Elsie de Wolfe's Paris

I admit to being an Elsie de Wolfe fan. When I saw that Charlie Scheips had a new book, Elsie de Wolfe's Paris:Frivolity Before the Storm, I couldn't resist.

Scheips, who is a social historian and curator discovered of a cashe of unpublished photographs. Not only were there photographs of de Wolfe's parties with their famous guests, there were also many candid shots of the extensive preparations for the parities. One is rarely privy to such behind the scenes preparation.

In W Magazine, it was reported that Scheips showed the photos to Babs Simpson, a former Vogue fashion editor who was, at the time, 101. Somewhat amazed, she exclaimed,  “Where would one ever wear these beautiful dresses today?”

In fact, where would one ever attend such a lavish party? Even today's 1%ers, don't throw them like this anymore. That is one of the beauties of this book -- it is truly an artifact of a bygone ere.

It is hard to think of de Wolfe, Lady Mendl, at this time as being quite so elderly. She looks very much like someones aged grand-mère, but at 81, she still partied with the best of them!

Elsie and Paul-Louis Weiller in from of her Birthday cake.

The subtitle of Scheips' book, "Frivolity Before the Storm," captures the essence of history. The final Circus Party would take place in 1939. Her home was transformed. Sets were built, caterers commissioned, guest lists made, and orchestras hired.

Everyone would be buzzing about the event, but little did they know that it would be the last legendary ball of the era. Within two months, Adolf Hitler would invade Poland and the world would be forever changed.

The Duchess of Windsor said of Elsie de Wolfe,

"For bringing together all kinds of people in a gay, airy, but flawless setting, I have never known anyone to equal Lady Mendl. she mixes people like a cocktail -- and the results are sheer genius."

Elsie de Wolfe's Paris gives us a peek into that genius and into an era that will never be repeated.

Whole Lot of Elsa Going On

Elsa Maxwell is one of the reasons I have stopped reading so much fiction.  Clearly, one could simply never conger up such a character.  In today's book-to-screen environment, there is clearly no actress who could even come close to playing Elsa Maxwell -- OK maybe Nathan Lane -- but no actress -- Wait...maybe Kathy Bates -- yes, I think it could be the best biopic ever.  But we both know this will never happen.  

Moving on...Elsa has been on my mind lately as I have been reading Sam Staggs wonderful book, Inventing Elsa Maxwell.

At the very same time, I received an e-mail from someone searching for a recipe.  It seems that her client, a woman of a certain age, remembered a recipe from Elsa Maxwell for a soup with a chicken base and tomato purée.  One might serve it hot or if chilled it would make a gelled consommé.  I do love a challenge.

I grabbed my copy of How To Do It by Maxwell and found only a few recipes. My first guess was this gazpacho, though it is never heated.

Andalusian Gazpacho a la Joan Fontaine

Place the following in a bowl: 4 small cucumbers, seeded and finely chopped; 6 ripe tomatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped; 1 green pepper, finely minced; 1 clove garlic, finely mashed; 2 tablespoons grated carrot; 2 tablespoons grated onion.  Add cold water to cover with 2 tablespoons lemon juice, or lime juice (I greatly prefer the latter); I teaspoon dry mustard, dash Tabasco, salt and pepper to taste.  Chill thoroughly at least 8 hours.  Serve in individual bowls with a dab of sour cream -- about 1 tablespoon -- on top.

The closest match was a consommé without tomato one.  It is a spinach consommé that can be served hot or cold.  For proof that Elsa Maxwell was from another generation, she lists the recipe as belonging Mrs. T. Reed Vreeland, known to subsequent generations as Diana!   Maxwell notes that Vreeland acquired the recipe from  Elise de Wolfe.

Mrs. T Reed Vreeland  Consommé Vert- Pré

Make a very good rich bouillon.  Add enough spinach juice to color it green, and just before serving add finely chopped fine herbes.  Serve hot or iced.

Neither fit the criteria of the requested recipe.  Since Maxwell mentioned de Wolfe, I thought I would try there.  It is not a great stretch to think that someone who was familiar with Maxwell's recipes might also know de Wolfe's.

I checked Recipe's For Successful Dining. The recipe for Consommé Vert- Pré was identical to Elsie de Wolfe's with the only difference being de Wolfe's was Consommé Vert- Près and she called for "a little" juice to "make" it green.  Spelling and word choice aside, I continued looking at the list of

consommés, and stumbled upon this.

Consommé Madrilene

Make a good chicken consomme.  Add one tablespoon tapioca to each pint of liquid.  Add finally a puree of tomatoes which has been strained through a cloth, and before serving add raw tomatoes cut in a a small dice and leaves of chervil.

This was, indeed, the long lost soup that our châtelaine had been craving.   Everyone is happy.

Think about it...Kathy Bates as Elsa Maxwell... you would definitely go and see that movie.  Sam, if you are reading this...call me.
 

Etiquette Wednesday

Elisabeth Marbury

I have collected old etiquette books for some time, but one has been very elusive. I was interested in the book because of the author, who was not listed. The book, Manners: A Handbook of Social Customs was written in 1888 by Elisabeth Marbury. Marbury was a literary agent who handled big names such as Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. She was a theatrical producer who created the notion of a Broadway musical having a "book" to wrap the songs around. For thirty years, Elisabeth Marbury lived with Elsie de Wolfe.

Bessy and Elise

Recently, after years and years of searching, I found a copy of Manners.


I am the first to admit it is in lousy shape, but it is intact. As often happens with book hounds, we take what we can get in the hope of eventually finding a pristine copy. But now, here are some things you might not know:

In this country (America) it is considered extremely vulgar for coachmen or
grooms to wear cockades on their hats.

A gentleman should never ask to call upon a lady,
but wait for her to signify that his presence in house will be agreeable.

It is the duty of a chaperon to see unmarried ladies safely home.

My personal favorites are Marbury's notes on a simple dinner party with the courses laid out so there will be no confusion. Pay heed for your next soirée.


Courses: For an ordinary dinner the following are enough:

First.- Oysters on the deep half shell, five or six for each person;...

Second.- A soup.

Third.- fish, with which, if in season, cucumber salad should be served.

Fourth.- An entree of some kind.

Fifth.- Meat and vegetables. Two kinds of the latter always sufficient.

Sixth.- A vegetable, such as asparagus, cauliflower, baked tomatoes, artichokes, or small dish of some kind.

Seventh.- Game and salad, or crackers, or cheeses and salad.

Eighth.- A sweet and cake.

Ninth.- Fruit.

Tenth.- Candies, etc.

Now we have a better idea of why Bessy was such a big-boned girl!


And finally, I leave you wanting more... info, not food! There is a wonderful joint bio of Marbury, de Wolfe, Anne Morgan and Anne Vanderbilt entitled, Ladies And Not-So-Gentle Women, by Alfred Allan Lewis. If you love Edith Wharton, Stanford White and New York City, I think this book is a must read.


I have to run as have to check the coachman for cockades. If I catch them with those vulgar hats again, there will be hell to pay!

Etiquette Wednesday -- Elsa Maxwell

Since it is the day before Thanksgiving and also Wednesday, we thought we would provide you with etiquette and entertaining as you approach the holiday. Actually, it might be more “entertainment” than entertaining. If you are facing a family fiasco or “your” friends are bringing “their” friends, just close your eyes and think, “What would Elsa Maxwell be doing…”

Simon Doonan wrote of Elsa Maxwell:

"Even if you took Martha Stewart, Julia Child, Two Fat Ladies, Regine, Suzanne Bartsch, Nigella Lawson, Diane Brill, Carmen D’Allessio, Pat Buckley, Amy Sacco, and Phyllis Diller and threw them all into a gigantic blender, you would still fall short of producing anyone as compelling and scrumptious as the late, great, über-hostess Elsa Maxwell."

While Miss Maxwell is no longer with us, she has left us with the blueprint in How To Do It.



Here is a typical seating arrangement at one of Miss Maxwell's parties.



It seems Stavros Niarchos wasn't invited to the above party, but he did make it to her Tiara Ball.



Here are just a few party pointers from Miss Maxwell that I have translated for Thanksgiving:

Avoid people with causes to boost or grievances to air.

(Since it’s Thanksgiving and you are probably having the family in, rest assured there are grievances and at least one PETA pushing adolescent. Sorry)

Avoid the very shy, uncertain, introverted types.

(Seat them at the kids table.)

I always make it a point, for instance, even in a predominantly eggheaded group, to have a smattering of beautiful women regardless of whether they are dumbbells or not (and
most beautiful women are not very bright.)

(Remember, Elsa Maxwell tipped the scale at about 300 pounds, so she might be bitter, still when you tell this story and your brother’s girlfriend asks, “Who is Elsa Maxwell? “, feel free to move them to the kids table.)

As for the limits of age, there are none.

(Bravo Elsa. Feel free to move two young folk from the kids table to the big table. Pick the boy who laughed when the girlfriend asked “Who’s Elsa” and the overweight niece who can program your Blackberry.)


Miss Maxwell called on some of her friends to provide the recipe selections in How to Do It. The ever-emaciated Mrs. T. Reed Vreeland (Deeeahhna to her friends) actually stole this recipe from Elsie de Wolfe.

Consomme Vért-Pré

Make a very good rich bouillon. Add enough spinach to color it green, and just before serving add finely chopped fines herbes. Serve hot or cold.

(This is the perfect dish for PETA lovers and super-models. In a pinch, add one vegetable bouillon cube to a quart of hot water. When it is dissolved, add 1 oz. of green food coloring. Voilà, Consomme Vért-Pré. Don’t worry what people think. You know in your heart the model will dump your brother before Christmas.)


Now get out there and entertain!

Etiquette Wednesday -- Elsie de Wolfe

When you hear that Lady Mendl, standing up

Now turns a handspring landing up
On her toes
Anything goes!

Cole Porter

Today’s etiquette tips are legendary. They come in the form of entertaining advice from the legendary Elsie de Wolfe, a.k.a. Lady Mendl. Her advice is passed on to us from the legendary Ludwig Bemelmans. There is so much legend in this post, one might just turn a handspring.

Elsie de Wolfe was one of the great figures of design. Many consider her to be the first interior decorator, crediting her 1913 book, A House in Good Taste, as being the first true tome on decorating. (A lot of people give that credit to Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman whose book, The Decoration of Houses was published in 1897.) For many years, de Wolfe shared her life with Elisabeth Marbury, a theatrical producer. She shocked her friends, including Marbury, by marring Sir Charles Mendl when she was 60. Maybe she was 61, so hard to tell with "women of a certain age."

Elisabeth Marbury and Elsie de Wolfe

Unlike Wharton, Elsie de Wolfe was named the Best-Dressed Woman in the World, in 1935. Both Irving Berlin and Cole Porter wrote of her in song. Cole Porter's lyric makes reference to Lady Mendl's dramatic entrance to a rather formal diplomatic ball. She entered doing handsprings and she was over 60, not to mention married to a diplomat!

The other "legend" in our story, Ludwig Bemelmans, invented one of the most famous characters in literature, Madeline. He was as famous for eating as he was for inventing Madeline.

In the early 50’s Ludwig Bemelmans went to California and Lady Mendl invited him for a visit -- he moved in. She called him "Stevie", he believed because “Ludwig” was a tad Teutonic after the war. He called her “Mother.”

Bemelmans wrote of their relationship in his book, To The One I Love The Best. In Bemelmans notoriously wicked humor, the title of this work was taken from Lady Mendl's pet cemetery in France. She buried her beloved dogs there and each of them had their own headstone that read: The One I Love The Best.


Bemelmans wrote of Elsie, “I have never known any hostess, hotel manager, chef, or maître d’hôtel who gave the attention to a party that Lady Mendl did.”

His description of a party offers sage advice to today's hostess.

The dinners were exemplary and simple, and the rules laid down for the serving of meals were sensible. The basic laws were a cold room and hot plates, the floral decorations low, so that one could look across at the other people and talk to anyone without bending around a vase or candlesticks. Her love of things green and white went so far that the place cards were tropical leaves on which the names were written in white ink. The lighting was indirect and the service the ancient Russian, which is the most convenient for the guest at table as well as the help. It consists of a small rolling table, or, in the case of larger parties, of several of them. The food and the plates are placed thereon, and the servitors arrange the food on the plate and set it before the guest.
Since there was always a small green and white menu at the table the people new what was coming, and they could choose more of the first course, if they liked that, or more of the second, if that course had more appeal to them.

One day Lady Mendl received a package of twelve quarts of cointreau. The liquor was featured in a drink named for her.

Lady Mendl gasped, "What will I do with twelve quarts of cointreau?"

"Have a party," replied her maid.

And she did! I’m sure they served her signature cocktail.

Lady Mendl Cocktail

1/3 gin
1/3 grapefruit juice
1 jigger cointreau

Today is great afternoon to make yourself a Lady Mendl Cocktail and listen to the legendary Cole Porter sing her praises because as you know, Anything Goes.