NINA BARONESS VAN PALLANDT : ACTRESS and SINGER and MARRIED MISTRESS OF AUTHOR CLIFFORD MICHAEL IRVING, AUTHOR and PERPETRATOR OF THE HOAX

The ideas, inspiration, and information that leads me to find and elect someone into the Mistress Manifesto Pantheon come in various ways. This month's Mistress of the Month is someone I heard about through listening to a an audiobook, never thinking the author, Clifford Michael Irving (Aka Clifford Irving), would go on about his personal life that included a  mistress in a book about he almost got away with hoaxing a "authorized biography" of the reclusive Howard Hughes, then one of the richest men in the Western world. As it turns out Nina van Pallandt, with whom he had a long affair that was often dependent on his and her ability to travel and meet up, is important to the story because Irving was busy writing the book during a time when they were having an on and off-again affair. He says he told her truthfully that he was pulling off a hoax and then she lied that she did not know after he got caught. She is accused of using the focus upon her once the hoax was exposed and the legal prosecution began to benefit her career... 

I watched a film that came out in 2006 called Hoax, staring Richard Gere as the author Clifford Irving. I found it unexpectedly enjoyable and interesting in that it was not just about how he and a partner fooled a publishing house that was quite careful and questioning but because the caper was almost unbelievable and in parts humorous. Then I listened to the audio book. Then I found a copy of Nina's own memoir - autobiography.

NINA BARONESS VAN PALLANDT

born Nina Magdelena Moller

(1932- present)

Nina Moller was born into an aristocratic Danish family, that was well connected but endured privations during the World War II era, especially when the Germans occupied her country and one had to be frugal and practical. Her father had died suddenly when she was four, in 1936, leaving her mother as a widow with children to raise on her own. In response to his death, her mother moved the family to live in the hills above Monaco; they were people of the upper class who could be called International. Her mother remarried in 1946 to one of the many suitors who had pursued her, a man who further elevated the family in wealth and prestige. They lived on a beach-side estate with gardens. Young Nina lived a life of opportunity and advantage but at a time when women of her class were educated to be "well-rounded" before they married. Her stepfather spoiled her and her siblings. She was confirmed into the Lutheran faith at 14, but did not see that as spiritual attainment. At eighteen she was going to formal balls in the country, though she had only two gowns to wear to these dances as well as shoes two sizes too big. She had studied ballet for six years but by the age of twelve she was already five foot seven inches, a bit tall. She had been raised to be a lady, a society lady and the question hung in the air, what she might do. Though the war had threatened that lifestyle, she had expectations.

It was usual for Danish girls of her class to study in England at Cambridge or Oxford. She became the first Danish student to attend University of Southern California (USC) which she did for her freshman and sophomore years beginning in 1951 when she was 19 1/2 years old. Her family's various changes of residence and her own adventures, as well as having been raised also by nannies, had given her the chance to learn English and French as well as her native Danish. Her mother thought at least in America she could learn "American." She imagined herself working as a translator or teaching language but while in California a friend who was in theater urged her to consider a career in entertainment - Hollywood -and got her an audition with an agent that went nowhere. She loved USC. She loved that an American college education included classes in dance and theater. While at USC she Americanized her wardrobe and her sensibility. Imagine men who would be insulted if a date tried to contribute to the cost of it!

She was taken into a sorority at USC, Pi Beta Phi, and lived with room mates. She was in America on a student Visa. During her student years in America she also worked as a nanny in Santa Barbara. She yearned for independence and saved her money to travel in America and go to New York City. She dated as college girls did in the early 1950's, and that included a Danish student who was in Southern California attending Occidental, Hugo Wessel. 

At 18, while in Copenhagen, she had been part of the society swirl of balls and and other entertainments Upon her return from the United States, Nina felt that that scene (implied a kind of informal presentation to society with intentions of finding a marital partner) was over for her. Rather than continue her studies and go into teaching she looked up her old voice teacher, and continued to train for the opera. The problem was her then-shyness about performing.

At 2, a small inheritance enabled her to move to Paris and attend classes at L'Alliance Francaise as well as Sorbonne. She was shocked to learn how much the Parisians hated Americans and that young women from Scandinavia were all thought to be easy and called "Baby Factories." There in Paris she fell in love with a man named Charles, who was half Polish, half French and Catholic. She was crazy about him and dated, going to formal dinners and balls that were favored by the jet set while she lived humbly in a hotel. Her love for Charles was unrequited as she realized when she saw that he was back in circulation without her. 

Then Hugo Wessel came back into her life and asked her to marry him. He was another heir with no plan for a career, "a true gentleman of leisure." Nina and Hugo married and moved to Santiago, Chile but the couple grew rapidly apart. Nina moved on. 

Her mother and the Baroness Van Pallandt were old friends and the Van Pallandts had owned a business that her father had directed. Her future husband. Frederik Van Pallandt, who would give her the name and title she was known by, also spend his summers between college years with her family. He was a year younger than she and, as he came from a Diplomatic family, and had gone to schools in Washington D.C, England and Switzerland and had lived in India and Trinidad. Frederik was worldly and he was also into the study of Sufism - and some say - that he experimented with drug-taking.  Frederik also had private tutors in Holland and gone to McGill in Montreal, as well as the New School in New York City. Frederik did not have to worry about money. Such were Nina's beaus.

In April 1957, Nina and Frederik began folk singing together and appeared on "Copenhagen at Night", a television show, which propelled them into being overnight sensations. They were thought of as society kids dabbling in music but were mobbed by fans. Nina was still married to Hugo and gave it one more try, but it was not wholehearted. She and Frederick were first in a film called "The Richest Girl In The World." They would soon make a second film called "Melody of Love." As their fame as an entertainment couple grew, people wondered if they would marry. Perhaps they thought they might as well. Having known each other for so many years and growing to love one another, Nina quietly divorced Hugo and married Frederik.

So, Nina had experienced love and marriage in various ways. She took life as it came. She'd married a man who had also had an American experience maybe because he had asked her and young people in her set thought marriage was the inevitable step, only to learn by living with him that they were not compatible. She had fallen crazy in love with a man who had moved on from her.  Then she had married the family friend she was comfortable with and compatible with and had three children with him.

In her book entitled "Nina", Nina Van Pallandt reports having her babies one after another, as the natural way life progresses too. She and Frederik took the babies, along with a nanny, with them on their travels that their entertainment career required which, over the years, was all over Europe, New Zealand and Australia, and then some. They debuted in the United States on the Ed Sullivan show but that was the first and last time they appeared in the States. They were not motivated to try and conquer America. Nina birthed a son in 1961, a daughter n 1963, and another daughter in 1965... By then their marriage was coming apart.

By early 1962, with two babies, they took a 180 day gig in England, which was the longest they could stay in one place. Their accommodations were not always posh and they didn't enjoy living in cramped conditions with Frederik's parents in Geneva during their off time, either.  What they needed and longed for was a place to put down roots where they could have privacy and away from the lifestyle of being on the road as singers and raise their family. That place would prove to be the Spanish Mediterranean island of Ibiza, an air flight from Barcelona.

It was on that island that Nina would meet Clifford Irving.

Now...

To recap on a story you may not have heard about before, back in the very early 1970's author Gifford Irving already had a string of books published and a good relationship with his publishing house. However, sometimes a winning streak ends.

Almost on a whim, he decided the way to have a major literary success was to write an autobiography instead of a novel, and not just about anyone but about the reclusive eccentric genius Howard Hughes. He yearned for the recognition and the money. First he had to prove that he had a Hughes connection and was working on getting the man to agree to such a book. There was always the possibility to back out and claim that the cagey Hughes was not interested after all, but, once there were (fake) contracts written, Irving could only go forward. It was interesting and a challenge to see what it would take to pull of the hoax and the plot got to be convoluted and almost comical at times.

Hughes was at the time considered to be one of the richest men in the world. He is known for his endeavors in aerospace, for invention and being able to finance experimental planes, such as the plane that flew once and for a couple miles called The Spruce Goose. However, his more successful innovations did move that industry along, especially because he seemed to have unlimited funds to develop and build airplanes, some of which he himself was the test pilot for. Hughes became mentally ill; I know from past reading the theories were that he had suffered brain damage from crashing, in particular one crash in Beverly Hills that left him with some life-long physical debilities. A biopic staring Leonardo DiCaprio as Hughes that came out in 2004 had scenes that would suggest that Hughes had an obsessive compulsive disorder long before this terrible crash. Hughes had a great deal of stress to contend with and an excellent mind, as well as a great many germ phobias and other issues.

Hughes had also got into making films in Golden Era Hollywood and was known for his seduction of actresses.*** Though he had once been well known in Hollywood, Hughes had retreated into his illness in Las Vegas, Nevada where his seclusion might have been mental illness or might have been because being as rich as he was, he was legitimately afraid of being kidnapped. For many years no one saw him but perhaps a number of men who served his every wish, from bringing him Oreo TM cookies and milk, to following through on his orders when it came to business, as well as providing legal advice and protections. 

It is because Hughes was such a character that author Clifford Irving thought he would make the most fascinating subject and why he thought that he could write an "Authorized Autobiography" without ever meeting the man. Clifford and another writer, a sort of assistant, went to unusual and sometimes extreme means in order to create this book, for which Hughes was to get a huge payment as well. (The payment to Hughes went into a Swiss bank account that Irving's then wife Edith managed to pull off, though in the end she served time in the U.S and in Switzerland.) Irving and his partner significantly counted on Hughes being so reclusive, perhaps too ill, to ever protest the book. They did a great deal of actual research but Irving also forged letters from Hughes. Edith Irving willingly went to put the money into Swiss Banks for their own eventual use; It was suggested she did this to prove to her husband that she was willing to do something Nina Van Pallandt would not..

Image of the Film box.

While listening to this book, which I then got a print copy of, Irving said that he and his mistress Nina had a lovely and exciting relationship for many years, one in which neither wanted "more." She was on a second marriage and had three children but from the time they met they simply could not resist each other. (Irving would marry 6 times by the time he died and was probably unable to limit himself to one woman. Clifford and Nina's meet ups occurred because they both traveled and because he too considered the island of Ibiza, home. So sometimes the meet ups were rather spontaneously planned and sometimes they were a matter of coincidence. But his book is admits far more than Nina's.

While Irving, his researcher and unofficial co-author, and Irving's wife got found out when Hughes surprisingly did do a audio conference denying he had never met and never talked to Irving, it was mail fraud and the money in the Swiss banking system that caused them all to be sentenced to jail time and ended Irving's association with any publishing house. Irving's wife, got the worst of it, and he felt guilty about that. Or said he did.

Meanwhile Nina is portrayed in the film as being a bit of a turncoat, all about her career at that point. She said that she knew he was working on a book about Hughes, and that one of their rendezvous was said to be about a meet up with Hughes that never happened.  She did not say she knew that it was all a Hoax.

There were so many things that fell into place for Irving and his cohort, that it almost seemed miraculous and like the Hughes autobiography was meant to be! Sometimes, you root for the criminal and it was like that for me. I was incredulous, yet, there was so much cleverness. I do think Clifford Irving's book Hoax deserved all the praise that the critics gave it when it was published. However, Irving also must have been expert at coming up with lies that seemed to be truths, and lies that his publishing house wanted to believe him - in their greed - despite at times having doubts and putting him through tests, all of which he passed including a lie detector test and experts determining his forgeries were not.  

This month I will excerpt from the book by Nina and the book by Clifford, which gives us the rare treat of hearing from both parties....

Nina and Fredrik parted ways in 1969 and divorced in 1976.  She would remarry one more time, another brief marriage. Edith Sommer Irving served jail time and divorced Clifford too, though they had two sons.  He would marry six times during his life.  

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*** Howards Hughes featured here at Mistress Manifesto in May 2014 when I gave a month to Faith Domergue, Howard Hughes 15 year old Mistress. (He reportedly kept many women in his Hollywood film mogul days.)