The Riviera Set

by Mary S. Lovell

  — The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh (Hodder & Stoughton) 1996

  Mosley, Diana: A Life of Contrasts: The Autobiography of Diana Mosley (Hamish Hamilton) 1977

  — The Duchess of Windsor (Gibson Square Books) 2003

  Mosley, Leonard: Castlerosse (Arthur Baker Ltd) 1956 Myers, A. Wallis: Captain Anthony Wilding (Hodder & Stoughton) 1916

  Nicolson, Harold: Diaries and Letters 1950-59 (Collins) 1966

  Picardie, Justine: Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life (HarperCollins) 2010

  Quinn, Edward: Riviera Cocktail (teNeues) 2011

  Ring, Jim: Riviera: The Rise and Rise of the Côte d’Azur (Faber and Faber) 2011

  Sebba, Anne: That Woman: The Live of Wallis Simpsony Duchess of Windsor (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) 2011

  Sheean, Vincent: Between the Thunder and the Sun (Macmillan)

  1943

  Slater, Leonard: Aly: A Biography (W.H. Allen) 1966 Smith, Jane S.: Elsie de Wolfe: A Life in the High Style (Atheneum, New York) 1982

  Smith, Sally Bedell: Reflected Glory: The Life of Pamela Churchill Harriman (Touchstone, New York) 1997

  Soames, Mary: Clementine Churchill (Cassell) 1979

  — Speaking for Themselves: The Personal Letters of Winston and Clementine Churchill (Doubleday) 1998

  — A Daughter’s Tale: The Memoir of Winston and Clementine Churchill’s Youngest Child (Doubleday) 2011

  Staggs, Sam: Inventing Elsa Maxwell: How and Irrepressible Nobody Conquered High Society, Hollywood, the Press, and the World (St Martin’s Press, New York) 2012

  Thompson, W.H.: I Was Churchill’s Shadow (Christopher Johnson) 1951

  Tomkins, Calvin: Living Well is the Best Revenge (MoMA, New York) 2007

  Vickers, Hugo: Cecil Beaton: The Authorized Biography (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) 1985

  Williams, Emrys: Bodyguard: My Twenty Years as Aly Khan’s Shadow (Golden Pegasus Books) 1960

  Windsor, Wallis Warfield, Duchess of: The Heart Has Its Reasons: The Memoirs of the Duchess of Windsor (Michael Joseph) 1956

  Young, Kenneth: Churchill and Beaverbrook: A Study in Friendship and Politics (Eyre and Spottiswoode) 1966

  Ziegler, Philip: Diana Cooper (Alfred A. Knopf, New York) 1982

  Acknowledgements

  I owe a debt of gratitude to many people who helped in one way or another during the research or production of this book, and the following list is not conclusive. I hope, though, that I have contacted everyone personally to thank them appropriately, including those who for one reason or another wished to remain anonymous.

  Anne Biffin, Kate Bower (Ian Brodie Ltd), Sophie Bridges (Churchill College, Cambridge), Judith Brown, Marie Brunell (Archives Municipal de Cannes-Montrose), Desiree Butterfield-Nagy (Fogler Library, University of Maine), Jacques Cygler, the late Duchess of Devonshire, Lord Digby, Mel Johnson (University of Maine), Barbara Kroger (Rauner Library, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire), Helen Marchant, the late Diana Mosley (notes from various interviews), Richard Pike (Curtis Brown), Maureen Rivett, the late Heather Rubin, Anne Sebba, Jane Turner, Barry Singer (Chartwell Booksellers), Hugo Vickers, Kay Williams (Chartwell NT). A special thank you to Hussein Hinnawi of Damascus, who was able to discover for me that Prince Aly Khan’s mausoleum is undamaged by the civil war in Syria.

  No book is produced by the author alone. I should also like to thank the ‘backroom boys’ at Little, Brown, who have been such a massive support – especially when I experienced a bout of ill health which put back publication by over a year. Thank you, everyone, for standing by me.

  Commissioning editor: Richard Beswick

  Editor: Zoe Gullen

  Picture researcher: Linda Silverman

  Production: Marie Hrynczak

  Jacket designer: Bekki Guyatt

  Proofreader: Steve Gove

  Indexer: Mark Wells

  And finally, thank you to my literary agent, Louise Chinn Ducas, who is an unfailing prop and stay; a friend through thick and thin.

  Illustrations

  1. Rockland, Maine, a sleepy little port during Maxine’s childhood

  2. & 3. Maxine in her early twenties. Her beauty helped propel her to fame as an actress

  4. Maxine begins the transformation into an English ‘lady’ – with Gertrude at Jackwood

  5. Maxine and Nat in the drawing room at Jackwood

  6. Gertrude (left) and Maxine in the study at Jackwood

  7. Maxine with Lady Diana Manners at Belvoir Castle

  8. Even in this photograph with the Hon George Keppel (right) Maxine appears to cold-shoulder Nat

  9. Maxine and Winston, Cannes Golf Course, during a holiday in February 1913

  10. Walking on the Croisette at Cannes; Maxine and Lady Portarlington (left)

  11. Hartsbourne Manor, Hertfordshire. By now Maxine’s transformation was complete

  12. Maxine’s famous ‘Saturday to Monday house parties at Hartsbourne included a host of celebrity visitors

  13. Regular visitors to Hartsbourne were best friends F.E. Smith (Lord Birkenhead) and Winston Churchill

  14. Maxine as the cool ‘Duchess of Harts’ . . .

  15. . . . and the smouldering stage presence.

  16. Maxine with the King at Marienbad in 1909

  17. (inset) Tony, the love of Maxine’s life: tennis ace Anthony Wilding

  18. Anthony Wilding, Wimbledon champion for four consecutive years

  19. Maxine with her chauffeur turned ambulance driver with one of the ambulances she provided

  20. Maxine’s barge Julia, which brought food and medical supplies to 350,000 displaced people in Belgium

  21. Winston and Archibald Sinclair visited Maxine on the Julia in February 1916

  22. Above this photo in her album Maxine wrote ‘Some of my poor refugees’

  23. Maxine’s theatre on Broadway

  24. Post-war friends, Cole Porter and Elsa Maxwell

  25. The Murphys at Antibes gathered an eclectic set around them

  26. & 27. Eccentric genius: Elsie de Wolfe (Lady Mendl) credited her robust health to standing on her head for long periods every day

  28. & 29. The Château de l’Horizon; built by Maxine on the French Riviera between Cannes and Antibes

  30., 31. & 32. When the new King rented the villa from Maxine it was described as ‘like a palace of an enchanted dream’

  33. & 34. Daisy Fellowes on her yacht the Sister Anne, and (inset) showing how well she wore 1930s fashions

  35. The Churchills were among the first visitors to Maxine’s villa, and an ageing Maxine but Clementine did not care for the people she met there

  36. Winston with Doris Castlerosse (back to camera) and an ageing Maxine

  37. Winston on the famous chute into the sea. l1lere is a video online of him clowning on this slide

  38. ‘Naughty Lady C’: Doris in her signature micro shorts

  39. Maxine in the swimming pool at Chateau de l’Horizon in 1939

  40. Noël Coward visited Maxine shortly before her death, ‘looking more beautiful than I had ever seen her ... I knew I should never see her again’

  41. Maxine’s grave in the Protestant cemetery, Cannes. She had always knocked years of her age so the date of her birth is wrong, and due to the war no one checked the carving. Her name is also misspelled

  42. The Second World War on die Riviera. Occupation, first by Italian and then by German troops, meant extreme hardship for local residents

  43. Report of the Allied landing on the Riviera, August 1944

  44. Allied ships off St Tropez

  45. Entertaining went on at the Chateau de I’Horizon as before, regardless of cost, when Rosita Winston rented the villa after the war

  46. Prince Aly Khan. Women found his warmth, charm and energy irresistible

  47. Aly’s private plane, a De Havilland Dove named Avenger

  48. Aly, dressed in tribal robes at Salamiyeh, Syria. A first-rate horseman, he was revered as a godlike figure in Syria and chose to have his to
mb erected there

  49. Rita Hayworth as the eponymous move heroine Gilda – but the passionate Gilda was not Rita. Rita wanted a quiet family life. ‘Men go to bed with Gilda,’ she said ruefully, and wake up with me!’

  50. When Elsa Maxwell arranged an introduction between Rita and Aly she advised, ‘wear something white, arrive late and really make an entrance’

  51. Aly Khan and Rita Hayworth at their civil marriage ceremony, Yallauris, France

  52. The newlyweds leave the mairie to return to the Chateau de l’Horizon

  53. Huge floral arrangements of their initials, A (Aly) and M (Marguerite – Ritas real name), floated on the pool, to which gallons of perfume had been added to scent the air

  54. Rita cuts the wedding cake with Aly’s officers sword

  55. The newlyweds at the reception

  56. After the marriage to Rita Hayworth ended, Aly fell madly in love with Gene Tierney but dropped her when his father threatened to disinherit him if he married another movie star

  57. Aly and Bettina. They were engaged and she was bearing his child when he crashed his car in Paris a few weeks before their planned wedding

  58. Aly’s death on a Paris backstreet in a car crash made headlines

  59. Prince Aly Khan’s mausoleum in Salamiyeh, Syria. Still cared for despite over five years of civil war as this book is published

  Index

  Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.

  Aberconway, Lord, 352*

  DAbernon, Lord, 78

  Affair in Trinidad (Vincent Sherman film, 1952), 381

  Aga Khan Development Network, 393

  Aga Khan III, 103-4, 198, 282, 316–17, 339; and Churchill, 124–5, 240–1; Villa Jean-Andrée, Cap dAntibes, 167, 242–3, 244; in Switzerland during war, 238, 244–5, 246–7, 249; and Islam, 238–9, 241–2, 253–4; background of, 238–40; and League of Nations, 240, 363–4; personal charm, 240, 296, 318–22; horse breeding and racing, 240–1, 246–50, 252, 322; personal life, 242, 243–5, 254, 257, 318; meeting with Hitler (1939), 247; presented with his weight in gold (1937), 253, 322; presented with his weight in diamonds (1946), 253–4, 288, 322; and Aly s playboy lifestyle, 254–5, 317–18, 325–6; and Aly Khan-Rita Hayworth marriage, 277, 283–4, 286, 287, 288, 289, 297, 326; Platinum Jubilee Observance (Karachi, 1954), 322–3; opposes Aly s relationship with Tierney, 325–6, 337, 338; approves of Bettina, 342; death of (1957). 342–4

  Agnelli, Giovanni (Gianni), 278–82, 351–5, 358; car crash on the Corniche, 355–7

  Aitken, Max and Jane, 258

  Aix-les-Bains, 132, 134

  Alatorre, Gloria Rubio, 232*

  Albania, 191

  Albemarle, 7th Earl of, 31

  Albert I, King of Belgium, 64, 68*

  Alexander, Grand Duke of Russia, 78

  Alexandra, Queen, 301 Algeria, 370

  Alington, Lord and Lady, 32, 38

  All India Muslim League, 239 Aly Khan, Prince: Second World War service, 219–22, 245–6, 247–50; sees Château de EHorizon (August 1944), 221, 223; buys Château de l’Horizon, 233, 235–7; playboy lifestyle, 242, 250–1, 254–5, 257, 267, 270–1, 287, 296, 297, 314–18, 339–41, 352–3, 361–2; dislike for Yvette, 245, 252, 254–5; rescues stolen horses, 247–50; horse breeding and racing, 250, 251, 252, 256, 321, 340–1, 372; and Ismaili faith, 251–2, 253, 290, 296–7, 322–3, 340, 362, 371–2, 374–5; and fast cars, 254, 321, 324, 370–1, 372–4; and succession issue, 254, 322–3, 326, 337–9, 343–4. ЗбЗ-4> 371–2; house near Paris, 255; and Pamela Churchill, 255, 256–8, 259, 268, 270, 278, 282, 314, 353–4; racing colours, 256; annual summer ball in Paris, 256–7, 370; and sexual technique, 257–8; meets Rita Hayworth, 264–8; relationship with Rita Hayworth, 265–71, 275–8, 282, 341, 352–3; in Spain with Rita Hayworth, 271–4, 278, 282, 285; marries Rita Hayworth (27 May 1949), 283–90; birth of daughter Yasmin, 290–1; married life with Rita Hayworth, 291–2, 293–7, 320; skiing accident at Gstaad, 291–2; end of marriage to Rita Hayworth, 297–8, 311, 314, 323, 326; and Gene Tierney, 317–18, 323–4, 325–6, 337–9, 341; in Rio for Mardi Gras, 340–1; and Bettina, 341–3, 369–70, 371, 372–4, 375; bypassed for succession, 343–4, 363–4, 371–2; ambassador for Pakistan at UN, 361–5, 367, 368–9, 370; womanising in USA, 371; death of (12 May 1960), 372–5

  Amyn (son of Aly Khan), 237t, 254, 286

  Andrée, Princess (Andrée Carron, Begum, wife of Aga Khan), 167, 238–9, 242–4; and Villa Jean-Andrée, 167, 242–3, 244

  Anne-Marie (daughter of Comte d’Estainville), 354–5

  Antibes, 82, 191, 193, 222, 224, 225, 376; Hôtel du Cap d’Antibes, 82–3, 93t, 160, 164, 194, 226, 264, 266–7, 266*; Eden Roc, 93, 177–8. 226, 230, 351, 368

  The Arabian Nights, 257–8

  Arabs, oil-rich, 3

  Arethusa (Training Ship), 97

  Argentina, 225, 317, 372

  Argyll, Margaret, Duchess of, 107* art deco, 1, 2, 80, 87–8, 118, 141, 262–3, 379

  Ashley, Sylvia, 93

  Asquith, Lord, 165

  Associated Newspapers Ltd, 185

  Astaire, Fred, 265

  Astley, Captain Philip, 106, 107

  Auribeau, Provence, 261–2

  Australia, 24–6

  Avenger (Aly Khan’s plane), 251, 257, 259, 271, 374

  Avenger II (racehorse), 256

  Bahamas, 298, 302–3

  Baldwin, Stanley, 99, 100, 132, 134, 152., 173

  Balfour, Arthur, 53, 75, 77–9

  Balsan, Étienne, 83†

  Balsan, Jacques, 82

  Barrett, Herbert Roper, 51–2

  Barrie, J.M., 51

  Barrymore, Ethel, 27, 33

  Baruch, Bernard, 165

  Bath, Thomas Thynne, 5th Marquess of, 143

  Beaton, Cecil, 93, 116, 118, 121, 122, 157, 233, 306

  Beaulieu-sur-Mer, 266*, 268, 269, 282, 354

  Beaverbrook, Lord, 151, 182, 185, 217, 255–6, 333; and Valentine Castlerosse, no, 112, 113–14, 124, 230; and Churchill at La Capponcina, 298–9, 312, 326, 344–5

  Beckworth Corporation, 284

  Bedaux, Charles, 155

  Bedaux, Fern, 155, 156

  Beecham, Sir Thomas, 121

  Beerbohm, Max, 21, 22, 27, 40

  Beit, Sir Alfred, 115

  Belgium, 62–6, 68*, 280, 363

  Belperron (jewellers), 118

  Bengali Muslims, 239

  Berchtesgaden, 178, 247–8

  Beresford, Lord Charles, 40

  Berezovsky, Boris Eltsine, 352*

  Berlin, Irving, 77*

  Berners, Lord, 150

  Bernhardt, Sarah, 17

  Bersaglieri (Italian mountain troops), 218

  Bettina (Simone Bodin), 341–3, 369–70, 371, 372–4, 375

  Biarritz, 124, 213, 271

  Blenheim Palace, 54, 282

  Blood and Sand (Rouben Mamoulian film, 1941), 264

  Blue Train, 127–8, 136, 181, 202

  Blum, Léon, 148

  Boissevain, Charlotte, 189, 190, 194

  Boothby, Bob, 120, 121, 122, 334–5

  Bourdin, Lise, 315, 324

  Bouvier, Blackjack, 367

  Bouvier, Lee, 365–6, 367, 368

  Bracken, Brendan, 121

  Brès, Dr Paul, 96, 189, 190, 191, 202–3

  de Broglie, Prince, 117

  de Broglie, Princess Jacqueline Marguerite, 312

  Brookes, Norman, 57

  Broquedis, Marguerite, 57

  Brownlow, Lord, 152

  Brynner, Yul, 107†

  Burke, Tommy, 221, 324

  Burton, Sir Richard F., 257–8

  Burton, Sir William Pomeroy, 154

  Cadogan, Earl of, 219

  Caernarvon, Lady, 38

  Cairo, 220, 243, 257, 264, 296

  Calais, 63, 64, 65

  California nightclub (near Cannes), 265

  Californie (Picasso’s villa), 85
<
br />   Californie area, 85, 152, 244

  Callas, Maria, 74, 314*, 387–8

  Campbell, Mrs Patrick, 71*

  Canfield, Michael, 365–6, 368

  Cannes, 56, 81–2,133–4, 156, 195, 376; becomes summer holiday location, 2; Casino, 82,133,136, 139,163,164,166–7,183–4, 226; Villa Corne d’Or, 82, 85; Fete du Mimosa, 191–2; film festival, 192, 263, 314, 342; Le Bal des Petits Lits Blancs, 192; Protestant cemetery, 205; British expats evacuated (June 1940), 215–16; Carlton Hotel, 220–1, 369–70; Palm Beach Casino, 262–3; Municipal Archives, 377, 378

  Cap Ferrât, 86,149,186,188–9, 201, 202

  de Carlo, Yvonne, 314

  Cartier (jewellers), 118

  Cartland, Barbara, 198*

  Casati, Marchesa, 171

  Cassell, Sir Ernest, 38

  Cassini, Oleg, 324, 325

  Castagneto, Marella di, 357

  Castlerosse, Doris (née Doris Delevingne), 93,107–16,117,119, 120,121,124; rumoured sexual liaison with Churchill, 104,142–3, 144–5; Churchill’s paintings of, 104–5, ER. H1* Ï44; background of, 105–6; divorce from Valentine, 150; and Margot Flick Hoffman, 157–8,170, 227, 229; decline and suicide of, 227–30