Elsa Maxwell
| Elsa Maxwell | |
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 Maxwell photographed by Carl van Vechten |
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| Born | May 24, 1883 Keokuk, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | November 1, 1963 (aged 80) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Gossip columnist, author, songwriter, hostess |
Elsa Maxwell (May 24, 1883 – November 1, 1963) was an American gossip columnist and author, songwriter, and professional hostess renowned for her parties for royalty and high society figures of her day.
Maxwell is credited with the introduction of the scavenger hunt and treasure hunt for use as party games in the modern era.[1] She also appeared as herself in the films Stage Door Canteen (1943) and Rhapsody in Blue (1945), as well as co-starring in the 1939 film Hotel for Women, for which she wrote the screenplay.
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Biography[edit]
Elsa Maxwell was born at a theater in Keokuk, Iowa, during a performance of the opera Mignon. She subsequently was raised in San Francisco, where her father sold insurance and did freelance writing for the New York Dramatic Mirror.[2] She developed a gift for staging games and diversions at parties for the rich, and began making a living devising treasure-hunt parties, come-as-your-opposite parties and other sorts, including a scavenger hunt in Paris in 1927 that inadvertently created disturbances all over the city.[2] Returning to the US, Maxwell worked on movie shorts during the Depression, unsuccessfully. Following World War II, however, she gained an audience of millions as a newspaper gossip columnist.[2]
Maxwell took credit for introducing Rita Hayworth to Prince Aly Khan in the summer of 1948.[3] In 1953, Maxwell published a single issue of her magazine, Elsa Maxwell's Café Society, which had a portrait of Zsa Zsa Gabor on the cover. Anne Edwards' biography of Maria Callas (Callas, 2001) and Peter Evans biography of Aristotle Onassis both claim that Maxwell introduced Callas to Onassis.[4][5] Edwards also claims that Maxwell was a lesbian who tried to seduce Callas, 40 years Maxwell's junior.[6] Callas biographer Stelios Galatopoulos produced love letters from Maxwell written to Callas, who was less than receptive.[7]
Maxwell told interviewer Mike Wallace in 1957:
I did not feel fit, to be only married. I belong to the world. I knew it instinctively when I was quite young. I belong to the world. Certainly I am the most shall we say immodestly, [among] the best-known people in the entire world today. Why, because I did not marry and I felt that I was not for marriage. It wasn't my ... thing to do.[8]
She died of heart failure in a Manhattan hospital.[2] He longtime friend Dorothy "Dickie" Fellowes-Gordon was Maxwell's sole heir.[9]
Bibliography[edit]
- RSVP: Elsa Maxwell's Own Story (1954) by Elsa Maxwell, Little, Brown and Company
- How To Do It, or The Lively Art of Entertaining (1957) by Elsa Maxwell, Little, Brown and Company
- Inventing Elsa Maxwell (2012) by Sam Staggs, St. Martin's Press ISBN 978-0-312-69944-4
References[edit]
- ^ Time Magazine, The Press: Elsa at War. Nov. 7, 1944.
- ^ a b c d "The Cruise Director". Time. November 8, 1963. Archived from the original on December 22, 2008.
- ^ Adrienne McLean Being Rita Hayworth, p. 91, Rutgers University Press, 2004 ISBN 978-0-8135-3389-6
- ^ Edwards, Anne (2001). Maria Callas: An Intimate Biography. Macmillan Publishers. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-312-26986-9.
- ^ Peter Evans Nemesis, p. 44, Harper Collins, 2004 ISBN 978-0-06-058053-7
- ^ Edwards, p. 159
- ^ Stelios Galatopoulos Maria Callas, Simon & Schuster, 1998 ISBN 978-0-684-85985-9
- ^ "The Mike Wallace Interview: Guest: Elsa Maxwell". Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. November 16, 1957. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011. Retrieved September 9, 2012.
- ^ Time, November 22, 1963. "Only 100 gathered to say a final goodbye to the woman who had given thousands of parties for thousands of people, and few of the glittering names she had called 'dear' and 'darling' were on hand. One mourner there who didn't get much society-gossip-column attention was Dorothy Fellowes-Gordon. And to this longtime friend, the international party giver left her entire estate. It amounted to less than $10,000."
Further reading[edit]
- Ari: The Life and Times of Aristotle Socrates Onassis, by Peter Evans, 1986
External links[edit]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Elsa Maxwell |
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Elsa Maxwell |
- Clan Maxwell
- Elsa Maxwell quotes
- Elsa Maxwell at the Internet Movie Database
- Elsa Maxwell at Internet Broadway Database (IBDB.com)
- Review of R.S.V.P.: Elsa Maxwell's Own Story in Time magazine, November 1, 1954
- Norwich William, "Entertaining: Elsa on My Mind"; The New York Times, January 30, 2000
- Elsa Maxwell at Find a Grave
- Elsa Maxwell, as mystery guest, on the television program What's My Line October 13, 1957, April 12, 1950
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