learn more, visit chevy.com slash Equinox EV. With AMX Platinum, you get priority notified with global dining access by Resi, so you can get first dibs if a spot opens up at restaurants, and compliments to the chef turns into compliments to your platinum card. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms apply.

Learn more at americanexpress.com slash with AMX. This is Tanya Raad from Scrubbing In with Becca Tilly and Tanya Raad. This is what you do when you've just found that statement handbag on eBay and you want to build an entire wardrobe around it. You start selling to keep buying. Yep, on eBay. Over that all-black everything phase, list it and buy all the color. Feeling more vintage than ever?

It's out with the new and in with the pre-loved. Next thing you know, you've refreshed your wardrobe basically without spending a dime. Yeah, eBay. The place to buy and sell new pre-loved vintage and rare fashion. eBay. Things. People. Love.