The Hotel on Place Vendome
Page 23
10 Claude Auzello, had been called up: There are a few early histories of the Hôtel Ritz in Paris, and I am indebted to all of them for some materials in this book, here and throughout the narrative. These books include: Claude Roulet, The Ritz: A Story That Outshines the Legend, trans. Ann Frater (Paris: Quai Voltaire, 1998); Marie-Louise Ritz, César Ritz (Paris: Éditions Jules Tallandier, 1948); Stephen Watts, The Ritz (London: Bodley Head, 1963); and Mark Boxer, Le Ritz de Paris (London Thames & Hudson, 1991).
11 “we are down to thirty-six masters and seven servants”: Roulet, The Ritz, 106.
11 “Unfortunately”: Ibid.
11 the wartime staff would stabilize at around twenty: National Archives in Paris, F7 14886, “Affaires Allemands,” item 533; Foreign Office in Berlin confirm the Swiss nationality of Hans Elminger (Paris 2463 [42]: “Ritz-Hotel, deutschfeindliches Verhalten des leitenden Personals,” 1943).
11 At Coco Chanel’s table: Justine Picardie, Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life (London: It! Books, 2011); groundbreaking early archival research appeared in Axel Madsen, Chanel: A Woman of Her Own (New York: Holt, 1991). For information on other figures mentioned here, see Nöelle Giret, Sacha Guitry (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 2007); Sacha Guitry, If Memory Serves: Memoirs of Sacha Guitry, trans. Lewis Galantière (Whitefish, MT: Kessinger, 2009); Francis Steegmuller, Cocteau: A Biography (New York: David R. Godine, 1992); Claude Arnaud, Jean Cocteau (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 2003); The Journals of Jean Cocteau, ed. and trans. Wallace Fowlie (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1964).
12 Béatrice Bretty made history: Denis Demonpion, Arletty (Paris: Flammarion, 1996), 196.
12 Spanish painter Pablo Picasso . . . the surrealist artist Dora Maar . . . Lee Miller: See Anne Baldassari, Picasso: Life with Dora Maar, Love and War, 1935–1945 (Paris: Flammarion, 2006); Mary Ann Caws, Picasso’s Weeping Woman: The Life and Art of Dora Maar (New York: Bulfinch Press, 2000); Françoise Gilot, Life with Picasso (New York: Virago Press, 1990); Marina Picasso, Picasso (New York: Vintage, 2002); Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington, Picasso (New York: HarperCollins, 1996); Carolyn Burke, Lee Miller: A Life (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007).
12 Duke and Duchess of Windsor gave up their extravagant: Charles Hingham, The Duchess of Windsor: The Secret Life (New York: Wiley, 2004); and Michael Bloch, The Duke of Windsor’s War: From Europe to the Bahamas, 1939–1945 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1982).
12 her maids, sisters Germaine and Jeanne: Roulet, The Ritz, 109.
13 A nine-year-old girl named Anne Dubonnet: Anne Dubonnet Shiao, personal interview, April 2013, New York City.
13 “It is because I am a Jew that I won’t go”: Sherwood, Georges Mandel and the Third Republic, 255.
13 “small, steep country, much more up and down than sideways”: Ernest Hemingway, “The Hotels in Switzerland: Queer Mixture of Aristocrats, Profiteers, Sheep, and Wolves at the Hotels in Switzerland,” Toronto Star Weekly, March 4, 1922. Ernest Hemingway’s writings for the Toronto Star are collected in Dateline, Toronto, ed. William White (New York: Scribner’s, 1985).
14 “you will never get it back, Madame Ritz”: Samuel Marx, Queen of the Ritz (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1978), 134; various details on the lives of Blanche and Claude Auzello are drawn from this recollection written by Blanche Auzello’s nephew.
14 “You are Swiss”: Roulet, The Ritz, 107.
14 “thousands upon thousands”: Times, June 12, 1940, quoted in Diamond, Fleeing Hitler, jacket material.
15 Otto von Hapsburg: Gordon Brook-Shepherd, Uncrowned Emperor: The Life and Times of Otto von Hapsburg (New York: Continuum, 2007).
15 “incredibly macabre”: “Remembrance: It Was Incredibly Macabre,” Time, September 4, 1989.
15 “I have passed”: Louis P. Lochner, “Germans Marched Into a Dead Paris: Muddy Uniforms at the Ritz,” Life, July 8, 1940, 22, 74.
15 “Paris’ famed galaxy”: Lochner, “Germans Marched Into a Dead Paris,” 22.
16 German lieutenant colonel Hans Speidel: Jean-Pierre Levert, Thomas Gomart, and Alexis Merville, Paris: Carrefour des résistances (Paris: Paris Musées, 1994), 19.
16 “vain manager”: Lochner, “Germans Marched Into a Dead Paris,” 74.
16 “As if by magic”: Ibid.
17 other elite hotel establishments: For numerous details on locations and building histories in Paris during the Nazi period, my thanks to Dr. Alan T. Marty, who shared in manuscript his “Index of Names and Locations in Occupied Paris” and his “A Walking Guide to Occupied Paris: The Germans and Their Collaborators.”
17 When Marie-Louise Ritz had expanded the hotel: Watts, The Ritz, 21.
18 “Hôtel Ritz”: Roulet, The Ritz, 107; Levert, Gomart, and Merville, Paris: Carrefour des résistances, 17.
18 The Place Vendôme side: Ibid., 17.
18 “In the entry of the Hôtel Ritz”: Ibid.
18 the Germans would take a 90 percent discount: On what the Germans paid at the Hôtel Ritz, see Watts, The Ritz, 119; Levert, Gomart, and Merville, Paris: Carrefour des résistances, 17; Marx, Queen of the Ritz, 148.
18 Hans Elminger explained: Roulet, The Ritz, 110.
19 So, too, did the young Anne Dubonnet and her parents: Anne Dubonnet Shiao, personal interview, April 2013.
19 “Champagne flowed, and the German officers”: Hal Vaughn, Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel’s Secret War (New York: Knopf, 2011), 138.
19 “The occupiers”: Roulet, The Ritz, 114.
20 Hans Elminger could report: Ibid., 110.
20 “You didn’t hear cannons”: Marx, Queen of the Ritz, 133.
2: All the Talk of Paris
25 tome on the disease, called neurasthenia: William C. Carter, Marcel Proust: A Life (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 221.
25 the other symptoms of his newfangled disease: Ibid.
26 “little flatterer” and “a vulgar little creature”: Edmund White, Proust (New York: Viking, 1999), excerpted at www.nytimes.com/books/first/w/white-proust.html; Letters of Marcel Proust, trans. Mina Curtiss (New York: Random House, 1949), 41.
26 “Everyone is talking about the Ritz”: Ken James, Escoffier: The King of Chefs (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2003), 75.
28 “divine Sarah” was Auguste Escoffier’s great consuming passion: Ibid., 75, 144–45.
30 “I have no choice of opinions”: Letters of Marcel Proust, 54; letter dated February 1898.
31 “madwoman of the place Vendôme”: Scot D. Ryersson and Michael Orlando Yaccarino, in Infinite Variety: The Life and Legend of the Marchesa Casati (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004), 22, note that she lived at no. 26. However, more reliable evidence indicates that by this date she had moved nearby to an address on rue Cambon. My thanks to Xavier Demange, coauthor of the New York Metropolitan Museum catalog La Divine Comtesse: Photographs of the Countess de Castiglione (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), for this archival information.
34 in every room a small bronze clock: Craig Clairborne, “The Ritz: Fifty Years After Proust, It’s Still a Civilized Refuge,” New York Times, December 26, 1968, 45.
34 “A harsh and ugly light”: Quoted in A. E. Hotchner, “As the Ritz Shutters, Remembering its Mysteries: A Legend as Big as the Ritz,” Vanity Fair, July 2012, www.vanityfair.com/society/2012/07/paris-ritz-history-france.
34 “Some of its side rooms look out”: Elizabeth Otis Williams, Sojourning, Shopping, and Studying in Paris: A Handbook Particularly for Women (Chicago: McClurg, 1907).
36 “when one goes by the name”: Marcel Proust, The Guermantes Way, Remembrance of Things Past (À la recherche du temps perdu, 1913–27), trans. C. K. Scott Moncrieff, 6 vols., vol. 3 (New York: Henry Holt, 1922), www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7178.
37 “[H]e who has taken the side of Dreyfus”: Ibid.
3: Dogfight above the Place Vendôme
40 Hélène Chrissoveloni Soutzo: Carter, Marcel Proust, 632.
40 “The writer had studied her black wrap and ermine muf
f”: Nash Rambler, “Proust’s Last Infatuation: Hélène Chrissoveloni, Princesse Soutzo, Madame Morand,” Esoterica Curiosa, http://theesotericcuriosa.blogspot.com/2010/01/prousts-last-infatuation-helene.html.
42 “the only woman”: Ibid.
42 “thirty years’ captivity”: Carter, Marcel Proust, 634.
43 dressed only in furs to walk her pet cheetahs: John Richardson, Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917–1932 (New York: Knopf, 2010), 29–46, details here and following.
45 “I found the Marquise Casati screaming hysterically”: Ryersson and Yaccarino, Infinite Variety, 84; 81–84.
46 Franz Mesmer: Ibid., 33.
47 “We watched”: Carter, Marcel Proust, 643ff.
48 “Just as the voice of a ventriloquist”: White, Proust, www.nytimes.com/books/first/w/white-proust.html?
48 “If we are to make reality endurable”: Marcel Proust, Within a Budding Grove, in Remembrance of Things Past (À la recherche du temps perdu, 1913–27), trans. C. K. Scott Moncrieff, 6 vols., vol. 2 (New York: Henry Holt, 1922), www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7178, pt. 1.
4: Diamonds as Big as the Ritz
50 It wasn’t just that the German Luftwaffe commander enjoyed: David Irving, Göring: A Biography (New York: William Morrow, 1989), 296.
51 “submerge Göring in a tub of water, give him injections”: Hotchner, “A Legend as Big as the Ritz,” Vanity Fair, July 2012, www.vanityfair.com/society/2012/07/paris-ritz-history-france.
51 Mrs. Corrigan could afford: All figures calculated from “Measuring Worth,” www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/relativevalue.php.
52 she and Jimmy Corrigan dismayed: Lucius Beebe, The Big Spenders: The Epic Story of the Rich Rich, the Grandees of America and the Magnificoes, and How They Spent Their Fortunes (Mount Jackson, VA: Axios Press, 2009), 269; Alan Dutka and Dan Ruminski, Cleveland in the Gilded Age: A Stroll Down Millionaires’ Row (Stroud, UK: History Press, 2012), 89.
52 “Laura Corrigan who established a formidable handicap”: Elsa Maxwell, Art of the Hostess, quoted in Ted Schwarz, Cleveland Curiosities: Eliot Ness and His Blundering Raid, a Busker’s Promise, the Richest Heiress Who Never Lived and More (Stroud, UK: History Press, 2010), 118.
53 “did land-office business”: Marx, Queen of the Ritz, 117.
53 “generally considered at the time”: Beebe, The Big Spenders, 271.
53 “was not beautiful, she was not educated or particularly clever”: Elsa Maxwell, Art of the Hostess, quoted in Schwarz, 120.
54 Bienvenue au Soldat: Brian Masters, Great Hostesses (London: Constable, 1982), 232–33.
55 Dietrich had ended a liaison with Joseph Kennedy there: Sam Staggs, Inventing Elsa Maxwell: How an Irrepressible Nobody Conquered High Society, Hollywood, the Press, and the World (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2012), Kindle location 3544.
55 The socialite Clare Boothe Luce: Cari Beauchamp, Joseph P. Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years (New York: Knopf, 2009), 366; see also Sylvia Morris, Rage for Fame: The Ascent of Clare Boothe Luce (New York: Random House, 1997).
55 Florence Jay Gould was insisting: Details from Jenkins, Churchill, 589; and Roulet, The Ritz, 106. See also Cyril Eder, Les Comtesses de la Gestapo (Paris: Bernard Grasset, 2006).
56 Wartime dinner guests: Marty, unpublished manuscript, citing Martin Allen, Hidden Agenda: How the Duke of Windsor Betrayed the Allies (London: Macmillan, 2000), 296; the dinner took place on October 24, 1940.
56 “I can’t say I feel sorry for them”: Charles Hingham, Trading with the Enemy: The Nazi-American Money Plot 1933–1949 (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1995), 313.
56 “looked after by a German caretaker and handed back in 1944”: David Pryce-Jones, Paris in the Third Reich: A History of the German Occupation, 1940–1944 (New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1981), 8. Many of the details here and below are drawn in part from Dr. Alan Marty’s unpublished manuscript, “A Walking Guide to Occupied Paris”; my thanks to the author for his generosity in sharing his extensive research and for his suggestions throughout.
56 still sent her seventeen carnations each morning: Michael Bloch, Ribbentrop: A Biography (New York: Crown, 1993), 355. FBI files related to this matter and corroborating suspicions were published in British newspapers in 2002; see, for example, “Royal Affair: The Duchess and the Nazi,” Scotsman, June 29, 2002, www.scotsman.com/news/uk/royal_affair_the_duchess_and_the_nazi_1_610744.
56 she had been friendly with the Duke of Windsor: “Prince of Wales Enables Former Waitress to Laugh at Scoffers,” Boston Globe, August 2, 1931, B5.
57 “With a carload of detectives following”: Irving, Göring, 302.
58 Laura Mae Corrigan’s furs: Masters, Great Hostesses, 234–35.
58 “lavish gowns trimmed in ermine and mink”: Hotchner, “A Legend as Big as the Ritz.”
59 “Göring talked of little else but the jewels”: Hugh Gibson, The Ciano Diaries 1939–1943: The Complete, Unabridged Diaries of Count Galeazzo Ciano, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1936–1943 (New York: Doubleday, 1946), entry of February 2, 1942, 443.
59 Even the German soldiers on sentry: Boxer, Le Ritz de Paris, 101.
59 sold a gold dressing case to Adolf Hitler: Masters, Great Hostesses, 234–35.
59 Laura Mae Corrigan began funneling: Mary Van Rensselaer Thayer, “Fabulous Era Ended with Laura Corrigan,” Washington Post, January 27, 1948, B3; “Sells Furs to Aid French: U.S. Woman, Unable to Get Funds, Plans to Leave Vichy,” New York Times, September 26, 1942, 4.
60 “American Angel”: “Sells Furs to Aid French,” 4.
60 “Mrs. Corrigan had the distinction”: Masters, Great Hostesses, 234–35.
60 Laura Mae would also spend time as a prisoner: Ibid., 236; Jewish History Center, Paris, archives 411 AP/5.
60 awarded her the King’s Medal: “American Relief Worker Leaves Vichy,” Los Angeles Times, November 4, 1942, 15.
60 “she was not beautiful, she was not educated or particularly clever”: Elsa Maxwell, Art of the Hostess, quoted in Schwarz, Cleveland Curiosities, 120.
5: The Americans Drifting to Paris
61 “When I dream of an afterlife”: Hotchner, “A Legend as Big as the Ritz.”
62 “the best of America drifts to Paris”: Quoted in interview by Harry Salpeter, “Fitzgerald, Spenglerian,” New York World, April 3, 1927, 12M; F. Scott Fitzgerald, “A Diamond as Big as the Ritz,” Tales of the Jazz Age (New York: Soho Books, 2011).
62 reported that Hemingway had perished: Jeffrey Meyers, Hemingway: A Biography (New York, Da Capo Press, 1999), 541.
63 “was a sore sight for sore eyes”: Details from Alex Kershaw, Blood and Champagne: The Life and Times of Robert Capa (New York: Da Capo, 2002), 119.
63 “Papa’s got troubles”: Ibid., 118; Capa, Slightly Out of Focus (New York: Random House, 1999), 128–29.
63 “ten-gallon glass jug”: Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 129.
64 “There, on an operating table”: Ibid.
64 As a fellow war correspondent: Mary Welsh, How It Was (New York: Ballantine, 1977), 93.
64 Allied war correspondents: Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 20.
65 “God bless the machine”: Welsh, How It Was, 93–94.
65 “Nice sweater”: Ibid.
65 “Introduce me to your friend, Shaw”: Bernice Kert, Hemingway’s Women (New York: Norton, 1998), 393.
65 “the only thing that ever really frightened me”: Details from “Battle of the Atlantic, January 1942–May 1945,” World War II Multimedia Database, http://worldwar2database.com/html/atlantic43_45.htm/page/0/1.
66 “for Christ’s sake don’t run into me”: Caroline Moorehead, Martha Gellhorn: A Life (New York: Vintage, 2004), 254.
66 “Oh no, I couldn’t do that”: Kert, Hemingway’s Women, 392.
66 “The way it looks”: Moorehead, Martha Gellhorn, 253.
67 Hemingway was already back to partying: Ibid., 256.
67 Ernest’s “mock-heroics” only got her laughing: John Walsh, �
�Being Ernest: John Walsh Unravels the Mystery Behind Hemingway’s Suicide,” Independent, August 9, 2012, www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/being-ernest-john-walsh-unravels-the-mystery-behind-hemingways-suicide–2294619.html.
67 “[i]f he really had a concussion”: Kert, Hemingway’s Women, 398.
67 bouncing into his room afterward: Welsh, How It Was, 98.
68 “I don’t know you”: Ibid., 94.
68 “This war may keep us apart for a while”: Ibid.
69 Sylvia Beach, the American owner: Noel Riley Fitch, Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the 1930s (New York: Norton, 1985), 384.
69 Scott Fitzgerald tried his charms: Hotchner, “A Legend as Big as the Ritz,” 141.
69 “Afterwards, I always referred”: Quoted in Hotchner, “The Ritz, Then and Now.”
70 “the most critical person I ever knew”: Watts, The Ritz, 128.
70 that the ladies could drink in the hotel bars: Marx, Queen of the Ritz, 94–95.
70 Charley Ritz and Claude Auzello were left to bicker: Ibid., 197, 89.
70 he promised, he’d even make her a character: Ibid., 97; my thanks also to Blanche Auzello’s descendants, Kenneth S. Marx, of Jacksonville, Florida, and Richard Marx, of Los Angeles, for personal communications.
70 Ernest Hemingway saw the D-Day invasion: Ernest Hemingway, “Voyage to Victory: Collier’s Correspondent Rides in the War Ferry to France,” Collier’s Weekly, July 22, 1944, 11–13, www.unz.org/Pub/Colliers–1944jul22–00011?View=PDF.
71 “sounded as though they were throwing”: Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 9.
71 “If your pictures aren’t good enough”: Quoted in Maryann Bird, “Robert Capa: In Focus,” Time, June 30, 2002, www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,267730,00.html.
71 “The war correspondent has his stake”: Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 137.
71 “It didn’t matter whether you won or lost”: Ibid., 122.
72 “I was thinking a little bit of everything”: Ibid., 139.