DORIS DELEVINGNE : THE GIRL WITH THE BEAUTIFUL LEGS : VISCOUNTESS CASTLEROSSE : AN EARLY 20TH CENTURY FOX

In August 2018 I profiled Doris Delevingne as one of the Mistresses of the Riviera and which used Mary Lovell's book as a primary reference. I'll be focusing on this unconventional woman more this month!  The surname Delevingne has origins in French Belgium but she was raised British.

DORIS DELEVINGNE

Jesse Doris Delevingne

Photo appeared in Turkish Media SonSoz

"The Girl With The Gloves"

1900 - 1942

Married Valentine Edward Charles Browne, Viscount Castlerosse in 1928

and became

Viscountess Castlerosse

Doris Delevingne was a woman born into a modest family without great riches but with aristocratic yearnings. Even elite women of her generation rarely were educated and were moved towards marriage rather than careers. She was not close to her parents and didn't come from a big warm family. Perhaps she realized that if she wanted to have an interesting life she would have to make it happen on her own. Unlike her mother, she was able to complete what would be considered to be grade school in the United States. However, as a young woman she defied expectations. She set up her own business in what was called "the rags trade," second hand, used clothing, a trade dominated by Jews. 

An actress named Gertrude Lawrence, reportedly rather crude, was her first inspiration. Together the friends worked on themselves, such as attempting to have a more pleasing voices, though they both used foul language, and dressing in the latest fashions. Associating with actresses and chorus girls, Doris's business focused on reselling evening dresses but she was ambitious for herself - especially for good jewels. Doris was forthright with her opinions and the men she was attracted to were attracted to her; rebels, playboys, the unconventional people. She was discreet about naming her lovers and became predatory towards men. Did she use contraception? Yes. (There was also an element of society that used doctor-provided abortion, not saying she did.) However, some of her liaisons became known - and one of them was the married Winston Churchill.

One of her first conquests was the then Prince of Wales, who threw parties at Saint James palace. She mingled with the aspect of British aristocracy called "the adulterous set." (Think swingers.) But she did not evade marriage entirely. Instead she married badly.  Her husband was no inspiration for faithfulness.

In my previous single post that focused on Doris as one of the Riviera set, this is what I said:

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 Delevingne, 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 her 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 worn 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 heir.  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 the above re- post is the book "The Riviera Set" by Mary Lovell

One of the references for this month's posts.

The Mistress of Mayfair

Men Money and Marriage of Doris Delevingne by Lyndsy Spence

Doris's life came to an end in 1942, not long after she returned to England after appealing to Winston Churchill to help her get a seat on a plane so she could leave America, where she was not a success.  She commit suicide by poison in a hotel room.

Let's together learn more about this notorious seductress!

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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.

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

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.

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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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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