AMALFI ITALIA

Mario Borgoni. Amalfi, c. 1927.

DEFINING COURTESAN

SHE CHOOSES WHO WILL SUPPORT HER...?

AMALFI COAST TRAVEL: MISTRESS MANIFESTO TRAVEL BOOK REVIEW

A small but wonderful book that covers the towns perched over the sea including Ravello  with its ancient past of nobility, it's caves, famous artists and musicians who stayed there and enchanted gardens, Furore, where Greta Garbo and Anna Magnani had affairs, Positana with the Galli Islands offshore, Sorrento where the mermaids sang to tempt sailors, and Naples - not far from the volcanic Mount Vesuvius and it's magnificent churches.  (Be sure to cover your shoulders and knees out of respect while visiting churches.)



You may just want to indulge your mermaid fantasy here.

You may also enjoy Amanda Tabberer's "My Amalfi Coast." Amanda is an Australian who once fell in love and married an Amalfi Coast local.


Both books have some recommendations about best restaurants and in Amanda's case places to stay; she has a business offering rentals.  Both books had me ready to go!


Missy

LANA DEL REY - OTHER WOMAN

ANGELIC PIECES

THE DIANA CHRONICLE by TINA BROWN : MISTRESS MANIFESTO BOOK REVIEW

Want to know more about Camilla Parker Bowles Windsor, who, if Queen Elizabeth dies, will be either Prince Charles' Consort or the Queen of England?  Author Tina Brown's well researched book  focuses on Princess Diana and her relationship with the media, from her "Shy Di" days to an in-command modern woman who manipulated the media.  She doesn't omit the "who is really Prince Harry's father?" controversy.  She takes a stand about Dodi Fayed's Father; was he not somehow responsible for Diana's death?  But you can't know so much about Diana without also understanding Camilla.  

Diana was excellent at being "The People's Princess," as, I believe Prince Harry's new bride, American actress Meghan Markle, will try to be.  But Diana could be a snob, just like her mother and grandmother and if she wanted to, she could pull rank and put someone down.

What I enjoyed about The Diana Chronicle was its occasional laugh-out loud quips.

Camilla understood the Rules of the Aristocracy better than Diana and would've been happy to remain married to her husband and father of her children.  She put up with his infidelities, so it was her turn to disrespect the vows of marriage.  Brown believes she could have remained Prince Charles' Mistress if he remained married to the Princess.  No doubt about it.  She and the future King had the cooperation of their friends and retainers, to carry out their affair, and when it came right down to it, few would choose to continue friendships with Diana after the divorce.

Brown was the editor of Vanity Fair, and she also wrote "the Vanity Fair Diaries," which, if you have been a long time reader, you may remember the 1983-1992 era the book covers, which includes Lady Diana.  I read this book on audio book and there is a snotty sound to Brown's voice, I hate to say it, which turned me off, but I kept on reading because I wanted to learn about Brown's career as a married woman with a child, as part of a 2 career couple, her longing to write again rather than being the one handing out assignments and editing, as well as her insider knowledge of celebrities.  Brown was a success as the magazine's editors and she offers no apologies. She mentions her reactions to events but is not too introspective overall.

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HAIRPINS

 

THE THREE D's : COURTESANS OF THE RIVIERA

Who were The Three D's, known mistresses on the Riviera?

Lady Diana Manners, was born the daughter of the Duchess of Rutland by her lover, rather than her husband.  She visited Maxine Elliot's villa in the 1930's.  Her son  John Julius Duff was a serial philanderer who had that affair with Daisy Fellowes.

Diana Guiness was married but living as the mistress of Tom Mosely.


And Daisy Fellowes herself.

Ah yes, The Riviera Set by Mary Lovell does DROP NAMES!  Not all of these liaisons are given detail but you get the idea that the aristocracy had a lot of players, male and female.

WINGED NECKLACES

MISTRESS PAMELA CHURCHILL : GIOVANNI ANGELLI

And so did Stephanie von Hohenlohe was the mistress of Lord Rothermere, one of a series of his, and she introduced him to Hitler.  Eventually he was discovered to be a spy.

Pamela Churchill and Giovanni Angelli were together five years.  According to author Mary Lovell, in her book "The Riviera Set," they were both young and she terminated a pregnancy in their first year together.  An apartment in Paris was their base for travel to London, Turin, and the Riviera.  He had his first marriage annulled. She wanted to marry Giovanni, and she converted to Catholicism to do so.  Acting as if she were his wife, she ran his homes and he was welcomed by her family, but his family did not approve.

Some day I will feature Pamela as a Mistress of the Month, as she is sometimes called The Courtesan of the 20th Century.

Reference for this post comes from "The Riviera Set," by Mary Lovell

CLASPS

MISTRESS DAISY FELLOWES - DUFF COOPER

Daisy Fellowes, was a Princess, as widow of Prince de Broglie, and an heiress to the singer sewing machine fortune.  (See my posts on dancer Isadora Duncan who was the Mistress of Paris Singer, another heir!) She was rich herself. It's said she had lovers in the hundreds.  Was she "a nympho"  (It's been a long time since I heard that term applied to anyone!)  What else about Daisy?  She was stick thin and had a nose job.  She liked vodka, cocaine, and opium.  And if you read the book "20th Century Jewelry, the Icons of Style, that I reviewed 5/26/18, you'll see pictures of Daisy and her jewelry.

As a Mistress, she is known to have been kept by Duff Cooper.

The reference for this post is from the book by Mary Lovell, The Riviera Set.

 image from the National Portrait Gallery, by Cecil Beaton

DAISY FELLOWES (1887 -1962) Fashion Leader, wife of Hon. Reginald Fellowes.

FINE FOR BABY FINE

MISTRESS DORIS DELEVINGNE: THE MODEL WITH THE GOLDEN HAIR

In the summer of 1932, Maxine opened her villa for limited occupation. Located at the Golfe Juan between Antibes and Cannes, it would be open for the May to October season and rarely had more than 10 guests at a time but guests also brought their own staffs to stay.

Her best friend became Doris Delevigne, aka Doris Lady Castlerosse, who at 19 became a model, known for her gold hair.  There was a saying about the sexual Doris that went, "An English Woman's castle is her bed."  Doris fell for an American Polo Player who had no title but was rich, Stephen "Laddie" Sanford.

As his mistress, Doris was set up in her own smart little Park Lane apartment where she was looked after, though Laddie started another affair years later with her neighbor there.  But when they split she got a good settlement!

Doris moved on and became the mistress of a Canadian financier who bought he a house in Mayfair, London. She had servants at the house and a chauffeur to drive her Rolls.

At 25, she was using the money she received as gifts from her lovers to make investments and also had a clothing business.  Doris also opened a hair salon in the Chaps Elysee, Paris.

Doris liked to go shopping in Italy and would return with hundreds of leather shoes because she wore her stockings once and a pair of shoes only 2 or 3 times.  She'd give her once work stockings away to the less affluent daughters of the aristocracy who couldn't afford them.  The flapper style suited her and so did wearing the flapper style without underwear.

Doris was well liked.  She was warm hearted, clever and witty and made a party ignite.  She never made quips at someone else's expense. She seemed to have unlimited energy as she went to Court Balls and Country House weekends..

She made the sign of the cross, saying "Tiara, Brooch, Clip, Clip!"

Then in 1926, Doris met Valentine Castlerosee, the Earl of Kenmare hier.  He may have been near 300 pounds and have a boisterous personality but he thought Doris was sexy and elegant.  They went out in London, Cannes, Deaville, Monte Carlo, and then they married.  She got the title Viscountess Castlerosse.

The marriage was a disaster. He gambled and his debts grew.  He had a temper.  They both spent excessively on clothes.  He was unfaithful but also jealous when she was.  He wanted to proceed with a divorce due to her adultery but his mother told him not to: she wanted to save the family reputation.

Cara Delevingne, the model, is her great niece.

The primary reference for this post is the book "The Riviera Set" by Mary Lovell

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SUMMER TIME - FRENCH RIVIERA

he concluding part of a posting of a complete book How to be Happy on the Riviera by Robert Elson W. (Arrowsmith Ltd., 11 Quay Street, Bristol, 1927).

Check out this link - lots of Riviera!
JOT : EUROPE FRANCE interesting!

MISTRESSES of THE RIVIERA

MAXINE ELLIOT aspired to be the Mistress of King Edward VII 

and went on to own Chateau de l'Horizon.

I don't think that's her on the book cover.

The South of France.  To Americans who have never been there, we're talking about a long season of warm Mediterranean climate and the blue sea, a European vacation place that also boasts some year-long residents, and a history of intrigue and mistresses.  Mary Lovell's book, "The Riviera Set," focuses on those who peopled the French Riviera between 1930 and 1960 and one special white art-deco villa, owned by Maxine Elliot, an American stage actress turned society hostess.  Maxine Elliot first  married at 16 and then again.  She and her second husband were well known stage actors and she even made a couple silent films.  What she did best was invest wisely and well and rise up into English society. "Retired" from acting, Chateau de l'Horizon, which had been popular in the last decades of the 1800's with Russian and British royals, needed a rehab.  She gave it one. A summer holiday secret,  Maxine Elliot hosted Winston Churchill, Picasso, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and so very many more.

Maxine herself set her sights on the Honorable George Keppel, youngest son of the 7th Earl of Albemarle and friend of the new King, Edward VII (a.k.a The Prince of Wales.).  She aimed for the heart of the royal set. Keppel had impeccable manners and charm but was always short on money. His wife, Alice, was the same age as Maxine and one of the foremost hostesses in England and a favorite mistress of the King. Let's note that this is the ancestor of Camilla Parker Bowles who proceeded her as a King's Mistress.  Maxine as "Miss Elliot," and only separated from her actor husband, Max, called upon Alice, and had her entrée into that set.

"I don't mind what she does," Keppel famously remarked about Alice, "as long as she comes back to me in the end."  It's safe to say that the Keppel marriage was an open one and each partner behaved with discretion. 

Maxine knew that back in the U.S.A, if a man who belonged to "The Four Hundred" called on a beautiful actress without a chaperone, there was only one outcome.  An actress who became the mistress of such a man was expected to be treated well, but this did not mean that she was included in the same social circles as his wife.  This social stigma was a fate she wished to avoid.

Maxine and Max's audiences considered them a romantic pair and it was career endangering to separate, but she was about 35, and said to be at the height of her luscious beauty.  Maxine became a bankable solo star, and in 1905 went to London where the King attended a performance.  In 1907 Max divorced her on grounds of desertion in Reno, Nevada.  The King had a posse of mistresses. Maxine noticed that she was never included in events that the King attended so she decided to go to Paris, buy a new wardrobe, and then see him around Marienbad, a spa in Germany.  She set herself outside just reading a book where the King and his friends would pass by as a strategy.  It worked.  The King wanted Mrs. Arthur James to include Maxine at dinner and Maxine dressed and waited for the invitation, which did not come.  The King insisted.  Mrs. Nate Goodwin (Maxine) received her invitation when a footman went across the courtyard to get her.  From then on Maxine was included in all the activities of the King's party.  Was she just a charming companion or another of the King's mistresses?  In 1909 the King made his move to be alone with her for the weekend with just him, his valet, and his equerry. She decided not to take the bait.  She wanted others present.  Some weeks went by and before anything more could happen, the King died.

The power of King's mistress Alice Keppel in society died with the King's death. The new King George didn't want her around.  But Maxine remained friends with Alice and the Keppels moved to Italy and were occasional guests of Maxine and their friends.  Maxine herself was not shunned by the new King George's court.  Winston and Clementine Churchill were friends.  The Duke of Rutland (including Lady Diana Manners) who were life long friends of Maxine's came.

Then when Maxine was 42 years old, she fell from Tony Wilding, a much younger tennis player who had became the 1920 singles champion.  She owned a house called Hartsbourne and there they played tennis together. She was happy with him as a companion and lover and he lived with her in his own rooms in the house. He was proud to know her and an all around nice man. After becoming a Wimbledon champion 1912 and 1913 the couple announced their engagement.  Tony would be her third, best marriage but it never happened.  He lost his nerve. World War I was brewing and Tony went to New York in 1914 and after winning four Wimbledon's lost.  Tony served Britain in France collecting intelligence but was eventually in the trenches on the front lines in the Royal Marines.  Tony was killed by the direct hit of a shell in May of 1915, and he would be the love of her life, the last big romance for Maxine.  Her friends said she was never the same.  She would outlive him by 25 years.  She lost her looks.

Maxine herself ran a private ambulance to take men to field hospitals in France, 1914. She'd hoped to see Tony around in France.  Her war work extended to taking food, clothing, blankets, and medicine her friends contributed.  She wrote letters that appeared in American newspapers about the horrors of war.  At 48, the distraught Maxine had gained 30 pounds, had dyed hair and a little facelift, and was going to psychics to communicate with Tony.  Continuing on as Maxine Elliot, she appeared from 1917-1920 on Broadway, toured the U.S.A., made silent films for Sam Goldwyn, met Charlie Chaplin.  By 1920 she was worth a million dollars and needed a 3rd act for her life.

The new Prince of Wales, who would go on to abdicate and marry Wallis SImpson, had Freda Dudley Ward as his mistress about 1921. She sold Hartsbourne and bout another house.  It was easier to climb socially after the war because so many people had been killed first by war, and then the Spanish Flu epidemic.  By 1924 Paris was about Isadora Duncan, Picasso, Hemingway, Elsa Maxwell - an American who threw parties for everyone and entertained, and the designer Jean Patou. CoCo Chanel was there and Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminister, the richest man in the world fell for her. The two of them showed up after a vacation with tans at a time when women were still avoiding the sun.

So Maxine moved to the Riviera, personally unhurt by the stock market crash.  And she bought the property on the Golfe Juan, the bay between Antibes and Cannes.

I'll stop the story here, for we have the rest of this glorious month of August to go on about the chateau and the people who came to vacation or hide out.

If you're interested in learning more about some of the people who I've name dropped above, because they have been covered here in the past at MISTRESS MANIFESTO BLOGSPOT, please use the search feature embedded in the blog!  CoCo Chanel, Wallis Simpson,  Isadora Duncan have whole months, as does Camilla Parker Bowles!  Or you may just want to scan for Great Britain or France!

Missy

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