his money had opened many doors and he had rubbed shoulders with the best and brightest of his day , and if you look at group photos of the cultural elite on the left bank or the salons of new york or the french riviera you can often see his tanned bright visage in the background smiling much more genuinely than the rest , because unlike them he was free from the guilt of sponging off the honest man to pay the tab , and he was the only one in the photos who did n't think he was smarter than everyone else .